Debutantes
Comments(0)I haven’t read a book that features a debutante in a while. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book that’s featured a debutante. This month I have found myself reading two such books. I’m not sure if it’s a new trend or a coincidence but let me tell you about both of them.
Girls in Trucks is the first novel by Katie Crouch. Sarah Walters is a debutante in Charleston, SC. We follow her from Cotillion Training School in the seventh grade, through her debut at eighteen and the next 17 or so years of her life. Sarah, as the cover reads, is a debutante of questionable manners. She heads to New York for college and continues to stay there even after she graduates. With every trip home she is less at ease and she never really thinks of South Carolina as home again. Sarah is an interesting character and Ms Crouch skims her life, from man to man and job to job. The end of the book is clearly not the end of Sarah’s life, she has miles to go before she is done but there is a perception that she is on the right track.
The Ex-Debutante by Linda Francis Lee is a much lighter book with humor and romance and ridiculous family situations at every turn. Carlisle Cushing the ex-debutante is now almost thirty and has moved away from Willow Creek, Texas, as much to run away from her past as she is running away from her family. She is from one of the best families in town and is tired of having her every move discussed. She takes her new law degree and goes to Boston. There she allows everyone to think she is a poor hick who has pulled herself up by her “bootstraps”, enjoying the anonymity that comes from being like everyone else. When her mother’s fifth marriage falls apart, she insists Carlisle come home and represent her in the divorce proceedings and while she’s home she agrees to take over this year’s crop of dubious debs and meets up with an old boyfriend that she’s never quite forgotten. This is a fun read with good characters and a “happy” ending.
Karen - Fort Mill Girls ISBN 9780316002110 Ex ISBN 9780312354961
When 28-year-old Willie Upton returns to her hometown of Templeton NY on a dark summer dawn, a 50-foot-long body of a monster just happens to float up from the depths of the town’s lake. This mysterious coincidence is the beginning of Lauren Groff’s intriguing tale about the people of Templeton. Willie is a descendant of the town founder, Marmaduke Temple. Returning home pregnant and miserable, she plans to hide there, recovering from a distastrous affair with her graduate school professor. From clues hinted at by her mother, Willie begins her search to untangle the roots of the town’s greatest families in order to discover her own father’s identity. Through Willie’s investigation, she uncovers a wealth of fascinating people, both in the town and among her ancestors. I found the accounts from generations of Templetonians delightful and witty…you won’t want to miss this book. The author also borrows some characters from the works of James Fenimore Cooper, who named an upstate New York town Templeton in The Pioneers. Spanning two centuries, the story is told through a variety of voices including Templeton residents, ghosts, masters, servants, natives, interlopers, and more. You’ll enjoy reading about all the predicaments in which these characters find themselves. Place a hold on it today!
Set in the fall of 1916, this story takes place in the isolated community of Tamarack Lake in the Adirondacks. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages, and the poor, mostly immigrant, patients fill the larger sanatorium. Set in a historical period of great progress in science and medicine, I found the references to chemistry daunting on occasion. Especially intereting are the advances in x-ray technology furing this perios. However, these references in no way take away from the interesting lives of these recovering patients and their backgrounds, interests and relationships. To provide stimulation in this community, one of the patients begins a weekly “discussion” group. As passions and vulnerabilities mix during these regular meetings, his efforts lead to secret attachments, a surprise betrayal and a tragic accident. I found the author, a national book award winner for Ship Fever, to be an excellent storyteller.
I like Deborah Smith’s books. She writes sweet stories that make you feel good but she fills with complex characters and interesting plots. Her latest books is no exception. Ben has been the sole provider for his down syndrome brother since his parents died when he was sixteen. Now an owner of a ranch in Florida, he employs the “unemployable”. His employees are autistic and mentally challenged individuals with big hearts and plenty of spirit. Kara, searching for a purpose in her life, happens upon the ranch and stays. Not a big story, there’s an illness, a romance, a conflict, all the ordinary ingredients of a book of this type but the book will make you think and should lighten your heart, if only for a little while.
I didn’t want to put this book down. Although the story has broader themes, I especially enjoyed the drama of family relationships. Chloe is a book illustrator & her husband Brendan is a historian. Trespass begins with Chloe meeting her college-age son Toby and his new girlfriend for lunch. Chloe’s world is upset by the girlfriend Salome, a sensual, sometimes confrontational, Croatian immigrant. Another interloper (and story line) in Chloe’s life is presented when a hunter, and “foreigner”, begins poaching on their land. Is he as innocent as he seems? Toby becomes increasingly serious about Salome, and his more easygoing father Brendan encourages him. Another layer of the story involves Salome’s father and brothers, who previously fled their Balkans homeland during the ethnic cleansing. Where is Salome’s mother, and did she die in their country’s conflict? Chloe warns Toby that Salome might trap him into marriage as a way to gain material advantages. Eventually Toby learns that an exchange of vows with Salome will radically change life for him and his family. Valerie Martin is and Orange Prize-winning author (for Property), and I highly recommend this book for its fine writing and well-developed characters.
Nicholas Sparks has done it again…created another wonderful love story. He creates not only stories that are believeable ,but characters that are real and likeable. Travis Parker, the main character, has everything a man could want; a good job, loyal friends and even a waterfront home in North Carolina. Everything but a serious relationship. But he is fine with that because he thinks it may cramp his style. But he meets his new neighbor and then he realizes he needs more from life to make him happy. The story covers the events of his falling in love, marriage & family but also true life choices we hope we never have to make. One of my favorites from Nicholas Sparks yet! 
A small southern town, two sisters and a magic apple tree make for a fascinating read in this book by a first time author. Claire has lived in Bascom, NC since she arrived at her grandmother’s house at the age of six. Enjoying a sense of security for the first time in her young life, she continues to stay close to home, learning to use herbs and flowers in her recipes to affect the eater. Her younger sister Sydney leaves home as soon as she turns 18, trying to escape the town and her family’s reputation. Ten years go by and the sisters, who have never been close, have had no contact with each other at all. Sydney returns with her daughter Bay to find the safety and security she thought she didn’t need but wants for her daughter. The two sisters compliment each other in ways they had never known and with each others help, become better people. And the magic apple tree? you’ll just have to read the book! 
On their daily walk the Queen’s corgis wander into the Bookmobile parked at the back of Windsor Castle. The queen of course feels obligated to borrow a book. Having never really read before she asks a kitchen worker on board the vehicle to make a recommendation.
There are a lot of dysfunctional families in the world but when you come from a family of private detectives, you enter a whole new level of dysfuntion. You’re doing background checks at 12 and following people at 14 and there is no privacy at all. As Isabelle Spellman grew up she expected to be allowed a little more privacy but instead her parents continued to follow her, investigate her boyfriends, have her followed and stooped to bugging her phone. Isabelle fought back the only way she knew how, but the results weren’t what she expected. This book is all about family. What drives you nuts and what you can’t live without. This is Lisa Lutz’s first novel and I think we might see more of Isabelle and her warm, funny, crazy family. 
