From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Tom Lake

Ann Patchett

Start date: April 15, 2024

Finish date: May 15, 2024

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Barb

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
By Lynn · 1 post · 41 views

last updated Jun 20, 2025 08:37AM

Circe - discussion with spoilers
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last updated Sep 06, 2025 04:48PM

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What Members Thought

Sep 29, 2023 Barbara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook

This was an audiobook production and Meryl Streep was the reader. The book was very good but Streep made it excellent. I was able to get it through Libby at my library.

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Aug 20, 2023 Courtney rated it really liked it

4.5⭐️

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Feb 01, 2024 Jessica rated it it was amazing

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO!! It’s the incomparable Meryl-Freaking-Streep and she is FABULOUS just as expected. Gosh I love her. It’s hard to know if I would have loved this book as much with a different narrator or reading it to myself but with Meryl, it felt like HER story she was sharing. It felt so natural and so realistic. Every. Single. Character. I loved them. Lara and Joe. All the girls. Sebastian! Even though we were supposed to be smitten with Duke. Even the uncle and Massey. Beautiful charact ...more

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Oct 08, 2023 Jennie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, women, listened-to, romance

Never before have a read a book that I felt was written just for me. Any story that focuses so much on Our Town and family and nostalgia and love and aging has my name written all over it. I was already a huge fan of Ann Patchett, but this is my favorite. Beautiful characters, with just enough nuance and surprise to keep the story going without bringing to much attention to themselves. The pacing was perfect. I felt the story moving without lag or whiplash. I would recommend this book to anyone ...more

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Aug 11, 2023 Kate rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. I wanted the summer and the story to never end. Just lovely. Ann Patchett does it again.

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Nov 29, 2023 Clifford rated it really liked it

Shelves: novels, audiobooks

As a fan of Thornton Wilder (I read a great biography of him a few years ago), I appreciated the "Our Town" thread that ran throughout TOM LAKE. Lara, the narrator, is from New Hampshire and appears in a production of the play in high school and later as a professional in summer stock at Tom Lake, an arts community in Michigan (a la Interlochen?). She falls in love (or is seduced off her feet) by the actor who plays her father, although he is only a couple of years older. The book is the story o ...more

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Jan 24, 2025 Loretta rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, reading-for-craft

I really love Ann Patchett's writing. And her writing read by Meryl Streep?? ahhhh. Chef's kiss wonderful.

In some ways this is a "cosy" Patchett- to the extent there is tension it's in the past/recollections of the first person narrator, and I've seen some reviewers (well, one) complain about that. It's not a complaint for me - it's just not that kind of book. This is probably not my very favourite Patchett, but I loved a lot about it. The feeling of a narrator who knows who she is as a mother, ...more

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Dec 05, 2023 Joyce rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, 100-nyt-books, set-in-the-midwest, audible

Meryl Streep is fabulous voice acting this delightful novel, largely set in the cherry orchards of northern Michigan. Three daughters return home to help with the cherry harvest during the summer of the pandemic (2020). To accompany the work of harvesting cherries, the girls ask their mother to retell the story of her brief acting career and work with one of the most famous actors in America. The story is lovely and gentle.

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Jan 11, 2024 Dora rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own-need-to-review

It’s a beautiful book that uses the early part of the pandemic to create space for the narrator to tell her story to her daughters, her husband, and the reader.

There are enough twists and turns and surprises to keep the reader’s interest and to keep it from being just nice.

Toward the end, I was sure there couldn’t be more and that Patchett had missed the perfect point to end the story, but… no. There was more story to be told.

Excellent book, highly recommend. And now I feel like I need to read ...more

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