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The Owl & Moon Café
April 2007 - Carole C. Deily
The Owl & Moon Café
(Simon and Schuster, 2006)
by Jo-Ann Mapson
It was a bad day for Mariah Moon when, due to budget cuts, she lost her job as assistant professor of sociology at a university. She had been teaching there for eight years and really depended on her salary for her car payments, condo rent, and especially for her 12-year-old daughter Lindsey's tuition at Country Day Academy for Girls.
Mariah's mother, Allegra, owned and operated the Owl & Moon Café in Pacific Grove, California, and Mariah would soon be waiting tables there – again. The popular restaurant served organic soups, salads, and other delicious fare. It was a local landmark and a four-generation family business with Allegra's mother, Gammy, as well as Lindsey helping out.
These four very different women make an interesting cast of characters. While Mariah is sensible and intellectual, she is uptight and has unresolved issues with her mother. Allegra is a free spirit, whose youth was spent during the hippie era. Gammy is a church-going traditionalist who is enthusiastic, but at her age she is getting tired. Lindsey is an excellent student interested in winning a science competition. Her hero is Carl Sagan.
Mariah and Lindsey move back home to save money. Mariah soon meets an interesting man from Scotland who patronizes the café. Allegra becomes ill, but finds her doctor is an old boyfriend she had lost touch with. Lindsey makes a wonderful new school friend and they work together on a highly unconventional science project. Gammy just tries to keep up and offer support to those who need it (which sooner or later includes everybody).
The characters soon become like close friends to the reader in this book full of life, love, and the search for a happy ending.
Carole C. Deily is a librarian and avid reader. Her reviews appear monthly in Plano Profile.
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