Heartwood

 

Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Fiction

2025

Narrated by Justine Lupe, Alma Cuervo, Rebecca Lowman, Cary Hite, Helen Laser, Ali Andre Ali

Finished on 3/15/2026

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Heartwood takes you on a journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.

Meh. The writing is quite good with some lovely passages, but I wish I had read Heartwood rather than going with the audio. There are several narrators, some better than others. One had the habit of dropping the volume of her voice toward the end of a sentence, which should have been caught and corrected in production. The plot isn't very suspenseful, the pacing uneven, and I didn't care much for any of the characters. The ending felt rushed with a few loose ends. All in all, a mediocre read. 

Edited: I've decided to bump up my rating up to a 3/5.

In a Distant Valley

 

In a Distant Valley by Shannon Bowring

Dalton, Maine #3

Fiction

Finished on 3/10/2026

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb: SPOILERS (scroll down to my review in blue)

For a few glorious months, single-mother Rose Douglas believed life had finally given her a break. She was enjoying a steady job at the clinic in Dalton, her two young boys were doing well, and their little family had found an easy friendship with widower Nate Theroux and his daughter, Sophie. There was even the unspoken possibility of more between her and Nate--until the day Tommy Merchant, her ex and the father of her sons, showed up without warning on her doorstep.

Tommy isn't the only one who's found his way back to the place that defined him. Lost and disillusioned after a disastrous stint living down south with her father, Angela Muse has returned home. When she runs into Greg Fortin, the friend who once saved her life when they were children, she starts to believe there may be understanding in a world that offers more questions than answers.

Soon, everyone in Dalton finds themselves part of a chain of events hurtling towards outcomes beyond their control, where more than one future will be decided. A window into struggles that are at once destructive, illuminating, and ultimately universal, Shannon Bowring's In a Distant Valley is a triumph--and the remarkable conclusion to the story readers have been following since The Road to Dalton.

Shannon Bowring's Dalton trilogy is a winner! I enjoyed this final installment almost as much as the first two books, and I'm sorry there won't be more to come from this small community and its inhabitants.  Bowring incorporates domestic abuse, sexual identity, grief, single-parenting, and drug abuse in her narrative. All that's missing is cancer, but none of it is gratuitous. It's simply a reflection on real life. In a Distant Valley is more suspenseful and somewhat darker in tone than the previous two books, elevating it to a less than cozy read. I kept waiting for something terrible to happen, but was very pleased with the conclusion. I understand that the audiobooks are well done, so I may give them a try in a few years when I'm ready to re-visit Dalton.

Highly recommend!

Where the Forest Meets the River

 

Where the Forest Meets the River by Shannon Bowring

Dalton, Maine #2

Fiction

Finished on 3/6/2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb: SPOILERS (scroll down to my review in blue)

1995: Five years ago, the suicide of new mother Bridget Theroux shocked the small town of Dalton, Maine. In the wake of the tragedy, Nate is raising their daughter Sophie alone and doesn't always know how to answer the difficult questions she asks. Luckily, he has a friend in single parenthood: Rose Douglas, left with her two boys after her abusive ex skipped town.

Greg Fortin, back from college for the summer, is wrestling not only with the expectation that he take over his father's business but also with telling his family the truth of who he is. Vera Curtis, who left home years ago, discovers more than she bargained for when she returns to care for her mother. And longtime lovers Trudy and Bev, so strong in their secret relationship (even as they remain with their husbands), find themselves rocked by an event that ignites lingering regret within their broken marriages.

Once again, Shannon Bowring proves she knows where the heart of the story lies. Where the Forest Meets the River is a poignant return to Dalton, whose inhabitants continue to startle and humble both themselves and us.

I couldn't put this one down! I loved returning to Dalton, Maine and all its residents. Each character is fully realized, the setting vivid, and the dialogue true and believable. I appreciate that Bowring provides substantial backstory, but not so much so that I was bored, having just read her previous book in this trilogy. The writing is beautiful. There is joy and grief, as well as humor, but each character's story is unpredictable, which kept me turning the pages. I'm glad I read this one with the third installment waiting on my nightstand. The author left us with quite a cliff-hanger!

Where the Forest Meets the River is a tender and touching (but not sappy) novel. I loved it!

Highly Recommend (but do read The Road to Dalton first).

The Road to Dalton

 

The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring

Dalton, Maine #1

Fiction

2023

Finished on 2/27/2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

It's 1990. In Dalton, Maine, life goes on. Rose goes to work at the diner every day, her bruises hidden from both the customers and her two young boys. At a table she waits, Dr. Richard Haskell looks back on the one choice that's charted his entire life, before his thoughts wander back to his wife, Trudy, and her best friend.

Trudy and Bev have been friends for longer than they can count, and something more than lovers to each other for some time now—a fact both accepted and ignored by their husbands. Across town, new mother Bridget lives with her high school sweetheart Nate, and is struggling with postpartum after a traumatic birth. And nearer still is teenager Greg, trying to define the complicated feelings he has about himself and his two close friends.

The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world—of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.

With both sequels to this wonderful debut novel lurking in my TBR stacks, I decided to re-read The Road to Dalton even though I read it less than two years ago. While most of the major details came back to me as I read, there were still plenty that I'd forgotten, which made for an enjoyable second reading. As I read, I kept comparing Trudy Haskell's unfiltered remarks to those of Elizabeth Strout's acerbic character, Olive Kitteridge. And as I look at my earlier review of The Road to Dalton, I am reminded that I made reference to Olive Kitteridge back then, as well. Both novels are set in Maine, and both explore the overlapping relationships between the inhabitants of the small community in which they reside. 

As soon as I finished re-reading The Road to Dalton, I quickly dove into Where the Forest Meets the River. It's another winner!

I'll leave you with my initial thoughts from 2024:

The Road to Dalton appeared (with high ratings) on several blogs last year, so I bought a copy to give to my mom last Christmas. (One of the many benefits of sharing a home with my book-loving, 91-year-old mother is that she passes her books on to me once she's finished reading them.) After reading three hefty novels last month, I decided it was time for something not only shorter in length, but lighter in tone. Had I read the publisher's blurb before starting Bowring's novel, I would have known that despite its cheerful cover, The Road to Dalton isn't exactly a light, breezy story. And yet, it worked for me. 

Reminiscent of Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout's renowned novel), and also set in Maine, Bowring's debut is a story of the intertwined lives of a small community in which everyone knows everyone's business. While no single resident takes center stage (as in Olive Kitteridge), there are those whose lives intersect more with the community than others. Each character struggles with heavy life challenges, which could make for a bleak story, but as I turned the last page, I felt hopeful for those characters I'd come to know and care about in this character-driven novel. I'm looking forward to Bowring's follow-up (Where the Forest Meets the River), which is due out this September. 

The Road to Dalton is a satisfying, poignant read. Recommend!

Pete and Alice in Maine

 

Pete and Alice in Maine by Caitlin Shetterly

Fiction

2023

Finished on January 23, 2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

Reeling from a painful betrayal in her marriage as the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in New York City, Alice packs up her family and flees to their vacation home in Maine. She hopes to find sanctuary--from the uncertainties of the exploding pandemic and her faltering marriage.

Putting distance between herself and the stresses and troubles of the city, Alice begins to feel safe and relieved. But the locals are far from friendly. Trapped and forced into quarantine by hostile neighbors, Alice sees the imprisoning structure of her life in this new predicament. Stripped down to the bare essentials of survival and tending to the needs of her two children, she can no longer ignore all the ways in which she feels limited and lost--lost in the big city, lost as a wife, lost as a mother, lost as a daughter, and lost as a person. 

As the world shifts around her and the balance in her marriage tilts, Alice and her husband, Pete, are left to consider whether what keeps their family safe is the same thing as what keeps their family together.

Had I stumbled upon this novel in a bookstore, I would have bought it simply for the beautiful cover art. But I had been seeking out a copy at every independent bookstore we visited last year, finally finding a copy at Winter River Books in Bandon, Oregon. After reading a friend's glowing review of Shetterly's debut novel, I was eager to read it, and now I'm happy to own a copy since it will be one to read again.

I love a novel that pulls me in from the opening lines, keeping me reading late at night, inhaling it in two short days. I also don't mind reading about Covid and the lockdown, which in some ways reminds me that we can do hard things. I've read a few novels that are centered around the pandemic (Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, and most recently Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout), and Shetterly's didn't disappoint. Her writing is reminiscent of Catherine Newman's (We All Want Impossible Things, Sandwich, and Wreck), and the minute I finished this book, I searched the Internet to see if she had more to offer. I was happy to see that she has a follow-up, The Gulf of Lions, which is due out in May. 

My only quibble about the novel has to do more with the characters than the writing. The eldest daughter's attitude and mouthy attacks on her little sister and her mother made me want to shake her. Alice's husband is no prince, either. And yet I loved this compelling book about marriage and parenthood, warts and all.

I thought this was a lovely passage:

Anyway, the peonies, yes. There's that Jane Kenyon poem where she calls them "outrageous flowers." This year, seeing them in bloom in Maine for the first time, my first June here, and taking the time to really watch them go from those tight little balls to these luxurious Victorian pom-poms, I have seen what she meant. And then, as if they know how overly--no, outrageously--blessed they are with good fortune, rather than hold their heads high with pride, they droop like little supplicants, heads down, apologizing. 

Highly recommend!

Tell Me Everything

 

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

Amgash, #5

Fiction

2024

Finished on December 21, 2025

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

With her "extraordinary capacity for radical empathy" (The Boston Globe), remarkable insight into the human condition, and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, "What does anyone's life mean?"

It's autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on th eedge of town. The two spend afternoons together in Olive's apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known--"unrecorded lives," Olive calls them--reanimating them and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, "Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love."

And with that, I have completed my personal challenge to read all of Elizabeth Strout's novels. I won't lie--I was very sad to say goodbye to all of her wonderful characters whom I've grown to love over the past year. Back-to-back reading of the final three books in the Amgash series was certainly a great way to immerse myself in Strout's world, and I loved how she included 23 of her characters from her earlier novels. The author has a new book coming out in 2026, but it's a departure from her previous works, so who knows if we'll ever hear anymore from Olive or Lucy.

Oprah Daily, September 2024

Oprah Daily, September 2024

Tell Me Everything is a marvelous novel. I'm sure some readers would be perfectly content reading it as a stand-alone, but there are so many back stories, that I feel it shouldn't be read until the earlier books in the Amgash series have been read. Part of the joy of this book is seeing the interactions between so many of Strout's characters.

A couple of notable passages:

“Olive was silent for a long moment. Then she said, meditatively, “It’s quite a world we live in, isn’t it. For years I thought: I will miss all this when I die. But the way the world is these days, I sometimes think I’ll be damned glad to be dead.” She sat quietly looking ahead through the windshield. “I’ll still miss it, though,” she said. Bob was watching her. He said, “I like you, Olive.” “Phooey. Now help me get out of this car,” Olive replied.”

 and

“Lucy stood up and pulled on her coat. “Those are my stories,” she said, and then bent down to put her boots back on. “But you’re right. They are stories of loneliness and love.” Lucy stepped into the tiny kitchen for a moment and returned with a paper towel and she bent down and soaked up the drops of water on the floor left from her boots. Then she picked up her bag and said, “And the small connections we make in this world if we are lucky.” And then to Olive’s amazement, Lucy said, smiling at her with a gentleness on her face, “And I feel that way about you. A connection. Love. So thank you.” She moved toward the door. Olive said, “Wait.” As Lucy turned, Olive said, “Well, phooey. I feel connected to you too. So there.” She stuck out her tongue.”

I don't know if I'll re-read all of Strout's books since I've already re-read a few, but I know that I'll come back to Tell Me Everything (maybe on audio) in a few years.

Highly recommend!

Lucy by the Sea

 

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Amgash, #4

Fiction

2022

Finished on December 17, 2025

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

With her trademark crystalline prose, Elizabeth Strout turns her exquisitely tuned eye to the inner workings of the human heart, following the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton through the early days of the pandemic.

As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody sea.

Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we're apart--the pain of a beloved daughter's suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.

If you hadn't noticed, I've been reading (and re-reading) a lot of Elizabeth Strout's novels this year. After re-reading Olive, Again, I jumped back into Strout's Amgash series which focuses mainly on Lucy Barton and her friends and relatives. I was somewhat disappointed with Oh William! but once I finished that book, I immediately picked up Lucy by the Sea and was instantly engrossed. I can't explain why, but I don't mind reading books set during the pandemic. I know a lot of people would like to forget about those first years during lockdown, but I like to revisit those months, reminding myself just how far we've come. Strout reminds her readers how especially scary it was to be a New Yorker during the first year of pandemic, and I am forever grateful that we live in a small community, mostly isolated from large crowds. (I've written about those early years here.)

Notable Passages:

Here is what I did not know that morning in March: I did not know that I would never see my apartment again. I did not know that one of my friends a family member would die of this virus. I did not know that my relationship with my daughters would change in ways I could never have anticipated. I did not know that my entire life would become something new.

 

Who knows why people are different? We are born with a certain nature, I think. And then the world takes its swings at us.

 

I thought then that William had been right to bring me up here, where I could walk freely even if I didn't see many people. The question of why some people are luckier than others--I have no answer for this.

 

It has been said that the second year of widowhood is worse than the first--the idea being, I think, that the shock has worn off and now one has to simply live with the loss...

And I also understood: Grief is a private thing. God, is it a private thing. 

 

It is a gift in this life that we do not know what awaits us. 

In any case, Lucy by the Sea was a much more relatable and moving story than Oh William!, despite sharing the same anecdotal first-person delivery that I disliked in Oh William! I came to care about Lucy as I eventually did with Olive Kitteridge, and enjoyed seeing all the familiar faces that have been such a big part of Strout's stories. As soon as I finished this book, I happily picked up Tell Me Everything, the 5th in the Amgash series.

Heartwarming as well as somber ... Although simple on the surface, Strout's new novel manages, like her other, to encompass love and friendship, joy and anxiety, grief and grievances, loneliness and shame--and a troubling sense of growing unrest and division in America.... Strout's understanding of the human condition is capacious. ~NPR

Highly recommend, but should be read in order, at least with the Amgash books. 

Oh William!

 

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

Amgash, #3

Fiction

2021

Finished on December 15, 2025

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

"I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William."

Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. "William," she confesses, "has always been a mystery to me." Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are.

So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret--one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together--even after we've grown apart.

When I first started reading Elizabeth Strout's novels, I didn't care about her characters. I eventually came to love Olive Kitteridge, but I have yet to feel the same about Lucy Barton. Oh William! is Strout's third installment in her Amgash series, in which Lucy is the central character. Narrated in first person, and speaking to the reader, we are privy to Lucy's thoughts and emotions. She and her first husband have remained friends of a sort, and Lucy expresses her fondness and exasperation toward William, as well as grieving the death of her second husband. 

Grief is such a--oh, it is such a solitary thing; this is the terror of it, I think. It is like sliding down the outside of a really long glass building while nobody sees you.

She reflects on her lonely childhood, and the lack of love and nurturing from her mother. She also speaks about her relationship with William's mother, who is very present in their lives during their marriage. This is a quiet, character-driven story that unfolds slowly. It reads like a conversation between two friends, with abrupt interruptions in a train of thought or memory. Many of Strout's paragraphs begin with statements such as these:

 "I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William."

 "Also (I suddenly remembered this too) ..." 

 "What I mean to say"

 “I don’t want to say any more about that...”

Since I have two other books by Strout to read (Lucy by the Sea is up next), I pushed through to finish this one even though it's not one that I can recommend. Had it been longer (I read it in less than two nights), I may have given up. Overall, a disappointment.

My reviews of the other books in this series:

My Name is Lucy Barton (4/5)

Anything is Possible (3/5)

Olive, Again

 

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Fiction

2019

Finished on December 12, 2025 (second reading)

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Elizabeth Strout brilliantly lays bare the inner lives of ordinary people, none more eloquently than the protagonist of her universally acclaimed Olive Kitteridge. "Funny, wicked and remorseful, Mrs. Kitteridge is a compelling life force, a red-blooded original," declared the San Francisco Chronicle. "When she's not onstage, we look forward to her return."

And now Olive has indeed returned, as indomitable as ever, navigating her next decade and the changes--sometimes welcome, sometimes not--in her own life. Here is Olive, strangely confident in her second marriage, in an evolving relationship with her son and his family, and crossing paths with a cast of memorable characters in the seaside town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth at a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the irascible Olive improbably touches the lives of everyone around her. 

I won't write too much about this book since I reviewed it three years ago. I can't explain why it wasn't a 5-star read for me the second time around, but I did enjoy it. I even marked passages that I didn't notice during my first reading.

Here is the thing that Cindy, for the rest of her life, would never forget: Olive Kitteridge said, "My God, but I have always loved the light in February." Olive shook her head slowly. "My God," she repeated, with awe in her voice. "Just look at that February light."

and

Loneliness. Oh, the loneliness!

It blistered Olive.

She had not known such a feeling her entire life; this is what she thought as she moved about the house. It may have been the terror finally wearing off and giving way for this gaping bright universe of loneliness that she faced, but it bewildered her to feel this. She realized it was as though she had--all her life--four big wheels beneath her, without even knowing it, of course, and now they were, all four of them, wobbling and about to come off. She did not know who she was, or what would happen to her.

One day she sat in the big chair that Jack used to sit in and she thought she had become pathetic. If there was one thing Olive hated, it was pathetic people. And now she was one of them. 

and

As soon as it got dark she tucked herself into her little single bed and watched television. The news was amazing to her. And this helped her. The country was in terrible disarray, and Olive found this interesting. At times she thought fascism might be knocking on the door of the country, but then she would think, Oh, I'll die soon, who cares. Sometimes she thought of Christopher and all his kids and she felt worried about their future, but then she would think: There's nothing I can do about it, everything is going to hell.

Olive is brash and outspoken, and yet underneath all of her gruffness and lack of filter, she's quite loveable. I  hope she plays a prominent role in another book by Strout.

Rather than link to my earlier review, I'm including it here:

Marvelous! Was it insomnia that led me to finish this book at 1:30 in the morning or the mere fact that I couldn't put it down? After reading the final page, I kept thinking about Olive and the motley cast of characters in this follow-up to Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize winner, Olive Kitteridge. Truthfully, I had to force myself to turn off the light and not start rereading from the beginning of the book.

In 2014 I read Olive Kitteridge (giving it a second chance after previously quitting on the audiobook) in preparation to watching the four-part HBO mini-series of the same name. I not only fell in love with Strout's writing, but came to care about Olive, warts and all. 

Olive, Again is an outstanding follow-up and does not disappoint. In similar fashion to the original novel, this book is comprised of thirteen vignettes. Olive takes center stage in most chapters, but is only a passing figure in others. I especially enjoyed the presence of characters from other novels by Strout (Isabelle from Amy & Isabelle was an unexpected treat!) and I'm now inspired to go back and reread each of her books. 

Having watched Frances McDormand in the lead role of the mini-series, I had a vivid picture of Olive, laughing out loud at her caustic remarks while feeling a tug of sadness and empathy as her life grew emptier and lonelier. I felt an ache of melancholy as I turned the last page, not ready to leave Olive, with whom I felt a strong connection as she reflected upon her life as a wife and mother in her final years. Thankfully, I have copies of both books for future reading and plan to rewatch the TV drama. 

Olive, Again is a poignant glimpse into aging, while providing levity with hilarious one-liners by the irascible and blunt heroine of Olive Kitteridge. Highly recommend!

Anything Is Possible

 

Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Amgash #2

Fiction

2017

Finished on June 22, 2025

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Recalling Olive Kitteridge in its richness, structure, and complexity, Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others.

Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother's happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton, the author's celebrated New York Times bestseller) returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence.

This is the second collection of short stories I've read this month, and I'm not a big fan of the genre, so I'm not surprised that I didn't love Anything Is Possible. The stories are more interconnected than those of Table for Two (Amor Towles), and some of the characters are familiar from my reading of My Name Is Lucy Barton, but the book is not one of my favorites by Elizabeth Strout. I struggled to keep track of the characters' relationships with one another as they overlap from chapter to chapter. Plus, the central theme to Strout's stories is shame and regret, and many involve mothers who leave their families. Thus, the overall tone is bleak and gloomy. The writing, however, is marvelous, so I was never tempted to stop reading. Anything Is Possible is best read right after My Name Is Lucy Barton, perhaps with a pen & pad in hand.

My Name Is Lucy Barton

 

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Amgash, #1

Fiction

2016

Finished on May 26, 2025

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is cause for celebration. Her bestselling novels, including Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, have illuminated our most tender relationships. Now, in My Name Is Lucy Barton, this extraordinary writer shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all — the one between mother and daughter.

 

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.

It's been a little less than a decade since I first read My Name Is Lucy Barton. I wrote the following in 2016:

After reading Bellezza's glowing review for My Name Is Lucy Barton, I knew I had to give it a chance, in spite of my disappointment in The Burgess Boys (which I did not finish). I read Amy and Isabelle many years ago, and more recently Olive Kitteridge, both of which I enjoyed quite a bit. I wish I could echo Meredith's praise for this particular book, but it failed to move me, even after listening to the audio, which I started as soon as I finished the print edition. I can't remember the last time I did that, but I really wanted to give it another chance since Meredith loved it so much. My Name Is Lucy Barton was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, BookPage, and LibraryReads. I am obviously in the minority, as I barely gave it an average rating.

I find it so interesting to see how my reaction to a book can differ so significantly from the first time I read it. Not only did I enjoy My Name Is Lucy Barton so well that I read it in two days, but I also enjoyed The Burgess Boys, which I couldn't even finish the first time I tried. I wonder if my deep dive into Elizabeth Strout's works has allowed me to feel more sympathetic toward her characters, many of whom are troubled or come from dysfunctional families. We don't learn specific details about Lucy's father, but her mother is really a piece of work. The vignettes toward the end of the book read like stream-of-consciousness, which required me to stay focused and pay attention. I think when I listened to the audio, my attention drifted more readily. I understand Lucy appears in two more books by Strout, and I'm eager to read those later this year.

Much of the joy of reading Lucy Barton comes from piecing together the hints and half-revelations in Strout’s unsentimental but compelling prose. . . . She reminds us of the power of our stories—and our ability to transcend our troubled narratives. — Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

The Burgess Boys

 

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

Fiction

2013

Finished on May 4, 2025

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” wrote The New Yorker on the publication of her Pulitzer Prize–winning Olive Kitteridge. The San Francisco Chronicle praised Strout’s “magnificent gift for humanizing characters.” Now the acclaimed author returns with a stunning novel as powerful and moving as any work in contemporary literature.

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, Elizabeth Strout has brought to life two deeply human protagonists whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys is Elizabeth Strout's newest and perhaps most astonishing work of literary art.

I tried to listen to the audio edition of The Burgess Boys when it was released in 2013. I might have been distracted at the time, but the opening chapters failed to grab my attention. I remember that I simply didn't care about Jim or Bob Burgess. So, when I recently borrowed a copy of the book in my endeavor to read all of Strout's novels, I did so with hesitation. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the book as well as I did! Strout creates such quirky characters, many of whom either lack a social filter or are simply socially awkward. The relationship between the three Burgess siblings is complicated. Jim is unkind to his younger brother. Susan is unkind to her twin. Bob is a good person and just wants to get along. I loved this character-driven story, and I'm so glad I gave it a second chance! Elizabeth Strout is quite a storyteller, and I'm looking forward to re-reading My Name Is Lucy Barton, which is next on my list.

Highly recommend.

Olive Kitteridge - Reread

 

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Fiction

2008

Finished on March 22, 2025

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their own problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.

It's been a little over a decade since I read Olive Kitteridge, so my second time felt almost like reading a new book. Over the years, I had forgotten a lot of the details of the stories in which Olive is not the main focus, but the overall premise of the book was etched in my mind after watching the miniseries (starring Frances McDormand). The bleak vignettes, and Olive's unlikeable character, make for a melancholic read, but I grew to like Olive and was left with a sense of hope as I read the final pages.

My earlier review of Olive Kitteridge can be found here. I gave the book a slightly higher rating in 2014, but not by much.

How to Read a Book

 

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

Fiction

2024

Finished on August 13, 2024

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A charming, deeply moving novel about second chances, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.

Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle…

Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living.

How to Read a Book had all the ingredients of a saccharine, fluffy novel, but it turned out to be very enjoyable. While somewhat predictable, I came to care about the three main characters, and especially enjoyed Violet's interactions with the African grey parrots for which she became responsible in her new position as a research assistant at a local university. This feel-good story of second chances and new friendships (which brought to mind Elizabeth Berg's Night of Miracles, with its endearing characters) is a perfect summer read. I'm looking forward to reading Wood's previous novel, The One-in-a-Million Boy, which sounds equally delightful.

Flying Solo

 

Flying Solo by Linda Holmes

Fiction

2022

Narrated by Julia Whalen

Finished on June 29, 2024

Rating: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A woman returns to her small Maine hometown, uncovering family secrets that take her on a journey of self-discovery and new love, in this warm and charming novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over.

Smarting from her recently cancelled wedding and about to turn forty, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown of Calcasset to handle the estate of her great-aunt Dot, a spirited adventurer who lived to be ninety. Along with boxes of Polaroids and pottery, a mysterious wooden duck shows up at the bottom of a cedar chest. Laurie's curiosity is piqued, especially after she finds a love letter to the never-married Dot that ends with the line, "And anyway, if you're ever desperate, there are always ducks, darling."

Laurie is told that the duck has no financial value. But after it disappears under suspicious circumstances, she feels compelled to figure out why anyone would steal a wooden duck--and why Dot kept it hidden away in the first place. Suddenly Laurie finds herself swept up in a righteous caper that has her negotiating with antiques dealers and con artists, going on after-hours dates at the local library, and reconnecting with her oldest friend and first love. Desperate to uncover her great-aunt's secrets, Laurie must reckon with her past, her future, and ultimately embrace her own vision of flying solo.

I enjoyed this light-hearted novel by Linda Holmes a little bit better than her debut, Evvie Drake Starts Over. Flying Solo is not one that would have held my interest had I read the print edition, but the audiobook, narrated by the wonderful Julia Whalen, was just what I needed to pass the time on my daily walks. Leaning more toward romance than general fiction, it's not my favorite genre, but Whalen kept me entertained, and even had me laughing out loud at some of Laurie's dialogue.

I received a complimentary copy from Libro.fm. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Road to Dalton

 

The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring

Dalton, Maine #1

Fiction

2023

Finished on May 5, 2024

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo calls, "measured, wise, and beautiful."

It's 1990. In Dalton, Maine, life goes on. Rose goes to work at the diner every day, her bruises hidden from both the customers and her two young boys. At a table she waits, Dr. Richard Haskell looks back on the one choice that's charted his entire life, before his thoughts wander back to his wife, Trudy, and her best friend.

Trudy and Bev have been friends for longer than they can count, and something more than lovers to each other for some time now—a fact both accepted and ignored by their husbands. Across town, new mother Bridget lives with her high school sweetheart Nate, and is struggling with postpartum after a traumatic birth. And nearer still is teenager Greg, trying to define the complicated feelings he has about himself and his two close friends.

The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world—of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.

The Road to Dalton appeared (with high ratings) on several blogs last year, so I bought a copy to give to my mom last Christmas. (One of the many benefits of sharing a home with my book-loving, 91-year-old mother is that she passes her books on to me once she's finished reading them.) After reading three hefty novels last month, I decided it was time for something not only shorter in length, but lighter in tone. Had I read the publisher's blurb before starting Bowring's novel, I would have known that despite its cheerful cover, The Road to Dalton isn't exactly a light, breezy story. And yet, it worked for me. 

Reminiscent of Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout's renowned novel), and also set in Maine, Bowring's debut is a story of the intertwined lives of a small community in which everyone knows everyone's business. While no single resident takes center stage (as in Olive Kitteridge), there are those whose lives intersect more with the community than others. Each character struggles with heavy life challenges, which could make for a bleak story, but as I turned the last page, I felt hopeful for those characters I'd come to know and care about in this character-driven novel. I'm looking forward to Bowring's follow-up (Where the Forest Meets the River), which is due out this September. 

The Road to Dalton is a satisfying, poignant read. Recommend!

Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Fiction
2008 Random House
Finished on November 26, 2014
Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize




Publisher’s Blurb:

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their own problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.

A few years ago, I tried to listen the audio version of Olive Kitteridge, but I was so bored, I quickly gave it up. I was disappointed that such a popular book had left me cold and disinterested, but I had a print edition on my shelf that I just wasn’t ready to get rid of. I really did want to give it another chance after hearing so many of my trusted friends rave about it. When I saw the preview for the HBO mini-series, starring Frances McDormand, I knew it was time to give it another try.

Elizabeth Strout’s collection of 13 stories is set in Maine, centered loosely around Olive Kitteridge. Each vignette is filled with an overwhelming sense of melancholy, as the individual characters struggle with their own challenges in life, and by the end of the fourth chapter, I was beginning to wonder if I wanted to continue reading. I’m so glad I did, as this book turned out to be one of my favorite reads of 2014!

I fell in love with Strout’s writing, re-reading passages two or three times in one sitting, the characters and setting coming alive on the page, so vivid in my mind's eye that I hope the movie lives up to my expectations.

On Morning Drives:

For many years Henry Kitteridge was a pharmacist in the next town over, driving every morning on snowy roads, or rainy roads, or summertime roads, when the wild raspberries shot their new growth in brambles along the last section of town before he turned off to where the wider road led to the pharmacy. Retired now, he still wakes early and remembers how mornings used to be his favorite, as though the world were his secret, tires rumbling softly beneath him and the light emerging through the early fog, the brief sight of the bay off to his right, then the pines, tall and slender, and almost always he rode with the window partly open because he loved the smell of the pines and the heavy salt air, and in the winter he loved the smell of the cold.

I didn’t care for Olive when she was first introduced in the stories, but she began to grow on me and I found myself feeling sympathetic toward her and her disappointments in life, in spite of her brash, outspoken personality. This woman has no filter!

On Hope:

And then as the little plane climbed higher and Olive saw spread out below them fields of bright and tender green in this morning sun, farther out the coastline, the ocean shiny and almost flat, tiny white wakes behind a few lobster boats—then Olive felt something she had not expected to feel again: a sudden surging of greediness for life. She leaned forward, peering out the window: sweet pale clouds, the sky as blue as your hat, the new green of the fields, the broad expanse of water—seen from up here it all appeared wondrous, amazing. She remembered what hope was, and this was it. That inner churning that moves you forward, plows you through life the way the boats below plowed the shiny water, the way the plane was plowing forward to a place new, and where she was needed. She had been asked to be part of her son’s life.

Final Thoughts:

This is one of those books that makes me wish I were in a book club! Olive Kitteridge is a complex and unforgettable (and, at times, highly unlikeable) character, and yet I fell in love with her and this lovely book. As soon as I can watch the mini-series, I plan to re-read the book.