The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai is a novel set at Laurelfield, a historic estate filled with secrets and ghosts, and once the home of a famous artists colony. Told from the end of the 20th century to the beginning, it is one of the most masterfully crafted novels I have ever read. It is like piecing together a puzzle, in reverse. Well written, funny and also tragic, full of wonderful characters and unexpected revelations at every turn, this is…
Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown, author of Weird Sisters, is a novel that moves back and forth from Paris 1924 to the States 1999. When Madeleine uncovers her grandmother’s letters and journals from her time in Paris when she was young, she forms a whole new opinion of the woman she hardly knew. Dealing with an oppressive marriage, the journals just might be the inspiration she needs to set off on an adventure of her own. I’ve read many…
Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genoa, author of Still Alice, is a look at little known neurological disease called Huntington’s. When Boston police officer Joe O’Brien begins dropping things, losing his temper, forgetting things and having involuntary spasms, his wife takes him to the doctor and he is diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. There is no cure, just a slow degeneration over a decade or two until death and a fifty percent chance that each of his four kids will get…
Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst is a novel about a family with two daughters, one autistic, and a family searching for help understanding how to deal with it. The mother meets an educator who is starting a camp out in the woods in New Hampshire, free of modern technology where families can come with their special needs kids and live in a healthy, technology free, communal way. There are big red flags and it is clear from the start that something…
Pekoe Most Poison, A Tea Shop Mystery, by Laura Childs takes us back to the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston with another murder for proprietor and amateur sleuth Theodosia Browning to investigate. This time one of the town’s wealthy elite drops dead at a fancy tea party in front of fifty or so guests, any one of which could be the murderer. Nothing heady here, just a bit of fun to read with a good cup of tea, and loads…
The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman is a sweet, if a bit predictable, novel about a woman who lost her husband three years ago and with the help of her sister is raising her two young daughters. She gets a job illustrating a book about vegetables, so work pays for her to take a gardening class where she meets various interesting people and maybe even the man of her dreams. There were some laugh out loud moments, make…
Barren Cove by Ariel S.Winter is a futuristic sci-fi novel about a world in which robots rule and very few humans are left alive. One older human built robot retreats to Barren Cove where a sick aging human is said to live. There he meets other robots and ponders the meaning of his existence. There were moments when this book was quite thoughtful and interesting, and other moments when it seemed silly and depressing. Although I enjoyed it while reading…
Circling the Sun by Paula McClain is my favorite kind of book. Historical fiction about a fascinating woman ahead of her time, in this case Beryl Markham, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Beryl is English born, then brought to Kenya as a young child. Her mother returns to England after only two years and when she is five she is left alone with her father who raises racehorses and owns a farm. It is a wild…
The Guineveres by Sarah Domet is a novel about four teenage girls named Guinevere each left by their family at a Convent. Intermixed with the chapters about the girls are stories of female saints who all suffered brutally. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen the whole book, and when it finally did I was unsure if it was more ridiculous or disturbing. Either way, a sad, depressing, highly disappointing read. This is one to skip.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a masterpiece. I put off reading this book for some time as I had to take a break from reading books set during WWII. Although it is truly sad and tragic in many ways, its also one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. The story follows Werner, a young German orphan living in a mining town with few prospects, until he is noticed for his ability to build…