The Three Miss Margarets by Louise Shaffer

Charles Valley is a small town outside of Atlanta, Georgia with all the stereotypes associated with the south.  Dr. Maggie, Li'l Bit, and Miss Peggy are separated by age but are connected by decades of friendship and a dark secret.  For years they have been highly regarded powerful doyennes of their small town - but each struggled with personal demons to get there.  Important to all of them is Lottie and her family.  Lottie was the daughter of a maid in Dr. Maggie's home when they were both young and racial differences didn't matter.  Their friendship is strained for a number of reasons but they continue to respect and care for each other.  Decades later, the death of Lottie's granddaughter causes them to look back on their lives, the decisions they made, and the secret they share.  Many issues to consider in their stories all placed in the context of how southern society works.

Small Great Things by Jodie PIcoult

Ruth is an African-American nurse in the labor and delivery ward of a Connecticut hospital.  She has a 20 year record of superior service.  One evening she is assigned the case of a white supremacist and his equally racist wife.  After their child is delivered, they request that she not touch their child again. For years Ruth has ignored the mostly unintended insults she encounters but this hurts to the core.  Still she remains silent to keep the job she needs to keep her intelligent, promising son in the private school that will most likely allow him the future he deserves.  And then she finds herself alone in the nursery when the baby stops breathing.  That is not the real story.  She is sued by the parents for failing to save their son.  That is kind of the story.  Her lawyer assures her that the trial cannot be about race.  But that is really what this story is about.  Ruth's internal dialog and the story of her struggle to succeed in a world that always defines her first as black is both enlightening and disturbing.  Her conversations with her son are a window into what it means to be defined as black in America.  It is fiction and a story told by an advantaged white woman.  How realistic is Ruth's story? How likely the ending?  Picoult expected blow back and indeed there has been criticism by some but it was still a thought provoking read and well worth discussing.

Truly, Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarity

Three couples gather at a barbeque and something happens that changes all their lives.  The story is slowly revealed through all six voices both around the event itself and in real time months afterward.  Six voices in two time periods actually wasn't as hard to keep track of as you may think but makes it difficult for start and stop reading.  Erika and Clementine have been friends since they were children but both have very different and mostly unshared views of that friendship.  In fact much of the real feeling among various members of this group is hidden - between husbands and wives as well as between friends.  About half way through the book, you learn what happened but it is this slow examination of the real inner lives that is the heart of the story.  Through in various forms of guilt about a neighbor's accidental death and you have an engaging easy read.

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

This is the companion novel to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.  His story of the long walk  he takes to get to Queenie before she dies has many uplifting moments as the people he meets are inspired by his journey.  Queenie tells her story while she and her friends are in hospice care, living their last moments caught up in Queenie's love story.  With the help of her caretakers, she writes a long long letter in response to the one she received from Harold.  It is a story of hidden love and longing and guilt.  Maybe my favorite part though was listening to the cast of quirky characters in the hospice facility as they faced death with such courage and humor.  Not as hopeful as Harold maybe but a little more affecting.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Mathilda and Lotto meet at a party in the final weeks of college and fall so madly in love that they are married a week later.  Lotto is disowned by his wealthy family because Mathilda is not the right kind of girl although in fact we know little about who she is at all.  It would appear that sex - anywhere, anytime, anyhow - is at the core of their relationship.  Their physical connection is rapturous but it seems to be just an extension of how much they truly care about each other.  Mathilda will do any kind of work to support Lotto's unfulfilled desire to become an actor.  She continues to support him when he becomes a wildly successful playwright.  They are the perfect couple and when Lotto dies suddenly in his 40's, Mathilda is devastated.  Or maybe none of that is true.  Our book group was drawn to this title because it was "a powerfully written exploration of the relationship between husbands and wives".  It is very sophisticated writing -  backwards and forwards in time - full of unsuspected revelations and powerful language - but I would be very surprised if anyone in the book group will identify with the relationship between Mathilda and Lotto - or be willing to own up to it :)

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

I have long admired Woodson for her young adult novels and this adult novel about four young girls growing up in Brooklyn in the 70's only increases my admiration.  The style is prose bordering on poetry - each word carefully chosen to explore issues of place, fate, race, and above all friendship.  When August is forced to move North to Brooklyn as a young girl, she can only longingly observe the trio of young women that pass beneath her window.  When she is finally drawn into that group, she feeds off the strength that such a friendship brings.  It redefines family and provides a powerful framework from which to decide the truth of growing up.  Not all the girls draw on that same strength. When August returns for her father's funeral, educated and successful,  the difference between lives dreamed and lives lived is painfully revealed.  So much to think about in just 192 pages.

So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson

This might be my favorite book about reading books so far.  Nelson vows to read a book a week and is all over the place with her choices.  She works for Vogue magazine, is married and has a young son and all of that affects what she reads.  I loved her commentary, her wit, her observations about the qualities of pathological readers.  There is some insight into her own life but she really explores how, as readers, we make our choices and why some books become so central to our reading life.  And by the way, you will never finish all the books she refers to or lists but I would love the chance to sit down with her and discuss our favs.

my grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry by Fredrik Backman

I really wanted to like this as much as I loved A Man Called Ove but as funny and delightful as the 7 year old protagonist is, it just didn't completely work for me.  Elsa's best and only friend is her grandmother.  Together they have created a fantasy world that helps Elsa cope with a real world she finds difficult.  Extremely bright and creative, she doesn't fit in with her 2nd grade classmates.  She shares an apartment with her very very busy, very very pregnant Mom and her step dad.  The building is full of quirky characters which are both a source of humor and compassion in the story.  When Grandma dies, Elsa is sent on a treasure hunt to deliver a series of letters to residents of the apartment building.  Secrets, connections and histories are all revealed in an elaborately tangled fashion.  That was all good and the grandmother was a kick.  What got in my way was Elsa's fantasy tales which I found more of an interruption than a source of enlightenment. Also for some reason the 3rd person omniscient voice was too much like Elsa's own. It was too much Elsa's story to not be in 1st person.  Still, there was enough to like that I would give a third novel by the author a chance.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

This is charming story for people who love books and love books written about people who love books.  Sara and Amy have been pen pals ever since Sara ordered a book Amy was selling online.  Sara is a young girl from Sweden adrift and looking for adventure.  Amy is the wise and sensitive matriarch of Broken Wheel, Iowa.  Unfortunately by the time Sara arrives for a visit, Amy has died.
While the town embraces her out of respect for Amy, Sara wants something to do and there is not much happening in this small town.  Fortunately Amy has left a huge library which the town agrees would be a great beginning for a bookstore which just happened to be where Sara worked in Sweden.  The town is full of interesting characters with great backstories, many of which Amy shared with Sara in here letters all included in the book.  Of course there is romance and tragedy but most of all it is all about everything that is good in small town America - once they become readers of course.  A list of books and authors mentioned in the novel appears at the end.  Always a nice reminder of all the books yet to be read.

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Nora's husband, a well respected teacher in their small Irish town,  has died leaving her with two older daughters and two young teenage sons.  I get that this is a story of a woman who has dedicated her life to her family dealing with her grief.  And that in real life grieving is a tricky and lengthy process.  I was even prepared for the same quiet gentle story Toibin told in Brooklyn.  But while Ellis was a solid determined character, Nora is like smoke.  It feels like Toibin tosses out just enough details to allow you to make most of the story up in you own head.  Nora has no trouble selling the family summer cottage but still hasn't emptied her husbands closet three years later.  She is so concerned about what will happen to her sons but can't think of a single thing to say to them.  Finally on the last few pages she decides to "find her voice" by joining a choir. Really?  That would have been a good plan on page 10 or even 100 but by 373 I was still wondering where this story was going. Maybe that was it's brilliance.  Maybe I was in the mood for more action. Hmmm.

The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

Two stories - Afghanistan in the early 1900's and Afghanistan today - both tales of women who must make difficult decisions to survive.  Rahima is the second of five daughters in a contemporary Afghan family.  To make it possible for someone in this family of women to move freely in town, she becomes Rahim - a bacha posh - a girl who will be treated as a male in society. The entire community joins in the deceit.  She is free to go to school, shop in the market, play soccer with the boys - all freedoms she relishes.  But one of her favorite things is listening to her aunt Khala Shaima tell the story of Bibi Shekiba, her great, great grandmother who risked a great deal to survive in the early twentieth century.  As Rahim's father falls prey to the affects of opium and the family descends into poverty, she must become Ramina again so that she and her two sisters can be married off.  She is 15.  Her younger sister is 13.  The results are tragic. It is Shaima's story that provides Rahima the courage to escape a hopelessly restricted life and a brutal marriage.  It makes one ponder the difference between superficial change and fundamental change - certainly in this culture and just a surely in our own.

winter garden by Kristen Hannah

The Witson sisters were raised in a Washington apple orchard, Belle Nochi,  with a father they struggled to please and a mother who always remained a mystery.  Older daughter Meredith stayed behind to work for the family business while Nina traveled the world as a photographer.  But now Dad is dead and the last request he made of his daughters was to get to know their mother.   Anya Witson's story is buried in a fairy tale the girls have heard from early childhood.  As Anya begins to unbury the truth, the girls are forced to rethink almost all they thought they knew about both parents.
As much as I was able to predict the various discoveries, I was not prepared for the ending.

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

This is a story of a logging family in the Pacific Northwest but Sometimes a Great Notion it ain't.  When 13 year old Trevor and his father return to the family estate outside of Seattle, the thing he is most anxious to learn about is the "family curse."  The former grand estate is a shambles but still the home to his aunt and grandfather.  The question that his father is here to help resolve is what to do with Grandpa and what is to be done with the estate.  No surprise - there is little agreement.  But there is an interesting backstory which is revealed in chapters interspersed through the main story - and there is guilt - and there are ghosts - and occasionally some elegantly phrased passages about the old growth forests and our relation to them.

Delicious by Ruth Reichl

Lovers of NYC and anyone who has spent even 10 minutes as a foodie will love this book.  Billie Breslin drops out of college for a NYC adventure working for Delicious! magazine.  She doesn't cook but while out looking for the best cheese and other deli and restaurant delights, she discovers she has an amazing palate able to identify the ingredients in any dish.  When the magazine folds, she is left behind to respond to the magazine's guarantee, "Your money back if the recipe doesn't work."  Frequently alone she wanders through the abandoned building and discovers a collection of old letters to James Beard written during the WWII era.  Now we have mystery to add to the wonderful cityscape and mouth watering taste and smells and quirky characters.  Eventually there is even romance.  Reichl's experience as a food critic and editor of Gourmet magazine make every detail spot on. Read the book on the plane to NYC, head for lower Manhattan, and relish (had to make a food reference) every morsel.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

We meet the narrator, timid but determined Elena, and her friend, the daring and beautiful Lila, in the first of Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels.  Their friendship plays out in Naples of the 1950's - working class, sometimes dangerous, deeply neighborhood defined.  As young children, Lila is the brilliant one, the avid reader, the deep thinker, the one who can teach herself  Greek.  But it is Elena who is given the opportunity for a high school education and Lila who is married at 17.  The envy flows both ways and at the end of this book, it is Lila who refers to Elena as "my brilliant friend". It was hard for me to find a character that I completely liked but the rich detail of the time and place and the twists and turns in the relationships of the families as well as the two girls draws the reader into a world that requires knowing what happens next.  On to book two....

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

This might be the most romantic book ever!  Floating down the rivers and canals of France in a book store on a barge - sign me up!  Jean Perdu's floating bookstore is called The Literary Apothecary where books are organized by the emotion they evoke - and Perdu has the uncanny knack of matching the book with the reader.  He has not been so successful in his own life having lost his one great love.  Then events require that both the barge and Perdu break free from their Seine River moorings and adventure and self discovery begin.  Within the main story is the diary of Manon, Perdu's lost love.  Such sadness! Such joy! Such scenery.!  Such food!  An unopened letter, a mysterious author,  love lost, love found - pure escapist delight!  You cannot be sad at the end of this book.

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

This was the perfect book to read on our trip to New Zealand.  Kerewin is a disillusioned artist living in a self constructed tower on the coast of New Zealand.  Part Maori and part European, she is isolated from both cultures.  One day she discovers a five year old boy huddled in the tower. Blond, slight Simon is unable to speak and tends to violence.  He is however well known in town and eventually his Maori father, Joe arrives to claim him.  The three are mysteriously drawn to each other at the same time they fight to remain indifferent.  Each has a mysterious past and a slowly developing love for each other.  Their journey together is not without problems and even violence.  It is about the clash of cultures and the fear of failure.  It is full of contemporary cultural conflict and Maori legend.  Much of the turmoil is shared through internal dialog which is often tricky to assign to a specific character which makes reading tricky until you get into the rhythm of it.  It is everything you have come to expect from a winner of the Man Booker Prize.

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

Sang Ly lives in Stung Meanchey, the city dump outside of the capitol city of Cambodia, with her husband and small child.  She blames the conditions for the continuing illness of her son but can't imagine how her family would ever be able to leave.  A constant thorn in her life is the mean old woman, Sopeap who collects the rent.  One day Sang Ly was sharing the pictures in a book with her son although she could not read the words.  Sopeap takes the book and tearfully reads it.  Sang Ly offers a trade.  Sopeap can have the book if she teaches Sang Ly to read.  Sopeap is not who she appears to be and Sang Ly is about to become someone she could never have imagined.  Full of both western literary references and Cambodian mythology, there are many stories within this story.  Based on real life experiences and observations by the author's son, it is a tale both horrifying and hopeful but mostly about the power of words.

A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Ove is a grumpy, unhappy man.  The families that share his row house neighborhood in Sweden are idiots.  Nobody can do anything useful and they are incapable of following the simplest rule.  There is no good reason to continue living in such an unacceptable world.  Except he's not very good at the killing oneself thing. One neighbor after another interrupts his plan in the most amusing ways. He is the one they rely on do everything after all.  And the more of a curmudgeon he becomes the more entertaining he becomes to his neighbors. It is laugh out loud funny but I confess I had tears in my eyes at the end.  If only the world really worked this way.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Alice accidentally knocks herself out while exercising.  She wakes up worried about the baby she is carrying and can't wait to talk to the husband she adores.  Except that baby is now 10 and one of three children she shares with the husband she is planning to divorce.  As she tries to reconstruct the last ten years of her life, she must choose between the person she was and the person she has become.  Interesting to ponder how her experience might compare to your own.  Did we all get better every ten years or ...?