Mia Fredrickson describes herself as a “madwoman” after her husband Boris requests a “pause” in their relationship. The "pause" is a much younger French woman. She is intelligent and attractive with “significant breasts that were real”. Alone for the first time in years Mia feels like her life is has been missing something. Soon she will find out just what that something is.

All alone and without her husband Mia becomes drawn into the lives of those around her. Her mother, with her group of Motherly female friends, provides a constant source of support for Mia, but also gives her a poignant look into the future. Her daughter Daisy is full of the youthful exuberance Mia has lost somewhere down the line during the last 55 years.

The family next door suffice as Mia's daily soap opera with their slamming doors and loud hideous swearing. After another stormy night the abusive husband leaves and Mia offers her neighbor Lola comfort and solace in her home.

As Mia begins to deal with her own loss and finding that something she is missing. A class of seven teenage girls await her. They are full of all the viciousness and ugliness that is so prevalent in pubescent girls. Mia's poetry workshop turns out to be the perfect environment for the emergence of ghoulish behavior she has been missing and needing in her life.

This is a sophisticated and complex novel. There are phrases that have to be read again just for their sheer depth and beauty.

The Summer Without Men is a story for women about women or men who don't understand women. Mia and Lola both suffer mistreatment at the hands of the men in theirs lives. However the men are insignificant in this novel. Ultimately it is about the strength of women and their ability to draw strength from each other. They are able piece together the missing parts of their lives they didn't know they had lost.

The acclaimed author of 'Endless Love' and 'A Ship Made of Paper' delivers a gripping and provocative psychological thriller of morality and manhood, choice and fate. Paul has been on his own since he was a teenager. He has done it all, hunted for food in Alaska, fought forest fires, and been deputized in a manhunt for a kidnapper in South Dakota. He has often thought his life had no particular rhyme nor reason, touched only by transient strangers. Then he meets the beautiful, intelligent, loving Kate and her daughter, Ruby, who offer order and stability to his world. But Paul is a man of deep convictions, and the compromises we all make to get along in the world elude him. On his way home after getting fired from his job remodeling a luxurious Manhattan apartment, Paul stops off at a camp grounds along the highway to gather his thoughts. Instead of peace, he finds a man savagely beating his dog, forcing Paul to make a fateful decision that will change everything.

With the psychological acuity and razor-sharp prose for which he has been celebrated. Scott Spence takes us on an unforgettable journey of manhood lost, and found.

This was a very moving book. I started it and then just had to finish it! It has everything you need for a wonderful read, it left me with a tear in my eye and a heart warmed from the inside out.

This book has a food theme as does her other book The Lost Recipe for Happiness. I am not a great cook but The Secret of Everything just awakens a need in me to become one, it is amazing what food can do ;o). I had instant connection to the books characters. The location makes me want to book a flight to New Mexico tomorrow. Photography was another pastime in this book that I really enjoyed. I am also a sucker for happy endings and this book just delighted me with just the right kind of Happy Ending I could think about long after I finished the last page!