Monday, August 27, 2012







Dear Great Book Guru,  After having had a wonderful June, July, and August filled with joyous events and wonderful books, I would like  something that will get me through these last bittersweet days of summer- I think I need a real page turner.                        Approaching September with Trepidation


Dear Approaching,  I know just what you mean- we arrived back today from a perfect weekend in Martha's Vineyard with the Marcheses and many DiPietros - what fun - but  now there is definitely a sense that fall is in the air. However,no problem: I have just the book to guide you into September. Knowing we had a five hour ferry trip from Manhattan to Martha's Vineyard , Gillian, Dan, and I decided to read BROKEN HARBOR  by Tana French  (the joys of a family Kindle account!).  Set in present day Dublin, the novel is both a compelling murder mystery and a fascinating sociological study of Ireland's crippled economy with its devastating impact on everyone- rich, poor, young , old.  Pat and Jenny Spain are a loving, successful, industrious couple with two adorable children, two great jobs,  and a heavily mortgaged new home in a planned community(a "ghost estate" as they are now called) about two  hours outside of Dublin. All of this ends tragically when Pat loses his job; in addition, the developers have abandoned the housing project. The shoddily constructed homes are deserted, half finished shells where animals and vagrants have taken shelter.  The story opens with three of the Spains dead and one savagely wounded;  the reader is led from one suspect to the next by  Detective Mickey Kennedy who has a myriad of his own problems in this new, economically doomed Ireland.    Recommended!

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