St. Barts 2017 #5 - A great island read for my island vacation.....for the first year, no Elisabeth Ogilvie....decided to go with the next one from the lesser known Ruth Moore. Good yarn following the goings on in the 1930's on Spoonhandle and the very nearby smaller Little Spoon Island off of the coast of Maine. 4 adult siblings dominate the story.....the conniving money-grubber Pete, the mean-spirited selfish matriarch (by default) Agnes, the relatively antisocial Willie and his restless, somewhat lost younger brother Hod, both of these living alone across the clamflats on Little Spoon. A story of love, loss, and most of all, the steady seemingly unstoppable march of progress, and all that it entails for a small island community. Plenty of petty bigotry against wards of the state children, Portuguese immigrants, and forward thinking self-sufficient young women. But tons of goodness lurking in the background to battle all of that.....just like in our lives and communities today. The humanity comes shining through as the drum-beat of progress disrupts much of everyone's life, but it is a healthy mix of good and bad....although much of the 'bad' is nothing more than negative resistance to change rather than actual bad. A longer read than i anticipated, but enjoyed it very much. ( )