Joy

by Anne L. Watson

In the Oakland, California, of 1989, Mirai San Julian is a young woman with a fascinating life and a rich past. She restores historic carousels -- her dream career -- working from her own studio in a former roller skating rink. Though Black herself, she spent her first years in a Basque immigrant community in Nevada, the adopted child of a single mother. And after the mother's death, she was raised by her Aunt Joy in a Catholic Worker house.Mirai has a lot going for her -- but then, why is everything suddenly falling apart? Her current, year-long carousel project is veering crazily out of control, in both schedule and budget. The guy who dumped her only months before has shown up married and -- as far as Mirai is concerned -- to the worst possible person. Her mother's death long ago is looking less and less like an accident. And Joy, the one person who has had her complete trust, may know more about that death than she has let Mirai believe.Mirai knows how to restore a carousel, but can she restore relationships with those she loves? Can she strip the old paint of past wrongs to prepare her life for new, more vibrant colors? And will her eyes be clear enough to spot the brass ring when it finally comes within reach?/////////////////////////////////////////////////Anne L. Watson, a retired historic preservation architecture consultant, is the author of several novels, plus books on such diverse subjects as soapmaking and baking with cookie molds. She currently lives in Bellingham, Washington, with her husband and fellow author, Aaron Shepard./////////////////////////////////////////////////SAMPLENext morning, I picked out Will's car parked on the street in front of the coffee shop. No room for doubt -- Will had a real screamer of a car, an old red Mustang convertible.Not that he described it that way. His version started off with "1964-1/2" for the model year and "poppy red" for the color, then veered into details about the color of certain key engine parts -- at which point I had always zoned out so far, I didn't hear the rest of the speech.There it sat, parked at the curb in Peregrine Falls, Idaho, already collecting a few admirers. Not even counting the vanity plate -- ORGAN4U -- the car had so much of Will's personality attached to it, I felt mildly nauseated. As an alternative to kicking a fender, I slammed into the coffee shop."Whoa, Mirai! Remember us?"The crew had gathered at the only big table in the Clearwater Cafe. I'd been so wrapped up in my own problems, I hadn't even seen them. They were all there -- Evangeline, Harvey, Mr. Papadakis. And Will.Neither fight nor flight was practical. I sat down at the table. The waitress hurried to me with a coffeepot and mug. I ordered the special and sipped my coffee. "Clearwater" was certainly the word for that coffee -- they must have named the restaurant after it. I glanced around the table, skipping over Will.Mr. Papadakis caught my eye. "What's the agenda?" he asked."We'll go to the park as soon as we're done here. Check out the carousel, then have lunch with the committee. We have to give the owners a preliminary report tomorrow morning."Evangeline smiled. "How long are you staying?" she asked me."All week. You?""I'll stay awhile. I may want to work on things in place." In Evangeline's case, "awhile" could mean several months. She had an answering service, but no permanent address. At the moment, I envied her.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery, Literary Fiction

347 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[iam]

I ordered this book for a penny some months ago and just now got around to reading it. I confess, from the cover and its size, I couldn't figure out if this was a children's book or adult fiction. It didn't matter to me one way or another, but I started reading it partly to try and answer that question for myself. (It is adult fiction, btw, and if I were to tack a movie rating on it, I'd probably go with PG-13.)

My favorite thing about this book is how much I learned. I learned about carousel history and restoration, Basque ethnicity, the San Francisco earthquake in 1989, and to a lessor degree, horse breeds and Chinese cuisine as it maps back to China. So I liked this book for that reason and also because it's peppered with descriptive gems that painted such pretty pictures in my mind I had to go back and highlight them.

The characters are likable enough and the story is fairly compelling too. My main complaint is that about halfway through, the book started to have more gaps in plot and narrative than it had before. So the second half doesn't have the same easy flow as the first half.

I just ordered another one of her other books - Pacific Avenue - and while I probably won't start it next, I'm sure I'll read it at some point.

[CW Crollard]

Restoring a carousel ga

Restoring a carousel gathers a mixture of talent, with all of their personal baggage. What pitfalls do they encounter, and how do they approach their deadline, when they are interrupted by earthquakes and themselves?

[Sandy Samuel]

Didn't hold my attention

I tried to like it. I really did. I read about 15 chapters. But I just found it kind of bland. I just couldn't get into it.

[J. Feulner]

Too long

I enjoyed the beginning of the novel, and getting to know the main characters, but felt that it dragged on for far too long.

[Linda B]

Joy is a captivating story of Mirai San Julian, an adopted child of a single mother and later raised by her aunt. Mirai wants to learn about her past, but doing so may hurt her relationships with those she loves.

Joy was a joy to read! It is a beautifully written rich descriptive story of love and life. It was interesting to read the history of the carousels and their restoration. Aunt Joy’s lifelong ministry to help those who need guidance and supervision was touching. Although Mirai is a bit of a free spirit, as the story advances you begin to see the impression Joy’s life-work had on Mirai.

All of the characters are well developed and people that I could cared about. The story flows well and every time I had to put it down, I couldn’t wait to get back to the story. I highly recommend this book.

[Theresa M Desautels]

3.5 or maybe 3.75

If you are looking for the review that tells who did what to whom and why, that's not me. Those are, in part, the reasons we read the book. Did I enjoy the book, yes for the most part. If I tell you the part that gave me concern, you may not find the same concern. If there were any grammatical errors, I didn't find them, nor any misspellings. Given the author's credentials, I will assume she knows her subject matter. Before I read the book, I had no ideas about the subject matter. The author does go into detail about the intricacies but not to the point your eyes glaze over, so I feel like I added a bit to my knowledge base, always a good thing.
Humans being humans and therefore flawed, so are her characters. On the whole, a good, pretty fast read

[Dhyan Atkinson]

This is a book with two layers of story, both of them interesting. On the one hand Mirai, the main character, is struggling to restore a carousel, which is her business and her delight, but has some unusual employee problems. On the other hand, as an adopted child she is suddenly finding out things she never knew about her family including her Aunt Joy who raised her. And little sub-plots skitter across the floor from time to time just to keep things very interesting. I'm at 85% on my Kindle and have promised me the good ending before I fall asleep. I'd recommend this book, especially if you like to keep finding out one thing after another through the whole of a book.

[Kristen]

Oakland, CA 1989, Mirai San Julian has a fascinating life and a rich past. She restores historic carousels. Story covers her multi cultural past/mystery, Catholic Worker House, carousel restoration, natural disaster, relationships, and the power of determination and friendships.

The author is a retired historic preservation architecture consultant. She incorporates historic carousal restoration into an interesting and well written story.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was NOT an action thriller, just a really nice story line that entertained.

[Sherry]

A sweet story of an artist who is adopted. When she is young her mother is accidentally killed. She is raised by her Aunt Joy. She is curious about her birth parents, especially since she is racially different than her adoptive family. Her search for her birth parents yields surprises. I loved the story of this book for two reasons. One, the characters are real and their story is engaging. Two, the main character is a carousel restorer. I have a great love for carousel horses and how they are created. There are some excellent descriptions of this art form.

[Heather A]

I picked this up as a freebee from iBooks, not usually my sort of books, but the fact the main character restored old carousels piqued my interest. Mainly because I remember how much I loved carousels when I was little.

The story started off quite good, but by the half way point, I was finding the main character irritating and obnoxious. I gave up with it shortly after that. I started skimming through, but really found no interest in finishing the story.

Not for me.

[LAWonder10]

The writing style was missing substance and attempts at some humor failed.
Profanity and some crudeness seemed to be the only way to fill in on a lack of
literary skills to add to the negative volume.

[Rosemary Daly]

I really enjoyed this book. Intriguing storyline; interesting characters - and a little bit of a mystery. I read it in a little more than a day.

[Holly Hilbrands]

Fairly good read altho Mirai clearly has issues and has challenges seeing the positives in her life. Really liked learning about carousels! And their restoration

[Angie]

Delightful and an easy read . Nice reminder that things have a way of working out .

[Louise]

Good gentle read

[Celeste]

Captivating story line from start to finish. And an easy read!

[Kathleen Schmitt]

An intriguing mystery with the special touch of the art of painting and preserving merry-go-round animals, I very much enjoyed this book and recommend it.

[Mariasol Danziger]

Light, entertaining reading!

[JenMarie]

This was a very well written, fun to read novel. Though, a little on the drawn out side, I enjoyed how the author included the character's catholic faith but not in an overwhelming way. Great story.

[Terry]

Was an easy read with a few twist to the story line that you could see and not see coming.

[Lila]

A story woven with many different threads but enlightening to the reader.

[Elizabeth]

Entertaining, but felt unfinished at points.

[Terri]

3.5 STARS

[Kathryn L. Rowe]

Joy is aptly named.

I enjoyed this book very much. It is real, current, but is joyful. I would recommend this to most of my friends that are readers.

[Judy]

Many unanswered questions at the end of the reading. This book touched on events and things I am very familiar with and events I remember.