March was an excellent reading month! My neighbor recommended The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg and it was delightful. Sookie Simmons is a middle aged woman from coastal Alabama with a complicated relationship with her eccentric, over-the-top mother. She consternates over a registered letter - though lengthy, that whole bit had me hooked (nothing good comes by registered mail … it may be another lawsuit against her mother) then discovers she is related to the Jurdabralinski’s of Pulaski, Wisconsin. The alternating storylines of Sookie and other Point Clear, AL characters vs. WWII life for the Jurdabralinski’s provides the perfect yin-yang tension. I loved learning about the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). Flagg also wrote Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café so that gives you good frame of reference for the delightful quirkiness this book celebrates.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt will for sure be in my top 10 reads of the year. The story alternates between Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus in the Sowell Bay, WA aquarium, Tovah Sullivan, a widow who cleans at the aquarium, and Cameron Cassmore, a young man from Modesto, CA needing meaning and purpose. The intersection of their stories is clever and heartwarming. This is billed as a recommendation for those who loved A Man Called Ove and I completely agree with that comparison.
TBR List
- Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
- Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore
- All Adults Here by Emma Straub
- One Night on the Island by Josie Silver
- The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton
- The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
- Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan
- The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz
