What We Keep

What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm trying to catch up on Elizabeth Berg's writings and this one, as usual, didn't let me down. Berg's exquisite sense of sister/daughter/mother relationships shine through in What We Keep.

Looking back, a woman flying to a reunion of sorts, thinks back to the summer when everything went wrong... At 12 years of age, Ginny Young and her 13 year old sister Sharla felt safe in the cusp of their parent's love. Life was boring and predictable but that's what made them feel safe and secure. When a new neighbor moves in, right next door, the girls are excited to find that Jasmine is a very attractive woman, who dresses in the latest styles. The summer starts out well but begins to fall apart as Jasmine's influence takes over...

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The Glass Kitchen

The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Portia Cuthcart was only seven years old when she got the knowing. Thoughts and scents of food would come to her, like magic, filling her with the urge to cook or bake like crazy. Living with her two sisters and Gram, Portia grew up learning the mechanics in her grandmother's cafe, The Glass Kitchen. But Portia also learned that her food could help heal, begin, or even end a journey. It was a single meal of cherry tomatoes stuffed with chile, cheese and bacon, pulled pork, endive slaw, and potato pancakes the foretold her Gram's death. And with that Portia promised herself she wouldn't cook again. Years later, after a nasty divorce and living in New York City, Portia again prepares to cook once again and bring back The Glass Kitchen to keep herself sane and financially afloat.

Such a great book about family, magic, interesting characters, and food - great summer read!

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The Wednesday Daughters

The Wednesday Daughters by Meg Waite Clayton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It all began with the Wednesday Sisters, published in 2008 - five moms that got together in the park to chat, discuss literary works, and share their lives with each other. Now Meg Waite Clayton is back with the Wednesday Daughters - daughters, of those same moms, that have grown up around each other and are closer than sisters. Hope goes on a trip to England to discover more about her mother, Allie, one of the five original moms who liked to write, who had recently passed. She carries her mother's ashes with her. Friends Anna and Julie, who are Wednesday sisters and who were also very close to Allie, travel with Hope, to give support but also looking for answers to their own issues at hand. Discoveries are made, new family is found, and secrets are unlocked and laid to rest.

All the references to Beatrix Potter really intrigued me, as did the setting in England's Lake District, as Allie spoke through Beatrix's voice and illustrations. Beautiful descriptions of the area bring the surrounding countryside to life.

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The Death of Bees

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blunt with a touch of humor. Grim and gritty. Edgy. Haunting. This is O'Donnell's first novel and from the very first page of the prologue - it's an eye-opener. I could not put this book down, although adult fiction, for the sheer horror of how Marnie, almost sixteen, and her little sister, Nelly, had to live with and without their drug addicted parents. Living in the projects of Glasgow, Scotland, the girls have never known any other kind of life than what they living - never known the sweetness of a happy birthday or a family filled holiday, let alone the true and bonding love from a parent/child relationship. From page to page you will learn how each sister copes with her loss and reluctantly cheer when their neighbor, Lenny, steps in to give a hand and guidance.

Not for the faint of heart - rough language/crude humor...


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Little Night

Little Night by Luanne Rice
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In New York City lived two perfect and exceptionally close daughters , Anne and Clare Burke. From their father's affairs they learned to keep secrets and from their mother - acceptance and resignation. To escape their parent's constant fighting, they roamed Central Park and discovered raptors in the night. Now grown up and grown apart from the horrible event, almost 20 years ago, that placed Clare in lock up for two long years, Clare is trying to slowly move on with her life. When Anne's daughter Grit shows up alone are her doorstep, memories are relived, hatred is brought alive, but healing and forgiveness that has been buried deep in the bog - begin at last....

"Their old house, the poem, birds, history, and their own imaginations delivered them from family unhappiness. Born city girls, they learned early to escape into nature. Central Park was a haven, thirty-seven blocks and a world away from home. Exploring the park and the dusty corners of their own house taught the girls to look for meaning, magic, and comfort in places they least expected it."


Another great contemporary read from Luanne Rice.

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Glimpse

Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lizzie and Hope, sisters and only a year apart in age, look out for each other - with no Dad and a Momma who works more hours than ever - it's a necessity. Nice Miss Freeman, from next door, checks on them now and then - but more often than not, it's just the two of them. Then comes the morning when Hope walks into the bathroom and finds Lizzie fingering the trigger of a shotgun. She's fourteen and thinking about leaving by killing herself. As Lizzie is hauled away by the cops to an institution, Hope immediately absorbs all the guilt, not their momma, for not seeing the warning signs. When the hospital psychiatrist starts chipping away at the months before Lizzie's attempted suicide, Hope slowly starts putting together the pieces of what drove Lizzie to even consider such a thing.

Gutsy, rough, disturbing, heart-breaking and written in verse - my daughter and I consumed this work of fiction too quickly!

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The Sisters

The Sisters by Nancy Jensen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A misunderstanding in one generation can affect the future of generations to come. Sadly, two young sisters, Mabel and Bertie, who loved and looked out for the other allow a misunderstanding to come between them. If only Bertie knew the sacrifice that Mable had made to keep Bertie safe from their step-father....the heartbreaking story continues through their daughters, the Great Depression, World War ll and Vietnam and beyond.

As Bertie said, "...I mean it's when something happens - like a war, but not only a war, not just that. Something that makes you see that what you thought would happen won't ever be. Not ever. Something can happen to change your life so sudden, you can't get over it fast enough. And so you do things you wouldn't ever have thought of doing. Maybe hurt other people. And that changes things for them, too, all in a line."

The family tree at the beginning of the book was a huge help, as I kept turning to it, when a new character was brought into the story. I found myself getting exasperated with the stubbornness or insensitivity of some of the characters, but I had to remember that when this storyline was introduced - sexual abuse, especially between family members, was swept under the rug and victims, as today, suffered horribly. An interesting, but tortured read.....



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Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA

Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA by Kris Radish

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Married some almost 30 years, Addy Lipton is re-examining her marriage to Lucky. The same Lucky that has their garage full to the rafters with bowling balls and broken appliances, (Addy calls the Kingdom of Crap) while Addy’s car sits outside. Lucky doesn’t know that Addy dreams of running her Toyota Corolla right through the garage door and out the other side. When a much anticipated vacation doesn’t pan out and Lucky severely injures his back, Addy is thinking of calling it quits. When her wild sister, Hell, and her quirky friends get in on it – it’s men against women and hilarious events happen.



Dangerously Funny. Irreverent . Crazy, zany characters with reminders of how easy it is to slowly allow your marriage, without realizing it, to grow stale and tired.





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The Bird Sisters

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Bird Sisters
By Rebecca Rasmussen

Twiss and Milly, quirky spinster sisters in the twilight years of their life, who still live on the home place in Wisconsin and take in injured birds, had their lives change back in 1947. Milly, beautiful and quiet, likes to cook and has begun to fall in love and dreams of a marriage with children. Sarcastic Twiss, younger by two years, has a totally different temperament – she’d rather be outdoors and playing in the dirt. Milly is her mother’s favorite and Twiss – her father’s. When their sickly cousin Bett arrives for a summer visit, the whole family is falling apart, a marriage crumbling, with Milly and Twiss trying their best to fix and patch things between their parents.

Melancholy and sad, this book is a story of a great love between sisters and great sacrifice. Be prepared as the sisters flash back and forth between the present and past. Each chapter slowly reveals the reason why the sisters are alone, except for each other, in the present time.

“Life and death- what paltry words, what tarnished bookends, what unjust summation for drawing breath one moment and failing to release it the next.”
― Rebecca Rasmussen, The Bird Sisters






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The Weird Sisters

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Such a trio of sisters - stalwart, bossy Rosalind(Rose), wild, willful Bianca(Bean), and spoiled, irresponsible Cordelia(Cordy) have shuffled back to their hometown for personal reasons - fear, theft, and pregnancy.

"We came home because we were failures. We wouldn't admit that, of course, not at first, not to ourselves, and certainly not to anyone else. We said we came home because our mother was ill, because we needed a break, a momentary pause before setting off for the Next Big Thing. But the truth was, we had failed and rather than let anyone else know, we crafted careful excuses and alibis and wrapped them around ourselves like a cloak to keep out the cold truth."

They move back in with their college professor father, who loves to quote all things Shakespearean and stay-at-home mom. The sisters grew up connecting with each other and their parents by speaking the Bard's words.

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth is it to have a thankless child"

The characters are deep and the relationships complicated. The sisters describe themselves as dysfunctional, but what is normal and what is not? The sisters learn to reconnect and move beyond their old fears and personas.


A delightful, enjoyable book - worth rereading, and written in first person plural style. Please read!



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Henry's Sisters

Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What does a mom do, left with 3 young daughters and a special-needs son, when her beloved husband walks away after waking up to his hands strangling her neck. (Vietnam flashbacks) No education, no training, and too proud to take a handout, she dances and turns tricks to unsuccessfully feed her children. Meet the dysfunctional Bommarito family - you will fall in love, laugh, and cry with these crazy, quirky, gritty, characters who try to forget their traumatic childhood.



Characters:

Sweet, lovable, Henry, you will want to claim as your own.

Fraternal twins, Isabelle - nymphomaniac and Cecelia - self-destructive.

Janie - obsessive/compulsive recluse, taps and counts to cope.

River - Mother Bommarito, unable to give and share love, except to her son, Henry.

Grandma - believes she is Amelia Earhart.



Heavy use of profanity and violence.



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Nice to Come Home To