61. Family Tree by Susan Wiggs

read on my Kindle
2016, William Morrow
368 pgs.
Adult "romance" CRF
Finished 11/3/16
Goodreads rating:  4.07 - 2,001 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary rural Vermont

First line/s:  "I can't believe we're arguing about a water buffalo."

My comments:   Okay.  This is definitely a "romance fiction."  Not my cuppa tea. At all.  That said, there were components of the book that I liked.  The way it was written, back and forth - from "now" to "then."  The setting, rural Vermont.  I liked the premise of coming out of a coma, of having brain injury, but I had mixed feelings about Annie's slow (and fast!) coming around after being asleep for a year. I am also not a cook, but I think all the cooking talk would be a huge plus for some. A quick, easy read...nothing to figure out, every scenario ending in pretty much the expected way.  A well-written romance for lovers of that genre.

Goodreads synopsis:  For readers of Kristin Hannah and Jodi Picoult comes a powerful, emotionally complex story of love, loss, the pain of the past—and the promise of the future.
          Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. A single cell, joining with another. And then dividing. And just like that, the world changes.
          Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Manhattan home they share. And now, she’s pregnant with their first child.
          But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a year-long coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she's lost.
          Grieving and wounded, Annie retreats to her old family home in Switchback, Vermont, a maple farm generations old. There, surrounded by her free-spirited brother, their divorced mother, and four young nieces and nephews, Annie slowly emerges into a world she left behind years ago: the town where she grew up, the people she knew before, the high-school boyfriend turned ex-cop. And with the discovery of a cookbook her grandmother wrote in the distant past, Annie unearths an age-old mystery that might prove the salvation of the family farm.
          Family Tree is the story of one woman’s triumph over betrayal, and how she eventually comes to terms with her past. It is the story of joys unrealized and opportunities regained. Complex, clear-eyed and big-hearted, funny, sad, and wise, it is a novel to cherish and to remember.

MOVIE - Run and Jump

Unrated (an Irish film) (1:45)
Limited release 1/24/14
Viewed at the Loft 2/10/14
RT: 81 audience: 61
cag;  5- I Loved it
Steph Green
IFC Films

Will Forte, Maxine Peake

My comments:  Filmed in Counties Wicklow and Kerry in Ireland, I considered this a wonderful movie.  I was afraid the Irish brogue might be too thick to understand, but it wasn't at all.  I have discovered that it's the storytelling that means the most to me in a movie or a book, and this was one heck of a story.  The actors portraying the characters did an incredible job.  The female lead was PERFECT and I've decided I'll follow Will Forte anywhere.  Some people might consider this a sad movie (there was a lot of "sad," I guess) but the spirit in which the story is told does not dwell on the sadness.  There's a great sense of positivity, of optimism, of life going on and we deal.  It was really, really good and I highly recommend it.

Rotten Tomatoes "Movie Info":  A headstrong Irish housewife finds her life transforming in ways she never thought possible after her husband suffers a life-altering stroke, and an American doctor arrives to chronicle the family's recovery process in this intimate drama from director Steph Green (whose short film New Boy was nominated for an Oscar in 2007). In the wake of her husband's stroke, loving wife and mother Vanetia (Maxine Peake) gradually comes to realize that her household will never be the same again. Much to Vanetia's relief, a research grant from American doctor Ted Fielding (Will Forte) provides the funds needed to remain financially afloat. Ted wants to study how the family copes with such a severe trauma, and though at first his presence in the home strikes a chord of resentment in the overburdened Vanetia, he exhibits an air of tranquility that soon becomes a source of deep comfort to her. Likewise, Vanetia's unwavering strong will awakens a newfound sense of vitality in the reserved Dr. Fielding, resulting in growth and healing for all involved.