Author: Joann Ross

I picked this book up at a yard sale this past summer. For $1 it promised a lot of reading; whether it was good or bad was yet to be seen. Because I had a short-term loan from the library I didn’t get past the first story but I will continue on eventually.

Blue Bayou

Bad boy, Jake Callahan served as an undercover agent before losing his best friend in an operation in Columbia. He returned home to Louisiana and began a very successful writing career. He purchased the antebellum home of his former girlfriend. When the girlfriend, Danielle, also returns to Blue Bayou things begin to heat up. Long kept secrets are revealed but, of course, the two end up in a “happy ever after” ending.

River Road

Finn, the eldest of the Callahan brothers and an FBI Special Agent, has returned to Blue Bayou while he serves out a suspension from the FBI. As a favour to his younger brother he accepts an assignment as a bodyguard to a soap-opera star who is about to become the latest Bond girl. Boy meets girl, boy and girl dislike one another from the start, yada, yada, yada.

Magnolia Moon

Nate is the youngest of the Callahan brothers. Unlike his older siblings Nate has remained in Blue Bayou and is the mayor. He is well known in the area for his restoration work on the heritage buildings. While clearing out some old files from the sheriff’s office he comes across some very valuable stock certificates and sets out to find not only the current owner of them but also to solve a cold case – the murder of the original owner. Boy meets girl, falls in love, but the girl is less than enthusiastic until she eventually succumbs to Nate’s charms.

Goodreads Rating: * *

Author: Edwidge Danticat

Seven-year old Claire is celebrating her birthday the night a local fisherman goes missing. The search for him brings the whole town to the beach. Claire’s mother died when she was born and Claire’s father finds a wet nurse in the village for her first few days. Claire went to live with relatives for three years and then came back to her father. On the night of her birthday the woman who nursed her finally agrees with the father, after he has asked many times over the years, that she will take the child. The rest of the book is more or less a collection of connecting short stories that revolve around various characters from the village.

This was a recommendation from a Facebook group I follow.

Goodreads Rating: * *

Author: Anna Byrne

Anna is an acquaintance and when her book first came out I didn’t read it. Pat sent it off to Kathryn and both of them gave it a good review. I thought that was the end of it. Anna is now offering a three-week Book Circle based on her book and I decided to join. Although I’ll get a copy of the book at the first session I borrowed a copy from the library so I could get a head start.

Anna was diagnosed with cancer when she was in her early 30’s. She received treatment and was in remission but the cancer came back three more times. The book is a memoir of her cancer journey as well as the story of her work as a hospice volunteer as she visits Eleanor, a patient in the last month before her death.

Preparing for the Book Circle takes some time. Each session we will be reviewing specific sections of the book with thoughts on what is lost when you die, what of you remains after your death, and how those answers guide you in how you live the rest of your life.

Although I didn’t particularly enjoy the book I’m looking forward to the Circle.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Theodore Dresiser

I was made aware of this title from a Facebook group I belong to. It was listed as a classic but I’d neither heard of it nor had I heard of the author. Both Dad and I read a lot of classics but maybe this one was too new for him to consider – it was published in 1900.

The story has three main characters – Carrie, Drouet. and Hurstwood. For the times it was considered quite racy as Carrie is persuaded to live with Drouet without marrying him (although with a promise of marriage) because he could afford to give her a better life than she was used to living. Hurstwood too took advantage of Carrie without telling her he was already married. Carrie leaves both men behind and survives by her own merits.

The book isn’t small – almost 500 pages to the story and then almost 200 pages of notes. Reading the notes was interesting as the novel went through many revisions before it was accepted for publication by a few publishers over a number of years. This Pennsylvania Edition is as close as we will ever get to the original work of Dreiser.

Goodreads Rating: * * *