Tom Lake is now my favorite Ann Patchett book! I read it in print but now I want to listen to Meryl Streep read it!

During the pandemic, Lara's three daughters return home to help on the family cherry farm. To help pass the time, they beg her to tell the story of the summer she was an actress in a theater company called Tom Lake and dated an actor who went on to be famous, Peter Duke.

The story pivots between their time together on the farm and Lara's summer at Tom Lake. Patchett intertwines these into a beautiful narrative combining family dynamics with lost love and moving on from your past. Her daughters see a side of her they've never seen before and it makes them look into their own hearts.

I give this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars! Lara's insight into her past and the way the story is told is amazing. I love her current family dynamics and the way Patchett paints it as so picturesque, but not without angst and glimpses into the mother-daughter battle. And the story of her past will keep you begging for more just like her girls. This one is a must read for literary fiction fans!

Thank you to @netgalley and @harperbooks for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Set during the pandemic, a story within a story told to adult children about a chapter in the lives of their mother. No spoilers here, but this is a feel good winner of a novel.

I wasn’t sure I would enjoy a book on such a thin premise, but I fell right down the rabbit hole of this world and loved every minute. Family secrets. The tension of children growing into adults and starting their own lives. Painful memories crossed with beautiful ones. I feel like I know this family now.

I picked up and put down the book many times thinking reading slowly would make it linger longer. Not enough superlatives for the
writing style and character driven plot. So much of fiction doesn’t work as the ties to place get erased in the modern sameness of cities and
as more and more the foundation of home and heart are rendered trivial in the common culture. Lara Emily Nell and Maisie seem grounded
and memorable in a similar way as the iconic characters in Little Women. Duke, Joe and Sebastian are fully realized and if not equally well rendered..very close. The stream of consciousness feel was engaging and propelled the story forward. The ability Ann Patchett has to write about anything in the most literate absorbing way is fascinating.

Tom Lake🌼 by Ann Patchett
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What a treat this book was. This book starts in 2020, amid Covid-19 lockdown where Lara Kenison and her husband Joe are trying to keep up with the cherry orchard thanks to help from their three daughters.
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Since they’re spending a lot of time together, the girls begin asking about their mother’s early twenties, her acting career and her great love with actor Peter Duke. Her acting claim to fame comes from her star role in the production of Our Town.
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Ann’s writing always asks you to “sit down and stay awhile” and that’s exactly what I did with this family and these characters.
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I read this months ago and ended up listening to it via @librofm again because Meryl Streep is such a treat. My only regret was not brushing up a little more on Our Town, as it had been many years since reading it- however- it is definitely not a requirement to read it ahead of Tom Lake.

Another absolutely wonderful book by the amazing Ann Patchett. Cherry farms, Our Town, sisters, daughters, Michigan, all come together in this beautifully written story. I can't wait for her next one!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper for an ARC of " Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett. One of the reasons I love her writing is she creates a narrative that completely takes. you away from reality and drops you in a different world. This novel is no different with the story focusing on Lara, a cherry farmers wife and mother of three college aged girls, who are home due to the pandemic. They always knew that their mom dated a very famous actor back when she did theatre at Tom Lake, and now since they have nothing but time to hear the story, they make her regal them with stories of her first love. I really did love this book, but I found myself not NEEDING to pick it up which isn't typical for me.

Tom Lake is yet another winner by Ann Patchett. It is a beautiful meditation on love and family, particularly during Covid. I could read it again and again. Thanks to NetGalley for e-ARC.

Settings win big for me in this beautiful story about private histories and family stories. MI is my home state and I appreciate the love for the fruit belt!

So good - even better when you have Meryl Streep reading it to you and acting it out ! This one will be for sure a top seller and one of those pandemic novels that will be remembered. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Absolutely no one is better than Ann Patchett. This title is just as poignant and beautiful as her others. I loved the orchard setting. I loved the by-play with sisters and with their mother. It was beautifully written and the perfect book to ring in Autumn.

Ann Patchett is one of my favorite writers and Tom Lake is excellent. Set during the early days of the pandemic, Lara and her husband are at home in their cherry orchard with their three grown children. To pass the time, Lara tells her girls the story of her romance with actor Peter Duke during a summer production of Our Town. The audiobook is narrated by Meryl Streep and is fantastic. This quiet novel reminded me a lot of the Lucy Barton books by Elizabeth Strout.

Well-told and strongly felt story of a woman’s memoir as told to her 3 daughters, of a summer of professional acting and the surprises that led up to it. Very strong sense of place—mostly set in Northern Michigan where the family runs a cherry farm.

4.5⭐️

This was a quietly moving novel about appreciating the little moments as life moves on.

Lara Nelson is quarantined on her family cherry farm in Michigan with her husband Joe and their 3 daughters: Emily, Maisie and Nell. It is 2020 and the Covid lockdown is in effect. Lara’s daughters press her to tell them the story of her past as an actress, and especially long to hear the details of her romance with Peter Duke, her co-star in the summer production of Our Town that was held in Tom Lake, Michigan. I recommend a reading of the play as a companion to this story.

The framing of the novel as a mother recalling her youth to her daughters, as they live and work to keep their farm going during the coronavirus, makes it especially intimate.

Ann Parchett is one of our best American writers.

This was a perfect and satisfying summer read.

Loved this book so much. Thought it was PERFECT. Probably enhanced by watching Our Town earlier this year for the first time. Just so great.

I liked this book as I usually do like Ann Patchett's writing. I feel like I need to read it again to be able to gather all the intricate words Patchett uses. There's lots of characters but I felt like I knew them all because the character development is so well done. Some of the scenes are very repetitive and I felt like the book could have been shorter but other than that this was a great read.

5 cherry stars

This is my third Ann Patchett book, and she is an excellent writer. This book was an amazing read and I enjoyed it immensely. I was drawn right into the story and there were memorable characters. This one made me yearn to visit a cherry orchard and watch some summer stock theater.

Lara is our main character; she’s happily married with three adult daughters. She and her husband own a cherry orchard and the present-day storyline happens during a cherry harvest. As Lara and her daughters pick cherries, her mother fills them in on her glamorous but brief time as an actress. The girls especially want to hear about when their mother met one of the most famous actors, Peter Duke.

Lara’s story takes us through college theater productions, a movie in Hollywood, and summer stock at Tom Lake. The daughters realize that they really didn’t know their mother’s story, but her sharing makes them all closer.

The writing in this one is fantastic and really brings all the family dynamics into play. It’s so realistic, I could definitely picture each of the characters. This one is a gem!

Sweet book. Fans of Ann P will be happy. Simple retelling if a mothers life to her daughters on their cherry farm during Covid.

Pour yourself a large glass of iced tea. Settle in on your favorite couch under your favorite blanket and put on your favorite headphones. Leave your phone and all other distractions in another room. Listen to the audiobook of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett performed by Meryl Streep.

It’s 2020 and Lara’s three adult daughters are home with her at the family cherry orchard because of the pandemic. At their request, she’s telling them about the summer long ago, before they were born, when she was Emily in a production of Our Town at Tom Lake. And what they most want to hear - about how she was dating Duke who later became a famous movie star.

I always love Patchett’s writing and feel like it just draws me in from the start - and even better with Streep’s narration. I don’t think I could love this one more. Thank you Harper and Netgalley for the free book and ebook. I purchased the audiobook.

I always have high hopes for Ann Patchett. And not once have I been let down.

This story is original, beautifully told, hopeful, and heartbreaking all in one. The dual timeline occurs through Lara recanting her days as an actress to her now growing daughters. With a Michigan cherry orchard setting in the present day, Lara transports us to her summer spend in a California summer stock production of Our Town and tells us (along with her daughters) about her life as an almost actress, her young love affair with a one-day legend, and how it all came to an end.

Everyone has a story- even those we think we know the most. And Ann balanced all of the moving parts of looking into the past with such beauty and nuance, as only she can do. Will be thinking on this one for a LONG while to come.