ONE HUNDRED NAMES

Telling other people’s stories isn’t just about entertainment or news. Reporter Kitty Logan is about to learn that it’s about love, too.

After she publicly accuses an innocent teacher of having sexual relations with two students, Kitty's journalistic career lies in tatters. TV show Thirty Minutes has dropped her, vigilantes are vandalizing her door every day, her landlord wants her out, and her best friend has accused her of being a self-centered bully. Worse, her mentor, the brilliantly idiosyncratic Constance Dubois, is dying of cancer. Constance and her husband run Etcetera, a magazine devoted to real stories, not fashion trends or celebrity gossip. Without Constance’s support, Kitty will likely lose her job there, as well. But just before she dies, Constance sets Kitty on a mission to write the story she never got the chance to write herself. It’s the journalistic chance of a lifetime, but all Kitty has is a list of 100 names. Constance left her no direction, no thesis, no idea of why anyone is on the list, much less what they might have in common. When Kitty begins to call them, no one on the list has ever heard of Constance, either. Determined to honor her friend's memory, Kitty diligently continues the interviews, and soon she finds herself immersed in their extraordinarily ordinary stories. Her world quickly populates with a sweet old lady, a painfully shy butterfly expert, a hairstylist besieged by marriage proposals, an ex-convict with a mysterious new talent, an extremely dedicated gift buyer and two displaced workers seeking fame. As she staves off inquiries from her editor, Kitty buys just enough time to let this quirky crew help her fix not only her moral compass but also her love life.

Ahern (How to Fall in Love, 2013, etc.) once again spins a charming tale of redemption and romance.