Tom Lake

It is the summer of the pandemic and as everyone’s lives have been turned upside down. Lara and Joe have their three daughters back at the cherry orchard for a few months and Lara could not be happier. Busy young adults, she never imagined they would have the opportunity to spend this intimate time together again as a family. As memories flood their long, hot days picking cherries the girls beg their mom to tell them the story of her life. How she was once - and only for a short while - a successful actress in Hollywood. How she spent one of her young summers performing in community theater at Tom Lake, alongside Peter Duke who went on to become famous. Really famous. Since time naturally slows on the farm Lara begins at the very beginning. Her childhood and especially highschool, where she had the kind of best friend you never really get again, a boyfriend you probably shouldn’t have bothered with and starred as Emily in the local production of Our Town, a singular experience that changed her life forever. This story narrates between past and present so delicately that at first the reader is not sure it is happening. It ebbs and flows with Lara’s hopes and dreams, along with those of each of her daughters. The concept of learning about and visualizing your mother as a young woman, an individual person before you arrived is a dream in itself. I loved this book and I am even tempted to try the audible which is narrated by Meryl Streep and I heard is perfection. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️