Chapter 12 - A Week At The Lake

We have had the good fortune recently to buy a condo adjacent to Lake Hartwell in the Upcountry of South Carolina. No, we are not rich (you don't get rich owning a used book store), but full of gratitude because of legacies from our parents. Dave enjoys fly fishing and we both enjoy lakes and mountains so we came, we saw, and we bought.

As I am getting used to new sights and sounds which emanate from a new community, I started to think about books I've read that take place on a lake. Some books feature the location as one of the characters of the story while others bring in the lake as a memory from childhood, either good or bad. Being on a lake is different from being around other bodies of water. A lake can be a lovely, secluded place surrounded by happy, green trees (forgive me Bob Ross) that wave in a light breeze. A lake can be black and mysterious with dark pines that stand like sentinels over gray mist arising from a watery grave. Each of the books below will have a different take on the lake experience but I've enjoyed them all.

Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor - Keillor has gotten some negative press in the past 5 years or so and this is a place where you need to separate the author from his work. Lake Wobegon Days, the book, tells a story of a simpler life where the first person narrative explains the small town where he grew up and the people he knew. It is rich with humor and reminders of how the 50's and 60's used to be.

The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy - Moving across the big pond also know as the Atlantic Ocean, The Glass Lake takes place on the lakeside village of Lough Glass. Kit McMahon grows up on the lake in a small village where her father is a pharmacist and her mother has never seemed to fit in. Her mother wanders alone along the lake nightly until the lake claims her as her own. As an adult Kit comes back time and again to Lough Glass to live out her mother's last wishes for her.

A Week at the Lake by Wendy Wax - Wax always does a terrific job of bringing together three female protagonists as she says three creates some conflict. This story about friends who get together yearly to go to a lake house in the Adirondacks is packed full of humor, revelations, and, of course conflict.

The Lake House by Kate Morton - Part mystery, part gothic fiction, Kate Morton tells the story of a party that takes place in a beautiful house and an 11 year old boy who goes missing never to be found. Many years later the boy's sister, now a novelist, and a female journalist unite to solve the mystery.

The Girl from Silent Lake by Leslie Wolfe - A scary and compelling story of a single mother and her daughter who disappear from a vacation lake house, Detective Kay Sharp is brought in to solve the mystery. The first of the Kay Sharp series, this book will leave you wanting more.

Do you have any favorite books about lakes? Please share!