Margo Orlando Littell's Blog

It’s October, my favorite month, the month that always puts me straight back into the world of Each Vagabond by Name. “It was an ordinary fall until the gypsies came,” that novel begins. Of course, fall 2020 is anything but ordinary. And amid so much global unrest and turmoil, I undertook a monumental change last month and moved back to Pennsylvania, where I haven’t lived since I was eighteen years old. It was a covid-driven move, and it happened more quickly than we’d expected. But this October finds us settled (and almost unpacked) in our new house in Squirrel Hill, one of Pittsburgh’s most beautiful neighborhoods. It wasn’t easy to leave New Jersey and the NYC area after so many years (check out my goodbye letter), but I’m thrilled to be here. It feels like the right next chapter. 

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Have you read The Distance from Four Points yet? Writing that novel took my life in unexpected directions, and I’d love to hear what you think! One of the best ways to support me and my book is to leave a review on Amazon (and Goodreads, if you’re on there). It can be as brief as a single sentence--it’s the number of reviews that affects those mysterious algorithms. The magic number is 50 reviews. I’m more than halfway there. I’d be so grateful for your help! Seriously: SO GRATEFUL!

I’ve had a lot of fun pieces come out that talk more about the novel and how it came to be. Most notably, I wrote about how The Distance from Four Points took me on an ultimately unwelcome journey closer to my hometown, for John Scalzi’s Big Idea column. I got to write about my creepy portrait collection--my Gallery of Strangers--for The Coil. And I made a soundtrack for the novel for Largehearted Boy (nineties country, anyone?). 

One last note: as you plan your book-club picks for the months ahead, consider choosing The Distance from Four Points. I’d love to join your discussion via Zoom, or in person (socially distanced of course!) if you’re in the Pittsburgh area! 

Margo

Thursday, May 28, was pub day for my novel, The Distance from Four Points. Friday, May 29, was closing day for the house that inspired the house at the heart of the book. This is the kind of weird synchronicity that happens when you spend years immersed in a fictional world. Pieces of it start popping up in real life. Someone will speak, and you hear it as though your character is saying it. Something will happen that mirrors a moment in the plot, or that illuminates some problem in the storytelling. This mirroring happened to me intensely while writing The Distance from Four Points. It started the moment we joined up with our friends to renovate and flip a beautiful historic house in my hometown.

In 2016, while researching my novel, I had a realtor take me into blighted residential properties in my hometown. Most seemed uninhabitable. On two occasions, the door to the house fell off its hinges when the realtor went to unlock it. But one house captured my heart. Three stories, red brick, with a turret missing its peak. There was a tunnel in the basement. The house had been split into a triplex decades ago, and had been neglected for years. The smell was physical, the energy distressing. But a few months later, a friend bought that house and invited me to partner with her to restore it. For the next two years, we brought it back to life. Our goal was to flip it, but we couldn’t find a buyer. We rented it out, and I became a landlord just like the protagonist of my novel. 

The house was the bane of my existence, but I loved it. Every time I visited my hometown, if there wasn’t a tenant, I’d go into the house and walk around every room. In my favorite room--second floor, in the turret--I’d lay on the floor and just breathe the house in. When I did this one day in the attic, I could almost feel the house breathing too, as a breeze wafted through a closed window. The house was never meant to be mine, but it felt like home. I knew every corner. There was so much turmoil involved in the fixing and renting and attempting to sell, but inside the house, there was peace.

Now that the house is sold, my days of lying on the floor in that house are over. I won’t see the house again or walk through the rooms. I don’t know what the new owners will do--how they’ll change the house or yard, make it better or worse, take care of it or not--but there’s nothing to do now but let it go.

It’s funny how the process of fixing and selling this house has offered me the perfect metaphor for how it feels to usher my novel into the world. Because publishing a novel is a lot like selling a house you love.

A novel is a world you build, a house you live in for years. You’re familiar with every room, every detail. You have the only key to the door. Sometimes you go in and move all the furniture; sometimes you hang pictures on the wall; sometimes you just lie on the floor and breathe. Sometimes the roof leaks and you curse that place. Sometimes you find a cricket and consider it good luck. Sometimes you’re in a familiar room at an unusual time of day and the way the sun comes through the window surprises you, makes the whole place look different. It’s yours. It’s home. Things happen to you outside its walls but you always return and feel welcome. You sit down at your desk, or open your laptop at Starbucks, and you’re back.

I worked on Four Points for seven years. Not constantly--there were some very long breaks where I worked on other things. But it was seven years from first idea to publication day. And during that time, the world of Four Points was my home. I could wander around whenever I wanted. It belonged only to me. I was the only one with the key to the door. 

Now I’m sharing the world of Four Points with all of you. Where my novel goes, who it reaches, if you like it, if you don’t--it’s out of my hands. Just as the beautiful restored home is forever closed to me. No more wandering around the rooms. No more lying on the floor, dreaming. A new family has the key now. As for all of you--you have my book-home.

Book Talk!

If you’d like to buy The Distance from Four Points, consider purchasing from Octavia Books, a New Orleans-based indie bookstore. They have books in stock and will ship anywhere. (Amazon is out of stock, so you might have to wait longer…)

I can’t sign your book right now, but if you’d like a signed bookplate, reply to this newsletter with your mailing address and I’ll send one to you!

Read the novel already? The single biggest way you can support me and my new book is to leave an Amazon review. (Goodreads, too, if you use it.) It can be as short as a single sentence. It’s the quantity of reviews that make a huge difference. My goal is 50 reviews! Please help me get there!

If you’d like to watch my virtual launch event, you can access it here. If you’d like to listen to a playlist I made for Four Points, check it out here.

FRIENDS! IT'S ALMOST PUB DAY!

This week, on Thursday, May 28, The Distance from Four Points officially enters the world. I know many of you have received your copies already! But pub day is still a huge milestone for a writer. This date was set many many months ago, and all the many activities that go into publishing a book--editing, design, copyediting, advance printing, promotion--are all done with an eye toward pub day. And here it it is! May 28 is almost upon us, and a celebration is in order. 

In the Before Times, we would have celebrated together in person. In lieu of that, Octavia Books in New Orleans is hosting a virtual book launch via Facebook Live--which is exciting because all of you, near and far, can join in. So consider this your book party invitation. I won't be able to pour you any prosecco, but I'll chat with you about how I came to write this book and what it means to me to send it off officially. I'll talk about the weird parallel paths travelled by this book and the historic house that inspired the story. I'll read from the novel, too, and answer any questions you post to the feed.

I hope you'll all join me on Facebook Live at 6pm ET on Thursday, May 28. Give me a wave or a heart or a hi when you tune in, and bring a question if you have one! You'll see me, I won't see you, but we'll raise a glass to Four Points together nonetheless. 

To tune in: 

Click "Get Reminder" in this Facebook Live announcement, then tune in on 5/28 at 6pm ET: https://www.facebook.com/OctaviaBooks/posts/10156822751061017

Or: Follow Octavia Books https://www.facebook.com/OctaviaBooks/ and click over to their page at 6pm. I'll be there, on your screen. 

You can buy The Distance from Four Points from Octavia Books right here. Already have my novel? Consider supporting this fantastic indie bookstore and buy a second copy for a friend, or another book you've been excited to read. Indie bookstores are making virtual book tours possible!

Excitedly,

Margo

Friends!

It’s been a while. But even in lockdown, life moves forward, and my second novel, The Distance from Four Points, is skipping right along to its publication day of May 28. Three weeks! Three. Weeks. It’s exciting, even though the plans I’d had for celebrating have been indefinitely postponed.

I wanted to drop you a little note with a few updates. First, I’ve been talking about The Distance from Four Points to whoever will listen, and if my essays and Q&As haven’t crossed your social media feeds, you can find them all right here. These have been a lot of fun to put together, because I get to talk not only about the book itself but about the research, revision, and stories that brought the book to life: 

On Hypertext: researching this book is what paved the way for me to become a small-town landlord. 

On The Quivering Pen: while writing this novel, my life and fiction merged into an indistinguishable blur. 

On Mom Egg Review: my characters would not be handling this lockdown very well.

On Dead Darlings: a beloved scene I had to cut.

If you want a sneak peek at this book, you can read excerpts (different ones!) on Littsburgh and Hypertext, and you can hear me read a passage for the Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia.

I bet you’re wondering how YOU can help usher The Distance from Four Points into the world. Thanks for asking! Publishing a literary novel with a small press is always a challenge, but doing so in a pandemic is almost like a cosmic joke. But here we are. There are three ways right now that you can help The Distance from Four Points transcend the lockdown: 

Pre-order the book! You can order from any bookstore offering online ordering, or you can order from Bookshop.org, B&N, or Amazon. If you pre-order, you’ll receive the book on its publication day (unless covid-19 decides otherwise). 

Attend one of my upcoming virtual readings! I have several virtual events in the weeks ahead, including an Instagram interview on May 15 and readings on June 3 and June 20. Details about these and others will soon be added here, and watch my social media for announcements. The events are free, but some require advance registration. These are nerve-wracking in an entirely different way than in-person events, and I’d love to know there are friends out there listening and watching.

Choose The Distance from Four Points for your book club, Zoom meetup, writing group, or other gathering! I’d love to join your discussion virtually and answer questions. Email me at margo.orlando@gmail.com to request a date. Trust me, I have the time. (And I’ll send everyone a signed bookplate.)

In other news, I’ve been blogging daily about life in quarantine on my blog Skipping Town, where I despair about homeschooling and unintentionally caused a run on inflatable above-ground pools. 

Thanks for reading! I’ll be sending more info about virtual events in the weeks ahead. More from me very soon.

—Margo

If you know me in real life or follow me on social media, you’ve already heard the news: my second novel, The Distance from Four Points, will be published in May 2020 by the University of New Orleans Press. This is a book about landlording and small towns and figuring out the meaning of home. At the center of the book is a house that has a real-life counterpart, the Soisson House in my hometown of Connellsville, PA; researching, writing, and finding a home for this novel took place while the Soisson House came back to life, from decrepit eyesore to beautiful historic home. All this is to say: this novel is my baby. Of course. You can pre-order it right here, and I’d love it if you did. Isn’t the cover pretty?

There are many months before this novel sees the world, but there are a few things you can do to support it even now:

Pre-order it (wink) from Amazon or from your nearest indie bookstore

Select it for your book club in 2020 (I can Skype in, or even visit your meetup, if you’re near me in NJ!)

Add it to your To Read shelf if you’re on Goodreads

Connect me to your writer and editor friends who might want to review the book, interview me, or have me write a guest blog post

Small-press books rely on word of mouth to reach new readers. I’m grateful for your help!

Now on to other books:

We’re approaching the end of 2019, which means it’s time for my reading wrap-up. I read 55 books this year, surpassing my goal of 50. My list includes some fun thrillers, lots of literary fiction, and even a couple of audiobooks (new terrain for me). These 10 favorites are books I’ve recommended and lent and gifted, books that made me laugh and cry and ignore my kids. 

In no particular order, my 10 favorites:

Man With a Seagull on His Head by Harriet Paige

I loved this book. Inspiration and the creative impulse, loneliness and connection, the search for meaning in a life that spins relentlessly toward its conclusion--all these ideas are explored beautifully. Every sentence is a gem. Each of Paige's characters is a small sphere of longing and regret, with occasional bright sparks of hope and happiness drawing them forward. A stunning and unforgettable read.

Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky

Zahid Azzam is a reluctant professor, a literary star who’s unable to write after his first novel propelled him to fame. He’s passive and directionless but also incredibly handsome, and one of his young students, Rachel, decides to seduce him. When Zahid visits his family in Pakistan, he leaves his standard poodle with Rachel, who moves back in with her mother, Becca, in suburban Connecticut for the summer. Becca falls in love with the dog and, when Zahid returns from Pakistan unexpectedly early, with Zahid. Meanwhile, Rachel’s father, Jonathan, is facing the unhappy reality of living with his mistress. His best employee, Khloe, is struggling with unrequited love for her childhood babysitter. And Rachel, disgusted by Zahid’s puzzling lack of attention and what she views as her mother’s embarrassing crush, finds temporary refuge with the most toxic family in town. Zahid is the connective tissue linking all of these lost souls, but he will not be the one to force anyone out of their inertia.

The point of view shifts chapter by chapter among these and other characters, and the story is richer for the weaving. Dermansky’s short, stark sentences are laden with humor and pithy, sometimes risky observations about life in the Trump era. No one escapes the low-grade fever of dissent, fury, fear, and disappointment--except, perhaps, the poodle. Loved by all, she is the only character in this strange, funny, timely novel who makes a choice and sticks to it. The rest may be doomed to tepid contentment, where a half-hearted “very nice” is better than nothing at all.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

A gorgeous, intricately built story of two neighboring families who--despite tragedy, betrayal, and great loss--find themselves intimately linked for a lifetime. The Stanhopes and Gleesons get off to a rocky start when they're young newlyweds just starting out, and, despite requisite niceties, the relationship between the two couples never really improves. Their children, however, forge a bond that transcends what others might see as logical boundaries, and their determination to be together has repercussions neither can fully imagine. This is a spellbinding saga, told in multiple points of view, and though the territory is staunchly domestic--the realm of marriage, parenthood, and work--the book is a page-turner, and the characters are as real as they come.

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

On the surface, the Milton family are picture-perfect WASPS. Ogden Milton, the patriarch, made the family fortune through his investment firm. His wife, Kitty, is a hostess extraordinaire. Their daughters, Joan and Evelyn, are beautiful and charming, and their son, Moss, is humble heir to the Milton throne. Their kingdom is Crockett’s Island, a private realm Ogden and Kitty purchased for a song when their children were young. There, they throw parties to which other good families journey by boat, and they build memories that shape not only their summers but the very fabric of their lives. Beneath the surface--of course--all is not so rosy. A family tragedy. Questionable alliances during World War II, and an unsavory origin to the family fortune. A child in danger, turned away at the door. Decorum, appearances, and silence have always been the Miltons’ code--until finally, generations later, the silence cracks.

The Miltons, like Crockett’s Island itself, are separated from the real world, able to see themselves only when the outside world finally crosses the rocky shore, and even then unable to clearly understand their own personal shortcomings. The novel begins with a shattering tragedy that renders the rest--the glorious parties, the trappings of the Miltons’ world, the mores and expectations--almost absurd. Spanning three generations, The Guest Book chips away at the Miltons’ splendid veneer and their unsustainable idea of what constitutes a life well lived.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

After an inglorious dismissal from college, teenage Vivian Morris is sent to New York City to live with her Aunt Peg in the rooms above the decrepit Lily Playhouse, which Peg runs with her office manager, Olive. Vivian, a gifted seamstress thanks to her grandmother’s tutelage, immediately makes herself useful sewing costumes for the Lily’s second-rate productions. At night, she and Celia, a gorgeous showgirl, indulge in every tantalizing bit of Manhattan, and Vivian feels happier than she ever has. When the Lily’s fortunes begin to rise with the arrival of a bona fide star and a standout new show, Vivian goes many steps too far--and finds herself banished from the only place she’s ever considered home. Life in New York City was an impossible dream; and rebuilding it seems impossible.

Told from the point of view of an aging Vivian, as she explains the highs and lows and twists and turns of her life to a woman named Angela, City of Girls creates an intoxicating portrait of New York in the 1940s, when it was a city of showgirls and theatre, when war was rumbling and then engulfing the country, when a little luck and a little real estate could turn a wayward life exactly right. The pages of Gilbert’s novel fly by, and though Vivian’s story encompasses a generous lifetime, it ends much too soon.

Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin

Half-sisters Lark and Robin grow up close in Montreal, bound by their mother Marianne’s negligence and wild mood swings. Left mostly to their own devices, they find camaraderie with a prickly neighbor who recognizes and cultivates Robin’s musical talent. When Lark leaves for college in the United States, she is wracked with guilt over leaving Robin behind. The sisters eventually find themselves in New York City: Robin is attending Juilliard, and Lark is struggling to forge a life in film. Here, the lifelong differences between them begin to fracture their relationship. Robin rebels against her instructors’ expectations and demands; Lark finds herself under the spell of an eccentric filmmaker; and the sisters split onto very different paths. Only years later will they confront the fallout of their choices--and find their way back to each other.

The novel is a long flashback narrated by Lark, who is happy and settled in her present life but still grappling with the fraught path she traveled to get there, and the even more lurching path Robin traveled to find a place by her side. Ohlin’s gorgeous prose and deeply drawn characters pull readers easily through the decades, creating an unforgettable portrait of two women who find that the bonds of sisterhood transcend even the most conflicting definitions of happiness.

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

This is an incredible and mind-boggling story. Loved learning about both the Theranos saga itself and the journalistic challenges of getting the story reported and published.

L’Appart by David Lebovitz

Laughed out loud throughout this book, while simultaneously feeling genuine dread as the renovation nightmares unfolded. Lebovitz doesn't hold back on the portentious foreshadowing, playing up his naivete and solicitousness so that it becomes clear he's in for a truly awful French-property reckoning. Anyone who's endured even the most run-of-the-mill renovation will find much to relate to in these pages. The horror is real, even if the reward--a room of one's own in Paris--makes the hardship unarguably worthwhile.

The Latecomers by Helen Klein Ross

In 1908, Bridey and her fiance Thom leave their home in Ireland and set sail from Liverpool to New York City, seeking a better life along with so many others. Thom dies on the journey, leaving Bridey bereft--and pregnant. She gives up her son, Vincent, when he is three months old and goes on to make a place for herself as a maid at Hollingwood, the grand Connecticut home of the Hollingworth family. When Sarah Hollingworth decides to adopt a child, she and Bridey find Vincent--and bring him to Hollingwood, without revealing the truth of his birth. As the 1900s gallop along, the Hollingworth family grows and changes, and by the time the century turns, Bridey is dead; the Hollingworths believe her a murderer; and Vincent’s son is about to meet a terrible fate of his own.

The Latecomers follows five generations of Hollingworths, and Ross deftly employs short, vignette-like chapters to manage the various time- and storylines. Though a minor figure in the Hollingwood household, Bridey is the beating heart of the narrative, and it is her decisions that determine the direction and shape of multiple Hollingworths’ lives. Her death, in Ireland, feels distant; which makes sense--Connecticut by that point is, for her, a memory--and this severing from the family she loved is heartbreaking. Secrets, too, have a way of seeming unremarkable when generations separate the concealing from the revelation. This is, perhaps, what makes this novel so moving. As time marches on, with its drama and tragedies, even the deepest secrets can lose their power.

Cape May by Chip Cheek

When newlyweds Henry and Effie travel from George to Cape May for their September honeymoon, they failed to account for the off season and are surprised to find the beach town nearly deserted. Their cottage, which belongs to Effie’s uncle George, is modest, and Effie feels uneasy revisiting this quasi-familiar place from her past. They try to make the most of their vacation but ultimately decide to cut their honeymoon short. The night before they plan to leave, however, they see lights in a house across the street and meet Clara, a woman Effie remembers from childhood. She and Henry are both impressed by the party Clara and her friend Max throw that night, and the raucous evening changes their minds about leaving. Henry and Effie begin spending all their time with Clara, Max, and Max’s sister, Alma--discovering a side of Cape May where sexual mores are looser, gin flows all day long, and mistakes can throw an entire lifetime off course. Henry and Effie will never be the same.

The atmosphere Cheek builds in this novel lays the groundwork for the dread that builds relentlessly from the moment the newlyweds encounter Clara and Max. Empty houses, the violent surf, and the quiet town lend a deep uneasiness to these characters’ unstructured days, and the events that transpire are as unsurprising as they are sickening. In Henry and Effie, Cheek has created a portrait of innocence, but the villains, in the end, are not the debauched New Yorkers. The capacity to ruin what is good and true resides even in the purest souls. This sexy, captivating novel is a masterfully plotted and beautifully written marital and emotional trainwreck, in the best way.

THREE MORE...

A few more to highlight for my list. This year, I was happy to read new books by authors in or near my zip code, which is a pretty fun reminder that this is a town full of book lovers: Looker by Laura Sims, Twisted Family Values by VC Chickering, and Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Highly recommend all three of these as well.

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I have a new website!

 

My new novel The Distance from Four Points will be released by University of New Orleans Press on June 7, 2020. Stay tuned for publication events!

It’s been a good year of reading. I’m on track to read fifty-eight books, just short of my sixty-book goal. It’s okay. I’m going to set a less aggressive goal this year--not because I don’t plan to read all the time, but because I plan on reading things that may not “count” toward a reading goal. Teen lit from the eighties, tarot card guidebooks (card reading is, appealingly, very much just storytelling), select poetry--I want to fully enjoy these without feeling like I should instead be pushing toward a number. And so: lower goal, same amount of reading. It’s a win-win. I post a lot of books on Instagram; follow me there, if you haven't already: @margolittellThis year I read some great books, and I’m excited to share my Top 10. Happy reading, everyone.My Favorite Reads of 2018(In No Particular Order) (Except the First. That’s Really First.)Eventide (and the Plainsong trilogy)Kent HarufI read Kent Haruf’s entire body of work this year, and I adored all of it. The Plainsong trilogy affected me deeply. Eventide, in particular, was one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking books I've ever read. Haruf's depiction of small-town community sets the standard. If I had to choose a desert-island book, this might just be it. Perfect in every way.InheritanceDani ShapiroThis is cheating, in a way, since I read this as an ARC and its actual release is in 2019. Nonetheless, I loved it, so it goes on the list.Inheritance is as lyrical and deeply moving as Shapiro’s other memoirs, but it also brings a new urgency to her well-honed personal storytelling. From the moment Shapiro accidentally discovers the secret at the heart of her very existence, her quest for answers unfolds starkly and sometimes heartbreakingly, and she brings her readers along with characteristic perceptiveness and generosity of spirit. There is hard beauty in hewing this close to the bone, and Inheritance is both luminous and courageous. For readers familiar with Shapiro’s other works, the new truths cast an achingly melancholic clarity over the others--rendering them somehow even more true and lovely than before.The Museum of Modern LoveHeather RoseArky Levin is struggling. His work as a film-score composer is less than he’d dreamed, and his longtime collaborator has selected a younger composer for his latest film. Arky’s wife has succumbed to a debilitating illness and, through her lawyer, has cut off contact with him. He regrets his distant relationship with his daughter. Unexpectedly, he finds solace and community at the Museum of Modern Art, where the performance artist Marina Abramovic has embarked on a seventy-five-day event where audience members wait in line--sometimes overnight--for the chance to silently gaze at her across a table. Arky is riveted by the spectacle, compelled for reasons he can’t articulate. Somehow, his daily pilgrimage to the MoMA is the thing he’s been waiting for, and his life slowly begins taking on new shape.Arky isn’t the only character moved by Abramovic’s performance, and its impact on a web of others gives rise to the beauty and heft of this novel. Of course, Marina Abramovic is an actual artist, and the exhibition called The Artist Is Present was staged at MoMA in 2010. With these, Heather Rose has woven an ambitious and moving fiction that pays homage to this artist specifically and to art generally--its power to lift, to answer, to console, to inspire. Little Fires EverywhereCeleste NgLoved the story, the characters, the seamless switching in point of view. This is one of those books that I heard about and saw absolutely everywhere, but it took me a while to get to. Well worth it. I read Everything I Never Told You as well, and loved that too.The EnsembleAja GabelThough their personalities are very different, string players Jana, Brit, Daniel, and Henry share extraordinary talent and the ambition to make a name in the world of chamber ensembles. They came together at the beginning of their careers, with first violinist Jana as their leader, and they have seen many highs and many lows as they compete, perform, and push themselves to ever-greater levels of technical skill and musicality. They are a family of sorts, tied to one another even as they form lives outside of the group--lives that often conflict with the intense demands of the ensemble. As years--decades--pass, the musicians deepen their commitment; but the threat of someone choosing to leave the group is always present.Gabel spends time with each member of the ensemble as the novel skips over years and milestones. There is some suspense as the group prepares for career-defining competitions, but the propulsive force of the story lies in the approach and retreat of four people who know one another better than anyone else in the world--but who are also aware that they can never know one another fully. Gabel, a former cellist, deftly describes the music and the physically taxing practice of playing it, and The Ensemble is as much a story about musicians as it is a tribute to the music that defines their lives.The Woman in the WindowA. J. FinnAnna is severely agoraphobic, unable to leave her townhouse, but she isn’t totally isolated. She talks regularly with her husband, David, and daughter, Olivia, who are living elsewhere; she draws on her former life as a psychotherapist to help others in her online agoraphobia community; and she has her neighbors, whom she watches steadily from her own home’s windows, observing their lives without getting involved. When she witnesses a shocking act of violence, however, she’s forced to act--but finds that the secrets she’s been harboring leave her more alone than ever. Only Anna knows what danger she’s in. But can she believe what she saw? How much can she trust herself?Many thrillers promise to be page-turners; this one is the real deal. Though it’s explicitly influenced by masterworks of the genre, such as Rear Window, Finn’s novel is wholly original. Intelligently woven clues, suspicions, misbeliefs, and misdirections are coupled with genuine emotional depth and complex character development. Saying more would ruin the fun of this ideal beach read. Set aside a long spell to read this one--putting it down will be impossible.Secrets We KeptKrystal A. SitalA wrenching story of secrets, loyalty, cultural expectations, and love--and how all of these come to bind three generations of women in Sital's family. Sital writes beautifully of Trinidad, her birthplace, and shows remarkable compassion and restraint even as she probes the most violent episodes in her family's past. The secrets nudged into the world here are devastating--but there is relief in the telling, and freedom. This is a gripping work of family history.TangerineChristine ManganLucy and Alice are best friends at Bennington, their relationship intense and exclusive, until a tragedy wrenches them apart. Alice, emotionally delicate since the death of her parents when she was a child, hastily marries after graduation and flees to Tangier with her new husband, John. Only Alice suspects that Lucy was responsible for what happened at Bennington, and she never wants to see Lucy again. A year later, however, in 1956, Lucy arrives in Tangier, with no reason but to reconnect with Alice. Hints of the old friendship reappear, but Alice can never shake her mistrust--even fear--of Lucy. As Lucy’s determination to win Alice for herself deepens, she pursues more and more desperate measures to ensure that Alice must choose her over John. And Alice suspects--correctly--that no one will believe her when Lucy takes things too far.In alternating viewpoints, Alice and Lucy detail the history of their friendship and the murky emotional landscape in which it’s rooted. Lucy’s scheming is insidious and brilliant, Alice’s unstable helplessness enraging. Tangier is the perfect setting for this story, teetering on the cusp of independence and inhospitable to a timid woman like Alice. This is a top-notch, page-turning literary mystery.A River of StarsVanessa HuaWhen Scarlett Chen finds out she is pregnant and that her baby is a boy, her married lover, Boss Yeung, sends her to Los Angeles, where his friend Mama Lang oversees a maternity home for Chinese women. Securing a green card for their babies is the ultimate goal--especially for a baby like Scarlett’s, who Boss Yeung sees as his heir. Another ultrasound reveals a surprise: Scarlett’s baby isn’t a boy after all, but a girl. If anyone finds out, she risks having the baby taken away. Intent on protecting her child, and fearing the wrath of Boss Yeung, she flees from the home with a defiant teenager named Daisy. They settle in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where, together with their babies, they must forge an unexpected family as their dreams of the future wobble in the everyday struggle for survival.Hua writes beautifully about the life that simmers beyond the touristy face of Chinatown, and the heartbreak women face in China as their maternal instincts clash with political realities. Abstract horrors become specific, and personal. Scarlett and Daisy are shaped by community, self-reliance, ingenuity, and ambition, and when their destinies finally emerge, they feel wholly and justly earned.Love and RuinPaula McLainWhen Martha Gellhorn vacations in Key West with her mother and brother, she hopes to overcome some of the grief she feels over her father’s recent death. What she finds is a relief of sorts--a fortuitous meeting with Ernest Hemingway, her literary idol, who flatters her by revealing he read and enjoyed her first novel. Always seeking new adventures, Martha follows Hemingway to Spain with the goal of writing about the Spanish Civil War. Their reporting work leads to a love affair as intense, and destructive, as the war that unfolds around them over the next few years. While Hemingway writes the best novel of his life while they’re together, Martha finds her own place as a respected war correspondent--but her frequent absences strain her new marriage. Volatile, needy, and petulant as a child, Hemingway seems hell-bent on killing the independence she prizes. As World War II rages, Martha must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to hold on to the man she once adored.Gellhorn, Hemingway’s third wife, is a literary force in her own right, and her courage, brazenness, and constant thirst for adventure make her a true heroine. McClain gives fresh, vibrant life to this historical figure, and she imbues the novel with a palpable sense of dread. Hemingway is a myth; but he is also a man, a difficult one besides, and it’s impossible to read very far into Love and Ruin without wanting to scream at Martha--Run, fast and far, and don’t look back.

This post was written on March 29, 2018.

Last week, the yearlong renovation of our historic Appalachian home in Connellsville, PA, finally ended. (You can read about our partnership in restoring a $17K ruin here and see pics here.) All the tools and construction detritus were removed; the dust and grit were cleaned from the floors, windows, and counters. The house was finally, fully new. Empty. A home waiting for something, just as it had been when we began, but waiting now with hope and pride. This house is no longer a blighted eyesore. It can hold its chin up. It’s the kind of meticulously designed home the kids these days would call #goals.

In fact, this house has been called a lot of things over the past two weeks. A post on the Facebook page we created for the house, which featured our realtor’s professional pictures, went viral, reaching, to date, 1,178,132 people. The pictures have been shared 7,000+ times, and 4,000+ people have left comments. Most of the comments claim this is the most gorgeous house they’ve ever seen (“OMG dream house”). Many claim the house is haunted AF. A particularly besotted reader, without the funds to make an offer, said (all-caps original) “TIME TO SELL MY KIDNEYS.” Another woman, exchanging comments with a friend, expressed her love for the house but wondered where her cows would go. Still another said the house was perfect: it could fit all her goats. (You get all kinds, when your post goes viral.)

A lot of blood, sweat, and money went into this restoration, so the adoring comments were gratifying. More gratifying, however, were the comments that began appearing from people who once lived in the house. Split into a triplex in the 1940s, this house saw countless families move through, and--slowly--many of these former residents have learned about the restoration and made their way to the pictures. I lived on the first floor in the 1970s, some wrote. Or, I remember that fireplace. One man said he’d lived in the first-floor apartment as a newlywed and was still madly in love forty years later. There’s magic in the house, he said. Some private-messaged us pictures taken within the old rooms, with some of the house’s most iconic features--the tiled fireplaces, the red oak columns--clearly visible in the background. 

A few shared memories of the tunnel in the basement, clearing up--at least partially--the mystery of its purpose. One woman said she lived on the first floor as a child, and her father was in charge of manning the coal-fired furnace in the basement. Coal would be delivered to the tunnel from the street, through a manhole. The tunnel likely had other uses as well, and other people have talked about the existence of an entire tunnel system in the neighborhood, so more discoveries surely await. 

This house was built in 1898 and was purchased by a local business magnate named Joseph Soisson, who owned a brick manufacturing company as well as a theater on the main street of town. The Soisson family is enormous, and many ancestors were among the people viewing and commenting on the photos. Many of them came to the open house last weekend. They’ve told us how excited they are to learn about this piece of their family history, and to see the house brought back from the dead. 

Logistically and financially, the restoration of this home has been more of a challenge than we expected. (Ahem.) But it has also been more fun, and more interesting, and more gratifying. This was always going to be a labor of love (saying we’re “flipping a house in Pennsylvania,” though technically true, is laughably misleading), but I’m not sure we fully understood how excited and pleased the community as a whole would be with this effort. An article about the project ran on the front page of the local paper; over two hundred people came to the open house. We’ve done something good for our hometown. Something small, but something real. 

Now someone please buy this house so we can do it again.

Last week, the yearlong renovation of our historic Appalachian home in Connellsville, PA, finally ended. (You can read about our partnership in restoring a $17K ruin here and see pics here.) All the tools and construction detritus were removed; the dust and grit were cleaned from the floors, windows, and counters. The house was finally, fully new. Empty. A home waiting for something, just as it had been when we began, but waiting now with hope and pride. This house is no longer a blighted eyesore. It can hold its chin up. It’s the kind of meticulously designed home the kids these days would call #goals.In fact, this house has been called a lot of things over the past two weeks. A post on the Facebook page we created for the house, which featured our realtor’s professional pictures, went viral, reaching, to date, 1,181,997 people. The pictures have been shared 7,000+ times, and 4,000+ people have left comments. Most of the comments claim this is the most gorgeous house they’ve ever seen (“OMG dream house”). Many claim the house is haunted AF. A particularly besotted reader, without the funds to make an offer, said (all-caps original) “TIME TO SELL MY KIDNEYS.” Another woman, exchanging comments with a friend, expressed her love for the house but wondered where her cows would go. Still another said the house was perfect: it could fit all her goats. (You get all kinds, when your post goes viral.)A lot of blood, sweat, and money went into this restoration, so the adoring comments were gratifying. More gratifying, however, were the comments that began appearing from people who once lived in the house. Split into a triplex in the 1940s, this house saw countless families move through, and--slowly--many of these former residents have learned about the restoration and made their way to the pictures. I lived on the first floor in the 1970s, some wrote. Or, I remember that fireplace. One man said he’d lived in the first-floor apartment as a newlywed and was still madly in love forty years later. There’s magic in the house, he said. Some private-messaged us pictures taken within the old rooms, with some of the house’s most iconic features--the tiled fireplaces, the red oak columns--clearly visible in the background.A few shared memories of the tunnel in the basement, clearing up--at least partially--the mystery of its purpose. One woman said she lived on the first floor as a child, and her father was in charge of manning the coal-fired furnace in the basement. Coal would be delivered to the tunnel from the street, through a manhole. The tunnel likely had other uses as well, and other people have talked about the existence of an entire tunnel system in the neighborhood, so more discoveries surely await.This house was built in 1898 and was purchased by a local business magnate named Joseph Soisson, who owned a brick manufacturing company as well as a theater on the main street of town. The Soisson family is enormous, and many ancestors were among the people viewing and commenting on the photos. Many of them came to the open house last weekend. They’ve told us how excited they are to learn about this piece of their family history, and to see the house brought back from the dead.Logistically and financially, the restoration of this home has been more of a challenge than we expected. (Ahem.) But it has also been more fun, and more interesting, and more gratifying. This was always going to be a labor of love (saying we’re “flipping a house in Pennsylvania,” though technically true, is laughably misleading), but I’m not sure we fully understood how excited and pleased the community as a whole would be with this effort. An article about the project ran on the front page of the local paper; over two hundred people came to the open house. We’ve done something good for our hometown. Something small, but something real.Now someone please buy this house so we can do it again.