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    Small Blessings: A Novel
    Small Blessings: A Novel
    Small Blessings: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Small Blessings: A Novel

    Written by Martha Woodroof

    Narrated by Lorelei King

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From debut novelist Martha Woodroof comes an inspiring tale of a small-town college professor, a remarkable new woman at the bookshop, and the ten-year-old son he never knew he had.


    Tom Putnam has resigned himself to a quiet and half-fulfilled life. An English professor in a sleepy college town, he spends his days browsing the Shakespeare shelves at the campus bookstore, managing the oddball faculty in his department and caring, alongside his formidable mother-in-law, for his wife Marjory, a fragile shut-in with unrelenting neuroses, a condition exacerbated by her discovery of Tom's brief and misguided affair with a visiting poetess a decade earlier.

    Then, one evening at the bookstore, Tom and Marjory meet Rose Callahan, the shop's charming new hire, and Marjory invites Rose to their home for dinner, out of the blue, her first social interaction since her breakdown. Tom wonders if it's a sign that change is on the horizon, a feeling confirmed upon his return home, where he opens a letter from his former paramour, informing him he'd fathered a son who is heading Tom's way on a train. His mind races at the possibility of having a family after so many years of loneliness. And it becomes clear change is coming whether Tom's ready or not.

    Martha Woodroof's Small Blessings is funny, heart-warming and poignant, with a charmingly imperfect cast of cinema-ready characters. Listeners will fall in love with the novel's wonderfully optimistic heart that reminds us that sometimes, when it feels like life is veering irrevocably off track, the track changes in ways we never could have imagined.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateAug 12, 2014
    ISBN9781427244147
    Author

    Martha Woodroof

    MARTHA WOODROOF was born in the South, went to boarding school and college in New England, ran away to Texas for a while, then fetched up in Virginia. She has written for NPR, npr.org, Marketplace and Weekend America, and for the Virginia Foundation for Humanities Radio Feature Bureau. Her print essays have appeared in such newspapers as the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Small Blessings is her debut novel. She lives with her husband in the Shenandoah Valley. Their closest neighbors are cows.

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    Reviews for Small Blessings

    4/5

    114 ratings28 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This book was a little different. Tom Putnam is married to Marjorie but she is mentally ill and her inability to deal with any of the simple basics of life. This has curtailed not only her life but Tom’s and her mother’s who also lives with them. Tom has remain devoted to his 20 year marriage except for one affair 10 years ago. They all live rather quiet, staid lives on the college campus where Tom teaches Shakespeare. Then in the course of a couple of days Marjorie goes out to a college party, a new woman comes to work in the college bookstore, Tom learns he has a son and he is on his way by train to come for a visit. Whew!But through all of this Tom remains calm. Very, very calm. Nothing seems to phase him. I don’t want to spoil too many plot points but let me just write that through death, drunks, small boys and bouts of insanity Tom remains the same. Only once I believe does he show any passionate emotion and I really found this disconcerting considering all that goes on in his life. He just rolls along accepting all that happens no matter what.Rose, the new woman that comes to the campus is a ray of light. EVERYONE loves her and she is like a fairy distributing sweetness and light. Like Tom she is very much a one note character. In fact most of the characters lack any real development even as some of them. The plot was a bit lacking for the most part and the sub plots did little to help move the story along.I kept hoping for explanations for various actions but rather like Tom things just ambled along with no fuss and no bother.
    • 3/5
      I have to admit, I was a little dubious about this book initially, especially when two of the characters are so summarily and conveniently dispatched early in the novel, to allow a romance to bloom between the two main characters, Tom and Rose. And there we're a lot of other improbable, coincidental plot twists here that stretched the book's credulity. But despite all that, I eventually gave in and got totally engaged with the characters and the setting, a small women's college in the Virginia Blueridge. It's an idyllic campus and community, one that I'd like to imagine still exists, but (as an English professor myself) suspect is pure fantasy. But it's a charming, warm fantasy, with a happy ending, and frankly, sometimes that's just what I want to read. Note: I received this book as a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      A very charming little novel, full of quirky and tormented characters. The author reminds you to find joy in everyday things and to cherish the small blessings in life.!!! "one human being, with the best intentions in the world, cannot fix what is wrong with someone else.""the worst thing you can do in life is turn away from it.""an awful lot of people had their hearts broken in ways they could have easily avoided.""it was people's small sins, unshriven, that became their damnation."
    • 4/5
      I want to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced e-copy of this book.

      The cover of the book attracted my attention and I looked at the book summary from St. Martin's Press and thought...I have found a delightful lighthearted story that would entertain me with a quirky cast of characters from a collegiate atmosphere.

      The more I read, the more I learned; this was going to be a heartfelt human nature story. It wasn't a funny fluffy read but it wasn't dark or dire.

      It was your professor with a tragic family life. It was a little boy whose life was turned upside down. It is a number of people whose complicated life story overlaps others with similar complex life histories. Everyone has made decisions in life that form the basis for more decisions; some good and others bad.

      There are moments of compassion and empathy. There are moments of sadness and regret. In the end it was so much more than a beach book.

      It was a fast read and I enjoyed it very much.
    • 2/5
      I think I 'm missing something here. Midway through the book, I checked to see if it was self-published because it seemed too amateurish. (It isn't. Self-published, that is). I think the book is sort of aiming for madcap farce, but it doesn't really carry-through. Certainly the events are farcical, but the whole thing falls flat. The characters themselves are very one-dimensional and not very believable especially in the events they face. It is the start of a new school year on a small, unnamed college campus in Charlottesville and in the space of the first week of school, Professor Tom Putnam's mentally ill wife Marjory dies, Rose Callahan comes to work in the school bookstore as a "community builder" and Tom learns he has a young son, Henry through a brief affair, and Henry is arriving alone by train imminently and the mother/mistress is not to be contacted. Putnam takes all this upheaval in his life at completely surface level. The arrival of Rose is supposed to be some harbinger of magical change, like Mary Poppins...she is the only one Marjory responds to in 20 years of awkward social interaction -- before she drives her car off a cliff, that is. Things just don't add up and they also don't ring true. Add in a couple wacky minor characters, Iris Benson, the resident feminist scholar/professor who turns everything into an issue, and Russell Jacobs, the fop-ish old school, tweed, elbow-patch professor, who both happen to be raging alcoholics at some point in the story, and Tom's tough-as-nails, but big-hearted mother-in-law/lawyer, Agnes Tattle and the story is stretched in too many directions to stick with any conviction. The good news is a happy ending if you can guess what that would be with all the balls in the air, which the author manages, just barely not to drop.
    • 4/5
      A little to compact, but I loved it!
    • 3/5
      A light and somewhat unbelievable story about a professor who, after years in an unhappy marriage, meets a woman who steals his heart and finds out he has a ten-year-old son. Due to circumstances beyond his control, Tom's marriage is over and he is free to start a new relationship with Rose Callahan, the breath of fresh air in the close-knit community of the college who has a history of never staying too long in one place. Tom is also faced with the arrival of little Henry. Fortunately, his mother-in-law is supportive and her knowledge of the law proves useful. The novel involves serious issues but deals with them in a light-handed manner. The narrator is competent.
    • 3/5
      This was a lovely little escape for a while, but I found the characters too flawless, the romance too quick, and the coincidences too frequent. There wasn't any conflict, given that the only thing that would have produced a realistic conflict was dispatched within the first couple of chapters. Everything was tied up in a neat little bow at the end, which sometimes can be very satisfying... but in this case, it just felt like the main characters were handed everything they wanted without having to actually DO anything to make it happen.

      I loved the college town, though. It reminded me of the one I lived in for a few years in the 80s and 90s. I'm not sure towns like that really exist anymore, but it was nice to visit one in a book.
    • 4/5
      Small Blessings smoothly moves through an engaging plot, with many memorable personalities loving and clashing. It is predictable, except for Henry's arrival! It would warrant Five Stars except for too much plot stretching with Rose's angst and the strange fallout from a professor, however alcoholic, holding a child and a woman hostage with a gun. He is then apparently offered his job to keep if he goes into treatment! Say What?!?
    • 3/5
      A very nice, sweet book. I enjoyed reading this character driven story and would recommend it to those who just want a gentle tale.
    • 4/5
      This is light 'feel-good' reading, located down the romance end of the relationships spectrum. It won't win the Nobel prize (or even a Pulitzer) but it has probably sold quite a few copies to people who, like me, need a bit of cheering up. It has a plot that it about 75% unbelievable, but it is made worth reading by the presence of characters in whom the reader can see his own flaws and weaknesses and find then to be forgiven.
    • 5/5
      This heartwarming story practically oozes charm and hope from each page. Tom Putnam has resigned himself to a life of painstakingly caring for his wife who suffers from a number of neuroses. Happiness is something he doesn’t even consider anymore. He teaches English at a small college, and the faculty and students are all aware of the burden he bears. But then Rose Callahan is hired to manage the college bookstore, and no one’s life is ever the same again. A perplexing complication to Tom’s life begins with a letter first telling him he is the father of a ten-year-old boy, Henry, the result of a brief affair, and that said boy is on a train, coming to stay with Tom. Tom’s predictable days are over in ways he could never imagine. These characters may have flaws that they must overcome, but this novel is pretty nearly perfect. An enchanting story that shows that fairy-tale endings can still be found in everyday lives.
    • 4/5
      This is such a sweet gentle book, sometimes, just what I need. The story takes place on a college campus. Tom Putnam lives with his wife and her mother on campus. It's a very quiet and small life since his fragile wife struggles with just living each day. Agnes, her mother moved in years ago to help Tom take care of Marjory. Then, one evening, at the college bookstore Tom and Marjory meet the new employee, Rose Callahan and Marjory, very out of character, invites Rose home to dinner. This is such a heart warming story with some wacky characters (why do I feel that college professors could actually be slightly wacky?). It's optimistic which is certainly rare in this day and age. I just plain enjoyed this heartwarming story and I'm so glad I read it!
    • 5/5
      Another new find, this is Martha Woodroof's debut novel, and I hope she is busy writing her next because I truly loved her style. The book kept you moving along with different little plots, a story of people on a small college campus melding together, and also took us to the campus bookstore, no other place I'd rather be. I do love the premise of keeping track of our "small blessings", great book!
    • 5/5
      Great book. Really loved this book.
    • 3/5
      This book was a little different. Tom Putnam is married to Marjorie but she is mentally ill and her inability to deal with any of the simple basics of life. This has curtailed not only her life but Tom’s and her mother’s who also lives with them. Tom has remain devoted to his 20 year marriage except for one affair 10 years ago. They all live rather quiet, staid lives on the college campus where Tom teaches Shakespeare. Then in the course of a couple of days Marjorie goes out to a college party, a new woman comes to work in the college bookstore, Tom learns he has a son and he is on his way by train to come for a visit. Whew!But through all of this Tom remains calm. Very, very calm. Nothing seems to phase him. I don’t want to spoil too many plot points but let me just write that through death, drunks, small boys and bouts of insanity Tom remains the same. Only once I believe does he show any passionate emotion and I really found this disconcerting considering all that goes on in his life. He just rolls along accepting all that happens no matter what.Rose, the new woman that comes to the campus is a ray of light. EVERYONE loves her and she is like a fairy distributing sweetness and light. Like Tom she is very much a one note character. In fact most of the characters lack any real development even as some of them. The plot was a bit lacking for the most part and the sub plots did little to help move the story along.I kept hoping for explanations for various actions but rather like Tom things just ambled along with no fuss and no bother.
    • 5/5
      I loved the way that each character in this novel had to face their vulnerability and be willing to stay there in the hope that true connection would happen. All the good things in this story happened because the people in the story were willing to open themselves up and be honest and hopeful. While truly difficult things made up the environment of the story, the grace of love and acceptance made this story a joy to read.
    • 4/5
      A touching, heartwarming story about family, loss, and new beginnings.
    • 3/5
      At the start I would have thought I would give this book four stars.However,it just meandered too much into Lifetime moviedom.I can actually see this being made into a movie.Some books seem to be written for just that purpose.It was a nice,sweet story just not a memorable book.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable predictability! This novel reminded me of The Rosie Project, an earlier feel-good-almost-chick-lit-but-not-quite. It takes place on the campus of a Virginia women's college (the author went to Sweetbriar) populated by sensitive professors and a bookstore central to campus life. Rose drifts in from her travels to become the book store's community outreacher and she's a great character, smart and possessing of something undefinable that draws everyone to her. Marjory and her husband Tom fall under her spell, problematic because they are married and because Rose does not believe in settling down. Then there's Henry, a biracial child who turns out to be Tom's son in name only. And Agnes, Tom's mother in law. And Russell and Iris, two alcoholic professors and sworn enemies. Surprisingly enough, no dogs or cats intervening divinely to make everything right at the end.Woodroof is a good writer and I looked forward to bedtime and this novel for the three nights it took me to finish it. I'm afraid it will imbed itself into my memory, mostly for the gentle pleasure in reading it and because I still can't believe that I fell for having such loose ends tied so tightly at the conclusion.
    • 4/5
      As you may have guessed,Small Blessings: A Novel by Martha Woodroof is a nice story. This is a nice story about nice, normal everyday people. And that is exactly what makes it interesting. Nice normal people have a lot more going on in their lives that you don't see than the things that you do. Tom and Marjory Putnam live in a small home on a college campus. Agnes Tuttle lives with them. She is Marjory's mother. Agnus is a devoted mother who gave up a hard earned career as a lawyer to come and help to care for her daughter. Tom has been a good husband. Good in ways his friends can only begin to guess. He fell in love with Marjory and married her, even though he knew that she was broken on the inside. She was broken in even more ways than Tom or Agnes knew. When it became clear that life itself was breaking Marjory more each day, Agnes came to help care for her daughter. Marjory had some problems interacting with others, and was happiest safe at home with her scrapbooks and her familiar and comforting surroundings. Tom was good and kind to her, always. There was a brief lapse, perhaps when Tom himself was feeling a little unmoored, unloved and unhappy, and he allowed himself one brief affair. It lasted only weeks, and in the end it meant nothing, but finding out about this lapse seemed to take away what was left of Marjory, leaving only an empty shell who went through the motions, and was cared for by two people who did love her.But even though there was love, there was little that could be called happiness in the Putnam home. There were a lot of others on campus as well. All straight forward, well educated, or striving to be educated people who carried on with the business of life, appearing to not have a single care in the world. They taught or attended class, they worked at their jobs and they met socially often as expected in the village that was the campus. But remember, every day, everyone we meet carries more within them than they allow the world to see. So each of these normal people had struggles of one kind or another. They simply held them close and pretended to be what they were willing to allow the world to see. And all was well. One day, a bright light seemed to shine over the college. The light came in the form of Rose Callahan. She arrived to do her job in the bookstore, and suddenly people she met seemed to feel happier. Even Rose herself felt happier. This was a mystery to her, because Rose knew just how much she hid from the world, it just seemed that here, in this place, her light shone brighter. And because of Rose, and her light and heart, things began to change. Even the broken seemed to mend.
    • 4/5
      A very charming little novel, full of quirky and tormented characters. The author reminds you to find joy in everyday things and to cherish the small blessings in life.!!! "one human being, with the best intentions in the world, cannot fix what is wrong with someone else.""the worst thing you can do in life is turn away from it.""an awful lot of people had their hearts broken in ways they could have easily avoided.""it was people's small sins, unshriven, that became their damnation."
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a group of people living in a small university town in Virginia. Tom Putnam is an unassuming professor whose life revolves around work and looking out after his wife who suffers from a number of debilitating neuroses. His life is turned around after an unexpected family event and after the arrival of Henry, a son he didn’t know he had. Another arrival, that of Rose Callahan, the new employee at the campus bookstore, also changes the lives of many.The plot has a number of twists and turns, some of which are rather unrealistic. The amount of chance and coincidence is occasionally suspect. One event, a major twist near the end, left this reader shaking her head; it is precipitated by behaviour that is totally out of character and seems intended to add suspense, but it is just too jarring. The ending is predictable and ties everything into a tidy, neat package.This book is a gentle, unchallenging read. It does not require the reader to ponder profound philosophical ideas though it does suggest that people need to appreciate life’s small blessings. Simple things like a conversation can be enough “to build a bearable day on.” “Small pleasures, deeply enjoyed . . . [provide] the true joy of living.”The characters are all rather quirky and all have distinct personality traits. My complaint with regards to characterization is that Tom is just too good to be true. He is a “sweet, dutiful, loyal guy” who is “one of the rare few who had the courage to accept – without malice – other people exactly as they were.” His 20-year marriage has been dysfunctional because of his wife’s mental illness; his is a marriage “anyone except for Tom would have fled years ago.” When a friend behaves in a way that is meant to hurt Tom, Tom sees the behaviour as a cry for help and chastises himself for not having been sufficiently supportive: “The truth was that he, Tom Putnam, had been an iffy friend.” Tom is not perfect; his indecisiveness, for example, can be truly annoying, but his goodness knows no bounds and everyone holds him in high esteem. A little less shine on his armour would have made him more convincing.I can see this novel as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. It has lovable characters about whom the reader comes to care. There are poignant moments as well as humourous ones. It has the requisite charm and warm-heartedness with a simple message that everyone can appreciate. Note: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      When Rose first arrives, a thirty-something unmarried woman, at the college bookstore where she has been hired, she manages to charm everyone in her path. I had a few inner doubts, wondering if this book was going to be one of those unrealistic all sweetness and light novels. As I read on though all those doubts disappeared. These are all characters who on the surface seem to be doing quite well, but underneath are dealing with the same hopes and fears many of us have to face.An unexpected death and the arrival of six year old Henry will change things in a big way for all the characters. These are ordinary people trying to come to terms with the unusual circumstances they now find their selves involved in. I really loved the warmth and caring Woodruff shows in portraying these people, the understanding and doubts that make them fully fleshed people. My favorite character though is Agnes, Tom's mother in law, she has suffered a tragedy in her past, she is wise, caring and funny. How all these characters join together, help each othe3 but grow individually is what made this novel a special one for this reader. Positive novels, although everyone does not get what they want by book's end, are far and few between. Told with a great deal of humor this was a wonderful novel. The title small blessings reminded me of my grandmother who always told us to be grateful form the small things we are given. Readers who like [author:Anne Tyler|457], [author:Jeannie Ray|823815] and [author:Elizabeth Berg|3529], may find much here to admire.ARC from NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      The word that comes to mind on finishing this book is delightful. This was not a complex or complicated story, which to me felt like a breath of fresh air. Many of the books that I have read recently have multiple twists and turns, complex and confusing characters, and plots that jump around from present to past and back, often without warning. "Small Blessings", as the name recalls, is a story that incorporates people with the ability to see the good around them, even when things don't seem to be going as planned. One of the keys to this book is this kindness found in all of the main characters. They think well of others and are willing to accept them as they are, even making allowances for their shortcomings. The strength of the relationships is also impressive. These are true friendships that help the characters make it through even the most difficult of times. (Yes, there are some sad, even painful moments)My favorite character is Henry, a young boy who has the rug pulled out from under him in his young years, yet still has the ability to have faith and trust in the power of love. He is the turning point and focus of the whole story, and through his young eyes and those of some of the older people in the book, we see how this hope and faith can change hearts.Although it may sound like this is a bit of a "chick lit" book, it really isn't. The author has written a strong and realist story. I recommend this book as a break from some of the complex fiction that is currently very popular. Books like "Gone Girl", "The Goldfinch", or "Doctor Sleep" may keep me on the edge of my seat, but that's not always what I want when I pick a book. Sometimes I just want to read about people who seem real and work through their problems with kindness and respect. "Small Blessings" is a gem of a story that reminded me that sometimes it's not about getting even or even doing what makes sense to many people, but rather looking for that silver lining and being willing to take the chances sometimes needed to find it.
    • 4/5
      What a charming and delightful book - one which I just could not put down. In her debut novel, Martha Woodroof shines as a gifted writer and imaginative storyteller. Her characters are imperfect and beautfully flawed - much the way we imagine ourselves. A strong sense of family love and care among the characters, however non-traditional those relationships may be, binds the rich fabric of this well-told story. This book lives up to its title and by it, I have been richly blessed. Synopsis:Tom Putnam has resigned himself to a quiet and half-fulfilled life. An English professor in a sleepy college town, he spends his days browsing the Shakespeare shelves at the campus bookstore, managing the oddball faculty in his department and caring, alongside his formidable mother-in-law, for his wife Marjory, a fragile shut-in with unrelenting neuroses, a condition exacerbated by her discovery of Tom’s brief and misguided affair with a visiting poetess a decade earlier.Then, one evening at the bookstore, Tom and Marjory meet Rose Callahan, the shop's charming new hire, and Marjory invites Rose to their home for dinner, out of the blue, her first social interaction since her breakdown. Tom wonders if it’s a sign that change is on the horizon, a feeling confirmed upon his return home, where he opens a letter from his former paramour, informing him he'd fathered a son who is heading Tom's way on a train. His mind races at the possibility of having a family after so many years of loneliness. And it becomes clear change is coming whether Tom’s ready or not.
    • 5/5
      I received an advanced copy of this book from St. Martins Press through NetGalley.Tom has been muddling his way through life, without thinking and without feeling, just trying to get through one day at a time. He, along with his mother-in-law Agnes, is trying to take care of his mentally unstable wife. Marjory, who is paranoid and incapable of going outside of the house on her own, has been Tom’s responsibility for the past twenty years. One day an encounter with a cheerful and optimistic new employee at the local college bookstore changes all of their lives. During the same week, Tom receives a letter from a past lover saying that he is the father of a 10 year-old boy named Henry who is being sent to live with him. How can this much change possibly happen to a person who was leading such a quiet and unassuming life?This book is rich with well-rounded character s with whom you cannot help but admire. Although Tom is clearly caught in a loveless marriage, he has made the ultimate sacrifice by never abandoning his wife. Marjory’s mother Ages, who became a widow and a single mother at a very young age, has a resilience that many of us would envy. Rose works at the University bookshop and has a gift for bringing out the best qualities in everyone around her. Henry is a 10 year-old boy that is sweet and kind and flourishes in a home where he is loved and wanted. Even the lesser characters, such as Russell and Iris who are also on the university faculty, have their own problems and struggles that enrich the storyline.Sometimes a book begins slowly but has a strong ending. Sometimes a book beings strongly but the ending is weak. Sometimes a book has both a strong beginning and ending but the middle lags. That is absolutely not the case with SMALL BLESSINGS. There are twists and turns and unexpected surprises that one encounters throughout all of the wonderfully written prose. I loved every single page of this book, which is a very rare thing to say. Martha Woodroof has written a book that everyone needs to include on their summer reading list.
    • 4/5
      Delightful light readingAbsolutely enchanting! This book gives the reader a unique perspective on what family is. The story of a college professor, a bookstore manager, and a small boy, along with various supporting characters, the plot is fresh and surprising. I really expected something more traditional and overdone. Occasionally the author gives a gentle poke at society's rules and expectations, but doesn't drag up a soap box to lecture from. You stay amused as secrets are revealed one by one. A very nice story.