Ask Again, Yes!

We enjoyed a lively discussion about the novel  Ask Again, Yes.  Our discussion centered  around a delicious Italian meal at Joe & Joe’s Family Restaurant, formerly of the Bronx, where author Mary Beth Keane was born, now located in Pearl River, Keane’s current residence.  It is also the setting for the book, known in the novel as the fictional town of Gillam.

This book debuted earlier this summer on the NY Times best seller list as one of the 20 Best Books of the Year so far.  Keane, who is now 42,  has published other novels such as Fever and The Walking People and was honored in 2011 as one of the best young authors with a 5 under 35 award from the National Book Foundation.  The book, Ask Again, Yes is a domestic novel about two families of NYC  rookie police officers, Brian Stanhope and Francis Gleason, who end up living next door to one another in Gillam,  set in the 1970’s.  It follows the complicated lives of these two families over the course of 40 years, especially the lives of two of their children, Peter and Kate. The families are intertwined by Peter and Kate’s ongoing love story, but also by an unusually violent act by Peter’s mother, Ann that changes all of their lives forever. I found Ask Again, Yes to be an incredibly moving account  of  the forces that drive people together and away from one another through love, devotion and sometimes even fear.  It is a multi- faceted love story that often drove me to the edge of my seat with tears, frustration and heartbreak.

What a wonderful way to begin the new year and decade!  Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy 2020!

                                                              ---Robin A.

Call the Midwife - December 9, 2019

We met at Hudson’s Mill in Garnerville to discuss Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth. As usual we enjoyed discussing a wonderful book, eating a delicious meal and most importantly spending  quality time with good friends. If you weren't at the meeting, you were truly missed.

Worth’s memoir is an unforgettable story of motherhood, a struggling community and the hopes and dreams of an extraordinary young woman. It’s a powerful and captivating story based on true events and set in London’s East End. 

“At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her home to move into a convent and become a midwife in post war London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she meets while delivering babies all over London-from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives to the woman with twenty-four children who can’t speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side-illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, Call the Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has a mother.”  (The Deliberate Reader:  Publisher’s Description )

Looking forward to reading and discussing many more good books in 2020 with my favorite

reading buddies!   

Warm hugs,

Maria Pages