The Autumn of Ruth Winters is a tender and quietly powerful story about the beauty of change at any age. Ruth’s emotional journey from isolation to connection is both moving and inspiring, reminding us that it’s never too late to open our hearts. I found myself rooting for Ruth and reflecting on how sometimes the most unexpected turns can lead to the most meaningful chapters.

It took me a chapter or so to get into this story but I am so glad I kept reading. I was thinking about another story about a bitter old woman and her family but I'm glad I was so wrong. Ruth Winters is retired, widowed, and resigned to spending the rest of her life alone in her suburban home. She likes her routine and uses it to avoid having to spend time with other people. She probably wouldn’t call herself fulfilled, but it’s too late now to go chasing happiness.
Then three things happen at a beloved niece makes a big announcement, an old flame reaches out, and her estranged sister receives life-changing news. Ruth finds herself reconnecting with people she thought were long gone from her world, as she is forced to reconsider her expectations for this phase of her life.
None of this fits into Ruth’s routine—in fact, the whole thing just blows to bits. But when Ruth starts to pick up the pieces, she discovers that maybe it’s not too late to make something new after all.

This is perfection! Honestly! This is a story about two sisters in their seventies who have been estranged for 50-odd years until one sister is diagnosed with an illness that will be fatal. These two find their way back to each other, but more importantly have an opportunity to examine their choices and to better understand each other. It is well written and engaging and most importantly makes you think about choices in your own life, insecurities, and how all of these play into the relationship you have with others. Really beautiful. Thanks NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

A very beautiful story of love, loss, and growing older. I thought it was nice to follow an older woman for once, it's a pretty rare perspective to have in literature and I really liked this book.

I love a book with a no-nonsense senior character with a sort of social story arc, and I looked forward to reading this. It was heavy with themes of aging, family and new beginnings and reconciliation within families and their dynamics.
I found it a bit too slow for my personal taste, and felt it was quite somber. This might be perfect for someone looking for an introspective and reflective book.

I listened to this audiobook alongside the book and enjoyed it.

Ruth is a retired bookkeeper that has spent most of her life doing what she thought she should do rather than what she wanted. She grew up with a little sister that lived her life exactly as she pleased. In their 20s their parents were in an accident that left Ruth taking on a lot of responsibility as her sister ran off and married for money. Fast forward 50 years and the sisters are still not talking. When Ruth hears that her sister has a life threatening illness she doesn’t know how to react. Is it time to put their differences aside and reconnect?

This is a feel good book about reinventing yourself and reimagining your life.

I love to read books about relatively ordinary people, living ordinary lives, doing ordinary things. The Autumn of Ruth Winters by Marshall Fine is exactly that. Ruth is a retired widow, who enjoys her quiet life – she lives in peaceful suburbia, she has her routine, and she has minimal contact with other people. Just how she likes it. She isn’t particularly bothered about chasing happiness, she has instead grown quite accustomed to life Just As It Is. That is, until, she encounters three bombshells (because they do always come in threes): her beloved niece announces a pregnancy (terribly exciting, of course, but equally terribly terrible, as it will mean travelling and interacting with lots more people than she’d like), an ex-lover from her youth reaches out with an attempt to rekindle his affections (she can hardly remember the last time someone petitioned for her attention), and her estranged sister calls with some tragic, life-changing news (it’s hard to muster up support for those who have so unapologetically wronged you)… With Ruth’s routine now completely decimated, she throws caution to the wind and find herself entirely out of her comfort zone, living a life she could have hardly imagined just weeks prior.

I loved reading about and getting to know Ruth – as an early twenty-something, the protagonists in the books I gravitate towards are often of a similar age to myself. Ruth has reached the age where she feels she knows exactly what she likes and is content with living out her days with minimal interruption. It doesn’t explicitly say in the book, but I think she may be neurodivergent in some way. She has a rigidity to her life that she is fearful to stray from, and initially causes her great anguish and discomfort when she is forced to. Through her discomfort, the book encourages making peace with your past (in both familial and romantic relationships), despite however strongly your instincts might challenge it. I think that it almost reads like a coming-of-age story, where Ruth is finally able to shed her inhibitions and live life a little more freely (she doesn’t get into extreme sports or anything crazy, but by the end she has certainly reached a level of content that Chapter One Ruth would have probably imagined to be impossible. At the same time, Fine’s writing is competent and witty, giving Ruth an incredibly dry, sometimes dark sense of humour.

I will say that due to her ‘no-nonsense attitude’, I sometimes found Ruth’s reactions to intensely emotive events a little lacking. Perhaps because I myself tend towards the hyper-emotional, I couldn’t find much common ground with Ruth. She walks a fine line between matter-of-fact and totally uninvested. I recommend this book to anyone looking for an older, real-life relatable protagonist, or anyone that fears they may have fallen into a rut and need inspiration to get out of it.

Ruth Winters is a lonely and bitter woman who often gets in her own way. After working for 40 years for the same company, she was let go and takes to babysitting to earn some extra money. Her husband died 20 years prior and she has no children and no relationship with her sister. She does have a relationship with her sister's daughter Chloe and her occasional talks with her niece is a highpoint in her life. Ruth is a difficult sort of person, sort of like the main character in "A Man Called Ove" and she holds long grudges that make it difficult for her to move on with her life. Something changes when her sister Veronica calls her and says that she has cancer and asks Ruth to take her to chemotherapy as her husband will be out of town. At the same time Ruth receives an email from a man she briefly dated in high school, asking if Ruth will be attending their upcoming 50 year reunion and expressing a desire to meet up with her for lunch. Ruth spends most of her time alone, can she change?

Ruth was a difficult character to like or understand. She expresses no desire for friendship or romance and admits to hating her sister for various disagreements they had over the years. I would have liked the character to be more fleshed out. Also, Ruth's age is all over the place. Her 50th high school reunion is coming up making her 67-68 years old. Later she says she was born in 1951 which would make her around 72 or so. Then she also says she was 35 years old in 1980 which would make her 79. She also seems much older in that she knows nothing about using cell phones or WIFI. despite having recently worked in a large company. Every woman I know in their 60's uses smart phones to at least take pictures, go on social media and play games. Their is also a flashback where Ruth took her niece to a Bon Jovi concert and was so appalled at the new fangled 'rock music 'she had to wear ear plugs. If Ruth is 67-68 she would have listened to Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen,The Rolling Stones and yes Bon Jovi when she was in her teens and 20's, so not being familiar with and hating rock music made her seem ancient.

Once Ruth begins to help her sister who is very ill, she begins to unpack some of her resentment and realizes her sister is sorry for the way she treated Ruth. Ruth also decides to not only go to her reunion but perhaps give her old date John a chance. A good novel about second chances but the age discrepancies plus fat shaming and Ruth's general attitude was a bit off putting and prevented me from really caring about this character. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC for review.

Overall I enjoyed elements of this book, however I found it a little hard to warm to the characters and found the dialogue and actions of Ruth a little unrealistic. It made me a little uncomfortable in parts and I feel this just missed the mark too many times. I nearly stopped reading about 40% of the way through but stuck it out as I just wanted to find out how things panned out. Maybe it’s just my personal preferences but this book just wanted for me.

Thank you to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a good book centered around a bit of an unlikeable main character. This was a moving and heartwarming story of a lonely woman whose life is so structured and based on routine that she doesn't know how to deal with change and spending time with other people. A few things happen that causes Ruthie's careful routine to be upended and forces her to examine if maybe it's time to step out of her comfort zone and make some serious changes.

Loved this story of sisters reconnecting after of a lifetime of misunderstandings and misconceptions. Ruth’s life is outlined well with all of its up, downs, and missed opportunities but she reinvents herself and comes into her own. The reconciliation is bittersweet.

awesome sauce book with awesome characters and awesome writing with an awesome plot!! will be buying this for my friend when its published

Ruth Winters may think it's all behind her (life, that is), and going through the motions is all that is ahead, but readers are provided a first-hand view of her very different future. Surprises for this unemployed widow retired by her employer's choice rather than her own come from circumstance upon circumstance. Each leaves its mark on grumpy and curmudgeonly Ruth who knows how to hold grudges and remember the slights of life. Every day presents anew, spreading out experiences uninteresting, dismaying, not at all in her set of preferences, which are hard, stinky and hairy as well. A few compromises occur that are bearable. Some are deal breakers - no loss (nothing much to lose). Oh, and all uncomfortable. But after all, who likes to be uncomfortable?? Not Ruth. She's got a routine and standards higher than most; expectations lower than most.

The entire well-told tale reminds, recommends and even gives pushy nudges to take down barriers, and reconcile old grudges, defuse toxic feuds. To convince stubborn hearts into which we often stuff feelings to instead try out a teachable, open-hearted approach as we greet each new day. The implied promise is that we will find, like Ruth, our own senses spring forth newly recognized, we are overcome by comforts long forgotten, and the astonishing surprise that many of our earliest dreams are never lost and, better yet, are flexible and ageless.

All the stars to Marshall Fine (and his Fine Writing) and grand narrating by Joyce Bean.

*A sincere thank you to Marshall Fine, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*

Ruth Winters became a widow at a relatively young age and never remarried. She was forced into retirement and babysits to supplement her income. For the most part she keeps to herself. But in a short period of time her uneventful life is shaken up when she receives exciting news from her niece, is reconnected with an old flame from her youth, and her estranged sister reaches out of life-changing new. We follow Ruth through flashbacks and in present day as she navigates her daily life and those she interacts with.

This story is reminiscent of "A Man Called Ove", but it didn't grab me the same way, and it didn't leave me thinking about the story and characters long after finishing the book. "The Autumn of Ruth Winters" had moments that made me laugh and moments that pulled on my heartstrings. Overall, it is a relatively quick and enjoyable read.

This is such a beautiful story about family, forgiveness, second chances, love, and life. The Autumn of Ruth Winters is a poignant and gracefully written exploration of love, loss, and the passage of time. The author's prose is lyrical, capturing the quiet beauty of life's fleeting moments while delving into the complexities of Ruth Winters' emotional journey. The novel is a tender reflective story on aging, self-discovery, and the relationships that shape us. Ruth’s character is deeply relatable, and her experiences resonate long after the final page.

The Autumn of Ruth Winters is a beautiful read that will stay with me for a long time. It reminds us of the quiet strength found in life’s quieter seasons.

The Autumn of Ruth Winters by Marshall Fine is a moving and introspective novel that delves into themes of aging, regret, and personal renewal. The story follows Ruth Winters, a woman in her 70s, as she reflects on her life and navigates the complexities of family dynamics, love, and loss. Fine’s writing is poignant, with a deep sense of empathy for his characters and their struggles. With its exploration of life’s later years and the pursuit of meaning, this novel offers a thoughtful and touching read for fans of character-driven fiction.

The Autumn of Ruth Winters was such a lovely read. I tend to be more of a mood reader and this one just really appealed to me when I read the synopsis. So I was extremely happy to see it on My Netgalley shelf.
The story revolves around an elderly lady, by the name of Ruth. Here, we explore the people and the relationships she has with each of them in what’s become a small world for her.
The author does such a good job in the narrative. We’re given depth, and thoughtfulness throughout. The characters were complex and relatable and the storyline thought provoking.
Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more from this author.
Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It offered a thoughtful exploration of family, friendship, and forgiveness, all without being weighed down by heavy emotional baggage. I felt connected to the characters and invested in their relationships and journeys. I was especially impressed by the male author’s ability to write from the perspective of a middle-aged woman with remarkable authenticity and without any trace of gender bias. I highly recommend this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Autumn of Ruth Winters, especially the way the story explored Ruth's relationships with the people in her small world. The characters surrounding Ruth were just as captivating as the protagonist herself, each adding their own unique depth and texture to the narrative. Ruth's sister, Veronica, was written so well that I could picture her clearly. What truly stood out to me was the portrayal of Ruth as an older character navigating the complexities of life, which felt refreshing and relatable. This thoughtful exploration of aging and connection will undoubtedly resonate with mature readers, offering both reflection and a sense of shared experience. I am recommending to mature readers of women's fiction and I have recommended it to Book Clubs as a possible choice. I look forward to the next book from Marshall Fine.

Such an odd book for me - I enjoyed it, and it irritated the heck out of me. Since I was born in the Minneapolis, MN area and lived there the first 45 years of my life I certainly knew all the Minneapolis locations mentioned in the book, but they all felt like name dropping - like stretches to include the name of a community without the need to do so, if that makes sense.

I was also irritated be the abrupt ending. But everything else was an enjoyable read, thus the (weak) four stars. Best thing about the book? The MC, Ruth Winters.