Caitlin Shetterly

Shetterly's writing is so full of being right there with this family, in part simply because we all had to find our way to live through the pandemic.! You don't escape anything this family is experiencing. It is so well written and after reading the author's notes in the end about what her own family was going through as she wrote this, it comes through in her writing of this novel. I would guess that she found herself in many of the things Alice was saying. It's a book that's hard to put down until you have reached the end....with the questions that linger there.… (meer)

a/k/a "Pete and Alice Belong in Brooklyn". But in this, my first wholly covid-set novel, the main characters, a quarreling couple, flee with their two quarreling daughters to their ramshackle summer home in coastal Maine, where they are shunned as disease carriers. Alice had been a playwright until the premature birth of her younger daughter Iris, and Pete does something lucrative for a Wall St. firm. Before they leave the city, Alice discovers Pete's affair with "The Her". He's contrite, she's suspicious, but somehow the stress of the situation leads to fantastic sex, their sole remaining pleasure in each other. There's a lot about how they met, about Pete's horrible wealthy parents, and about the growing pains of both girls, and all of it makes for an enjoyable if insubstantial read, as the reader wonders if the marriage will stay intact, especially when Pete is called back into the office and into temptation. And in the "Guess Your Own Adventure" finish, you're left to figure out how it all ends.

Quote: "Iris wants her mother to have Iris's feelings and thoughts, and when she perceives her mother might be somewhere in her own locked room of thoughts and not paying close attention, Iris is uncomfortable. It's like a disappearance."… (meer)

The author's story of her own health issues and her drive to find out what was wrong and how to keep her family safe was interesting. Not being a scientist, I think she confused a bit of the scientific parts, but she readily admitted that some of it was over her head. She found something that worked for her and her family (mainly switching to all non-GMO organic). Interesting read for anyone curious about GMOs, but I'd read up on more recent science as well to fill in the gaps in data, and just enjoy this story for what it is: a woman's search to find food that is safe for her and her family's needs.

I won this book via Goodreads Giveaways.… (meer)