You Are Here by David Nicholls

YOU ARE HERE by David Nicholls (One Day) is a novel about making sure that someone sees us. Set post-pandemic in the North of England near the beautiful Lake District, the story features Michael Bradshaw, 42 and a geography teacher, and Marnie Walsh, 38 and a freelance copy editor. She is recently divorced, and he is soon-to-be. A mutual friend, feeling each has had too much alone time, has invited them on an outdoors walk along with a handsome pharmacist who like Marnie, lives in London and Tessa, an outdoors-y type whose interests match Michael’s. Little, especially weather, goes according to plan and pretty quickly just Marnie and Michael are left on the walk, heading across England from one coast to the other. Their adventures with nature and a different hotel or pub each night are quite comical. Plus, the walks promote some soul-bearing and a simmering romance as the two start to bond. More details in reviews from The New York Times (“each is such good company for the other and for the reader.”) and The Wall Street Journal (“falls halfway between the serious novel and the breezy fantasy of the beach read”). As I read the thoroughly enjoyable YOU ARE HERE about finding oneself and finding one’s way in the English countryside, I repeatedly thought of Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path and The Wild Silence – also well worth reading. 

THe Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman

THE MATCHMAKER'S GIFT by Lynda Cohen Loigman is a surprisingly delightful historical fiction novel. With positive reviews from writers like Kate Quinn, Marie Benedict, and Fiona Davis, readers are sure to enjoy the story of Sara, a Jewish immigrant in the early 20th century and her granddaughter, Abby, a young lawyer in New York in the 1990s. The story, which moves between the two time periods, shows that Sara is a gifted matchmaker, able to discern when two people truly care for each other. She facilitates matches in secret for many years due to opposition from the traditional, male Jewish matchmakers, known as shadchanim. Finally, desperate to support her family, she struggles for the right to more openly utilize her abilities and charge for her services. Abby, on the other hand, is a successful divorce attorney, but generally unhappy with her boss and the rather unfeeling advice they often offer clients. When Sara dies, Abby is forced to reflect on both their lives and ultimately chooses to fight FOR something, as her grandmother would have so wisely advocated. The author’s note about her many sources and copious research (including numerous New York Times articles) is quite interesting as are the insights woven throughout the story about Jewish culture, immigrant life, and pressures faced by modern day professionals. Publishers Weekly says, “Readers are in for a treat.” I wholeheartedly concur. 

Breathless by Jennifer Niven

BREATHLESS by Jennifer Niven (All the Bright Places) is a very personal story of an 18-year-old girl, Claudine (Claude) Henry learning to deal with some life challenges. She writes at the very beginning of this novel, “You were my first. Not just sex, although that was part of it, but the first to look past everything else into me. … I don’t want to forget what I went through, what I thought, what I felt, who I was. I don’t want to forget you. But most of all, I don’t want to forget me.” This coming of age novel reflects the teen’s self-absorption – after all, it begins about a week before her high school graduation in Ohio when she is already thinking about the transition to college and planning a celebratory road trip with her best friend. That is all up-ended when her father announces that he and her mom are separating. Claude ends up spending the summer on an island (no wi-fi) near Georgia with her Mom as they try to come to terms with the new family structure. There, Claude meets Jeremiah (Miah). He is a kid with a troubled past, but he helps her to cope and truly cares for her (similar to the rebellious daughter’s boyfriend in Netflix’s Away with Hilary Swank). Throughout, Niven deftly conveys Claude’s range of emotions (confusion, heartbreak, anger, caring) as she struggles (sabotaging and nurturing) in relationships with her best friend (Saz), with her parents, and with Miah.  BREATHLESS received a starred review from School Library Journal.