Midnight Supper at the Rise and Shine

by Tara Woolpy

Bad luck and worse choices—that’s Irene. She’s been a widow half her life and now splits her time between waitressing at the Rise and Shine café and singing in an oldies cover band. And she’s having an affair with a married man—something that even her eclectic, super liberal family can’t condone.

She’d be the first one to admit she has faults, but she’s not a bigot. The genetic pool in her nuclear family spans the globe. And it’s not that she’s prejudiced against people with disabilities but that doctors and wheelchairs give her the heebie-jeebies. So when a cute guy in a chair keeps showing up in the restaurant, she’s clumsy, awkward and strangely drawn. Can Irene let go of the past or is she too emotionally broken to find a future worth the risk?

300 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 2015

About the author

Under various names, Tara Woolpy has been writing and publishing fiction for over thirty years. Tara earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Whitworth College after which she spent a year at the Women Writers Center in Cazenovia, New York. While pursuing her writing career, she paid the rent through an astonishing number of jobs—she’s been a waitress, a shop owner, a retail clerk, a half-way house counselor and a commercial diver. Eventually, she took a midlife hiatus from writing to become an aquatic scientist. As such, she also holds a Master’s degree from Oregon State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now she teaches biology online for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and has come back to writing fiction with new passion and wonder at the long, serpentine beauty of life.

Under her own name she is the author of The Lacland series, loosely linked novels set in the fictional upper midwestern town of Lacland, including Releasing Gillian's Wolves and Raising Wild Ginger and the forthcoming Midnight Supper at the Rise and Shine, all published by Tara’s own imprint, Bats in the Boathouse Press.

In addition to the novels, her short stories and poems have appeared in Focus, Corymb, Kalliope, Alligator Juniper and the anthology The Things that Divide Us from Seal Press.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Midnight Supper at the Rise and Shine by Tara Woolpy is a delightfully charming novel set in the fictional town of Lacland. This heartwarming and thought-provoking story features a loving and supportive family whose daily lives are tightly intertwined both professionally and personally.

After her husband Greg's death, Irene Sato gave up her career as an opera singer and moved back to her small hometown with her son Adam. Although she has been widowed for twenty-four years, she has never been in another serious relationship and much to her family's dismay, she is currently having an affair with a married man. Irene works long hours in the family owned dinner and she spends her weekends playing in her brother-in-law's cover band. When Adam begins asking questions about the father he never knew, she slowly begins to realize that she has never really recovered from his death. And as if her life does not have enough complications, she cannot seem to keep her distance from newcomer Mark Redfield. Irene is uncomfortable with his disability and she has a few misconceptions about him that keep her off balance as they get to know one another.

Irene is a complex and sympathetic protagonist. She is refreshingly direct although she is sometimes a little too candid when she is talking to Mark (even though he does not seem to mind). Despite her outspokenness, Irene has a difficult time discussing her marriage and answering Adam's questions about Greg is difficult for her and their discussions bring her unresolved emotions to the surface. Equally troubling is her propensity for choosing unavailable men and Irene is becoming increasingly ashamed about her current affair. Her friendship with Mark is a bit of a turning point for her and as she begins to open up to him, Irene finally begins to heal.

One of the best aspects of the novel is the strong family bond between Irene and her extended family. The family not only works together but they live together as well. While they do not always agree with one another's decisions, they are always there for each other. The family is extremely close and everyone is very honest and open about what is going on in their lives. Their love and support for one another is unwavering and this helps them get through whatever life throws their way.

Midnight Supper at the Rise and Shine by Tara Woolpy is an engaging novel with an appealing cast of multi-dimensional characters. The storyline is quite compelling and touches on relevant social issues in a sensitive, thought-provoking manner. An absolutely wonderful story that I absolutely loved and highly recommend.

[Margie Adler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tara Woolpy writes a good story. It sometimes takes me a bit of an effort to get into it, but it's always worth it. Eventually I can't put it down. What I like best about Woolpy's novels is that they are terrific vehicles for difficult conversations. Every local library could have a series of community conversations around the issues in Woolpy's books. The books aren't preachy. They are stories of people, living in a small town. Some of them are grounded, reliable. They have big shoulders and galvanize others into community action, but they aren't perfect and their own lives haven't been either. Others are survivors, broken, fragile, maybe even horribly victimized or they've just made some bad choices, or maybe they are just a little different. In Midnight Supper at the Rise and Shine there's a host of characters living messy lives and muddling through, some more happily than others. Most of them are good and good-hearted. They not only get themselves through the day, but they reach out and make sure someone else, who needs a little caring is getting what they need. Just like real life there's a bit of evil, the potential for real danger, ignorance, intolerance. I liked Raising Wild Ginger the best of the 3 novels in the Lacland series, but I have to admit that they all kept me up at night reading to the end, and Midnight Supper like the other two is a story that compels conversation about everything from what it is like to be part of a multi-racial/multi-cultural family to why we are uncomfortable around people with physical disabilities.

[Joy E Taber]

Enjoyable!

Very entertaining. Such a diverse group of characters. I would recommend this book for anyone who has ever lost a loved one. It gives hope, makes you look at people differently. Good read.