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Month in review

Reviews
A. Hall & Co. by Joseph C. Lincoln
Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, Part 3 by Gene Luen Yang
Binky Takes Charge by Ashley Spires
Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D'Agnese
The Brontë Sisters by Catherine Reef
Can You Count to a Googol? by Robert E. Wells
The Chairs Are Where the People Go by Misha Glouberman
Constable and Toop by Gareth P. Jones
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
Dishwasher by Pete Jordan
Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
Home Front Girl by Joan Wehlen Morrison
I Am John I Am Paul by Mark Tedesco
Ichiro by Ryan Inzana
The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series by Michael Dante DiMartino
Linoleum, Better Babies, and the Modern Farm Woman, 1890-1930 by Marilyn Irvin Holt
Little Bo in Italy by Julie Andrews Edwards
Little Fish: A Memoir from a Different Kind of Year by Ramsey Beyer
Mary-'Gusta by Joseph C. Lincoln
The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin
On the Beach by Nevil Shute
The Salaryman's Wife by Sujata Massey
Silent Visions by John Bengtson
Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Squid and Octopus Friends for Always by Tao Nyeu
A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California by Laura Cunningham
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley
Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
The View from the Top by Hillary Frank

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Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish


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Comments for A. Hall & Co.

A. Hall & Co.: 03/27/14

cover art

A. Hall & Co. by Joseph C. Lincoln was one of the author's last books, from a career that spanned 42 years. While all of his books are loosely connected, A. Hall & Co. serves as a follow up to Mary-'Gusta.

The once powerful A. Hall & Company, fish wholesaler is struggling to stay afloat. The land that store sits on, as well as the family home is worth more than the buildings or the store's inventory combined. There's a real estate boom going on and the Hall family is facing losing everything due to gentrification.

Meanwhile, there's a romance between the son of the developer and a young woman who is related to the Halls. Because of the underhanded approach the developer has taken to force the Halls out, their romance has to stay secret, even though neither is directly involved and neither wants the Hall store to fail.

Having so far mostly read Lincoln's earlier books that take place in the heyday of shipping and sailing, when the lighthouse keepers were heroes, it was fascinating to read one of last books. His bit of Cape Cod has changed with the times and the heroine arrives via airplane. The old sailor dialect of the Cap'ns is nearly extinct and is even mocked among some of the oldest characters in the book (who themselves are too young to have genuinely spoken that way).

And that's what I love most about Lincoln's body of work. His fictional towns grown and change with the time. Characters live their lives. Things come and go. Fashions change. The language adapts. Basically it feels like a real place.

Four stars

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