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Make a Wish But Not For Money
Rosie Pilch’s lifelong job as a bank teller is lost in the recession, and her subsequent depression ends only when a friend elopes, moves and leaves Rosie her palm-reading business at Orchard Mall, once a groundbreaking shopping experience touted as “Main Street Recreated,” now a sluggish “dead mall” in its last months of existence before the wrecking ball arrives.
Knowing nothing about palm reading, but needing to leave her house, Rosie becomes her friend’s alter ego, “Irene, Queen of the Unseen,” who knows all and sees all. Rosie expects to know and see nothing except outstretched palms bearing ten-dollar bills, but is more than startled to find she indeed can read palms, and provide information about both the past and future.
Her newfound ability attracts a steady line of customers, including the mall's maintenance man, Dennis Edwards, who causes Rosie to reassess her future with her self-centered fiancé. As the mall's few remaining tenants prepare for the end of their businesses, Rosie's abilities figure in a new start for them, the mall and herself.
Knowing nothing about palm reading, but needing to leave her house, Rosie becomes her friend’s alter ego, “Irene, Queen of the Unseen,” who knows all and sees all. Rosie expects to know and see nothing except outstretched palms bearing ten-dollar bills, but is more than startled to find she indeed can read palms, and provide information about both the past and future.
Her newfound ability attracts a steady line of customers, including the mall's maintenance man, Dennis Edwards, who causes Rosie to reassess her future with her self-centered fiancé. As the mall's few remaining tenants prepare for the end of their businesses, Rosie's abilities figure in a new start for them, the mall and herself.
262 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2014
2 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Suzanne Strempek Shea
19 books71 followersSuzanne Strempek Shea is the author of five novels: Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, Lily of the Valley, Around Again, and Becoming Finola, published by Washington Square Press. She has also written three memoirs, Songs From a Lead-lined Room: Notes - High and Low - From My Journey Through Breast Cancer and Radiation; Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama and Other Page-Turning Adventures From a Year in a Bookstore; and Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith, all published by Beacon Press.
She co-wrote 140 Years of Providential Care: The Sisters of Providence of Holyoke, Massachusetts with her husband, Tom Shea, and with author/historian Michele P. Barker. This is Paradise, a book about Mags Riordan, founder of the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in the African nation of Malawi, was published in April by PFP Publishing.
Her sixth novel, Make a Wish But Not for Money, about a palm reader in a dead mall, will be published by PFP Publishing on Oct. 5, 2014.
Suzanne’s essay Crafty Critters, about her lifelong love of knitting, a craft she learned in the “Crafty Critters” 4-H club of Palmer, Mass., back in childhood, is included in the recently released anthology Knitting Yarns, Writers on Knitting, edited by Ann Hood.
Winner of the 2000 New England Book Award, which recognizes a literary body of work's contribution to the region, Suzanne began writing fiction in her spare time while working as reporter for the Springfield (Massachusetts) Newspapers and The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal.
Her freelance journalism and fiction has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Yankee, The Bark, Golf World, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Organic Style and ESPN the Magazine. She was a regular contributor to Obit magazine.
Suzanne is a member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA program in creative writing and is writer-in-residence and director of the creative writing program at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Mass. She has taught in the MFA program at Emerson College and in the creative writing program at the University of South Florida. She also has taught in Ireland, at the Curlew Writers Conferences in Howth and Dingle, and in Dingle via the Stonecoast Ireland residency.
She lives in Bondsville, Mass., with Tommy Shea, most recently the senior foreign editor at The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, and their dogs Tiny and Bisquick
She co-wrote 140 Years of Providential Care: The Sisters of Providence of Holyoke, Massachusetts with her husband, Tom Shea, and with author/historian Michele P. Barker. This is Paradise, a book about Mags Riordan, founder of the Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic in the African nation of Malawi, was published in April by PFP Publishing.
Her sixth novel, Make a Wish But Not for Money, about a palm reader in a dead mall, will be published by PFP Publishing on Oct. 5, 2014.
Suzanne’s essay Crafty Critters, about her lifelong love of knitting, a craft she learned in the “Crafty Critters” 4-H club of Palmer, Mass., back in childhood, is included in the recently released anthology Knitting Yarns, Writers on Knitting, edited by Ann Hood.
Winner of the 2000 New England Book Award, which recognizes a literary body of work's contribution to the region, Suzanne began writing fiction in her spare time while working as reporter for the Springfield (Massachusetts) Newspapers and The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal.
Her freelance journalism and fiction has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Yankee, The Bark, Golf World, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Organic Style and ESPN the Magazine. She was a regular contributor to Obit magazine.
Suzanne is a member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA program in creative writing and is writer-in-residence and director of the creative writing program at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Mass. She has taught in the MFA program at Emerson College and in the creative writing program at the University of South Florida. She also has taught in Ireland, at the Curlew Writers Conferences in Howth and Dingle, and in Dingle via the Stonecoast Ireland residency.
She lives in Bondsville, Mass., with Tommy Shea, most recently the senior foreign editor at The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, and their dogs Tiny and Bisquick
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March 25, 2019I read this hoping it would be something I could use in my bridge-to-college class: it's by a local author and mentions local places, which I thought would be a good hook. However, the writing style and some of the narration decisions I think would be barriers for my students (plus it deals with fortune telling, and I have one student who's adamantly against all that).
Here's the kind of sentence I'm talking about: "Not saving [the world] or anything, but doing enough to maybe make a bright difference with the job she'd landed the day after accepting her associate's degree in business from Springfield Technical Community College in 1983." Nothing wrong with that! But it's oddly roundabout in a potentially tiring manner without a huge payoff if you persevere. Or, okay, that sentence isn't particularly bad, but trust me, more than twice I had to stop and reread to see what she was getting at.
So, I won't be using it for the course. As a story, however, I liked it. In a mild way. It was at its best when it was peering into the lives of the people who come to have their palms read--Suzanne Strempek Shea has a real gift for catching all the right specifics to give you a snapshot, and she had an endless supply of moments and incidents, and I always enjoyed them. Sometimes she just gives the words that Rosie, the palm reader, ends up saying, but you can extrapolate out:
The other fun part of the book is meeting all the people who work at the dying shopping mall where Rosie does her fortune telling--again, great portraits.
Rosie herself had the same effect on me as the heroine of Selling the Lite of Heaven, which is to say, I found myself not particularly relating to her or liking her. I didn't *dis* like her; it was just that her reactions to situations were not what I'd have, her way of interacting with people (or not interacting with them) felt foreign to me, and I wasn't really sure who she was--what she loved, what things interested her, etc. But I think she'd make a pleasant coworker or classmate or person to be sitting next to while waiting your turn at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, so--not a bad person.
The end of the book had a bit of a deus ex machina element in one regard , but I didn't mind. The entrepreneurial element also reminded me of the ending of Selling the Lite of Heaven, but I like the message Shea is presenting (revitalization of western Massachusetts) with that, so I didn't mind that either.
If you liked the excerpt with Rosie's lines to her clients, you might enjoy the book. It's very mild, but sometimes mild can be nice.
Here's the kind of sentence I'm talking about: "Not saving [the world] or anything, but doing enough to maybe make a bright difference with the job she'd landed the day after accepting her associate's degree in business from Springfield Technical Community College in 1983." Nothing wrong with that! But it's oddly roundabout in a potentially tiring manner without a huge payoff if you persevere. Or, okay, that sentence isn't particularly bad, but trust me, more than twice I had to stop and reread to see what she was getting at.
So, I won't be using it for the course. As a story, however, I liked it. In a mild way. It was at its best when it was peering into the lives of the people who come to have their palms read--Suzanne Strempek Shea has a real gift for catching all the right specifics to give you a snapshot, and she had an endless supply of moments and incidents, and I always enjoyed them. Sometimes she just gives the words that Rosie, the palm reader, ends up saying, but you can extrapolate out:
"Tie the key to his pants with a long shoelace and he will stop losing it."
"The baby will grow outside the womb, I am sorry to tell you that."
"They will buy your company, but only for its mailing list. Everyone will be let go."
"Snow will fall before you get round to doing all the raking, or to arranging for a plow man."
"All she will leave you will be her button jar."
You really should not be afraid to cook risotto."
The other fun part of the book is meeting all the people who work at the dying shopping mall where Rosie does her fortune telling--again, great portraits.
Rosie herself had the same effect on me as the heroine of Selling the Lite of Heaven, which is to say, I found myself not particularly relating to her or liking her. I didn't *dis* like her; it was just that her reactions to situations were not what I'd have, her way of interacting with people (or not interacting with them) felt foreign to me, and I wasn't really sure who she was--what she loved, what things interested her, etc. But I think she'd make a pleasant coworker or classmate or person to be sitting next to while waiting your turn at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, so--not a bad person.
The end of the book had a bit of a deus ex machina element in one regard , but I didn't mind. The entrepreneurial element also reminded me of the ending of Selling the Lite of Heaven, but I like the message Shea is presenting (revitalization of western Massachusetts) with that, so I didn't mind that either.
If you liked the excerpt with Rosie's lines to her clients, you might enjoy the book. It's very mild, but sometimes mild can be nice.
October 4, 2014
What a terrific first chapter! I'm so glad I have a train ride today, and can read and read.
That was Thursday and now it's Saturday and I finished the book. Now I can add that this novel is vintage Suzanne Strempek Shea - it's beautifully written, totally charming and exquisitely hopeful. A perfect example of how carefully chosen details, round and breathing characters and local color can grow a story that becomes much bigger than its parts.
That was Thursday and now it's Saturday and I finished the book. Now I can add that this novel is vintage Suzanne Strempek Shea - it's beautifully written, totally charming and exquisitely hopeful. A perfect example of how carefully chosen details, round and breathing characters and local color can grow a story that becomes much bigger than its parts.
January 13, 2015
As far as I'm concerned, a reader can never go wrong with a book by Suzanne Strempek Shea, either fiction or nonfiction. I fall in love with the characters and would love to meet most of them in real life. Even when settings are familiar to me, I'm lead to look at them with different eyes. The underlying beliefs and attitudes are an invitation to consider and to grow. Although the books are very much in the present, the themes are universal and so will never be irrelevant.
When I learned that this novel is set in a "dead mall" and has a palm reader in it, I figured this was new territory. I was not disappointed. The element of magic must not be easy to put in what is essentially realistic fiction. It worked, though, being a brilliant reflection of the magical and mysterious in everyday life. Strempek Shea put her considerable flair for language to good use. As a writer myself, I know that requires time and revision and revision but I could often imagine how much fun certain passages were to write. This book will stick with me.
For me the only challenges were the first chapter and the use of long sentences. The first chapter was addressed to me, the reader. It was a good way to bring the reader into the territory. However, I have a personal bias against being present to a book. Usually, I instantly lose myself. Happily, I didn't have long to wait... "I" disappeared in chapter 2. Related to this being present to the book, was my encounter with the long sentences. I get that the sentences conveyed what the characters were thinking (and did so very well) but sometimes my swift reading style caused me to lose the thread, so I had to go back to re-read for better understanding. So, my friends, you can see that I own the issues I had with the book. Strempek Shea was splendid as always! (Ha! did you catching me talking to you? I violated my own rule.)
When I learned that this novel is set in a "dead mall" and has a palm reader in it, I figured this was new territory. I was not disappointed. The element of magic must not be easy to put in what is essentially realistic fiction. It worked, though, being a brilliant reflection of the magical and mysterious in everyday life. Strempek Shea put her considerable flair for language to good use. As a writer myself, I know that requires time and revision and revision but I could often imagine how much fun certain passages were to write. This book will stick with me.
For me the only challenges were the first chapter and the use of long sentences. The first chapter was addressed to me, the reader. It was a good way to bring the reader into the territory. However, I have a personal bias against being present to a book. Usually, I instantly lose myself. Happily, I didn't have long to wait... "I" disappeared in chapter 2. Related to this being present to the book, was my encounter with the long sentences. I get that the sentences conveyed what the characters were thinking (and did so very well) but sometimes my swift reading style caused me to lose the thread, so I had to go back to re-read for better understanding. So, my friends, you can see that I own the issues I had with the book. Strempek Shea was splendid as always! (Ha! did you catching me talking to you? I violated my own rule.)
December 18, 2019
every word was so full of love. this book was like a warm cup of tea on a perfect autumn afternoon.
September 25, 2020
When Rosie loses her position as a bank-teller and lands an unexpected job as a palm reader in a nearly defunct suburban mall, she discovers her ability to "read" a person's life in the images she sees in their hand.
"Make a wish, but not for money," she tells each client (or customer? What should she call them?). And then she tells them what she sees, or somehow knows about them, and as her fame as a seer grows, so does the clientele at the until-then dying Orchard Mall.
The author's innate understanding of people merges with her keenly honed skill as a novelist and memoirist to bring to this story believable, intriguing, and really funny characters, a teetering relationship with a soon-to-be fiance, and a storyline that kept me so engaged I hated to put the book down almost as much as I dreaded finishing it and having to leave that little town.
You don't just read this book, you live it. And you keep living it and thinking about and wondering about those people from the Orchard Mall long afterwards. A funny, touching, lovely story beautifully told.
"Make a wish, but not for money," she tells each client (or customer? What should she call them?). And then she tells them what she sees, or somehow knows about them, and as her fame as a seer grows, so does the clientele at the until-then dying Orchard Mall.
The author's innate understanding of people merges with her keenly honed skill as a novelist and memoirist to bring to this story believable, intriguing, and really funny characters, a teetering relationship with a soon-to-be fiance, and a storyline that kept me so engaged I hated to put the book down almost as much as I dreaded finishing it and having to leave that little town.
You don't just read this book, you live it. And you keep living it and thinking about and wondering about those people from the Orchard Mall long afterwards. A funny, touching, lovely story beautifully told.
August 21, 2023
I love this book!. I really adore the writing --and this is from someone who can't make it past the first few pages of almost any novel I pick up. The sentence rhythms are to die for, the characters poignant, and the combination of humor and affection in the description of American life, on a wonderfully granular level, is unique and precious. The book is a paean to the malls of the 1970 that is also a love story, a social critique, a coming-to-power tale, and a metaphysical adventure in palmistry. I love the way Shea makes a mall a major character in the book! The book is at once personal and local, and deeply visionary on a large scale--there's a fairytale quality to it, really--an archetypal edge.
March 8, 2025
Really fun book with the best characters and the sweetest story line about hope and moving on. Love this author.
September 21, 2016
I loved this book! It gets my own personal highest rating of 5 stars! I loved the original theme of this book...that of being hopeful and encouraging others in what ever way possible, which always, like a boomerang comes back to you! The story enfolds when Rosie has to move away from her home, and she "inherits" a job at the Mall as a palm reader, of all things! From there, the reader gets swept into other people's lives and their "readings" all the while the author is preparing a future of her own for the main character, Rosie! Read this book for a refreshing change of pace, and an unforgettable gift of literary excellence!
December 31, 2014
As it's been several years since Suzanne Strempek Shea has released a new work of fiction, I had great expectations for Make a Wish But Not For Money. And I wasn't disappointed. Again, Suzanne has written a novel full of humour, hope and heart.
Rosie, the main character, is extremely likeable, and there's a strong narrative thrust and a few surprises along the way. The novel explores a number of themes, including the idea that what may seem like a devastating occurrence (the loss of a job, the ending of a relationship) can actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise. The story also shows that it's never too late to begin again.
This is my final book for 2014 - it turns out I saved the best 'til last.
Rosie, the main character, is extremely likeable, and there's a strong narrative thrust and a few surprises along the way. The novel explores a number of themes, including the idea that what may seem like a devastating occurrence (the loss of a job, the ending of a relationship) can actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise. The story also shows that it's never too late to begin again.
This is my final book for 2014 - it turns out I saved the best 'til last.
October 16, 2014
I'm a longtime fan of Strempek Shea and found this to be a lovely, heartwarming book, celebrating the importance of "Main St." and the friendships that emerge from frequent interaction from small, family run shops. So what kept it from getting 4 or more stars? As in her previous book, Shea uses many paragraph-long sentences and repeats, verbatim, several paragraphs throughout the book. Both of these techniques become tiresome and led me to start skimming. This is apparently a deliberate style choice, and an unfortunate one. She needs a new and tougher editor!
March 21, 2015
I am a huge fan of Suzanne Strempek Shea's fiction and nonfiction, and Make A Wish But Not for Money is right up there with some of my all-time favorites of her work. What I love about Ms. Shea's writing is her sympathetic characters, her sly humor, and her exploration of simple working-class people. Rosie Pilch is yet another fun, semi-spunky female who manages to make good in spite of her less-than-fairytale existence. If you grew up in the northeast, the descriptions of the people and places in this novel (particularly the dead mall) will ring true!
January 18, 2015
I have long admired and adored Suzanne Strempek Shea's writing and was excited to read this book, her latest. I loved everything about Make a Wish But Not For Money. It is heartwarming, heartbreaking, hopeful, and delightful all at once. I read this book at a time when Shea's message-it is never too late-carried particular resonance. It is never too late to find love. To change your career. To be happy. To be safe. To reconcile. I hope Shea's next offering is not too long in coming.
December 2, 2015
This was a fun, pleasant read. I love books about the inexplicable set into everyday lives. The main character, Rosie, discovers that she can read palms, and her newfound skill changes people's lives in positive ways, including her own. The characters in this story are very likable and believable. The setting in a dying mall is one that most of us can identify with, since these places exist all across the U.S. The story is uplifting. It's a great read for anyone who wants a feel-good novel.
February 13, 2017
This was a great book on which to start my new reading year. Her characters are rich and memorable, her wry humor is a perfect touch, and her details make you feel like you've been to this "dead" mall and talked to this particular psychic.
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