Published by Sourcebooks Landmark on May 20, 2025
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction
Rating:
Goodreads
Family GP Charlie Knight fears life is passing him by. He’s in his late thirties, and treading water as a family doctor in the same small town he grew up in.
Just as he’s planning his escape, something changes. He develops a gift, an extraordinary insight for any doctor: a sense of exactly how many days his patients have left to live.
But in a country town like Marwick, his patients are his friends. His own family. The people he grew up with, and the girl he still loves.
And Charlie discovers this gift may not be a gift at all.
Charlie was your friendly neighborhood GP who was planning to flee to London in search of spectacular things, but things got complicated when he started seeing numbers. He concluded that these numbers were the days a person had to live. At first, he thought this was a blessing, but as he struggled with what to do with this knowledge it became a curse which he has no idea how to escape.
The book summary compares this story to The Measure. I can understand that comparison as both books deal with knowing when the end will come. The big difference is that Charlie had this knowledge about other people, not himself. He carried this burden and struggled with what to do with this information. Does he tell the person? Not tell the person? Encourage them to make the best use of their time? It really was a tremendous weight on his shoulders, and Charlie was willing to leave everyone he loved behind in order to NOT gain that knowledge about them.
The story took some unexpected and interesting turns. There were parts that made me cry and others that made me happy. I appreciated the topic. It's thought provoking and makes you want to celebrate every day that we have.
The Autumn of Ruth Winters by Marshall Fine
Published by Lake Union Publishing on November 5, 2024
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction
Rating:
Goodreads
In this heartwarming story about second acts and second chances, a no-nonsense retiree, very much set in her ways, must learn to adapt and make peace with her past in order to build a fulfilling future.
Ruth Winters is retired, widowed, and resigned to spending the rest of her life alone in her suburban home. She likes her routine and uses it to avoid having to spend time with other people. She probably wouldn’t call herself fulfilled, but it’s too late now to go chasing happiness.
Then three things happen at a beloved niece makes a big announcement, an old flame reaches out, and her estranged sister receives life-changing news. Ruth finds herself reconnecting with people she thought were long gone from her world, as she is forced to reconsider her expectations for this phase of her life.
None of this fits into Ruth’s routine—in fact, the whole thing just blows to bits. But when Ruth starts to pick up the pieces, she discovers that maybe it’s not too late to make something new after all.
I thought this book would be about Ruth and her expanding her world, starting anew, and I suppose it was, but it was about so much more.
Ruth initially came off as a sort of curmudgeon, but this woman had layers upon layers due to all the traumatic and disappointing things she experienced in her life. Ruth had dreams of working in art. She was a top student who was accepted to a graduate program, but her dreams had to be put on hold when her parents were in a car accident. She was left to care for her ailing father, and after spending almost a decade doing that, she felt it was too late for grad school. So, she pivoted, established a career as a book keeper at an insurance company where she met her husband. She was then left a widow, suffered financial setbacks, and downsized. Once again, she pivoted.
I found that Ruth had some hangups which got in her way, but she was a survivor. My heart ached knowing that she never really achieved the things she wanted to, but this was her second chance. Ruth stepped outside her comfort zone, and I was proud of her growth over the course of this book. She tried new things, made a new friend, rekindled an old friendship, and accepted an olive branch from her estranged sister. My favorite storyline involved her old high school friend. It was the fun and uplifting one.
Ruth's relationship with her sister Veronica was much more complicated, but reconnecting with Veronica was such a big part of Ruth's personal journey. The fractures in their relationship bled into other parts of Ruth's life, and I was happy Ruth was able to find peace with that part of her past, that she was able to forgive and move forward.
The idea of second chances presented itself in many ways in this story, and I was happy that Ruth was able to get those second chances and show that you are never too old for anything.
*ARCS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER
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