Maeve Binchy

I was really sorry to hear that Maeve Binchy had died, because she was a great influence in getting me started with writing.
One wet Bank Holiday weekend, we had our village fete, but it poured. It took twenty minutes to rush round and look at the stalls and then rush home to get dry again. However, Scarlet Feather had caught my eye on the second hand book stall and I bought it to take home and read and I loved it.
Being busy with a young family, I had only time to read on holidays, but now that they were older, although I still felt guilty at having some 'me time', I worked my way through all her novels, revelling in her magical stories. This led me on to trying other novelists like Joanne Harris and Anita Shreve, and soon I was thinking that maybe I could try writing myself. And so I did.
So thank you, Maeve, for all your wonderful stories.
Which is your favourite Maeve Binchy book?

The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards is a beautiful book for summer reading.

I've just finished The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards, and it is one of the most beautiful books that I've ever read, and I'm only sorry that I couldn't fly out to the Finger Lakes Region in New York State where fictional town of The Lake of Dreams is set to take a more worthy picture for this blog.
The style reminds me of Anita Shreve, but it is deeper and more searching emotionally. Motifs such as dreams, glass, locks, people and places lost and found, are woven seemingly effortlessly into the story of Lucy who returns home to The Lake of Dreams to try to come to terms with the death of her father ten years before. However, she finds some clues in the old family house which lead her to her ancestor, Rose, who has been written out of the family history, and she is compelled to find out why.
Lucy's relationships also play a large part in the story: with her lover, her old boyfriend back at the lake, and with her family: her mother and brother; her uncle and her cousin. All come into play in solving the family mystery.
I haven't read The Memory Keeper's Daughter, also by Kim Edwards, yet, but I think I will in the near future.
Have you read either of these books? What did you think?
Have you been to the Finger Lakes?