Ann Patchett is so wise. About love, about family, and about pretty much everything life throws our way.

I decided she was my new best friend after I listened to the audiobooks of her two essay collections, "This is the Story of a Happy Marriage" and "These Precious Days," the latter of which is a true masterwork. Her intelligence, empathy for others, and logical way of looking at life drew me to her, and I have such admiration for who she is and all that she’s accomplished.

Now that my fangirling is out of the way, I’ll move on to the book. "Tom Lake," her latest … I loved it. But I didn’t know if I would, seeing as it’s a homage to Thornton Wilder’s "Our Town," a play I’ve neither seen nor read. I should’ve known, though, that all I adore about Patchett would shine through the story, allowing me to not be bothered by my unfamiliarity with the play.

The novel consists of Lara telling her three grown daughters the story of the summer she starred in "Our Town" and dated the now-famous movie star, Peter Duke. Patchett switches between Lara’s story of that summer with what is happening in the present day, where it’s the spring of 2020, COVID has invaded the world, and all three daughters have returned to the family orchard in Northern Michigan to pick cherries.

At first the story felt a bit too mundane. My attention wandered, and I worried that my foray into Patchett’s fiction would be a disappointment. But the beauty of her prose never allowed me to set the novel aside, and before I knew it, I was so engrossed in Lara’s tale that I forgot all else while I read it. It’s just the kind of book it is – it sneaks up on you.

There are surprising revelations throughout the story, along with warm meditations on marriage and children and love in all its shapes and sizes. And also present is a subtle urging to enjoy life in the moment and appreciate what is yours. "Tom Lake" gives so much to the reader, and because of the ease in which Patchett’s words flow across the page, it asks for very little in return.


My sincerest appreciation to Ann Patchett, Harper, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

Ann Patchett has constructed a novel that will burst to the top of best-seller lists and with good reason. Her wonderful descriptive writing puts readers alongside characters in alternating time-frames. Lara is 50-something in present day but reflects back on her late teens and early twenties when she grew fame as an actress, especially playing Emily in summer stock Our Town in Michigan. There Lara falls hard for Peter Duke who is destined to become a major Hollywood star. Flash forward to present day and Lara is the mother of three girls who have gathered on the Northern Michigan cherry farm during COVID shutdowns. Many readers will see themselves in Lara, a woman who has to make life-changing decisions and reflects on what could of been. This is a great book tailor-made for book discussion groups.

Taking place in the spring of 2020 while all three of her adult children are home and working on the family's cherry farm, Lara tells her daughters the story of a summer when she was in her 20s and dated a now-famous movie star while performing in a theater production in northern MI. As the story progresses, each of the daughters begins to see both their parent's relationship and their own relationships with their mother in a new light. It is an excellent depiction of how love changes over time that I think will resonate with many readers.
I enjoyed this story so much more than I thought I would! The writing is beautiful, and I believe the story will encourage great discussions. Meryl Streep did a fantastic job narrating the audiobook as well. Ann Patchett does a wonderful job of portraying northern Michigan which I appreciated as a Michigan resident. My book club will be reading this book in a few months and I can't wait to see what they think!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Another great installment in Ann Patchett's works. Centers on many of the same themes we're used to her from her family dramas.

It’s spring of 2020 and Lara’s three grown daughters have all returned home to help out the family cherry farm during the pandemic. To pass the long, tiring days, Lara tells her daughters the story they’ve always wanted to hear - the summer she spent at Tom Lake where she was the star in Our Town and dated a famous actor. As she recalls that pivotal summer, we see the pieces slowly fall into place, connecting that life with the very different one she leads now.

It’s a bit of a cliche to speak of ‘the summer that changed my life’, but many of us do have a defining time we can identify as a turning point in our lives. In addition, the entire world experienced the life-altering time that was the summer of 2020. Ann Patchett brilliantly connects these significant life moments by breaking up Lara’s recounting with the present experiences of her family during the pandemic. She touches on all the timeless delights, challenges and adventures experienced by young women with intimacy and passion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper for the advance copy of this book.

There’s just something about Ann Patchett. I can fall into her novels in the blink of an eye, and Tom Lake was no exception. I loved her depiction of Lara, a woman utterly content to be in the life she’s living, despite many chances for things to have taken a different path.

This was the first book I've ever read by Ann Patchett and I'm wondering why it took so long! This simple story packs a punch. The story covers two summers in the life of Lara - the summer she starred in Our Town in Tom Lake, MI and the summer she is quarantined on her farm with her husband and three adult daughters. As she regales them with stories of her love affair with a now-famous actor, she discovers even more of what she loves about them and contemplates the choices she made in her life. This beautifully written tale is a page-turner that reminded me how powerful books can be.

Another great book from Ann Patchett. Tom Lake is set during the pandemic, but that is not the focus of this novel. Family relationships, love, the life of parents before marriage are all explored. As often with Ann Patchett, there is a story within a story. I highly recommend this book.

I so loved this book! It drew me in from the start and held on. While this was my introduction to Ann Patchett, the Michigan setting and landmarks were familiar to me, which added enjoyment. Lara narrates highlights of her young adult life to her three young adult daughters, as they furiously work to pick cherries in their Northern Michigan orchard early in the lockdown months of the Covid pandemic. There are romances, nostalgia, tender family moments, disappointments, heartbreaks— revealed with exquisite pacing that kept me feeling like I was there observing it all. I will be looking at more of Ms. Patchett’s work promptly!

A slow, beautiful story. I think a reader will love this book, if they know what they are getting into. It is, at its heart, a simple story. Three daughters return home in 2020 to help their parents pick cherries as they pick their mother tells them the story of dating a famous movie star. I found the early years much more fascinating than the current time as the narration bounce between times, however I thoroughly enjoyed both.

Ann Patchett does not disappoint. Tom Lake is the ultimate love story. A story of your first love that will always be a part of you. A story of the love of your life and the place you call home. And the love of your family.
The setting is idyllic and the characters are human and and flawed but so real. And it all started with Thorton Wilder's play, Our Town.
Tears at the end only because I will miss those people. And the beautiful setting and the tiny cemetery full of daisies.

Thanks to Net Galley and Harper for an early read.

I finished #TomLake, the newest novel by #AnnPatchett, one of my favorite writers. I had the pleasure of not knowing much about this novel when I read it, and I loved that experience. Tom Lake was a slow-burn read for me. I enjoyed the characters and the story, but I thought it was mostly fine and would be a four-star read. Then, about 80% in, and Ann Patchett does what she does best, and she made this novel a #5StarRead. It's not my favorite of hers, but the themes of memories, storytelling, secrets, and mothering check a lot of boxes for me. I also think I will never tire of Covid novels because the pandemic changed me in so many ways, one of which was shaping my thoughts on priorities and what matters most. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #BooksAndFlowers #BookThoughts #ReesesBookClub

Ann Patchett is such a gifted writer that even a book that doesn’t at first glance seem that interesting, turns out to be one that is impossible to put down. I read it in one sitting, increasingly wondering how the various plots would resolve. Three adult daughters find themselves at home on a cherry farm, helping their parents during the Pandemic. They ask their mother to describe how she met their father, and incidentally a well-known actor, while all were in a play, as young adults. There are secrets and surprises hidden within the past, and the various relationships unfold in different time periods. The drama is quiet, personal and gripping. This is another winning tale by a master. I received by copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I really do love Ann Patchett's writing and Tom Lake is no different. I loved almost every moment of this book. I really enjoyed the dual timelines and the way the story progressed. Ann Patchett's writing feels like a cozy blanket and a chilly day. It's comforting, not at all boring and warming.

I liked how she handled the pandemic timeline and thought the family representation was wonderful.

This was almost a perfect book.

I cannot wait to recommend this book to everyone.

Readers are dropped in to the summer of 2020 when Lara (and her husband Joe) are home at their farm in northern Michigan with their three 20something daughters, and she is retelling a summer of her youth when she dated famous actor Peter Duke. It’s a story the girls have never heard in it’s entirety and they’re obsessed with. So interspersed with the current day of the farm happenings, we jump back in time to Lara’s summer at Tom Lake, learning about her relationship with Duke and others, her (limited but powerful) acting talent, her independence in youth, and her introduction to the farm.

To me, this story is told in the way of summer - in the moment, the retelling of an afternoon playing tennis or a rehearsal is a bit drawn out and detailed. But looking back in totality, the memories weave together a beautiful history.

I liked the way this book made me feel and the relationships that were detailed - especially learning about the people in Lara’s life who her daughters were each named after. I recognize the pacing was very intentional but it was a little too slow for my interest. Still beautifully written and certainly for lovers of character development. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A quiet and mesmerizing story that pulls you in with recognizable characters who are so very human that you find you can't put the book down. A mother is urged by her three twenty-something daughters to tell the story of her life as they are locked down on their Michigan cherry farm during the pandemic. I found this novel heartwarming, heartbreaking and so very accessible right from the start. How much we share with our children about our earlier life with all our regrets due to our immaturity and first love's very powerful hold on us is the take away from reading this novel. I loved all the characters but especially Lara as she recounts her life. Patchett's ability to draw realistic and very different daughters living during uncertain times...and Lara's love for them but also her understanding of their differences is very powerful. This is definitely my favorite Ann Patchett novel! I want to thank NetGalley and Harper for the advanced copy for my honest review.

Ann Patchett has done it again! One of my favorite authors on the planet has once again written a poignant, beautiful story, masterfully told in a way that had me hanging on to her every word from the first page to the last (and never wanting it to end).

Told from the first person viewpoint of the main character Lara Kinnison, who lives with her husband Joe on a cherry farm in Michigan, the story weaves seamlessly between past and present as Lara tells her three grown daughters (who have returned to the farm during the pandemic to help with cherry picking) about the time she played summer stock at a theater company named Tom Lake, where she also had a brief romance with an actor named Peter Duke (who later becomes a hugely popular and famous actor). I mention the pandemic, but please note that this is NOT a pandemic novel — instead, this is a novel about complicated family dynamics (especially the relationship between parents and their children), about love in its many iterations, about the innocence of youth, and above all else, about the complexities of human relationships.

With this novel, Patchett once again does what she is so good at — she presents an epic, luminous, profoundly perceptive story, but in a way that is subtle, exquisite, and never feels overwhelming. Patchett writes with an emotional subtlety that I absolutely love, but it was especially effective with this story, which, at its core, is an homage to Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town. There was so much to love about this book — the gorgeous prose, the flawless writing, the endearing characters, the subtle humor, the picturesque setting, the quiet beauty of the story told in a wistful yet hopeful tone, the perfect amount of detail to establish a sense of place that made for an incredibly immersive experience, etc (and that’s just scratching the surface).

In terms of the Our Town references — I had actually never read that classic, but immediately after finishing Tom Lake, I went and bought a copy of Our Town because I felt compelled to finally read it (on a recent podcast interview that Patchett did, the host said she should get a commission for all the times someone bought Our Town after reading her novel and I agree 100%!).

Given how much I adored Patchett’s newest novel, of course I recommend that everyone read it. For me, I will read anything she writes at this point and while I wait for future new work, I will continue to slowly work my way through her backlist as I have been doing (I intend to be a completist of her work at some point).

Received ARC from Harper via NetGalley.

Ann Patchett never disappoints and Tom Lake is no exception. When I need a break from my usual romances Patchett is exactly what I crave. My only disappointment is I just found out Meryl Streep does the audiobook and I wish I would have listened to it. Many thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Ann Patchett's books have always resonated with me: her writing style and her stories of relationships of all sorts epitomize the very best in accessible contemporary American literature. They are neither of the "tell a good story and then walk away" genre nor do they pretend to be so literary as to appeal to those who only like impenetrable novels. Tom Lake is no exception. It focuses on Lara (originally Laura), a young actress who specializes in playing the role of Emily in Thornton Wilder's Our Town and who spends an unforgettable and defining summer at the playhouse in Tom Lake, Michigan, where she has a brief affair with fellow actor Duke, who goes on to fame and fortune, and where she ruptures her Achilles tendon while playing the best tennis of her life against tennis pro Sebastian, who is Duke's older brother. Suffice it to say that Lara gives up acting, has other skills to fall back on and eventually marries Joe Nelson, director of the Tom Lake production in which Lara had starred and owner of a nearby cherry farm. One could argue that much of the story of their meeting again is contrived, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that 30 years of so later, while they are confined together during the pandemic, Lara, now age 57, is finally telling her three grown daughters some of the details in her encounter with the famous Peter Duke. It is their relationships - parents and daughters, Joe and Lara, Lara with her grandmother, the Nelson family with Duke and Sebastian and with the land and the cherries - on which this book is grounded. Just as the beauty of the land covers complicated societies, so too does Tom Lake beautifully bring the reader to a place where contentment covers more complex truths. Highly recommended.

Tom Lake is a beautifully written portrait of a woman sharing the story of her first love, a famous actor, with her three grown daughters during the pandemic. Ms. Patchett draws a vivid painting of Lara as a high school girl playing the role of Emily Webb in the Thornton Wilder's timeless play, Our Town. The readers falls in love with Lara as she embrace the role of "Emily" and goes on to play the role in summer stock and meets and has a romance with up and coming actor, Peter Duke. There are two timelines and the reader learns what became of these two very talented, young people and the impact that their relationship had on their futures. The book is captivating. Although, I wanted to savor the novel, I was compelled to keep reading it as I wanted to know how the novel ends. Ms. Patchett is an artist with words. Her descriptions are vivid; her characters are multi-dimensional "real" people. Tom Lake is five star novel that is meant to be read over and over again! Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and Ann Patchett for the ARC!