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    Coming Up for Air: A Novel
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    Coming Up for Air: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Coming Up for Air: A Novel
    Ebook312 pages4 hours

    Coming Up for Air: A Novel

    By Patti Callahan Henry

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Patti Callahan Henry's Coming Up For Air is "a beautiful exploration of the deepest mysteries of the human heart." (Susan Wiggs, New York Times bestselling author)

    Ellie Calvin is caught in a dying marriage, and she knows this. With her beloved daughter away at college and a growing gap between her and her husband, she doesn't quite seem to fit into her own life. But everything changes when her controlling mother, Lillian, passes away. Ellie sees her ex-boyfriend, Hutch, at the funeral, and learns that he is in charge of a documentary that involved Lillian before her death – and he wants answers to questions that Ellie's not sure she can face.

    As Ellie and Hutch start digging into Lillian's history, and speaking for the first time in years, Ellie's closed heart slowly begins to open. Using both a hidden diary that Ellie found in her mother's things, and a trip to the Summer House, a mysterious and seductive bayside home, they gamble that they can work together and not fall in love again. But in piecing together a decades-old unrequited-love story, they just might uncover the secrets in their own hearts…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateAug 16, 2011
    ISBN9781429940665
    Unavailable
    Coming Up for Air: A Novel
    Author

    Patti Callahan Henry

    Patti Callahan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fifteen novels including the Historical Fiction,  Becoming Mrs. Lewis—The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis and Surviving Savannah.  In addition, she is the recipient of  The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year for 2020 and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for 2019 and The Christy Award—A 2019 Winner ""Book of the Year.” The author is also the host of the popular seven-part original ""Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series”. Patti is also the Co-creator and co-host of the weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction.  Patti and Dottie met when Patti’s first book was released in 2004 at a SIBA conference where the friendship was instant and long lasting. 

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    Reviews for Coming Up for Air

    4/5

    62 ratings13 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I enjoyed the Southern/Atlanta element of the book and even the Civil Rights aspect that was thrown in but the "twist" just seem so unrealistic and anti-climatic to me. I was expecting so much more- a real secret.
      Also the "dying" marriage story line didn't ring true to me either. It seemed to be more of a abusive relationship than anything.

      This book just dins't seem to come fully together. I did enjoy the writing and reading about my city but other than that, this one fell a little flat to me.
    • 4/5
      Coming Up For Air by Patti Callahan HenryStory starts out with Elle and she's very busy even with her daughter now in college, her husband busy at work and golfing with her dad.Her mother keeps her busy with committees, etc til the day she just dies. Story goes back in time where we learn of her mother's younger years.Another story that comes to light is that of the artists in the family and names given to each of the only girl child of each generation.She finds it hard once she discovers her mother's journals and she strives to find out the truth. She had left her true love to marry another and Elle is at a loss as to who it is.She travels with her friend Sadie back to the summer house to find more clues and answers. Like where all the artistry talk is about, gardens and flowers also.I received this book from a contest I won.
    • 4/5
      "Fantastic! One of the first of her books I have read; THUMBS UP! I look forward to her older works. A mixture of generations, hidden secrets, summer love, revisiting the past...setting in Buckhead area Atlanta and Alabama...a must read - highly recommend as hard to put down! "
    • 5/5
      I loved this book – almost as much as I liked her “Between the Tides.” Once again, lots of lessons in the book – I need to read it again to write down the special thoughts. I was concerned about the end, until the very end – didn’t seem like Ellie and Hutch would get back together, Whew.”
    • 5/5
      I dearly loved this book. It pulled at my heartstrings, made me teary-eyed, and left me hopeful. What more could I ask for?Coming Up For Air is such an appropriate title for this book. It relates to an amazing phenomena that happens at the Summer House, and also to Ellie herself, stagnant in a suffocating marriage and desperate for air. It is the mystery she finds in her late mother's journal that is her catalyst. In uncovering her mother's secret life, those missing years in the early 1960s, and the impact they had on her, Ellie rediscovers herself.This was a beautifully written novel about love lost and found again. About heartbreak and hope. With a well-drawn cast of characters and a magical setting, it was easy to be absorbed in the story. Keep the tissues handy!
    • 5/5
      I really liked this story and the way Patti Henry told it. I liked the way she interwove Ellie's story with that of Ellie's mother, the essence of small town and old society, the insights into love, marriage, the human heart and soul. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time.
    • 4/5
      This is a story about choices, discovery and saving your own life. Her mother's sudden death sends Ellie on a journey to uncover a pivotal period in her mother's life and to reexamine her own. At age nine, Ellie re-wrote Cinderella - tired of waiting for her prince to come, she saves herself. Years later she finds her mother saved the drawing in her journal & rediscovers the story. It leads to a re-examining of her own life choices and how she wants to live the rest of her life. The author lets the story unfold without resorting to easy answers. A good read.
    • 5/5
      At first I thought that I would not like it, but I started reading it and couldn't put it down. I'm usually reading young adult, so it was a surprise to me that I was reading this book, and I was loving it. I really liked it and I recommended to everyone. I liked the characters (especially Hutch), and I liked the story line. I would like to read more books by the same Author.
    • 4/5
      Bought for MyselfOverall Rating 4.25Character Rating 4.25Story Rating 4.25NOTE: I admit I picked up this book because I met Patti Callahan Henry at a Book Signing. She was funny, genuine, and personable---all attributes that come across in her writing. It was a great venture outside my normal reading comforts!What I Loved: This book was written for every daughter that isn't/wasn't/can't be sure they have/are/could live up the perceived expectations of their mothers. Even though this book is set in the south, I think everyone who has been a daughter and/or has a daughter could identify with the story. The most wonderful thing in Coming Up for Air is the connection formed through a few journal entries that Ellie finds in a journal that her mother Lillian kept. Even though there is only one entry a year (every New Years Eve), the story that unfolds is richly told and very emotional. Grab a hanky, you will need it at points. I don't want to give away any plot points but there are several interactions that tugged at my heart.What I Liked: So many of the questions that Coming Up for Air asks are built to make you think! I don't think it was probably done on purpose but the story is a good catalyst for remembering to live your life fully and truly.Complaints: NoneWhy I Gave it a 4.25: Contemporary Fiction is not something that general lands on my reading radar. I am glad that this book did because it was fantastically written.
    • 4/5
      I just love southern novels, the freshness and the mysteries of family. When Ellie's mother dies she finds her diary and secrets in her mother's past that she needs answers to because she feels that she never really knew her mother. This leads her back to a childhood love and a beach house, where she discovers answers about her mother, her marriage and ultimately herself.
    • 5/5
      "We all become the person we are from the person we were"- Uncle Cotton. I thought this quote from the book really fit well with the story!Coming Up for Air is about a daughter who is determined to figure out her mothers past. Ellie's mother passed away and that is when she finds an old journal that her mother would write in every New Years Eve. After reading the journal, Ellie becomes determined to find out who this 'him' person her mothers mentions. That is when she leaves her home and moves to a Summer House in Alabama. She is in search of Him and answers to questions she has about her mothers past. She is in search for the truth and the past that her mother never mentioned before to anyone. At times I was not a fan of Ellie. She came off as selfish at times, for leaving her husband and family, but then at times I thought that everyone has a different way of handling their grief. So I was half and half on her character. But putting aside that, I really enjoyed this book. I think this book has great meaning and insight in it. There were so many quotes and things that happen that make you think. Overall, great book!!
    • 5/5
      "Coming Up for Air" by Patti Callahan Henry is a beautiful story about reconciling your past with your present. Ellie's mother Lillian has passed away, and while Ellie is taking care of, and sorting through, her belongings she comes across her mother's journal locked away from the eyes of the world. This discovery raises many questions for Ellie who, in order to find answers for them, decides to leave her home and husband in Atlanta to travel to Alabama to stay with her mother's best friend, Miss Birdie. In the meantime, Ellie's ex-boyfriend, and her first-love, surprises her by showing up at her mother's funeral - it turns out that he is doing a documentary on ten women and Lillian, Ellie's mother, is one of them.So together Ellie and Hutch try and uncover the real Lillian, before she was a mother and a wife, who she really was. And in trying to uncover the mysteries of her mother's past, Ellie learns a lot about her own self, her marriage and her life. It is this journey within her own self, and coming to the conclusions that she does, that results in Ellie's "Coming Up For Air".Patti Callahan Henry is indeed, as the blurb suggests, a tour de force. When I won this novel, and looking at it's cover, I thought it would be a sugary sweet, rot your teeth out sweet, kind of a novel. But I was pleasantly shocked to find out that it is nothing of the sort. Although author Patti Callahan Henry sure knows how to spin a romantic tale, she knows its place in the narrative, and never forces the romance beyond its bounds. Although, I must admit, this author definitely knows how to characterize the dynamics between different relationships. And although the narrative deals with the Civil Rights Movement, ethics and social inequities, it never ends up being preachy or tedious. I also love that this tale is set in the South - anywhere else, and this story may have fallen flat. I love the dialect, the way of life, and the tales/stories that emerge from the South - they have a culture of their own down there, and it is absolutely beautiful to read about.All in all, "Coming Up For Air" really was like coming up for air for me. My past few reads have been really fast-paced thrillers. This books incorporates some mystery into its narrative and is very well-paced, but it is far more about the characters within the novel, than it is about the mystery to be uncovered. I loved being able to connect with Ellie on various levels, and at times with Lillian as well. This book was a breath of fresh air, and I am really looking forward to more by author Patti Callahan Henry. It's a beautifully written novel, and one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading about family dynamics, family secrets, the Civil Rights Movement, or generally about "the South". Enjoy! :)
    • 3/5
      I received this book as a Goodreads First Reads! The first edition will be released in Sept. 2011.Overall, I liked this book. It is chick lit through and through with a familiar theme of “dissatisfied” women in their marriages. Both mother and daughter cannot seem to let go of the past and “young love” and the fantasy (life would be so perfect if…) that goes along with it. In this area of their lives they both seemed silly and immature. The descriptions of Bayside, AL were beautiful and gave the book a wonderful, vacation like atmosphere. I especially enjoyed the description of Jubilee. It was a good summer read that moved along at a nice pace.