Monday 11 October 2021

Short post on a long weekend...

It is warm and sunny this morning, and the leaves on the trees and on the ground are brilliant shades of fall as we enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend.  I’ve got a steaming cup of Pu’Ehr Exotic tea and a delicious date bar to keep me company as I write this short post.

I’m nearly finished Liane Moriarty’s latest book, Apples Never Fall.  I was hoping to finish it last night as I made a large pot of applesauce (see the connection?!), but alas, I didn’t have quite enough time to get to the end.  I thought I could still write about it this morning and finish it later in the day.  This novel looks at the relationships between a newly retired couple and their four children.  At the beginning of the book, Joy Delaney goes missing from the house where she and her husband Stan live and where she raised her family.  She and Stan have recently sold their tennis school and are trying to come to terms with retirement and all the things that go along with that.  They seem to have a happy marriage, but of course, no marriage is perfect and there are usually secrets from the past that have been long-buried but that may come to the surface at the most inopportune times.  Such is the case with this family.  Their four children also have secrets and each has his or her own issues to deal with.  Amy struggles with mental health issues, Troy thinks he can solve anything with money, Logan is the favourite (or is he?), and Brooke has suffered migraines since childhood.  Can they come together and find out where Joy has gone and why?  And does her disappearance have anything to do with the strange young woman who showed up at their door the year before?  Sounds good, right?  I was so looking forward to reading this, but it took me quite some to get into the book, and even then, I’ve only been half-engaged with the characters and their stories.  It’s well-written, as are all Moriarty’s books, but something about this one seems to be missing for me.  Perhaps it’s because it only deals with one family and their problems, and so it lacks the usual complexity and interconnections. Or maybe it’s because so much of the story deals with tennis, about which I know nothing.  Anyway, I don’t think it’s her best book, but maybe the last 95 pages will redeem it in my eyes.  I’ll let you know next week if this happens.

Take care, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!  Hopefully you have much to be thankful for!

Bye for now…
Julie

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