Travel the world in three novels

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Travel the World in Fiction

One of the more interesting things about reading fiction is that it can take to places all over the world without ever leaving your home. This month’s Book Report shares some novels set in places we may never get to see in person.

We start closer to home on a cruise ship going from Miami to the Bahamas in Emma Straub’s novel American Fantasy. Annie is a 50 years old newly divorced empty nester who agreed to go on a cruise with her sister Katherine. 

Katherine is a super fan of Boy Talk, a popular 90’s boy band who do a fan cruise every year. Annie liked the band but wasn’t really excited about going on a cruise with middle-aged women like herself who are obsessed with a boy band whose members are also fifty years old.

When Katherine breaks her leg and can’t go on the cruise, Annie ends up with a new roommate who shows her ropes. One problem is that everyone on the ship warns her about her roommate.

Slowly, Annie begins to enjoy herself and even makes a connection with one of the members of the band. The story is told through the eyes of Annie, Sarah, one of the cruise employees, and Kevin, one of the band members.

Anyone who was a fan of 90’s groups like New Kids on the Block and NSYNC will enjoy this charming story. Annie is very relatable and the relationship among the members of the band is fascinating. Grab a fruity drink as you read American Fantasy and you’ll feel like you are on the ship.

Andrew Sean Greer’s new novel Villa Coco has an autobiographical tint to it. A young archivist travels to Tuscany in Italy to take on the task of organizing and archiving an elderly woman’s art and home collection.

The job is a little more than archiving- he is expected to be an all-around assistant to the Baronessa, including caring for her garden and dogs, shopping, taking dictation, and chasing away wild animals. 

The Baronessa is an intriguing character who renames everyone in her orbit, including our protagonist whom she calls Giovedi (Thursday) in a nod to ‘Gal Friday’. She is demanding and feisty, and clearly has some sort of agenda for hiring this young American man. She disapproves of his clothes so she takes him to a thrift shop and purchases a friend’s donated  wardrobe.

Giovedi is lonely and gets involved romantically with a married man, which complicates matters for all. He meets many of the Baronessa’s friends and compatriots, and works to try and figure out exactly why he was hired for this job as he is drawn further and further into the Baronessa’s world.

Greer does a marvelous job putting the reader right in the middle of Tuscany at this village and in Venice as he travels with the Baronessa and finally discovers what is going on and where his future lies. Villa Coco is humorous and beautiful, and the writing draws you into this intriguing world.

Jenny Colgan writes a series of novels set in on the island of Mure in Scotland, and her latest is Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages. The novels opens as thirty year old Essie is let go from her job through downsizing. She is devastated because it means that she will have to leave bustling Edinburgh and her boyfriend (who has a great job in finance) and move back home with her mom Janey.

Janey lives in a lovely seaside cottage and loves her job and her daughter, although she and Essie have rarely seen eye to eye. It seems to Janey that in Essie’s eyes, she can’t do anything right.

Like many beautiful areas, older properties are being bought by large companies and turned into Airbnb rentals and vacation homes for wealthy people, changing the fabric of the communities. 

The cottage next Janey’s has been bought by a local man, and Essie sees an opportunity to use her organizational and marketing skills to help him renovate and prepare to flip the cottage and make some needed money for herself.

Recently divorced, Janey has been disappointed with her foray into the online dating scene. When she meets a local architect, her love life just may take a turn for the better. 

Jenny Colgan’s books are always delightful and she excels at creating small communities filled with people you’d want to meet in real life. It’s a joy to get lost in Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages.

American Fantasy by Emma Straub- A-

Published by Riverhead Books

Hardcover, $30, 286 pages

Villa Coco by Andrew Less Greer- A-

Published by Doubleday

Hardcover, $30, 288 pages

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan- A-

Published by Avon

Trade paperback, $18,99, 352 pages

More Summer Fun Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

More Fun Summer Reads

Summer is a great time to pick up a fun book, and continuing in the vein of last month’s Book Report, I have more summer reads for you.

John Searles usually writes atmospheric psychological thrillers (Her Last Affair and Strange But True), and this summer he switches gears with Single Girls a delightful fictionalized book about Helen Gurley Brown and the origins of Cosmopolitan magazine in the 1960s.

Helen’s book 1965 Sex and the Single Girl encouraging women to hold off on marriage until they were ready and to enjoy a healthy sex life scandalized many people. It also was a clarion call for single women everywhere. 

The success of the book encouraged Helen to start a magazine for women. Most of the male publishers turned her away immediately but one publisher (whose wife encouraged him to give Helen a chance) offered her three issues to prove that she could sell magazines and advertising revenue in the magazine.

In the novel we meet the women Helen hired as writers and editors, and they are each unique and interesting. I was particularly drawn to Helen’s friendship with Liz Smith, who went on to become a mainstay of New York City tabloids writing columns about the rich, famous, and infamous. The larger-than-life Liz and the self-professed “mouseburger” Helen had a wonderful work relationship.

I so enjoyed reading about all the hard work that went into making Cosmopolitan one of the most successful magazines in the country.  Cosmopolitan’s ad revenue was always among the highest grossing in the publisher’s portfolio. Anyone who was around in the 1970s-1990s will remember the ubiquitous “Cosmo” covers and enjoy reading how it all started. 

John Searles was the editor of Cosmopolitan’s book review page for some years and his love for the magazine business, and Helen Gurley Brown and Cosmopolitan in particular, adds such joy and insight.

You know it’s summer when a Mary Kay Andrews book has arrived. This year it’s Road Trip about two sisters- Maeve, a school administrator who spent the past months caring for their dying mother, and Therese, a struggling actress who left home years ago and hasn’t been successful. 

When their mother passes away they discover that she mortgaged her home to give her money to a shady televangelist. The only thing she left them was a painting of a supposed wealthy Irish ancestor and money to travel to Ireland together.

Therese does some digging and discovers that their exact same painting had recently sold for millions, and so she convinces Maeve to travel with her to Ireland to see if their painting is also worth money.

The two sisters are different as night and day but they manage to work together as they discover the true story behind their painting, although there are people in the little town who would prefer they go home rather than uncover long hidden secrets.

The mystery, a blossoming romance, and the Ireland setting all combine to make for a charming story. It just may be Mary Kay Andrews’ best book yet.

Annabel Monaghan is another author who writes novels perfect for summer reading (It’s a Love Story, Nora Goes Off Script). This summer it’s Dolly All The Time about a single mom of teenage son who makes her annual summer return to her hometown near Newport, Rhode Island to help her father in his seafood store.

Times are stressed for Dolly and when she learns that her father’s home needs a new roof, she doesn’t know how they will pay for it. Enter the town’s wealthiest resident’s scion son, Stewart Whitfield, whose fiancee was just caught canoodling with a New York Yankee player.

Stewart believes his broken engagement takes him out of the running for the CEO position at his family’s company, something he earnestly desires. When he gets a flat tire and Dolly helps him change it, a photo of them ends up in the tabloids. 

Stewart asks Dolly to go along with the dating charade and offers to pay her. Dolly reluctantly agrees, knowing that the money will pay for a new roof. Dolly accompanies Stewart to family and business functions, and soon the fake dating scenario becomes real.

As with any romance novel, there comes a time when things go off course, but there is always a happily ever after. The joy is seeing how the author gets there, and Annabel Monaghan writes with humor and heart, and her characters are always people with whom you want to spend time.

Single Girls by John Searles- A

Published by Mariner Books

Hardcover, $30, 384 pages

Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews- A

Published by St. Martin’s Press

Hardcover, $30, 448 pages

Dolly All The Time by Annabel Monaghan- A

Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Trade paperback, $20, 400 pages