Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

 It has been a while since a book seemed so destined to fall in my hands at just the right time. Tom Lake is a small community in Michigan with a very active community theater. Years ago, Lara Nelson played Emily in a production of Our Town there opposite Peter Duke who went on to be a famous actor. Now it is 2020 and Lara and her husband own a cherry orchard not far fromTom Lake. Her three daughters have returned home to wait out the pandemic and help harvest the fruit. In the hours spent picking cherries, the four women revisit, question, examine the time Lara spent at Tom Lake.  As I regret not having asked my parents or grandparents questions about their life before me and ponder if there will be a time when my own children have those same regrets, there is the question of what would I share and what I would not. What record do we leave behind? What are the defining moments in our life? I loved every moment spent with this family - the story, the writing, the connection - all of it.