LUCY BY THE SEA

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Whether you spent the day quietly, or at a table for 30, I hope it was a beautiful holiday filled with delicious food and heartfelt gratitude.
🌊
Lucy by the Sea packs a powerful punch, with its unflinching exploration of human connection. This novel centers on Lucy Barton, a successful middle aged writer in New York City, whose ex-husband William whisks her away to Maine in early 2020, where they ride out the pandemic. Their time there fills this story, where nothing and everything happens, every human emotion is intensified, and days bleed into months without feeling like a second has passed.
🌊
This emotional and atmospheric book was a bright light in an already stellar reading year. I went in a bit worried it would be too soon for a pandemic novel. But Strout delivered a book that reminded me why I love reading: characters that feel like actual living breathing people, and a setting that forms an indelible backdrop for the story. This book recalls with stunning precision the strangeness, dread and anxiety of 2020, and the way that time invited reckoning and reflection. It is, at times, an uncomfortable book. Mortality is examined, lifelong relationships are threatened, strangers become kindred spirits. And in the end, hope. This book made me more thankful than ever to be spending the holiday with loved ones again, instead of in lockdown as we were just two short years ago.
🌊
Enough seriousness: let’s talk PIE!!! An apple pie is made sometime in this book, so there’s that, but the real hero of this post is the PUMPKIN. This year I made TWO pumpkin pies so I could taste test them and we have a winner: @thepioneerwoman ‘s recipe is the best I’ve ever made, and I make pumpkin pie every single year. It’s a little custardy, perfectly textured, with just enough pumpkin flavor and definitely a repeat recipe for me. Thankful for all of you, and this wonderful book community!