Family | Book Chatter

Sunday Matters

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! The Hub is going to Seattle to visit my son. They have a ball game planned, lots of food indulgences and I will be home with my books and the pup. A nice, quiet weekend.

Right Now:

I do have student ministry today. We’ll see what the turnout is since it is Father’s Day.

This Week:

I am hosting book club this week and we will be discussing Census by Jesse Ball. It was a very interesting read. Curious to know what the group will say about it.

At the end of the week, I will be seeing two performances of Oliver at our local PAC. It’s the same theater group my kids were in, but now I go to see our students perform. They have split casts so I will see it twice to see both casts.

In other news, my daughter got promoted to manager at the coffee shop she works at in Missouri. She also got the lead in the fall show!

My son is doing well in the Pacific Northwest and his non-profit, which I don’t think I’ve mentioned here is booming. Check it out: Bunker Arts Collective.

Bunker Arts Collective (BAC) will create a robust mural arts and community volunteer program to combat widespread vandalism and blight negatively impacting small businesses, community organizations, and residents throughout the City of Everett, WA.

Support BAC here!

Reading:

I’m almost done with One Big Happy Family by Jamie Day. It started off a little slow but now I can’t put it down. It comes out 7/16!

I’m also listening to King’s new one, You Like It Darker. Some stories I am really into, and others seem a bit brief. King has many short story collections and many are really good, but I do prefer his doorstop books. I REALLY get into those and love every minute.

Grateful for:

Bar shampoo and conditioner. It has really made a difference in my hair growth. I included the link above because so many of you said you struggled with hair loss as well. I really didn’t know what to do. The docs said the surgeries were a shock to my system and they didn’t really have any recommendations for me. I searched and found these bars. After just five uses I saw a difference. Not sponsored. Just sharing. Plus, they are good for the environment!

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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