Pages As Planes: New England
If you’ve been around awhile, or even just a little bit, you’ll know that New England is my home and will always have my heart. Growing up in Connecticut, I was surrounded by history and all four seasons. I loved every minute of it and I miss it every day. I miss having access to the ocean at a moment’s notice, hunkering down for hurricanes with my family (when they don’t do damage and we just get to have fun), and finding homes that were built in the 1700s but are still standing.
In today’s pages As Planes, we’re flying off to my to my home with some books set in New England!
The Secret History by Donna Tartt—I haven’t read any Donna Tartt but this one has always intrigued me. I love Classics and did my senior thesis in Latin and Greek!
“Under the influence of their charismatic Classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality, their lives are changed profoundly and for ever as they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.”
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott—Gonna go out on a limb here and say this is one of the most classic New England stories. I’ve actually never read it but I’ve read plenty of retellings and seen all the film adaptations. Plus I’ve been in the play and musical (lol). Maybe I should get around to reading it!
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian—I’ve read one Chris Bohjalian and it was full of mystery and intrigue so I’d love to read another!
“On an icy winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont, a seasoned midwife named Sibyl Danforth takes desperate measures to save a baby’s life. She performs an emergency cesarean section on a mother she believes has died of stroke. But what if—as Sibyl's assistant later charges—the patient wasn't already dead? The ensuing trial bears the earmarks of a witch hunt, forcing Sibyl to face the antagonism of the law, the hostility of traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience. Exploring the complex and emotional decisions surrounding childbirth, Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do.” —From the publisher
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri—”Meet the Ganguli family, new arrivals from Calcutta, trying their best to become Americans even as they pine for home. The name they bestow on their firstborn, Gogol, betrays all the conflicts of honoring tradition in a new world—conflicts that will haunt Gogol on his own winding path through divided loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs.
In The Namesake, the Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri brilliantly illuminates the immigrant experience and the tangled ties between generations.”
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout—A modern classic that is so well loved!
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger—I have seen this movie before but didn’t know it was based on a book!
“It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." In a book that has become a classic, Sebastian Junger explores the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and the candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched. The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller that makes us feel like we've been caught, helpless, in the grip of a force of nature beyond our understanding or control.” —From the publisher
The Good House by Ann Leary—Set in Boston’s North Shore, this book is full of classic witchy intrigue. It’s not a New England story without a little connection to the Salem Witch Trials, right? A small true small town drama.
The Private Series by Kate Brian—I was obsessed with this series in high school! It’s darker than Gossip Girl but has similar vibes. Normal girl finds herself accepted to an elite prep school in Connecticut. Secrets, rich kids, drama, and mystery ensues.
I will say, I haven’t read these in about 12 years so I’d be interested in rereading them and seeing if they aged well but like most teen novels from the early 2000s…something tells me they may not.
TW—murder, suicide, campus crime
Things You Save in a Fire by Katharine Center—I read this book in summer 2019 and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It follows a female firefighter in Massachusetts as she starts over. It’s a sweet love story, perfect for fans of fade to black romance.
The Islanders by Meg Mitchell Moore—I loved this books set on Block Island! It has some of my favorite elements: multiple POV’s, a storm, and fabulous food descriptions. It’s a fantastic summer read!
Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand—Historical fiction mixed beach read in this generational story set on Nantucket. Set in July 1969, we follow a blended family through one of the most tumultuous summers in American history.
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh—”In the summer of 1976, during their annual retreat on Cape Cod, the McKotch family came apart. Now, twenty years after daughter Gwen was diagnosed with Turner's syndrome—a rare genetic condition that keeps her trapped forever in the body of a child—eminent scientist Frank McKotch is divorced from his pedigreed wife, Paulette. Eldest son Billy, a successful cardiologist, lives a life built on secrets and compromise. His brother Scott awakened from a pot-addled adolescence to a soul-killing job and a regrettable marriage. And Gwen—bright and accomplished but hermetic and emotionally aloof—spurns all social interaction until, well into her thirties, she falls in love for the first time. With compassion and almost painful astuteness, The Condition explores the power of family mythologies—the self-delusions, denials, and inescapable truths that forever bind fathers and mothers and siblings.” —From the publisher
The Summer of Good Intentions by Wendy Francis—A story about sisters and their family home on Cape Cod.
“The Herington girls are together again, with their husbands and kids, for another summer in the family’s old Cape Cod house. When their mother, Gloria, announces she’s coming for an unscheduled visit—with her new boyfriend—no one is more surprised than their father, Arthur, who has not quite gotten over his divorce. Still, everyone manages to navigate the challenges of living grown-up lives in close quarters, until an accident reveals a new secret that brings everyone together in heartbreak…and then healing.” —From the publisher
Mystic Summer by Hannah McKinnon—”A chance run-in with a college boyfriend puts a young woman’s picture-perfect life in perspective in this warm-hearted and lyrical novel—from the author of The Lake Season.
Since finishing graduate school, Maggie Griffin has worked hard to build an enviable life in Boston. She’s an elementary school teacher in a tony Boston suburb, a devoted sister, and a loving aunt. With her childhood best friend’s wedding quickly approaching and her own relationship blossoming, this is the summer she has been waiting for.
But when Maggie’s career is suddenly in jeopardy, her life begins to unravel. Stricken, Maggie returns home to seaside Mystic, Connecticut, where she expects to find comfort in family and familiarity. Instead, she runs into Cameron Wilder, a young man from her past who has also returned home, and whose life has taken a turn that puts Maggie’s city struggles in harsh perspective. When tragedy strikes for Cameron, Maggie is faced with big decisions as she weighs what matters most and strives to stay true to the person she’s become.” —From the publisher
A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams—”Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak.
That is, until Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview.
Nick and Budgie Greenwald are an unwelcome specter from Lily's past: her former best friend and her former fiancee, now recently married - an event that set off a wildfire of gossip among the elite of Seaview, who have summered together for generations. Budgie's arrival to restore her family's old house puts her once more in the center of the community's social scene, and she insinuates herself back into Lily's friendship with an overpowering talent for seduction... and an alluring acquaintance from their college days, Yankees pitcher Graham Pendleton. But the ties that bind Lily to Nick are too strong and intricate to ignore, and the two are drawn back into long-buried dreams, despite their uneasy secrets and many emotional obligations.
Under the scorching summer sun, the unexpected truth of Budgie and Nick's marriage bubbles to the surface, and as a cataclysmic hurricane barrels unseen up the Atlantic and into New England, Lily and Nick must confront an emotional cyclone of their own, which will change their worlds forever.” —From the publisher
Do you have any favorite books set in your hometown?