Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin is centered on three souls finding their way out of turmoil. Frankie has been fascinated by birds, especially crows, since childhood. She was working on her masters in ornithology, studying spotted owls, with an esteemed University of Washington professor.
But it went off the rails when he asked her to work for a colleague studying crows. He is making it more than difficult for her to earn her degree. So Frankie, although it's late summer, heads to the family cabin on a lake at the base of Mount Adams.
Situated near both Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens, Adams is in reality one of those perfectly shaped peaks that is seen from most of central Washington and parts of Oregon. Her late grandmother ran a little store there that she and her older brother worked at summers.
The cabin is more home than the family home in Hood River, Oregon. She thinks she is alone at the head of the remote lake, but one of the other cabins along that part of the shore also is occupied late in the season. It's the most opulent cabin, owned by a wealthy Seattle newspaper family.
Anne Magnuson, married to the scion of the family, is there with her husband, Tim, and their five-year-old, Aiden. Anne, a music singer, composer and educator from Ireland, is still recovering from the sudden death of her best friend. She should have gone to Seattle on a scholarship instead of Anne, so her dying back home hits Anne especially hard.
It's had an effect on her teaching and her parenting. Aiden has become more and more withdrawn. He no longer speaks, needs his calming routines and doesn't respond well to the old-fashioned disciplinary methods her in-laws are hounding her husband to use.
Aiden has just had a meltdown that embarrassed his grandparents and father in public. As Frankie, Anne and Aiden get to know each other, their friendships develop as the reader learns more of why and how each of their hearts broke. And as the novel progresses, the reader sees connections in the way the characters' families are similar.
This adds layers of empathy to the way they regard each other. Frankie remembers to quiet herself as she was taught when a child, to listen. It shows her ways the crows are communicating to each other and even to humans.
Listening to themselves helps her, Anne and Aiden know where their own hearts belong. The ways in which they listen to each other strengthens all of them. Garvin connects both the process of sharing writing by reading, and making music to its composing.
Journeys back to themselves are like quests in fairy tales, giving a magical overtone to their stories. Aiden's story is a fairy tale to himself. His mother recalls the tales she was told as a child about women and crows communicating.
What Frankie sees crows do is ridiculed by an egotistical, close-minded academic. Garvin, who is from Eastern Washington and now lives in Oregon, does a wonderful job of conveying what it is like at a Pacific Northwest mountain lake. A reader who knows any of them can smell the evergreens, feel the sun and slight breezes, and hear the water and the wildlife in Crow Talk.
To do so opens up the heart to enfold her characters, even the ones who may not seem terribly sympathetic. The second novel of the summer that is set in a Washington state home in the woods is a winning, winsome tale of friendships, love, lost children and the power of stories. Like Bear by Julia Phillips, Crow Talk blends setting, strong characters and the desire to connect into tales that make meaning out of life.
--------------------------------------— A few of this week's new releases, with blurbs from the publishers and links to The Literate Lizard , the online bookstore of Readers and Book Lovers colleague Debtorsprison: Elizabeth of East Hampton by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding This fresh and whip-smart modern retelling of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, from the authors of the “great beach read” (Bookreporter) Emma of 83rd Street—transports you to summer in the Hamptons, where classes clash, rumors run wild, and love has a frustrating habit of popping up where you least expect it. Unspeakable Home by Ismet Prcic The highly anticipated second novel from award-winning writer Ismet Prcic, who, decades after escaping his war-torn home country (Bosnia-Herzegovina) looks back on his childhood, imploded relationships, and battles with addiction—offering powerful insight into the human cost of conflict. Villa E by Jane Alison Two brilliant architects clash over the fate of a luxurious villa in this riveting tale of artistic obsession.
Inspired by the real-life collision of Irish designer Eileen Gray and famed Swiss architect Le Corbusier. Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia Introducing an electrifying new voice in contemporary fiction that illuminates the many forces that haunt us. An influencer attempts to derail a viral TV marketing campaign with her violent cult following.
A marriage between two ghost hunters is threatened when one of them loses her ability to see spirits. The lives of a famous painter in the twilight of her career and a teenage UFO enthusiast converge when a mysterious glowing orb appears in their small desert town. And a slasher-flick screenwriter looking for inspiration escapes a pack of wild dogs only to find herself locked in an suv with a strange man beside her.
The Leap Year Gene of Kit McKinley by Shelley Wood An inspired, sweeping, historical epic tracing the remarkable life story of a baby girl born on leap year day who grows one year older every four years. The Leap Year Gene imagines the fascinating life of Kit McKinley from WWI up to the present day, told through the voices of Kit and her family members, whose lives are forever altered by her secret. The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter Brooklyn, 2020.
Theo Harper and his pregnant wife, Darla, head upstate to their summer cottage to wait out the lockdown. Not everyone in their upscale Park Slope building has this privilege: not Xavier, the teenager in the Cardi B T-shirt, nor Darla’s best friend, Ruby, and her partner, Katsumi, who stay behind to save their Michelin-starred restaurant. During an upstate hike on the aptly named Devil’s Path, Theo divulges a long-held secret—and when Darla disappears after the ensuing argument, he finds himself the prime suspect.
However Far Away by Rajinderpal S. Pal A sweeping family saga set against the backdrop of a Sikh wedding. Plays Well with Others by Sophie Brickman In the vein of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Fleishman Is in Trouble , a wickedly funny and incisive epistolary debut novel following a mother trapped in the rat race of NYC parenting as her life unravels.
Great Fear on the Mountain by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz A haunting, allegorical Swiss masterpiece centered around a posse of villagers as they brave dark elements to ascend a mountain, thicketed with lore As Rich as the King : A Tale of Casablanca by Abigail Assor A coming-of-age tale and twisted love story, set amid the beaches, streets, and mansions of 1990s Casablanca There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven: Stories by Ruben Reyes Jr. An electrifying debut story collection about Central American identity that spans past, present, and future worlds to reveal what happens when your life is no longer your own. Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by MJ Wassmer Dan Foster was on his fifth Miller Lite when the sun exploded Professional underachiever Dan Foster and his girlfriend, Mara, are enjoying their modest vacation accommodations at an all-inclusive resort when the (maybe?) apocalypse sneaks up and plunges the world into darkness.
They, along with all the other guests on the island of Tizoc, are now completely cut off as everything devolves into chaos. Hum by Helen Phillips In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,” May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance.
READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE DAY TIME EST/EDT SERIES EDITOR(S) SUNDAY 4:00 PM Let’s Talk BOOKS Angela Marx 6:00 PM Young People’s Pavilion The Book Bear (LAST SUN OF THE MONTH) 7:30 PM LGBTQ Literature Chrislove MONDAY 8:00 PM The Language of the Night DrLori TUESDAY 8:00 PM Contemporary Fiction Views bookgirl 10:00 PM Nonfiction Views DebtorsPrison WEDNESDAY 8:00 PM Bookchat cfk et al. THURSDAY 8:00 PM Write On! SensibleShoes (FIRST THURS OF MONTH) 2:00 PM Monthly Bookpost AdmiralNaismith FRIDAY 7:30 AM WAYR? Chitown Kev (OCCASIONALLY) 8:00 PM Books Go Boom! Brecht 9:30 PM Classic Poetry Group Angmar SATURDAY Noon You Can't Read That! or Paul's Book Reviews pwoodford 9:00 PM Books So Bad They’re Good * Ellid (* on temporary hiatus ).
