Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the Advanced Copy of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. This is a priority purchase for libraries given the Author's legacy of writing.

I really enjoyed this book and would call it one of Patchett's best. There are so many poignant scenes in this, and it's a pandemic novel without being about the pandemic, meaning it reminds of how we all felt during that time, rolled up in fear and loss but also things being strangely given, in this case a mother having all her adult children return home. With books that skip back and forth in time, I often enjoy one timeline much better than the other, but I gladly transitioned back and forth in this one because both were compelling and I loved seeing Lara both middle aged and young. I originally wasn't interested in the theater aspect of this novel, but Patchett is such a wonderful writer that I knew she'd make me care about it, and she did. I'd probably give this even another star except a singular scene towards the end that felt like it changed the tone and characters too much and left me with a darker feeling than the rest of the book had. This was a beautiful exploration of marriage, young romance, parenthood, farming, and what makes a good life. The Michigan setting was also unique and lovely. I'd recommend this to book clubs and anyone looking for something a bit more literary in their summer reading-- so glad I read it, and thanks very much to Netgalley for the advanced copy.

I really admire writers who can create beautiful, lush stories and build elaborate worlds where all the characters feel like someone you actually know - all while using simple and spare sentences stripped of flowery language. Ann Patchett has this remarkable ability. "Tom Lake" isn't that complicated as far as plot goes: a middle-aged cherry farmer recalls her accidental foray into acting during her youth and her short-lived affair with a man destined to become a movie star.

As with her 2019 novel "The Dutch House," there are no big, operatic moments full of anguish. The drama is in the gaps, the shifting perspectives, the unexpressed feelings that leave traces of regret or longing. It's the kind of book that ends with a little bitter and a lot of sweet and makes you want to shed a tear or two when you close the cover. Admittedly, there were some moments I found a bit twee. All of the hugging and cuddling between family members was a bit much but this was really my only (very minor) critique. Patchett is a master. "Tom Lake" will win awards. Do yourself a favor: get this book and get lost in the cherry fields of Northern Michigan.

Its summer and Lara's three grown daughters have returned home (thank you pandemic). They are spending their days harvesting cherries in the family orchard. To pass the time the daughters have demanded Lara recount in detail her acting success of her early 20s, especially the summer she spent acting at the nearby summer theater, Tom Lake. Her co-actor that summer was the now famous Peter Duke. Parents tend to tell their children about their pasts in bits and pieces. During the weeks of harvest Lara's story is filled out into an enlightening narrative for her and her daughters.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC for review.

This book will be published, I predict, to instant best selling! What a treat to read a new Ann Patchett! Thanks to the publisher for making this available for preview. And to Ann Patchett for the perfect pandemic story. Pandemic, lockdown, when we all had time to contemplate past and future. Lucky Lara and Joe to have their children with them. Beautiful setting, the farm. And wonderful recreation through storytelling of a summer romance.

During the pandemic, when they are all stuck together on the cherry orchard farm, Lara (Laura) Nelson's daughters insist on hearing the story of Lara's summer in Michigan when she was 20: playing Emily in Our Town, dating the man who would become one of the hottest movie stars and meeting her future husband. I loved this and I now have to reread Our Town. There were a few surprises and I learned a bit about cherry orchards.

This is another beautifully written book by Ann Patchett. It is a novel about family, love, history and growing pains. Lara's three daughters return home to assist with the cherry picking at the family orchard. While picking, the girls inquire about their mother's early days as an actress at Tom Lake and dating the famous actor Peter Duke. The girls examine their lives in relationship to their mother's life.

I saw so excited to receive this after i saw tons of great early reviews. I guess i am in the minority here but i could not get into this.

I love anything by Ann Patchett and Tom Lake was no exception. It was beautiful and moving. Felt with family, love and growing up.

"Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett is a Woman's Story Within a Family Story!

This is Lara's story of a summer long ago spent in summer stock theater at Tom Lake where, in her early twenties, she fell in love with an extremely handsome fellow actor named Peter Duke.

It's also the story of Lara's family, her husband Joe, their three daughters, Emily, Maisie, and Nell, and their life together on the farm and fruit orchard that's been in their family for generations.

It's the Spring of 2020 with the Pandemic in full swing and all three adult daughters are home. It's cherry picking time which calls for all-hands-on-deck from this family since there's limited help due to the shutdown.

Emily, Maisie, and Nell are fascinated and curious about their mother's past as an actress who shared the stage and a relationship with a famous movie star. They're begging to hear everything about it.

Since they're all together in one spot and Lara is sufficiently worn down by her daughters pleas, they all continue to pick cherries in their orchard while Lara begins to tell them her story...

"Tom Lake" is a story within a story. It's about choices and relationships, coming to terms with the choices you make, the relationships you build on, and the ones you don't. It's about planning for and living an intentional life.

When I read "The Dutch House" I struggled to connect with this author's writing style. It felt dry, unemotional, and lacked the passion I anticipated. I had a similar experience with Tom Lake and although it was better at the midway point and at the end, it still ebbed and flowed for me.

The last twenty-percent of this book completely held my attention and the ending fit the characters and the story like a glove. It's important for an author to end with something for the reader to chew on and Ann Patchett did exactly that.

What I love about "Tom Lake" are the central characters. They are diverse, fully fleshed out, and interesting. I cared about and fell in love with all of them. I especially love Joe. Everyone needs someone like Joe in their life. This author certainly knows how to create wonderful characters, good ones and not so good ones. All aboard!

I'm glad this author has such a strong following with many positive reviews and high ratings for this book. I like "Tom Lake" but I don't love it and I was expecting a better reading experience than I had. I do plan to listen to one of Patchett's previous books via audiobook to see if a different format will change how I feel about her writing overall. Maybe, maybe not, but I'm willing to try.

3.5⭐

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper, and Ann Patchett for an ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

One of the most lush, nostalgic, pithy, and deeply poignant novels I’ve read in 2023. Every sentence is a work of art, and is so clearly carefully crafted to take you to the Michigan cherry farm where our story is set. I’ve never felt so all consumed by a setting in a novel before. I loved the flashbacks and shifts in time, and how the narrator was almost reciting a poem as she bounced from her early 20s to her 50s— telling her daughters about her brief love affair with a now famous movie star. It’s hard for me to fall in love with each of the characters in a book especially when some are so unlikable and unstable. But Patchett really knows how to unearth the exoskeleton of a character… she does it so slowly, and gradually; it feels like an erosion of the landscape—The place you thought that you knew so well changed so dramatically but quietly and over time you’re not sure what you’re left with. I love how Patchett touches on the pandemic, and how it seem to crystallize us, allowing us to look back on moments in our history, that have largely been left unturned, untold.. I love her commentary on memory—some events that make up the fabric of our life, that once felt so powerful and painful fades with time…bleached by the sun, and no longer holding prominence in our memory. I feel like I’ve always had this conversation with myself, and never before have been able to articulate what it means to look back on things that once felt so big but now feel inconsequential, but important in a new and quiet way. This is one of my favorites of the year. Read it!

I really enjoyed this much anticipated book. I loved the setting and all the characters. The book was well written and unfolded in a way that kept the reader engaged.

Only a brilliant writer could make this story so compelling - I'm hesitating to describe it because I might make it sound boring. So all I'm going to say is that I found it very moving and beautiful and loved the characters. My favorite Ann Patchett novel by far.

I adore Ann Patchett's books and Tom Lake is no exception! This story is beautifully written and offers the reader an insightful look at how we grow through hard times, how family relationships can leave their mark on us, and that love, in its many forms, is what drives us and makes us human. Thank you to Harper Collins for allowing me to read this gem in advance!

Ann Patchett does no wrong in my eyes! This was lovely, heartfelt, moving, and warm. A bit more plain than Patchett usually writes, but just as delightful and thought-provoking.

Not one of my most favorite readings ever. It was certainly interesting to read the account of what happened at Tom lake and get to know the characters but I found the storyline a little bit lacking.

The retelling of the cherry orchard, during COVID, well not exactly correct but definitely some similarities. Set during the summer months this book moves languidly along as a good summer day does. The retelling of one’s life experiences-the people touched, the people left behind. A good summer read in a classic literary style

In the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake.

As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

I loved Tom Lake. I loved the dual timelines. It’s a gentle, cozy story and I was immediately enthralled. What do we tell our kids about our lives before we had them? What do we keep for ourselves? Such a thoughtful book about Lara’s honest look back at her life.

It’s cherry-picking season in Michigan during COVID and recent events have not only brought Lara’s three twenty-something daughters back home but have stirred up memories as her daughters inquire about her earlier life. These memories, formed during her summer at Tom Lake, remind her of how remarkably different her life could have been. Lara’s perspective is refreshing, but not without flaws.

Set on a cherry orchard at the height of the pandemic, Tom Lake is that book that makes you hope it never ends. Lara Nelson was once an aspiring actress, discovered when she played Emily in her town’s production of Our Town. She films one movie and while waiting for it to be released she goes off to do Our Town at Tom’s Lake, a summer stock theater company. Almost the whole novel is Lara’s retelling of that summer to her three grown daughters who have returned home as the world shut down. Beautifully written, realistically told. I loved this one so much