Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly by Marie Bostwick

ESME CAHILL FAILS SPECTACULARLY by Marie Bostwick is ultimately a story about family and finding your purpose in life. Esme is a book editor who loses her job and her husband. She returns to the family’s lakeside lodge for a summer and that’s when she quickly realizes that the financial situation for the family business is in a perilous state, too. Eventually, Esme, her mother, Robyn, her grandfather, George, plus their new chef, Dawes, band together to update the facilities and try to attract new guests. Bostwick’s descriptive writing is full of details about nature, food, and setting: “[if] the gold Formica counters in the kitchen said 1970s, then the brick-patterned vinyl flooring positively screamed it.” Writing and creativity play a big part in this story, too. Esme’s deceased grandmother, Adele, features in her stories about the 1940s in Asheville, North Carolina and there is another writer, Oscar, trying to turn his career around. Plus, some absolutely astounding colorful quilts have their own story to tell. As Bostwick points out, “Everything is a story … The stuff that happens to us is just... stuff. The only reason it means anything is because we attach stories to it, declarations of what we've decided is true and worth passing on. Without stories, there aren't any memories. Or art, or history, or faith... Almost everything that matters is connected to stories, large and small.” Definitely recommended.

Earlene Fowler has also written a series of books about quilting and a special grandmother, Dove.