The Boy From The Sea

 In the book The Boy From the Sea, the story starts in 1973 in a small fishing village in Donegal, Ireland. A boy, merely days old, is found in a bucket in the sea. A man sees him and carries him to down. As the author, Garret Carr, writes, the boy is adopted by Ambrose and Christine who already have a two year old son named Declan. They decide to adopt this boy and name him Brendan. Ambrose has a fondness for Brendan. Declan gets jealous and rightly so. Ambrose is a fisherman more comfortable on the sea than on land. Declan decides to go into the fishing industry so he can be closer with his father. I greatly enjoyed reading this historical fiction novel set in Ireland.

 

 

I Know This Much Is True

The acclaimed author Wally Lamb is the author of I Know This Much Is True. In this story an unmarried woman with a cleft lip has a pair of identical twins after her father has died. One of the twins grows up to have paranoid schizophrenia. His brother tries to help him. His mother marries a man who abuses all three of them. In 1990 the brother with mental illness takes a military knife to the library and cuts off one hand. He gets sent to a forensic hospital for a year. Eventually he gets released and goes to a group home. This was a long book. I spent over 13 hours reading it on my phone. Excellent story though.

 

  

Definitely Better Now

 In this book about a young woman named Emma becomes sober for a year, the author Ava Robinson, conveys the story in her book Definitely Better Now. Emma works in advertising. Now that her first year of sobriety is over she is ready to start dating again. There is a cute guy in IT named Ben. Both Emma and Ben are assigned to work on the companies holiday party which is a lavish and expensive dinner at a local hotel. This is a darkly funny novel about working life in New York City.

 

 

The Girls Of Good Fortune

Kristina McMorris is the author of The Girls Of Good Fortune. The story is set in Portland, Oregon in 1885 through 1888. Celia awakens to find her self in a locked box wearing men's clothing. She was working for the mayor as a cleaning lady. Her father, a Chinese man, went to Hells Canyon to work in a mine. Some white miners killed 30 Chinese miners. This evil act went to trial but the white men were found innocent. Celia looses her job when the mayor finds out she is pregnant. The mayor's son is the father but the family won't believe that. She is taken to a brothel where she works as a cook and a maid. This is a fascinating historical fiction book about racism in America. 

 

 

The Winds From Further West

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the Number One Detectives Agency series. He also wrote The Winds From Further West. In this story Dr. Neil Anderson had just started a new position at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He meets Chrissie. Chrissie is intelligent and ambitious. They move into a flat together. Soon he gets into trouble. A students accuses him of making a statement that he did not say. His supervisor wants him to apologize for saying something he did not say. Neil refuses to apologize. Then the student claims Neil assaulted him on the sidewalk. That is a false accusation. Neil resigns from his position. He goes home early to find Chrissie having an affair with another man. Neil packs up his stuff and stays at a friend's house. His friend has a house on the island of Mull. This is a remote area where he can relax and figure out his future. One day, on the island, a boat is abandoned. The boat came from Russia. The captain of the boat left his boat and took off in the island ferry. As they explore the old boat they hear sounds coming from below. In a tiny box under the floor they find two wolf/dogs. They bring the animals to the local veterinarian.  The local vet happens to be a pretty young woman. This gives Neil a chance to figure out his new beginning and a budding romance. 

 

 

Prairie Island

 Yesterday I drove to Prairie Island Park which is past the Prairie Island Campground. Prairie Island is not an island. The far side of the island is attached to the town, so it is more of a peninsula. I went to see birds but hardly saw any. I parked and walked for an hour and a half. I did see more lotus plants and that was cool.

Happy Autumn