The Tall Pine Polka

This is the kind of book you save to give to your sister or best friend. It's a great read, very interesting characters. Both the men and the women are three dimensional and grow throughout the book. Having grown up in Los Angeles, I can appreciate the movie ambiance. Lankvik gets it down pretty well, with a good understanding of the peculiar hold that tinseltown sometimes gets on folks. Yet, it isn't one of the nine million Hollywood noir books that have gone on so tediously elsewhere. The people are real people, in Hollywood or in Minnesota.I found myself thinking about the book all during the workday, wondering if it would be possible to sneak away to read one more chapter before night time. Now that's a book!

The story revolve round a group of lively coffee-lovers in a small town, the Tall Pine. Central to the story is the lovable Fenny Ness and her friend Lee. A summary of the story will not do justice to the book as all the characters in the book, no matter how small their roles were, made the whole book came alive. The story brought in Hollywood, romance and rivalry, and traces of tragedies, but through them all, the characters remained true to themselves and their beliefs. The whole book is so lively, so lovable that I found it hard to put down.Reading the book, I felt as if I know Fenny, Bill, Lee and gang all my life, sharing their laughter and tears. It was as if I am part of Cup O¡¦Delight. It made me feel inspired and encouraged at the thought that there is some place in the world where faults are accepted, where rules can be broken gracefully and where love conquers all.

This is a well written, thoughtful novel. Although not as obviously funny as Patty Jane's House of Curl, it still contains unique characters and off the wall situations. It is well worth the read.

Lorna Landvik has this way of creating characters that are realistically eccentric. I live in the northwoods of MN and boy do I wish I had the community that the folks in Tall Pine Polka had. It's refreshing that Friendship is at its core, not just love relationships.

Lorna Lanvick has done it again! The characters become very good friends and it almost hurts when the book is over. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Michael Lee West, Faith Sullivan or Sandra Dallas. Oh by the way Ms Landvick, if you read this review would you please, please send me the recipe for O'Delight? I would give anything to taste a cup of coffee that knocks me off my seat!