The Lake House by Kate Morton

I have been recommending Kate Morton’s newest novel, The Lake House, and have been met with excited exclamations from readers who have thoroughly enjoyed her other suspenseful, romantic titles like The House at Riverton.

The Lake House is told from multiple perspectives across time. Much of the story takes place in 1933 in Cornwall at an estate called Loeanneth. There, a toddler named Theo disappears and 16 year-old Alice and the rest of the Edevane family find their life is totally disrupted.  Later, in 2003 London, we meet a young police sergeant, Sadie Sparrow, who is wrestling with a difficult case where a mother has disappeared and it is the child who has been left abandoned.  Threads of the stories are woven together as Sadie travels to Cornwall to visit her grandfather. She stumbles upon the overgrown Loeanneth and is pulled into the mystery, eventually contacting the remaining family members, including the now elderly Alice.

Filled with atmosphere, plenty of twists and multiple theories, The Lake House will keep readers guessing.  Scenes shift back to WWI and the consequences of actions during war time reverberate throughout the story. Morton has done an excellent job of exploring secrets and the many actions that manifest a mother’s love. Starred reviews from Publishers Weekly. 

A Midwest Focus …

I thought I would do a post about two new nonfiction books based geographically in the Midwest, but with much larger implications.

The first, GLASS HOUSE by Brian Alexander, tells the story of Lancaster, Ohio, home to Anchor Hocking Glass. And it was a good home – a factory town where workers and executives lived near each other and where a life, including local sports teams and free holiday turkeys, centered around the company.  That, at least, was true in times like 1947 when Forbes devoted an issue to the city as an exemplar of American enterprise. And through the late 1960’s, Anchor Hocking employed 5000 in a town of 29,000 – a staggering proportion. Since then, as the cover aptly conveys, a downward spiral ensued. 

Alexander is an award winning journalist who grew up in Lancaster and who subtitles his book “the 1% economy and the shattering of the All-American town.”  In the past 30 years, Anchor Hocking has gone thru Chapter 11 (twice) and recapitalization, been owned by numerous entities and led by a variety of CEO’s, faced foreign competition and “big box” store pricing pressures, all while undergoing name changes (Global Home Products, EveryWare, and Oneida Group).  As a result, there was a definite retrenchment in its workforce and benefits, the loss of a local identity and increase in drug abuse.  GLASS HOUSE will make an interesting companion read to Hillbilly Elegy for our students with both speaking to these negative trends, their political impact, and changes in life near the Appalachians. GLASS HOUSE received a starred review from Kirkus and was recently profiled by a wide variety of media outlets: NPR, Christian Science Monitor, Slate and The Wall Street Journal. 

The second book is called THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT LAKES by Dan Egan.  I started to read the introduction and was immediately struck by these facts: “Of the 3 percent or so [of the world water] that is freshwater, most is locked up in the polar caps or trapped so far underground …. And of the sliver left over that exists as surface freshwater readily available for human use, about 20 percent of that – one out of every five gallons available on the planet – can be found in the Great Lakes.”

As someone who drives by Lake Michigan every day, I was shocked by much of what I read.  Egan was twice a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting on this subject and calls the impression that humans and the lakes have finally learned to get along a “mirage.”  Instead, he contends that his text will “illuminate an ongoing and unparalleled ecological unraveling of what is arguably North America’s most precious natural resource.” Complex and technical at times, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT LAKES will shortly be on our shelves after receiving starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Library Journal.  

LibraryReads Selection Ideas

It is almost Thanksgiving and that long break from school and work may provide a nice window to sit down and relax with a longer read.  There is certainly plenty of choice – with recent National Book Awards announcement, The New York Times’ list of Notable Books being released this week, and voting ongoing for Goodreads Choice Awards.  Here, I am going to note several LibraryReads selections – some of the 10 books chosen each month by librarians to recommend to their patrons:

I look forward to and definitely recommend titles by Kate Morton, international bestselling author of The House at Riverton, since she offers a kind of Gothic mystery that both challenges and entertains. There’s suspense and a bit of romantic tension in each, including her latest, THE CLOCKMAKER'S DAUGHTER which was a LibraryReads selection in October. In this novel, which bridges 150 years, Morton introduces Edward Radcliffe and his artistic associates who are spending the summer of 1862 at Birchwood Manor on the upper Thames. Intending to escape and focus on creative endeavors, they instead experience a murder, a disappearance, and a jewelry theft. Once again, Morton features a house that bears witness through generations as a modern day archivist, Elodie Winslow, discovers a photo and drawing which prompts her hunt for family connections. Pick up this novel if you are looking for historical fiction dealing with art and secrets; THE CLOCKMAKER'S DAUGHTER received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.  

 

A LibraryReads selection in September, TRANSCRIPTION by Kate Atkinson is another suspenseful work of historical fiction set during the Second World War and 1950s London. The main character is Juliet who at 18 is first employed to rather naively transcribe wartime conversations for the British intelligence service, MI5, and who increasingly becomes involved in espionage activities, and later works as a BBC producer on children’s programming.  Once again, Atkinson describes how events and choices reverberate across time, causing the reader to reflect on the meaning of patriotism, on guilt, and on fate’s tragic repercussions.  TRANSCRIPTION received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Library Journal.

VIRGIL WANDER by Leif Enger (Peace Like a River) was an October LibraryReads selection and could easily work as a Junior Theme choice given the publisher’s description as a “timeless all-American story that follows the inhabitants of a small Midwestern town in their quest to revive its flagging heart.” Virgil’s car runs off the road into Lake Superior near Greenstone, Minnesota and he suffers memory loss as a result.  Virgil’s subsequent and sometimes humorous interactions with residents (including a romantic interest, a best friend and newspaper editor, and a pet raccoon called Genghis) and also visitors (like Rune, a fan of kite flying who is looking for his long lost son) charmingly chronicles attempts at recovery for both Virgil and the town. VIRGIL WANDER received starred reviews from Library Journal (“surprises and delights throughout”) and Booklist (“Virgil's narration is a joy: he lost his adjectives in the crash, making for their gleeful insertion each time he remembers one.”).

 

THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean is actually a narrative non-fiction work that tells the story of the Los Angeles Public Library fire which occurred in 1986. This text, too, includes a bit of a mystery given that the cause of the fire was suspicious and Orlean deftly explores the story of suspect Harry Peak.  She also comments on her own relationship with books and reading, especially reflecting on childhood visits to the library with her mother. Overall, this is a fascinating look at library operations. Please see the video below for more visual detail from a PBS NewsHour interview with author Susan Orlean:

A LibraryReads selection in October and recipient of starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal, THE LIBRARY BOOK will be appreciated by bibliophiles and fans of libraries everywhere.