The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Olivia Green is a married mother of two who works three jobs as a cleaner. Her husband Jake works at his family’s struggling printing business and with both sons about to be in college, money is very tight.  That’s why Liv puts up with the influencer parents who expect her not only to clean but to look after their children and the office workers who think nothing of throwing trash on the just cleaned floor. The third cleaning job is for Essie Starling, the reclusive author of the Georgia Rory series, which should have been a dream job.  Liv loves Georgia Rory; the plucky, adventurous heroine has inspired Liv for years and seen her through many difficult times in her life. 

Essie, however, is not the easiest person to work for.  She’s not an ogre, but she IS very exacting and she pretty much ignores Liv—except for the occasional note.

So when Essie dies unexpectedly, the last thing Liv expects is that Essie wants her to finish her book—the final Georgia Rory story.  Can Liv give Georgia the happy ending her fans expect? And why would Essie choose her to write this book?

I had read other titles by Phaedra Patrick and enjoyed them, so I had an idea of her writing style.  She tends to write about women who are unappreciated or who don’t have an idea of their own worth, but then they take a voyage of self-discovery.  Actually, they sound a lot like Essie’s Georgia Rory, but that’s probably the point.  Liv’s husband keeps her in the dark about problems with the family business, her sons still expect her to pick up after them and solve their problems, and Liv herself has given up on her childhood dream of being a writer.

To write the book, and to find out why Essie chose her, Liv is going to have to step out of her comfort zone.  What she learns is both freeing and painful, and she is going to have to decide who she is going to be.

I enjoyed the book. I was ready for an uplifting tale and Patrick delivers.  Liv is a reader, so I loved hearing what she was reading (I was thrilled when she read Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen) but also I liked the way that Essie became more and more of a real character after her death.  I also liked the English setting and the supporting cast (though I did get very annoyed at Liv’s sons and the influencer parents) and I liked the discussions about books—structure, character arcs, etc.—that informed Liv’s struggles as an author but never bogged the book down. And I especially loved that this book is about book people, not just authors and editors, publishers and promoters, but about readers.

This is a cozy read for a chilly season!

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick

Reviewed by Jeanne

Martha Storm is a volunteer librarian—actually, she’s a volunteer everything whether she wants to be or not.  She’s just one of those people who ends up being a doormat for others.  She was the one who looked after her parents, Thomas and Betty, until they died, while younger sister Lilian married and began a family.  Martha is the one who ends up doing laundry, altering clothes, storing costumes, and even trying to repair a papier-mache dragon’s head.  She’s always been the one people depended on but never seemed to appreciate. 

Except for Joe, whom she had hoped to marry before her parents became ill; and Zelda, her mother’s mother, who encouraged her to do outrageous things that incurred her father’s wrath.  But Joe moved to America, and Zelda died long ago, so now all Martha has is her place at the library and a house packed to the brim with things: her parents’ things, her sister’s things, all the stuff that people want to keep but not at their houses.

Then one day, Martha finds a package addressed to her.  Inside is a coverless book of fairy tales with an inscription to Martha from Zelda, dated 1985.

 Only Zelda died in 1982...

I admit I was put off a bit at first because not only was Martha downtrodden, but the flashbacks to her childhood made me dislike her father intensely.  He was incredibly controlling, keeping a tight rein on the purse strings, his daughters’ reading (disdaining fiction, fairy tales, and everything creative), and generally kept everyone under his thumb—except for Zelda, which is exactly why he and Zelda clashed so fiercely.

However, I felt sorry for Martha and thought I owed it to her to see her through. Surely, things have to look up for this poor woman!

I’m glad I did, and was able to see her rise to the occasion over and over again. It was good to see her gradually realize that she had intrinsic worth, that she wasn’t defined only by ways that she could help others.  I also met vivid characters—Suki with her malapropisms, ah-mazing Zelda, stoic Siegfried, and even rigid Thomas-- and explored a tangle of family secrets.  There was young love, mature commitment, and a woman learning that she can break free from the past and her own insecurities.  I may still not approve of Betty’s choices, but I understood them a bit by the end, and I closed the book satisfied.  I liked how the author used the fairy tales to illuminate situations and characters, and how skillfully she wove the strands of the story together.  Of course, all the book titles and authors that were dropped into the story delighted me. 

This is a charming tale and I look forward to reading more from Patrick.