The follow up to Count the Ways, this story follows Eleanor over fifteen years.
Eleanor is fifty-four and moves back to the farm to care for her ex-husband, Cam.

They have three children together, grown now, except for Toby. He is an adult but an accident in the pond left him different. Now he raises goats and makes cheese.

Al and his wife are living in California trying to have a baby. And Ursula is living with a man she doesn’t know anymore.

Everyone is dealing with a lot. And while the children are adults, they still harbor grudges and hurt feelings and a lot of secrets.

I loved this book. All of the characters are so well-done and I loved them all.

One of the best books I have ever read.

NetGalley/ William Morrow June 25,2024

Her best yet! I have been reading Joyce Maynard since her precocious debut in The New York Times. At each stage of life, she has expressed feelings and experiences that my generation can completely relate to.. I was moved by her view of motherhood and how we try so hard, but at the end of the day our children's lives are their own. And in later life trying to rediscover our own passions. And the music that accompanies our lives. This is beautiful and heartfelt story that I could not put down. I hope to be reading Joyce Maynard for many more years to come. Thank you to a brilliant writer for her continuing gifts.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read How the !ight gets in by Joyce Maynard, an author who writes with huge heart and depth. Her meticulous research, as revealed in the acknowledgements of this book, evident in the storyline so seamlessly, carefully inserted bring a level of realism we've come to expect in her work. She breaks our heart,but gives us hope.

I’m a huge fan of Joyce Maynard, and I gave the prequel to this book, Count the Ways, 5 stars. Unfortunately, I did not think that this book was as good. It’s extremely character driven and while there are some interesting plot points, not a whole lot happens in the story. Since it is more character focused, I wish I had related to or cared more for Eleanor. To add interest, the book is set amongst the backdrop of significant cultural events over time, and music plays a role in the story-telling. I would have enjoyed a more condensed version.

Thank you very much to William Morrow for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

There are books that we love -without exaggeration- completely knowing why. This is one of those types of books.
Its as if we need them to make us ‘feel’ immediate emotions….[happiness, sadness, anger, grief, guilt, disappointment, horror, fear, boredom, admiration, appreciation, nostalgia, etc.]….
We think about our family and friends, love, loss, grief, joy
likes, dislikes, music, old television shows, the schools we attended, games we’ve play, meals we’ve eaten, the tragedies we’ve experienced, the love we feel in our hearts, memories, (good and bad), —
Not ‘only’ our ‘own’ personal lives — the characters in these types of books ‘are’ personal to us too; they ‘are’ our family; character friends that live inside us!
And … along with loving these type of books (flawed as we ourselves are) …. without reservation, we give our hearts and souls over to them. [it’s even possible to feel embarrassed at one’s own hedonism animalism craving]….
….as Joyce crafts a tale of family and identity…. we learn to understand and accept one another while also trying to understand the larger world around us and the issues we face —
[hopefully without crumbling to pieces from our awareness: climate change, hunger, health, gender equality, human rights, estrangement, violence, political, social, economic, and environmental issues affect us all] …. some of these issues ‘are’ observed in “How The Light Gets In”…..but
Joyce doesn’t preach these issues — she includes them….(as easy as she does music our characters enjoy)….
In the same way music affects us, so do global issues.
I appreciate that Joyce combines our personal lives with world issues….but mostly this novel is still a ‘family’ story.
After all — our protagonist is a MOM ….also an incredible ‘can-do’ women ….a multi-talented artist and writer, gardener, a conscientious woman…. and a yummy cook, to boot.

“Sometimes when the light hits the broken glass just right, it makes a lovely rainbow” . . .
“It’s like that with her family, Eleanor thinks. Not all the time, or often—just now and then—the light hits the pieces of colored glass, just right, and for what may be just a fleeting moment everything looks beautiful. If a person doesn’t ask too many questions about what happened yesterday or what’s going to happen next. If she can just look at this one brief moment in time, without asking for more. It’s the sunlight hitting the glass. Catch it if you can”.

Taking off from Joyce’s spellbinding novel, “Count The Ways”…. we follow along with recent happenings—
Eleanor at the center of everything. Her ex- husband, Cam, who readers get to know intimately in “Count The Ways”, has recently died. And not before Eleanor returned to the farm house in New Hampshire to care for him before he died.
Eleanor and Cam produced three children: (all adults now).
….Al (a transgender) married to Teresa….wishing to adopt a child. They were living in Seattle.
…. Ursula, middle child. Married to Jake. They have two children, a daughter Lulu, and son, Orson. Not only is Ursula struggling with her marriage to Jake — she is mostly estranged from Eleanor. Ursula says some pretty nasty things to her mother.
[note]
> this was a very sad-relatable part of this story for me - painful - as my 42 year old daughter, blindsided me a little over 4 years ago — wanting no relationship with me (or her younger sister or my husband). She’s successful in her work at least.
I related to something Eleanor felt …..she no longer prayed to ‘have’ a relationship with her daughter….instead she prayed that her daughter was happy. Me too, I do the same (oh….don’t get me wrong - I’d love to have a cozy loving close relationship with my first born daughter (relationships are great with our younger daughter with both my husband and I) — but today, I simply pray our oldest daughter is happy, too.
….Toby is youngest child. He survived a near drowning in “Count The Ways” when he was four years old, leaving him with a brain injury. Toby was slower in many areas in life than others, but he’s likely to be the most endearing character in this novel. He’s just so darn wonderful, caring, sweet, tender, kind. His love for his goats and children are real ….and beautiful.
…. Other characters I’ll mention briefly:
…. Coco, (Cam’s ex-wife; once the young babysitter to Eleanor’s and Cam’s three children.
….Elijah, (a son born to Cam and Coco),
….Raine (the young single pregnant girl living next door to the farm house),
….Spyder, (Raine’s child that Toby delivered and would babysit often)
….Timmy Pouliot, a special friend of Eleanor’s who experienced an awful tragedy when he was younger.
….Jason, another special friend to Eleanor.
….Scarlett Johansson, (read the book - think I should spill all the beans, huh? 😉)
….June, (again - not sharing anything more other than my heart melted with joy)
….Guy MacDowell > not married, never married, no children. He was however Eleanor’ new relationship guy — ha - named GUY…. (for about five and a half years). Guy was an explorer; an adventurer. His commitment was to save Antarctica. Guy was also that razzle-dazzling heartthrob between the sheets > be it at The Four Seasons or any other series of nice hotels… in Cambridge, Seattle, etc.
As much as Eleanor and Guy enjoyed each other, they both knew Guy was not a settling down type of man. Not a relax by a woodfire stove on winter nights, or take the grandchildren out blueberry picking.
He would always be thinking about glacial melt.

As for the juice….the juicy parts of this story — I’m giving nothing away…..
other than to say, I admit to being a tad cranky in parts I felt was repetitive > however….I forgive it all —
I also admit to be ‘very’ surprised with a couple emotional tales — more toward the last twenty-five percent. I was choked up a few times.

Lots of great stories throughout ….JOYCE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GIFTED STORYTELLER….
….more memories on the farm, in Brookline, in Vermont, The Cork People, goats, bowling, Eleanor’s art and writing, yummy meals, music, and each of THE CHARACTERS lives: struggles & joys.

Note: 🎶. . .
….in this book, I was less familiar with many of the songs and artists Joyce included….(I was much more familiar with the songs from “Count The Ways”, but I listened to everything —
I added new music to my iApple iTunes playlist. (thanks Joyce)….for introducing me to: John Prine, and Sinead O’Conner. (beautiful songs). I also really like the song “Simple Gifts” by Alison Krauss.

I don’t think I would’ve written a review this long, if I wasn’t giving it the full five star rating.

A couple of excerpts ….
“How can it be that something as simple as the tone of a person’s voice can have the effect of a knife slicing into your heart? It can have that effect if the person is someone you love, and they’re speaking as if you’re a stranger to them now. A stranger you gave birth to once, a million years ago”.

“A good mother. Who even knows what that is?”

“For nine months, you carry a child in your body. Then you give birth to this person, and they depend on you (for a little while anyway) for every single thing in their life, including their survival. What they need: not only food, warmth, safety, diapers, baths, sunshine, fresh air, milk—also comfort, reassurance, protection, encouragement, vigilance, stamina, compassion. Money. Love. You teach them what bread is, and milk, and a ball, a dog, a helicopter, a tree, a car, a lawnmower, a cell phone, a gun. They look to you to tell them about everything, basically. The whole wide world. The meaning of everything. As if you knew”.

Joyce’s writing is engrossing, fragile, brittle, sharp, and pulsing with life. The characters and their voices she creates are so real — they remain friends in my head!

How the Light Gets in is the sequel to Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard. It continues the story of Eleanor and her family, and further delves into their struggles, not only as a family, but as individuals, as well. Many issues are addressed in this book, including gender identity, parental alienation, political viewpoints, traumatic brain injury, and the CoVid epidemic. Since I have been reading Ms. Maynard's books for many years, and subscribe to her newsletter, I am familiar with her political views and her interest in parental alienation. I appreciate that she manages to include all of these things in her novel, but recently have been somewhat irritated with authors addressing these issues at length in their books, which, to me, can take away from the story itself. As usual, I appreciated the descriptions of Eleanor's feelings and her attempts to cope with all that is happening around her. The affair with the Antarctic explorer made sense to me because it was the only thing in her life that seemed to have no strings attached, and she was longing for some freedom from the heavy issues she had dealt with for many years. I was relieved when she realized what she had been doing and was able to forgive herself for it. I guess, one of my favorite things about Joyce Maynard's writing is that she is able to process her characters' behaviors and look at them in a realistic fashion. This is a hard book for me to review because I struggled with some of the repetition of past events from the first book and also the many social issues that were addressed, I do appreciate her writing style and character development. Thank you, #Netgalley and William Morrow Publishing for giving me the opportunity to preview this book in exchange for an honest review.

Maynard skillfully draws us into Eleanor's family and shows each member with flaws and all. Life may not be perfect or how you expected it to be, but it is beautiful. Eleanor's life has been difficult and certainly not the experience that she expected, Divorced, estranged from her daughter, and taking care of her son who has some limitations, since almost drowning, Eleanor takes care of everyone before herself. Finding love in an unexpected place and trying to keep that aspect of her life private brings a new set of challenges and excitement.
I highly recommend you read Count the Ways before this novel. Both books may be read as stand-alones, however, your experience will be richer reading them both. This is the best book I have read in a long time. Maynard's descriptive style held me captive throughout the book. I experienced every emotion through Eleanor; her love of family at the top of the list. Maynard provides insight into how society perceives those less than perfect and how greed can cause heartache in unexpected ways. An excellent choice for Book Clubs looking for a novel about current issues and how they affect a family.

After reading Joyce Maynard’s last novel, The Bird Hotel, I was very excited that the author had written a new book about a strong woman.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading “How the lights gets in”. I particularly liked the character development of Eleanor and her youngest son Toby. My main criticism of the story was the inclusion of too many world events that impacted their lives ( climate change, January 6 th insurrection, school shooting) It’s a bit of a slog to get through and wonder what more can happen in the world that can impact Eleanor, her family, and friends.

I would definitely recommend this book to Bookclubs, a lot of meaty issues to discuss.

Family saga hardly seems enough of a category to do justice to this long novel. Family and children, parenting and relationships exude from its pores. If you aren’t interested in these topics, give it a miss. Otherwise relax into its repetitive, tireless tracking of the characters and their dramatic yet simple dilemmas. Maynard’s fluid style helps it all slip down like syrup. It’s the literary version of comfort food. Yes, it tackles historical events but really it’s all about her affection for these one dimensional people.

Wow! I absolutely loved this book! Continuing the life of Eleanor as she returns to her former home to care for her dying ex-husband. Eleanor continues to live there and care for Toby, while he cares for his goats. She is still writing and involved with her children, as much as they will allow and still struggles with her relationship with her daughter Ursula, as she faces issues in her marriage and is quite the snit to Eleanor. A relationship develops with a man that allows her to feel special even if it’s when he’s available and they never see more than the inside of hotel rooms.
We follow Toby as he continues to find his place in the world and his impact on those he loves. There are some wonderful and sad and joyful events in his life and you can’t help but be his champion.
We follow Eleanor up to current years and demonstrates the impact the current elections have had on her and how they’ve changed the world. She comes to terms with knowing that there are more days behind her than in front of her, while continuing to feel like that young girl. Haven’t those of us that are a certain age felt like that? Eleanor struggled to find her happiness while remaining supportive of those she loves.
This was the type of book that I absolutely savored! I didn’t want to read it too quickly and I didn’t want it to end but I wondered what they were doing when I wasn’t with them. The best kind of book!
Joyce Maynard has a hit here! Eleanor is my champion, my woman warrior, my hero! Thank you for this title!

I was privileged to get the ARC of this book from @NetGalley and was so excited to continue reading the family saga that Joyce Maynard began in Count the Ways. I quickly got reinvested in the lives of these characters and watched them evolve as the plot cycles through the seasons in various stages of their lives.

Eleanore’s children are now grown up, but she is back home on their family farm trying to find her place in life. Her lovable son, Toby, is still there tending his goats and bringing cheese to sell at the farmers market, but he has gained independence and doesn’t need her as much as he once did. Her daughter, Ursala, is living nearby with her husband and two children, but she keeps her mother at a distance for many years still hurt by the divorce that tore apart their family a decade ago. Coco, the young woman that her husband left her for continues to cause complications in Eleanore’s life, even though Eleanore and her children have a close relationship with her son (their stepbrother, Elijah).

This novel ties up many of the loose ends from the first novel, exploring forgiveness and healing, though I think there is some redundancy and recaps of details from Count the Ways that could have been left out of this book to reduce the length and provide teasers to entice readers who hadn’t read the first book to pick it up and experience it for the first time.

I don’t think authors should share their personal political commentaries in fiction. My mom is also a huge fan of Joyce Maynard’s books, but I wouldn’t recommend that she read this one because it contains too much hype for the Democratic presidential candidates and political platforms and bashes the Republican party (even though I think my mom could relate to Eleanore’s current stage of life and plight of a mother who puts the needs of her children and grandchildren ahead of her own).

Also, I was not a big fan of the storyline of Eleanore’s escapades with Guy, the Antarctic explorer. Again, it seemed like she was trying to tie in a political statement about supporting climate change causes. I was rooting for Eleanore to find romance, but I would have preferred she settled down with a small-town wholesome man, like Quince, the Police Chief, rather than a casual affair with a man who would choose saving the planet over getting to her and her family.

I did enjoy many of the other quirky cast of characters that are included, including the superhero of Eleanore’s graphic novel she is writing and illustrating. She struggles with a climactic ending for the Mineral Man story, and I think she wraps it up perfectly with a message of hope for a broken world.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED Count the Ways so much, so I was thrilled to see there was a sequel. But I was a little bummed when it didn’t quite live up to the beauty of the first novel. I found myself not relating to or caring about Eleanor as much in this book, which was a letdown. Still a great book with so many beautiful passages, just not the 5 stars of its predecessor. I also would have liked to read more about Eleanor taking care of Cam. 4 stars for me.