46. The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil – Love it! This is the first of what I hope will be a long-running series about a group of women in a seaside town in England and their tightly knit and intertwined lives. The main character is a hoot (and yes, it’s written first person) and her friends and relatives will make you laugh out loud at many spots and even tear up at others. Published in 2009, it’s set in the world of today, with all that implies. Read it. You’ll love it too. (finished 8/1)
47. Needles and Pearls by Gil McNeil – Love it even more than the first book in this series. Published in 2010, this novel picks up very shortly after The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club, so we can jump right back into the lives of the characters with no weird gaps that require awkward or rushed exposition to bring us up to speed. McNeil has a deft and light and sure touch with the emotional lives of the characters we’ve come to care about. She writes with heart and humor. As much as I have said (frequently) that I don’t need another serial to read, I sincerely hope McNeil will continue this series for many years. Can’t wait to read the next book. (finished 8/3)
48. Mozart’s Blood by Louise Marley – If you’re interested in opera, history, Mozart and vampires, plus the odd werewolf, you should find a copy of this book and give it a whirl. Marley’s knowledge of opera and the performance thereof is obviously personal and intimate. And her writing is solid. I liked this book, but didn’t love it. I don’t blame Marley; it just wasn’t my thing. (finished 8/9)
49. The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz – The title is perfect for this latest edition in the Spellman family saga. They do strike again, at your heart and your funny bone, and they connect in a big way. I love this series and I’m glad to see how the characters are developing. The book ends well, while leaving open the possibility (dare I hope the probability?) of a sequel. (finished 8/13)
50. Casting Off by Nicole R Dickson – I liked it, with some nits to pick. Nit #1: Dickson has gone out of her way to make her protagonist an “outsider” in the story, making her rather irritatingly (i.e., unbelievably) prickly about things that don’t make a whole lot of sense. It’s like she’s stressing how much the main character is a stranger in a strange land because she doesn’t think we’ll get it if she’s more subtle. Nit #2: Her writing style annoys me from time to time, for she is fond of using the word “for” as a conjunction. It is completely disruptive and pulled me out of the story every time I encountered it (which was often), for normal people don’t use “for” that way in contemporary conversation or writing. They use “since” or “because” or “as,” for “for” has become archaic and stilted, for “for” as a conjunction makes the sentence feel forced and unnatural. I hope you do not need more examples, for I am ready to end this review. (finished 8/17)
51. Little Children by Tom Perrotta – Reviewed as a satire of modern American suburban life, this novel looks inside the lives of a loose-knit group of men and women in the 1990s. The POV shifts from character to character, with more time/space devoted to some than to others. This unevenness seems unfair to those who get the short shrift and left me wondering if Perrotta gave them more time/space in the first draft, then cut it in the subsequent edits. (I don’t think I was supposed to notice what’s not there quite so keenly, but I did.) The novel has various little denouement moments, but it really kind of fizzles out more than ends. Perhaps that’s Perrotta’s final take on the lives of his characters: that they are not worthy of any big drama and that life limps on for all of us. Whatever his point, it was an unsatisfying ending, literarily speaking, if therefore more realistic. (finished 8/22)
