Friends and Lovers: Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel

Here is a delightful "friends and family" contemporary novel focused on classical musicians well into their 50s. Bridget, a cellist, and Will, a pianist, are two legs of the Forsyth Trio, a chamber group forever in search of a violinist they can count on. The two have maintained a close, non-romantic, best friendship for more than three decades, since they were students at Juilliard, and have been each other's mainstay of emotional support though all of their personal triumphs and disappointments.

Bridget comes from great wealth and a musical background, with a nearly ninety-year-old composer father who lives resplendently in a castle-like mansion in Litchfield County, Connecticut. She is the never-married mother of twenty-nine-year-old fraternal twins, Isabelle and Oscar. She became pregnant after undergoing artificial insemination when she felt her biological clock ticking away and a more conventional romantic relationship appeared not to be in the cards. She has a spacious Manhattan apartment and a somewhat ramshackle country house not far from her father's.

Will, on the other hand, lives in a typically tiny West Village (Manhattan) walk-up apartment. Money is always an issue for him, and he scrambles to survive on freelance gigs and teaching. Bridget has always been financially helpful, and in fact, he has a dedicated space reserved for him at her Connecticut house.

Bridget is anticipating a romantic summer alone with her latest boyfriend, but everything is upended when he breaks up with her at the last minute, her daughter Isabelle abruptly leaves her job abroad and comes home to crash, followed by her son Oscar, who has left his husband, Matt, thinking he has been unfaithful...and Will experiences unexpected twists and turns in his life as well.

There is a sort of Shakespearean-like comedy air to the further developments that occur that summer, but all will eventually work out and be revealed, though how that takes place is for the reader to find out. 

It's enjoyable to spend a little time with these musicians, their friends, and relatives, in a pleasant setting. It's a novel that mainly entertains, without stress or heavy questioning. 

A Tale of Two Eileens: The Switch by Beth O'Leary

Such an easy to enjoy novel, set in London and a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, about two women, twenty-nine-ish Leena and her seventy-nine year old grandmother Eileen.

Leena is a high-octane rising-star executive at a consulting company in London, known for her outstanding presentations. She's in a relationship with Ethan, something of a male counterpart. Eileen is supercharged too, but as the get-it-done, list-making center of village activities, serving on every committee and a friend to all. Her former husband, Wade, left her for a dance instructor, but she's doing just fine without him.

The two form a sandwich of a relationship with Marian, Leena's mother/Eileen's daughter. What they all share is their deep grief over the recent loss of Carla, Marian's younger daughter, to an agonizing death from cancer. Leena and Marian are currently estranged.

Leena has a panic attack and meltdown at a presentation, and her kind (fortunately) boss, Rebecca, forces her to take a two-month leave of absence so she can heal and regroup. Leena confides in Eileen, who urges her to visit in the village. They decide, on a whim, to switch places for the two months: Leena will stay in Eileen's village cottage and Eileen will go to London to Leena's apartment, which will be a chance for her to grab a taste of her youthful dream to be an independent woman in the city.

While the overall plot is somewhat predictable, many unlikely and surprising events ensue, and the result is a contemporary, colorful, entertaining, and heartfelt story that most readers are likely to enjoy (and maybe envy a bit). I definitely recommend Beth O'Leary's The Switch.

Fair Maidens: We Came Here to Shine by Susie Orman Schnall

It was an interesting idea to set this novel against the backdrop of the 1939 World's Fair, and to include some of the most famous people in the popular culture of the time in the action, including Johnny Weissmuller (aka Tarzan of the movies), or as subsidiary figures to the story, Billy Rose (the theatrical showman and producer). There are some terrific historical details, such as descriptions of the architecture and events of the fair, such as the visit of King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth (parents of the current Queen of England) and references to political figures including President Roosevelt and Governor Lehman of New York.

The fictional characters bring the book down because they are somewhat unbelievable, and don't quite hold up in the intermixing of historical and plot events. 

Vivi Holden is a young actress, originally from Brooklyn, but beginning to make her way in the movies, who is pulled from a leading role at a Hollywood studio and sent back East to replace real-life actress Eleanor Holm in the Aquacade (an eye popping water ballet that was one of the most popular entertainment events of the fair). That idea is hard to accept. 

Maxine Roth is a college student in the journalism department at New York University (NYU) who is sent to the Fair to work on its daily publication Today at the Fair as a summer intern. We read that she lives with her parents and sisters in an apartment on New York's Upper West Side, in Manhattan. It's confusing for contemporary readers to learn that Maxine worked on a college newspaper called The Heights, without some explanation. Today's NYU is well-known as a fixture of Greenwich Village, but during the time period of the novel, NYU's main campus was located in the University Heights section of The Bronx (in the 1960s, due to financial distress, it was sold and became the location of Bronx Community College). 

The two young women meet and bond, but their exploits both separately and together seem heavy-handed and contrived. I truly enjoyed reading about the fair, and author Susie Orman Schnall has done a wonderful job of capturing its physical aspects and describing some of its exhibits and amusements. Hats off to Schnall for her excellent research.  

The Epistolary Novel, Digital-Style: When You Read This by Mary Adkins

When a young woman in her early 30s named Iris finds out she has a fast-growing, inoperable cancer she seeks out a blogging community of her fellows and begins to write about her experience, and her story becomes the basis for an epistolary novel for the digital age. 

Through Iris's entries, and email exchanges between her boss and friend, Smith, her sister, Jade and others, we get an insight into what it feels like to be young, sick and know you won't be living long enough to accomplish your goals and follow your dreams, and also about the nature of family relationships, friendship in its many forms, love and grief. 

It's a unique treatment of a difficult subject and very insightful. We've all struggled with our feelings when we are faced with the serious illnesses and potential deaths of family and friends, but when it is one's own life, it's obviously a different matter.

Adkins provides a moving and sensitive take on what it means to be seriously ill, and how it impacts friends and loved ones.

Go Stewart! A Time of Love and Tartan by Alexander McCall Smith (44 Scotland Street, #12)

How does he do it? How does an author of so many books, in multiple series, continue to produce works of such quality? How does he manage to combine such a mix of superb character studies, timely attention to topics of current interest, imagery, gentle humor, wit and so much more in these volumes?

A Time of Love and Tartan was one of his best, I think. The doubts and concerns of the main characters were dealt with and resolved, and that negativity put right where it belongs... with those that bring it. The positive developments were celebrated and form a basis for future episodes of the inhabitants of 44 Scotland Street, and their friends and associates.

As always, the wonderful voice characterizations of Robert Ian MacKenzie bring added delight to listeners. His supercilious tones for Irene, deep Scottish burr for Angus, and the tones of seven-year-old Bertie are impeccable. Perfection to the ears!

If you are an optimist, this book will reaffirm it. If you are a pessimist, on the other hand, it may cure you.