May 16, 2022 choice is Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin.
A #1 international best-seller, Fresh Water for Flowers is an intimately told story about a woman who defiantly believes in happiness, despite it all.
Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her life is lived to the predictable rhythms of the often funny, always moving confidences that casual mourners, regular visitors, and sundry colleagues share with her. Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of Julien Sole—local police chief—who has come to scatter the ashes of his recently deceased mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. It soon becomes clear that Julien’s inexplicable gesture is intertwined with Violette’s own complicated past. Valérie Perrin has the rare talent of illuminating what is exceptional and poetic in what seems ordinary. A #1 best-seller in France, Fresh Water for Flowers is a delightful, atmospheric, absorbing fairy tale full of poetry, generosity, and warmth.
“Melancholic and yet ebullient… An appealing indulgence in nature, food and drink, and, above all, friendships.”—The Guardian
Some suggested fall and winter reading :
Fiction:
Miss Benson’s Beetle - Rachel Joyce
The Very Marrow of our Bones - Christine Higdon
The Night Watchman - Louise Erdich
Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead
How to Pronounce Knife- Souvankham Thammavongsa
A Nearly Normal Family - M. T. Edvardsson
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House - Cherie Jones
Non-Fiction:
Daughters of Yalta - Catherine Grace Katz
Premonition - Michael Lewis
Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe
We encourage you to join our Mad River book lovers community. Happy reading!
Barbara, Sue and Cathy