Category: Modern Fiction

Stone Yard Devotional

By Charlotte Wood

Published 2023

Read Nov 2025

A woman takes a break in a small convent near where she grew up.  She is taking a break from her work of trying to keep species from disappearing from the world and apparently from her marriage.  She ends up staying—moving from the guest dormitory to the main dormitory over time.  She isn’t staying for religious reasons of any sort.  She only slowly realizes that the various prayer times that interrupt the women’s daily work might actually be the real work of the convent.

In contrast to vanishing species, the area suffers an amazing plague of field mice that have apparently been driven to the area due to some unnamed climate thing.  The women slowly learn they need to protect their food in glass vs bags or plastic jars to keep the mice from devouring it.  They buy and set countless traps and devise other ways to lower the population of mice. Our narrator has the task of purchasing the various equipment.  All without interrupting the work.

Two other major things happen at the convent:  the remains of a former sister who had been lost in Thailand have been returned to them and the sister who accompanies the remains, Helen Parry, is a former schoolmate of the narrator.  Helen Parry has gone from being a bullied child to an internationally known activist in climate issues.  The narrator is much more impacted by her arrival than are the others.

Over the course of the book, we learn a few things about the narrator, but the cause(s) of her despair and desire to drop out of her former life are never fully revealed.  Instead, we hear about her slow acclimation to life at the convent as a non-religious but apparently accepted resident.  The writing enables the reader to slow down and consider this life as well.  It’s not surprising that this book is making a lot of “best of” lists.  This reader will continue to read Wood’s work. 

Shred Sisters

By Besty Lerner

Published 2024

Read Dec 2025

This is Lerner’s first novel although she’s published some non-fiction previously.

Lerner uses the younger sister, Amy, to narrate her life and the impact her older sister, Olivia (Olly) has on her family.  Olly, whose love of adventure and out of the ordinary behavior is interesting to her parents until she reaches her teen years.  Then her behavior becomes very concerning, and her parents realize they can’t do much about it.  She begins stealing, leaving home for extended periods of time, and more.  Olly is hospitalized for a while but it seems to have little impact on her erratic behavior.  Eventually, her parents split, in part because they disagree on how to deal with Olly, her father remaining supportive and dismissive of anything “wrong” with Olly and her mother being less so. 

In the meantime, Amy is growing up.  Her good behavior and excellent grades win her no accolades from her parents who are worn out by Olly.  She was bullied in school, but switching to a private high school helps.  She graduates from college and begins a graduate program.   When she doesn’t get a grant to continue the scientific work to which she’s devoted herself, she chooses to leave the program and science.  She eventually becomes a successful editor for a publishing company. 

Over time, Olly’s erratic behavior leads her into sex work and later convincing her parents to help her start a business; unfortunately, but perhaps predictability, she steals the start-up money and vanishes again.  She’s in and out of their lives which becomes increasingly complicated for everyone.  Amy eventually understands that Olly likely has bipolar depression but this is never discussed by the family. 

This book does a great job of showcasing the very difficult situation that families face when a member has a mental illness and doesn’t allow themselves to be treated–why would they when the mania is so much fun and the meds take that all away.  

This reader enjoyed finding a sympathetic character in this book, Amy.  She suffers many disappointments, makes some poor decisions but accepts their consequences and gets on with life, and faces continuing obstacles as the only sibling left to deal with Olly after her parents pass.  Lerner didn’t over-romanticize anything about Amy’s life and accomplishes providing a character that the reader can truly like. 

Lerner is a literary agent and an editor, and it really shows.  This reader is getting more sensitive to editing – overdrawn text, inconsistencies, etc.  It’s interesting that the author chooses editing as the career in which Amy excels.  Unlike some books that have a book editor as a character, this book was very well written and edited–crisp and so engaging that reading was complete in two days.  

This reader highly recommends this book for both reading and especially discussing with a group.  There is much to discuss—the characters, the quality of the writing, and the situation it depicts.  Society interacts with mental health issues as little as possible, and this book helps us understand what it’s really like to have a mentally ill member of the family. 

Culpability

By Bruce Holsinger

Published 2025

Read Dec 2025

The driver for this novel is an accident that occurs when a self-driving car hits and kills a couple but leaves the occupants of the self-driving car completely or relatively unharmed.  The person “driving” is Charlie, a seventeen-year-old lacrosse star, who is on his way to a championship game that is the last of his high school career.  He is heading off to the University of North Carolina which has recruited him for their team.  Sitting in the front passenger seat is his father, Daniel, a first-generation college graduate who is a lawyer.  He is writing a memo for his job while Charlie is driving.  Sitting in the second-row seats are Charlie’s mother, Lorelei, and his sister, Alice.  Lorelei is a highly published researcher and consultant in the area of AI.  She is busy working as well when the accident occurs.  Alice is the middle child and is the occupant who yells when she sees a car coming into their lane.  This is the act that causes Charlie to take the wheel which precedes the accident.  Izzy is the youngest child and is lounging in the third seat while texting with her beloved brother, Charlie as he “drives”.  Izzy suffers a broken leg.  Alice suffers a concussion and is hospitalized overnight.  Everyone else survives with only a few bruises.

To get away from the trauma of the accident and relax a bit before Charlie heads to UNC, the family rents a house on an inlet of the Chesapeake Bay they had rented the year before.  They aren’t left alone, however, as accident investigators want to talk to Daniel and Charlie.  Daniel obtains a lawyer who tells him he can represent only Charlie or Daniel but not both. 

The question is:  who or what is culpable?  Charlie who apparently overrides the AI and had been texting?  Daniel for not noticing that Charlie was texting?  The AI for not avoiding the accident?  Something or someone else?  It seems there are many secrets that the family members hold that may be relevant.

In the meantime, more troubles arise.  Father Daniel is upset that the beautiful farm across the small inlet from their rented house has been replaced with a huge home and a security staff protecting the property of a wealthy businessman, Monet.   Why the over-gentrification of their peaceful vacation area?  Father Daniel is further upset when son Charlie becomes involved with Monet’s daughter, Eurydice, and the family is invited to a party at the Monet compound.  You’ll need to read the novel to find out the rest of the complications. 

Modern themes abound in addition to the major theme of culpability of fatal accidents involving self-driving vehicles:  impact of travel sports on families; impact of wealth on decision making; relationships of dual career spouses, especially if there is a perceived “imbalance” of capabilities; fragility of life as we know it.

It’s interesting to this reader that for most of the books she’s read recently she doesn’t particularly find any of the characters very sympathetic. It’s true for this book as well.  We spend most of our time learning what father Daniel thinks and does.  He is far from sympathetic in this reader’s opinion.  He’s not communicating with his wife well.  He’s failing to connect with his son who is not behaving as he would prefer.  He drinks heavily often, sometimes driving under the influence.   

Although the book is a very quick read and at times feels a little superficial, there really is substance for rich conversation with others about it. 

Finding Grace             

By Loretta Rothschild

Published 2025

Read Nov 2025

This is a debut novel for Rothschild.  You won’t learn much about the plot from this essay as this reader believes that reading it without knowing anything about it is advantageous to the reader.

The protagonist of this becomes a widower when his wife and daughter are killed in a bombing.  Most of the book takes place starting a few years after the bombing and follows the widower and his young son.  There are occasional flashbacks which are printed in italics to aid the reader in know it’s a flashback. 

Rothschild uses an interesting device: The protagonist’s wife narrates much of the novel from her position in heaven.  She is able to see what’s happening and we hear much of the action from her “viewpoint”.  We also are privy to the husband’s thoughts directly from him.  We see the other characters only through their actions as communicated by the wife or the widower. 

The majority of the book’s tension is built on a secret the husband is keeping from almost everyone regarding a woman he has met.  One good friend knows the secret and urges the widower to reveal it, but he doesn’t and weaves an increasingly complex web of “facts” created to keep his secret safe.

There is a fairly large cast of characters, one group surrounding the widower and one group surrounding the new girlfriend and, of course, they begin to intersect.  There are many topics that aren’t discussed within the groups and certainly not between the groups. 

Parenthood, managing one’s own grief, supporting a friend through their grief, and communication are big themes of this book. 

There is a fair amount of description of sex between the widower and his new girlfriend which this reader didn’t find necessary.  Perhaps the editor/publisher thought this would be a draw for some readers, but this reader found it somewhat distracting and certainly led this reader to wonder about whether the new couple’s relationship was built on anything besides sex. 

The setting is London, although the book feels pretty American.  This reader thought that perhaps the author now lives in the US, but she splits her time between the UK and Italy.  That likely explains an Italian connection.  There are a few “British’ words and few obvious “British” cultural elements, but not many which again may be an editor/publisher’s suggestion to enable sales.  There are a large number of references to modern day singers as well as “classical” artists.  This reader did not connect with most of the singer references which may suggest the author is directing the book to an audience younger than this reader.  These references may impact the longevity of the book. 

Overall, a pretty fast read.  It will be interesting to see how this author’s career develops. 

Foregone

By Russell Banks

Published 2021

Read Aug 2025

This reader took a break from Louise Penny this summer and read a book by an author that has been highly reliable for this reader to provide an interesting read.

Leonard Fife entered Canada from the US in 1968, presumably to avoid the draft.  He became a documentary film maker and taught this subject at the graduate school level.  His wife, Emma, was one of his students.  She left her husband and children to be with him, and she has been with him as a producer for many years. Leonard is now quite ill and in hospice in his home.  He has invited another of his students, Malcolm, to make a documentary film about him.  The present day story line evolves over a few days of filming.

Malcolm is hoping Leonard will talk about the making of some of his great documentaries, but Leonard has other ideas.  He doesn’t answer the questions Malcolm wants him to address.  Rather, he focuses on telling his life story from the beginning. It’s not clear whether Leonard is going to make it more than a day.  Each time there is a pause, his nurse requests he take a rest.  Emma wants him to stop as well both because what he is saying isn’t pretty and because she too knows he needs to rest.  She threatens to leave the room, but he insists she stay.  He says he is telling the story for her. Leonard wants Emma to know his story.  Maybe she doesn’t want to know his whole story, but Leonard doesn’t want to die without her knowing it.

Bank’s prose is unrelenting and we also at times wish Leonard would stop but we know he won’t, and we know Banks won’t let us and we are glad for that too.

How to Read a Book

By Monica Wood

Published 2024

Read Aug 2025

This was the first Monica Wood book for this reader.  It was recommended to this reader by a fellow reader with reliable recommendations (including the Dr Siri series).  She indicated that she found it engaging and read it quite quickly as a result.  That was a good enough recommendation for this reader so the search for a copy ensued.  Libby and Cloud Library that this reader could access had the book, but with long wait times.  This reader tried Hoopla which usually was a reliable source for “older” books and this reader was very pleasantly surprised to find an eBook copy available for immediate loan.

Two days later this reader had finished the book and thoroughly agreed that it was very engaging and a really enjoyable read.  Monica Wood provided a story of complex characters simply but powerfully. 

Violet is twenty-two years old and in prison for manslaughter.  She was driving the car that hit another car and killed its driver.  She was eighteen and in the process of leaving town with her boyfriend.  He made her the driver because he realized he was under the influence of too many drugs and alcohol to be trusted.  She wasn’t sober either.  Violet suddenly finds herself released from prison a bit early.  Her sister picks her up from prison and deposits her at an apartment in Portland she has secured for her.  Violet is very unsettled with this as she expected to return to her small town, not Portland, and especially because her sister has told her that neither she nor any other family member wants anything to do with her. 

Violet had been a member of a prison book club led by Harriet, a widowed English teacher, who is finally finding some meaning in post-retirement life through this activity that she provides for a collection of imprisoned women.  We enjoy learning about her book selections for the prisoners and their reactions to them.  An outcome of this is that this reader now has interest in reading “Spoon River Anthology”, a book this reader managed to never previously encounter.

The third main character is Frank, the husband of the woman Violet killed.  He is also retired and also has found retirement difficult until he creates a job for himself at a local independent bookstore who needs a handy-man to address maintenance issues that the young book-loving owners can’t manage themselves.  Frank is interested in speaking with Harriet who frequents the bookstore to find and order books for her prison book club, but he is shy, and his initial attempt is ineffective.  When Violet turns up at the bookstore while Frank and Harriet are there, Frank has a bit of a meltdown when he sees Violet, whom he hasn’t seen since the trial.   Harriet scurries Violet away.  Thus, the three become connected and the story takes off. 

The action of this book occurs over a few months.  The book tells the story by alternating between the three characters which engaged this reader quickly and completely.  We root for Violet as she gets a job that she loves, but we become concerned about her boss’s actions towards her.  We hope that Frank and Harriet can find a way towards each other.  Monica Wood tells these stories in a compelling but not overly sweet way.  She also gives us the back story of each of these characters which confirms that they are coping with human disappointments as they figure out how to live day by day.

This reader truly appreciated the author’s insights regarding retirees and their transition into the “retired” state when their work life has ended.  This reader also found it interesting that the author’s third character was a young woman who is trying to re-start her life after it was disrupted in such a truly life-changing way just as she was hoping her life was starting. 

At first, the ending felt a little abrupt to this reader but then it felt quite perfect.  How else would this reader want the book to go?  

This book compelled me to read more about Monica Wood and more by her.  You’ll find posts for several of these books at this site; search the “books by author” page for Monica Wood to locate them.  This reader certainly hopes Monica Wood will keep writing!

The One in a Million Boy

By Monica Wood

Published 2015

Read Sept 2025

The structure of this book was very appealing to this reader.  There are two story arcs:  one of a boy (unnamed), likely “on the spectrum”, and the 104-year-old woman (Ona) for whom he is doing a boy scout service project; the other of the father of  this deceased boy (we learn this very soon in the book—this is not a spoiler) as he fulfills the remainder of his son’s service project after his son’s death.  The story of the boy and Ona is told through the recordings he made of Ona as he’s drawing her story out of her and simultaneously pushing her to seek a Guiness Book of World Records regarding something about her age.  The father’s story is told in a more usual style using his thoughts to describe the past situation—he was a professional guitarist who married his girlfriend when they learn she is pregnant—which, in addition to the loss of his son, help us understand his current mindset and actions.  He is grieving for his son, he is grieving for being a bad dad, he is grieving for the failure of his relationship with the boy’s mother (they married and divorced twice), and he is continuing to try to make it as a professional musician, a very difficult career path. 

Wood can draw such wonderful pictures of real humans that, although you may never know someone like them, you now know them so well.  This reader really appreciates this gift of hers, and it certainly drives this reader to read more from her.

This reader finds it strange that she cannot find a New York Times review of this book or any other of her books since her second one, My Only Story.  Possibly this is because that review indicated “Wood, whose first novel was titled ”Secret Language,” is an often graceful writer, and her appreciation of tragic lives that still manage to embrace love is marred only by a bit too much sentimentality.”  (1) This faint praise may have unfortunately eliminated her from a list of authors they follow since this book is as good or better than many this reader has read that they have reviewed.  Her publishers may not have done enough to ensure appropriate reviews and prizes but this reader is definitely a fan and highly recommends her books. 

• https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/03/04/bib/010304.rv101409.html retrieved Sept 19, 2025

Any Bitter Thing

By Monica Wood

Published 2005

Read Sept 2025

This reader tore through much of Wood’s canon because each book she read was so compelling, had interesting and fully fleshed characters, and often a twist or two.  This book is no exception.

Thirty-year-old Lizzy has much to process.

Following a fight with her husband, Lizzy went for a run at night, dressed in dark clothes (not smart!) and was a victim of a hit-and-run accident that left her near death and right in the middle of the road.  The next car stops; the driver pulls her to the side of the road and then leaves without calling for help for her.  This is not the first time Lizzy has been left quite alone. 

Her parents died in a car accident when she was two.  Her Uncle Mike, a Catholic priest convinced the court and his superiors that he is the only option to take care of her, and they allowed it.  Lizzy had a great childhood with him for about 8 years.  He was a wonderful foster father for her despite having no role models for how to handle various situations as he has no nieces or nephew and their parents to guide him.  His housekeeper had opinions but was not a mother herself and he didn’t appreciate most of her suggestions.  He ddid make friends with a neighbor woman who has a child the same age as Lizzy and he sought guidance from her at times.  When Lizzy was nine, the housekeeper reports two incidents she witnessed that suggest child abuse and she is taken from him.  Uncle Mike’s sister took her in for a short while (yes there actually was an aunt but she didn’t want to take on raising a little girl while she had her hands full with several young sons of her own), only long enough to ship her to a boarding school.   When Lizzy asked her aunt about Uncle Mike, the aunt informed her that he died of a heart attack—heart conditions ran in their family.  So three times within nine years she was left quite alone in the world. 

After college, she returned as a high school counselor to the town where she spent the happy part of her childhood.  Her husband agreed to live in this town, but he really wanted to return to city life.  They argued frequently about this conflict and Lizzy also suspected he might be having an affair.  Since their last argument had driven Lizzy to take that fateful run, he felt somewhat obligated to stay with her.  He worried that she is losing it when she describes a visitation from Uncle Mike while she was in the coma despite knowing that he died shortly after their separation.

The story moves back and forth in time and between the voice of Lizzy and the voice of Uncle Mike.  It’s got some very interesting twists that I won’t reveal.

This reader thinks this has lots to offer a book discussion group.  The characters all have secrets and all have made a number of fateful decisions over time.  Did they make the right decisions? 

Bravo, Monica Wood, for another great read.

Louise Penny books in order of publication:

Book                                                 Published                        Read

Still Life                                          2005                                  July 2024

A Fatal Grace                               2006                                  May 2025

The Cruelest Month                  2007                                  May 2025

The Brutal Telling                     2008                                  June 2025

A Rule Against Murder            2009                                  May 2025

Bury Your Dead                          2010                                  June 2025

A Trick of Light                           2011                                  June 2025

The Beautiful Mystery              2012                                  June 2025

How the Light Gets In              2013                                  June 2025

The Long Way Home                2014                                  July 2025

The Nature of the Beast          2015                                  July 2025

A Great Reckoning                    2016                                  July 2025

Glass Houses                              2017                                  July 2025

Kingdom of the Beast             2018                                  July 2025

A Better Man                               2019                                  July 2025

All the Devils are Here            2020                                  Aug 2025

The Madness of Crowds        2021                                  Aug 2025

A World of Curiosities            2022                                  Aug 2025

The Grey Wolf                            2024                                  soon

The Red Wolf                            coming in 2025            not yet!

If you take a look at when these books were read, you will notice two things:  nearly a year between reading the first book and the second; and then the following 17 books in 4 months.  Why?

This reader read the first book just before discovering the Colin Cotterill books which set off a binging of all available Dr Suri books.  This reader later looked up Louise Penny books as they are set in Quebec, the destination of this reader’s bike trip planned for June 2025.  Why not read a book set near where this reader was headed?  And so, this reader became thoroughly hooked.

Why?  Several reasons. 

Availability: This reader read the entire series as audiobooks available through her library’s Hoopla service.  So, it was easy to get the next book in the series immediately after finishing one regardless of day or time. 

Great Readers: The same wonderful reader, Ralph Cosham, read books 1-10.  It is quite wonderful to hear recurring characters’ voices sound the same in each book.  Ralph Cosham unfortunately died too early, and Louise Penny was faced with shifting her readers to a new reader for her audiobooks.  She describes the reason for the change and the process she used to select a new reader, Robert Bathurst.  Since the lead character learned English primarily in London and speaks with a slightly British accent, Robert Bathurst being British worked for this reader, especially with the help of Louise Penny’s discussion of the change.   Louise Penny again shifts readers starting with the 2024 book and moving forward choosing a Quebec native.   The 2024 book wasn’t in this reader’s Hoopla library which frankly enabled this reader to take a pause and read something else!   But this reader will certainly read both the 2024 and 2025 books soon (2025 book not yet published!)

What else?  So, availability and great readers are nice but obviously it’s the writing—the characters, the stories, and the language that makes a series truly bingeworthy.

Characters and Place: Penny has developed a set of characters who reside in Three Pines, a small hamlet in the Eastern Townships of Quebec that is not on any map.  All the Three Pines books noted above involve the village of Three Pines in some way and most of the recurring characters play some role.  Over the course of the books, some of the roles change so those listed are the roles initially in the series. 

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the lead character, is head of the homicide division of the Surte du Quebec. 

Jean-Guy Beauvoir:  second-in-command to Gamache

Isabelle LaCoaste:  critical member of Gamache’s team 

Reine Marie Gamache: Armand’s wife and retired lead archivist for the National archives housed in Montreal. 

Clara and Peter Morrow: Three Pines residents; artists

Ruth: Three Pines resident; nationally recognized poet; she adopts a baby duck, Rose who becomes a constant companion.

Myrna: Three Pines resident; retired psychologist who now runs a used and new bookstore and lives in the loft above the store

Olivier: owner of the Three Pines Bistro

Gabri:  Olivier’s partner and operator of the Tree Pines B&B

And there are others including the Gamache’s children and pets.

Armand and Reine Marie remain in love after a few decades of marriage.  It’s interesting to this author that this series and the Dr Siri series have a protagonist who has remained in love with his wife and married to her throughout a long career (although Dr Siri’s wife has died before the series starts).  This is in contrast with many drama series this reader watches on TV in which the lead detective is divorced and often estranged from his children or their marriage is dissolving. 

And The Stories

There is some sort of mystery in each book although sometimes it takes awhile to show up.  Similarly with murder—there is usually one but sometimes it occurs late in the book.  But Gamache is always dealing with something be it solving a murder, convincing others that a seemingly natural death is a murder, tracking down a friend’s husband, protecting a speaker whose message he finds disturbing, seeking to clear corruption from the Surte’s academy, etc.  Penny brings contemporary topics into the stories—the Covid pandemic, opioid addition, fentanyl trafficking, eugenics, impact of the internet, and more.  There is some movement of the story arc of Gamache and his friends and family as well in each book.  In some books, the personal story is at least the initial primary story but, in those cases, there is a story that weaves in that involves a criminal act. 

Penny’s writing is compelling.  Her books seem to move slowly at times, but many times the actual timeframe covered slowly is happening over only a few days.  The slowness arises from absorbing descriptions of the surrounding landscape or from revealing the thoughts of one of the characters.  We are privy mostly to Gamache’s thoughts and feelings but at times we hear those of others, most usually his second in command, Jean-Guy, or of Isabelle LaCoaste, another team member. At other times the action she is describing is quite intense and this reader found herself closing the book for a few minutes to rest before continuing. 

Throughout the series the reader is reminded frequently (but not too frequently) of Gamache’s virtues, including his willingness to take a chance on police personnel that others aren’t (Jean-Guy, Isabelle are two examples), his commitment to the Surte’s motto: Service, Integrity, Justice, and his kindness. 

While a reader can start with any book in this series, it’s worth starting at the beginning and moving through the series so that the evolution of the characters and their relationships can be most fully appreciated.   This reader is glad she found the series long after it began so that she wasn’t confronted with having to wait for new entries to be published until now.  This reader is about to join the large number of Louise Penny enthusiasts’ wait for new additions to this excellent series. 

Demon Copperhead

By Barbara Kingsolver

Published 2022

Read Aug 2023

This reader has not always been a fan of Barbara Kingsolver.  While her stories have been interesting, her novels have sometimes felt like a lecture, not unlike the feeling this author gets from Wendall Barry novels.  Hence this reader was a bit reluctant to invest in this novel as it’s a reasonably long one at 560 pages. 

This reader started this novel via an audiobook but was not sure the southern accent of the reader was something this reader wanted to endure.  So an e-book was obtained, and reading was restarted.  This reader eventually got used to the southern accent and moved seamlessly between  the audiobook and the e-book.

There is much comparison elsewhere about the clearly planned parallels with Dicken’s David Copperfield with respect to characters and types of challenges the narrator faces and will leave to others to discuss them in detail.  The primary one of interest to this reader is that both narrators end up orphaned and must endure growing up in the face of the challenges poised by the society of the times.  In this case, one huge challenge was the quagmire faced by many thrown into the foster childcare program of their local county.  In Demon’s case (using his nickname), his stepfather’s unexplained views of the family next door to Demon and his mother combined with their own strained resources and energy meant that Demond is forced into the foster childcare program.  His foster parents are not unlike many—the payment they receive in return for housing the child is a significant portion of their income.  In addition, Demon’s foster parents also rely on him for additional financial support either via his physical labor on their farm or by working outside the home and garnishing his wages.  His case workers’ very heavy caseloads are also not uncommon.

The novel is very engaging although at times heartbreaking.  The reader will hope that his football injury doesn’t lead to opiate addiction.  The reader will hope his relationship with a very troubled girl won’t lead to more difficulties for him.  This reader hoped that since Demon is the narrator, the book wouldn’t be finished by someone else relaying information of his death. 

An interesting aspect of the novel is the distinctions Demon sees between life in his rural community vs life in the big city where his neighbors’ daughter lives.  His neighbors take Demon and their grandson to see their daughter, June Peggot, and her niece, Emmy, where they stay for about a week (during which time Demon’s mother marries his stepfather who turns abusive shortly after the wedding).  The lack of the ability to grow your own vegetables and to just go outside easily are quite noteworthy to Demon.  June, an RN, and Emmy return to Lee County both to enjoy those attributes and to be away from a prejudicial environment against “country hicks”. 

This book is very engaging and generally free from the lecturing tone this reader experienced in some other of Kingsolver’s works.  As someone raised in a rural/small town county, this reader found her depiction of foster childcare was believable, her comments about country vs city lifestyles were appropriate and were not judgmental, and her general depiction of rural/small town life was accurate  .  The devastation of the opiate and general drug crisis, especially in this region of the country, was well described and again non-judgmental or exploitative. 

This reader’s book club found much to discuss and ran out of time to cover all the possible points to discuss.  Since this club meets for 2.5 hours, that’s something.