Rough Sleepers
by Tracy Kidder
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Tracy Kidder has made both a local impact with works such as Hometown and Among Schoolchildren, as well as a national one with Mountains Beyond Mountains. With Rough Sleepers he combines those two audiences. The non-fiction book centers around Dr. Jim O’Connell, a doctor who serves the homeless in Boston. Kidder takes readers on O’Connell’s nightly rides through the city, searching for those people who need healthcare the most. The book gives an in-depth look at homelessness both in Boston and in the American system, and balances the statistics and data with human stories of Dr. O’Connell and those he serves. Kidder’s writing style is accessible, interesting, and heartbreaking and readers who have spent time in Boston will recognize landmarks and agencies and understand them in a new way.
Reviewed by Elizabeth
Tagged: Boston, Non-fiction
Summertime Guests
by Wendy Francis
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Wendy Francis centers her latest at the recently restored and reopened (fictional) Seafarer hotel in Boston, with its impressive history of important guests and air of glamour making it a destination for special occasions and events. The novel follows a handful of customers who intersect one fateful afternoon, and presents through flashbacks the stories of how they arrived at that moment. When a woman falls (or does she jump?) to her death from her room’s balcony on to the restaurant patio, her story ends, and the stories of the other players begin to unfold. Jean-Paul is a French expatriate juggling the management of the hotel and life as a new father. Riley is a bride-to-be attending a tasting as she, her fiance, and his mother consider wedding venues. Claire is a recent widow hoping to reconnect with the one who got away. Jason is a troubled grad student on a weekend getaway with his girlfriend. Who is the dead woman, and what happened? This engaging tale maintains a pleasant level of suspense throughout, and a satisfying conclusion of the mystery that will still leave readers with some things to think about.
Add this to your arsenal of beach reads along with Elin Hilderbrand, Nancy Thayer, and Dorothea Benton Frank.
Reviewed by Alene
Tagged: Boston, Cozy mystery, Detectives, Mystery
By Any Name
by Cynthia Voigt
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Voigt, a revered writer of teen fiction (Homecoming, Dicey’s Song), presents her first novel for adults. By Any Name is the story of a woman’s life told primarily through the eyes of her youngest daughter, Beth, with remembered interjections from her other three daughters, Meg, Jo, and Amy. Rida was an orphan who, by virtue of the heightened emotion and reduced social barriers of World War II, finds herself married to Spencer Howland, scion of a large and wealthy New England family. Consistently described as unconventional, Rida resists assimilation into Boston and Cape Cod society, supporting her professor husband in a comfortable lifestyle through strategic investment and management of his trust fund. She fiercely advocates for her daughters, rousting a lecherous teacher and disrupting a debutante ball as a protective parent. A compelling woman equally admired, loved, and resented by her girls, she allows them to grow into themselves, strong and uncompromising and ultimately happy. The story will appeal to now-grown Voigt fans, as well as teens interested in tales of large and complicated families.
Reviewed by Alene
Tagged: Boston, Families, Fiction, Women
