Book Chatter

Sunday Matters

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to be reading again. You think with surgery recovery you’ll have ALL THE TIME to read but nope. I was nauseous and looking at a page or my Kindle sent the room spinning. SO glad that phase is behind me now. I am having fun lining up all my next reads.

Right Now:

Student ministry this morning, as usual and then a meeting afterward.

This Week:

Nothing much going on this week. I have to go in for some blood work ahead of my CT and MRI scans but these special labs need to be scheduled and for whatever reason, my providers insist I can schedule this on my own but history tells me no. They are supposed to call it in and then I go but I will attempt to do what they asked for.

Reading:

I finished, Honor. I will hopefully get that review posted this week. My next read is Census by Jesse Ball. I chose it for book club. Stephen King’s You Like It Darker (stories) comes out May 21st! That will be a good escape read.

Grateful for:

The two days that I can work from home. The three in-office days kind of wipe me out so I need those two remote days to rest up a little in between.

Tom Lake
By Ann Patchett
Published by Harper,9780063327528, August 2023, 320pp

The Short of It:

Tom Lake will capture your heart.

The Rest of It:

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. ~ Indiebound

Oh, how I loved this one. It starts off a little slow but once you get into it, it’s very hard to put down. The family dynamic has a very strong pull. These sisters, sharing their stories, their hopes and dreams while working in the orchard will absolutely capture your heart. And their mother, Lara and how she chooses to share snippets of her wildly exciting times as an actress will satisfy any theater kid at heart.

I won’t lie though. It’s not all fun and games. As glamorous as being a lead in a show is, in this case a summer production of Our Town, it has its drawbacks as well. For one, Lara’s infatuation with Peter Duke has her throwing all caution to the wind. A young girl, so in love, is bound to find heartache. No?

As Lara shares bits of that summer with her girls, they begin to put things together and although they thought they knew their mother quite well, they realize that she is her own person and perhaps not everything is to be shared.

I was a theater kid in high school and of course, both my kids went down that same path so it was no surprise how much I enjoyed Tom Lake. You don’t have to be a die hard theater kid to love this story though. It’s about love, the importance of family, the friends we cherished as young adults, and how a life comes to be. Sometimes not exactly as we imagined it but sweet, nonetheless.

Do yourself a favor and find a copy of this book.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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