Book Reviews by Barb

Sold on a Monday Fiction

Kristina McMorris 2018

Set in Philadelphia during the depression, “Sold on a Monday” is a poignant novel about a cub reporter's seemingly small mistake that leads to catastrophe for several children.

Driving in the countryside, Ellis Reed randomly snaps a picture of two boys sitting on a farmhouse step beneath a sign that reads "2 children for sale." Ellis unwittingly shows the picture to his editor. Secretary Lilly Palmer sees the picture and is intrigued.

The picture is lost so Ellis goes back to recapture the scene, but the children are gone. He feels compelled to restage the scene with two different children under the sign. When those two children go missing, Ellis and Lilly (with a romantic interest brewing), set out to find these children and their mother, in hopes of mending a broken family.

McMorris's tale is fiction, but is inspired by a real life photo.

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The Turner House Fiction

Angela Fournay

2015

Angela Fournay's award winning novel “The Turner House” is set in Detroit over a number of decades, weaving in the history of the city and housing crisis.

The Turner family lived on Yarrow Street, a part of Detroit's East Side for over 50 years, where Francis and Viola raised 13 children. Fournay colorfully depicts the myriad of connections and conflicts between the family members as they uniquely grow up and move away.

Francis has died and aging Viola finds herself needing to leave the family home and move in with her eldest son.

Unbeknownst to her children, Viola had mortgaged the house and it is worth far less than the mortgage itself. The now grown children must come together and decide what to do with the house in a crumbling neighborhood. Fournay follows the lives of the Turners that culminates in a coming together with love and sacrifice.

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A Better Man Fiction/Mystery

Louise Penny 2019

“A Better Man” is Louise Penny's 15th French Canadian Chief Inspector Armond Gamache novel. The setting is the little village of Three Pines in Quebec.

Armand is returning from a ninemonth suspension and demotion as a subordinate to his son-in-law, JeanGuy Beauvoir, and to the vigorous disapproval of the local townspeople.

After unprecedented spring thaw across the province leads to massive flooding, chaos envelops the area. Gamache is approached by a desperate father who is looking for his young and pregnant daughter. Gamache is reluctantly given the case. Having a daughter himself he feels great empathy for the father. Mistakes are made and the distrust of the inspector hinders his work.

The usual cast of characters from Penny's Gamache Series mysteries make their appearances, this time with emphasis on artist Clare Morrow, who is dealing with negative reviews of her work.

Louise Penny is an award-winning novelist who again sets the tone of the story with her moody descriptions of the people and the village of Three Pines. D a regular thing.

In 1996, over 250 applications from artists wishing to take part were received, for just over 100 slots. The Park Point Art Fair was drawing artists from the region — but also from all over the nation. The gorgeous setting was certainly a draw. The fact that the people running the show were artists, and really understood what artists needed, also helped.

Karen Monson-Thompson, a fine weaver, assumed curatorial duties (“helping out with artists” in the minutes) in 1998. She welcomed Ellen Dunlap, a former volunteer, as the administrator in 2002. By this time the formerly scrappy PPAF had become a treasured institution, and had acquired an eight-member committee to help make it go.

Carla Tamburro is now the coordinator of the Fair and has done this job since 2005. Artists come back again and again to show at this Fair, in large part because of Carla’s care and tending of her artists.

By 2006, a music committee hired regional musicians to perform for the weekend of the Fair. Over the years these have included Michael Monroe, Erik Berry, Lee (“Colorblind”) Johnson, Ryan Lane, Woodblind, the

Minorbirds, Kitchen Shoes, Aimee Tischer, Kristoffer Robin, Jim Hall, The Hankies, The Boomchucks, Gaelyn Lee, Stolen Horses and The Groove Merchants, Keith Secola & Tracy Bone, and Four Mile Portage.

Hearing the music as you walk down the tree-lined way toward the Fair is lovely — it’s been a grand addition. Noshing on barbecue and mini-doughnuts with the family, listening to the music while lounging on the grass … well, the Art Fair is about all the arts. And the beautiful white-sand beach of Park Point is right over the ridge, the blue water beckoning.

Arts and Common Ground host an artmaking station for all of us wannabes (and our kids), and a survey in recent years discovered that most patrons loved the experience, and that many were returnees to the Fair over many years.

Despite the occasional mishaps that occur with the freedom of the outdoors (the Great Art Heist of 2001; the freak windstorm of 2019) the Park Point Art Fair has been remarkable for its consistent spirit of artistic quality, open-armed welcome, and fun. Its 50 years have been extremely successful; and Duluthians hope to see many more. D