Books Set in North America; United States; New England; Massachusetts and Vermont

The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman (1998) is a delightful little romantic comic novel.

We first meet Natalie Marx, the heroine of The Inn as Lake Devine, as a young girl, who lives in a tight-knit Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts.  The year is the early 1960s.  While exploring a resort for a summer vacation, her mother writes a letter of inquiry to the Inn at Lake Devine, which is situated on a beautiful lake in scenic Vermont. Ingrid Berry, the owner and manager of the Inn, writes back stating that the clientele at the Inn is for gentiles.  This seems to be Natalie’s first experience with anti-Semitism.  It also convinces her that she absolutely must find out what is so great about this particular Inn.

Soon after this event, the Civil Rights Act became the law.  Young Natalie began a campaign to flood the Berry’s letters reminding them that they could no longer restrict their clientele to only gentiles.

Later, while at summer camp, Natalie meets Robin Fife, whose family just happens to vacation at the Inn at Lake Devine each summer.  Natalie befriends Robin, even though she finds Robin a bit dull.  She devises a scheme to get herself invited to go to the Inn with Fife family for a week’s vacation.

Flash-forward 10 years.  Natalie is now a professional chef who is between jobs.  Natalie and Robin have more-or-less lost track of each other when Natalie learns that Robin is working in Boston at the Pappagallo store on Newbury Street in Boston.  (How well I remember this store!)  Natalie learns that Robin is engaged to marry Nelson Berry, son of the infamous Inn at Lake Devine.  Robin insists that Natalie attend her upcoming nuptials, which will be held at … (wait for it) the Inn!

Natalie returns to the Inn for the wedding and, on the way to the event, Robin is killed in a tragic car accident.  With family gathered for the wedding, the family decides to hold the funeral there instead.  Natalie stays for the week, cooking for the grieving families where she befriends Kris Berry, the groom’s younger brother.

She hopes that her budding friendship with Kris will develop into something more.  Her parents aren’t thrilled with her involvement with Kris because not only is he not Jewish, but at least 1 member of his family is anti-Semitic.  They fail to give Natalie messages and letters from Kris.

Ultimately, Kris and Natalie get together and go off to a resort in the Catskills with Nelson and his college friend Linette.  Linette’s family runs a kosher resort in the Catskills and she is engaged to a rabbinical student.  She and Nelson, however, renew their friendship as Natalie and Kris’s relationship blooms.

I liked this book, however, the ending was a little too trite.  Nelson quickly became involved with Linette so soon after Robin’s death.  This seemed very callous.

There is a brief, but interesting, #MeToo incident between Natalie and her influential boss.  He tacitly promises to provide her with job opportunities in exchange for sexual favors.  Natalie declines his “offer”, but this passage was written 20 years before such actions were even remotely being taken seriously by the public at large.

Read: February 26, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

The Winter People, by Jennifer McMahon (2014)

I picked up this novel solely because it was set in Vermont, my mother's home state.

The story follows the live of Sara Harrison Shea, who lived in West Hall, Vermont in the early 1900s, and jumps to present time with teenage Ruthie, who lives with her mother and young sister in Sara's old farmhouse.

Sara's young daughter, Gertie, died in 1908 during a brutal cold winter, when she ostensibly fell into a well.  Sara has a hard time overcoming her grief over losing her daughter.  Soon after Gertie's death, Sara is discovered brutally murdered ~ her mutilated body found in a field.

Jump to present day, where Ruthie has been out late and sneaks into her house hoping not to face the wrath of her mother, only to find her mother has gone missing.  Ruthie searches the house for a clue as to why her mother may simply have vanished.  She comes across copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden in the floorboards of the house.  In her diary, Sara discussed her dead daughter.  Critical pages, however, were missing.

Ruthie continues to search for her mother and runs across Katherine, a recent widow who moved to West Fall to discover why her dead husband was visiting the town on the day of his death.  (Really?  You suspect your husband is having an affair, so move to the "scene of the crime"?)

Katherine and Ruthie realize that Katherine's husband had met with Ruthie's mother on the day the husband died and the mother vanished.  Is this a coincidence?

The book was mildly interesting, but not one I could highly recommend.

Read:  October 3, 2017

2.5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

The Sleepwalker, by Chris Bohjalian (2017)

I generally like books by Chris Bohjalian. This one, however, is not one of his better novels. 

Annalee Ahlberg has a genetic condition that makes her prone to sleepwalking. It has gotten mostly under control, but is apt to happen when her husband is away and she is alone at night. When she goes missing when her husband is away, her two daughters become worried. 

As the police begin their investigation, the older daughter, Lianna begins to fall for Gavin, one of the detectives. He is about 12 years older, and was friends with Annalee because he, too, was a sleepwalker. 

At first there is no body. Since Annalee disappear at night, she is believed to have been sleepwalking. She is believed to have fallen into the river and drowned. When her body is found, the coroner determined drowning was not the cause. Was it an accident or murder. 

*****spoiler alert*****

This probably was not the book to read so soon after my mother died, especially in a car accident. 

Read:  March 22, 2017

2.5 Stars. 

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

Bellow Falls, by Archer Mayor (1997)

This is not really my kind of genre.  It is a detective novel and part of a Joe Gunther series, and this was not the first in the series.

Lieutenant Joe Gunther is a detective in a small Vermont town.  The police chief of near-by Bellow Falls calls Joe to assist in what appears to be a minor sexual harassment case involving one of Bellow Falls young officers.  The young police officer was allegedly harassing the wife of the local drug dealer, named Norman Bouch.

Lieutenant Gunther, however, quickly realizes that the Bouch is involved in a very large drug operation who uses youngsters in town to assist in his dealings.  Lots of people die and Gunther is left to figure out the matter.

I suppose this is a typical detective novel.  I wasn't all that taken by the book, but read it because it was a gift and had been sitting on my shelf for about 17 years.

2 Stars

Read:  January 24, 2016

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

Secrets of Eden, by Chris Bohjalian (2010)

Another novel about domestic violence.  This book was much better than The Hurricane Sisters, however.

The novel follows the alleged murder-suicide of Alice and George Hayward from four different perspectives.

4 Stars

Read:  June 28, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

House Rules, by Jodi Picoult (2010)

4 Stars

Read:  March 19, 2014