Dirty Laundry

 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is a Christmas story set in Ireland, in the 1990's.  The story revolves around Bill Furlong.  The reader learns about his upbringing, which made him the good man he is revealed to be, in the end.

He owns a business delivering fuel.  In the process of his work, he delivers to a convent, which concerns him.  This convent takes in unwed mothers and by the look of the mothers, they aren't treated very well.  This is the story of the Magdalene Laundries.  

Bill finds a girl hiding and brings her home with him.  That's the end of the story.  It is fiction but I would have liked to know how Bill's family accepted the girl.  What became of her?

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

 The first book on my Book Club's reading list is Foster by Claire Keegan.  I thought I'd get a head start because the book is quite popular and I might not have it read by Sept.

That's a real laugh.  This book is so small; I finished reading it in two hours.  The story tells the tale of a little Irish girl living in Ireland.  The family is large and the mother is expecting a baby.  The family sends the child to live with relatives for the summer.

The girl loves it.  The lady and her husband dote on her; quite the change from her big family.  The girl and lady do chores together, shop together, go to church together.  

At the end of summer, the girl goes home, very reluctantly.  

Strange story.  I don't know whether I liked it or not.