San Andreas is a small coastal town with a growing tourism and ‘city retreat’ sector populated by a colorful cast of characters.  In Tassy Morgan’s Bluff,the titular Tassy Morgan is an artist finding a new lease on life after her divorce,whose rustic residence is in danger of falling off the steadily crumbling bluff it sits on.  With the unsolicited,and often unwanted,help of her newly transplanted (and newly widowed) lawyer neighbor,Linc Ellis,Tassy is fighting the town council for permission to sure up the bluff and renovate her house.  Leading the opposition is Margaret Nam,whom Tassy once rubbed the wrong way.  Margaret will do anything to impede whatever tack Tassy takes.  Drawn in to the controversy on varying sides are (among others) Mayor Millhouse (who is often merely a puppet for Margaret’s schemes),café and gallery owner Orson Wellesley,jacks-of-all-trades Bill the Fixer and DayGlo Dave,the town lothario Norman,and the head of the local Native American tribe,Grandmother Halvorsen.

The underlying struggle for Tassy Morgan’s bluff creates a background situation for the characters to react to and relationships to expand within,which is the real meat and potatoes of Stinson’s captivatingly written tale.  Despite serious situations and sad events,the book is a mature romantic comedy at heart,as Tassy and Linc must resort to more and more drastic measures and legal manipulations,and find themselves drawn closer and closer together.  Full of original vocabulary choices,similes and descriptors,Stinson’s language will keep you intrigued.  His style is very matter-of-fact,boasting a greater than average percentage of less-than-5-word sentences.  People do and feel,things are or are not with very little muddled grey area.  The narrative point of view jumps easily between Tassy and Linc and various other characters in an irregular manner that somehow works.  Stinson’s economy of language and singular style and charm are a perfect match for the quaint slice of life he illustrates.

About the Author: Jim Stinson studied writing at Harvard and media at UCLA and has done both since.  Learn more about Jim at www.jimstinson.com.

This review was written by girlfriend Alex Hopwood.

While the title doesn’t give away much,Tessa Hadley in The London Train (P.S.) has managed to combine her characters in such a way that you are compelled to keep turning the page. In the first story we meet Paul,a family man of two daughters and a wife who live in the idyllic Monnow Valley in Wales. A writer by nature,Paul sees everything in clear definition until the day he receives a frantic phone call from his first wife that his eldest daughter is missing.

Unsettled,Paul sets out on a journey of discovery and finds not only his daughter but some home truths along the way. His blissfully domestic life is turned on its head when he finds his daughter pregnant and living in council housing. Paul’s wills and morals are tested as he rebuilds the connections and relationships he has with his daughter and wives.

In the second part of Hadley’s novel we meet Cora,a studious English teacher whose relationship with her senior civil servant husband is on the brink of divorce. Separated and living in her parent’s house in Cardiff,her life is seemingly smooth sailing with a day job as a library assistant and a string of social commitments.  In a chance meeting on the London train,Cora meets Paul and their relationship spirals into something more until one day he abruptly ends it.  Cora’s loneliness and desperation to find some sort of meaning to her life are evident in the listing prose. Things are quite gloomy for our character,until the sudden disappearance of her husband Robert. Things are not as they seem however and the story’s end fairly glows with the air of forgiveness and starting over. Hadley’s tale of reconciliation is a delightful read,and one which you will delight in reading over and over again.

About the Author: Tessa Hadley is the author of The Master Bedroom,Sunstroke and Other Stories,Everything Will Be All Right,and Accidents in the Home. Her short stories appear regularly in The New Yorker. She lives in Cardiff,Wales.

This review was written by girlfriend Charlotte Jordan.

Based on the true account of the invention of the typewriter,The Blind Contessa’s New Machine tells the story of Carolina,a young woman in 19th century Italy. Carolina grew up spending her days by the lake on her father’s estate creating experiments and inventions with her eccentric neighbor Turri,10 years her senior. As Carolina becomes a young woman,her dreams seem to come true when the catch of the neighborhood,Pietro,asks her to marry him. But all is not well,as Carolina discovers she is slowly losing her sight and eventually becomes entirely blind. Her parents and Pietro do not believe her at first,and when it becomes apparent that she really cannot see,they are supportive and accommodating without really understanding. Turri believes her right away,however,and it is Turri who gives Carolina another way to see by supplying her with incredible books of various flora and fauna,which her impish maid Liza describes to her in great (and often completely fabricated) detail.

With her vivid imagination,scenes from the books (and of her own invention) come to life,and in her dreams she can not only see,but fly. Turri’s understanding and helpfulness and Pietro’s lack thereof begins to change Carolina’s brotherly feelings toward Turri into something more. After receiving Carolina’s disastrous attempt to write Turri her feelings in an ink and sealing wax splattered missive,Turri designs her a writing machine,which sparks and enables a passionate affair for the ages.

This beautiful and elegant story is evocative and enthralling,with the simplicity of a fable,the emotion of an epic and the twist element of a basis in historical fact. Fall into Carolina’s world as she adjusts to new ways of seeing and new ways of living,and be captured by Wallace’s poetic prose as she describes the glory and the tragedy that are traditionally synonymous with the best of romances. But for a slightly slow section in the middle, The Blind Contessa’s New Machine is a surprisingly quick read with steady pacing that will set your imagination aflutter.

About the Author: Carey Wallace grew up in Michigan and has worked as a waitress,art studio manager,private biographer,and lady’s maid to an automotive heiress. She lives in Brooklyn,New York.

This review was written by girlfriend Alex Hopwood.