The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

 

Straight from Amazon, but they say it well. What they don't say is that the ending is very ambiguous but perfect I think.

December 1962: In a village deep in the English countryside, two neighboring couples begin the day. Local doctor Eric Parry commences his rounds in the village while his pregnant wife, Irene, wanders the rooms of their old house, mulling over the space that has grown between the two of them.

On the farm nearby lives Irene’s mirror image: witty but troubled Rita Simmons is also expecting. She spends her days trying on the idea of being a farmer’s wife, but her head still swims with images of a raucous past that her husband, Bill, prefers to forget.

When Rita and Irene meet across the bare field between their houses, a clock starts. There is still affection in both their homes; neither marriage has yet to be abandoned. But when the ordinary cold of December gives way—ushering in violent blizzards of the harshest winter in living memory—so do the secret resentments harbored in all four lives.

An exquisite, page-turning examination of relationships, The Land in Winter is a masterclass in storytelling—proof yet again that Andrew Miller is one of the most dazzling chroniclers of the human heart.

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

I enjoyed this book very much.  It's the kind of family saga that keeps me interested and engaged. The characters are unique, for sure. Especially Cal with his incongruous legs, and Becky, his wife, with her spiritual powers to contact and conjure the dead, helping those grieving to manage their grief a bit better.

Maggie: Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee

This was a delightful book, dealing with serious life events, but told through a voice that is similar to an author like Nora Ephron. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! 

Condensed from Amazon:

"A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie.

A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn’t just heartbreak—it’s cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie.

This book follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation. She starts talking to Maggie (the tumor), getting acquainted with her body’s new inhabitant. She turns her children’s bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passed down by her own mother, in an attempt to make them fall in love with their shared culture—and to maybe save herself in the process.

...Maggie is a master class in transforming personal tragedy into a form of defiant comedy."

Heart the Lover by Lily King

I was so happy to hear that Lily King had a new book out and now I am so happy that I got to read it. She is now a "favorite" of mine. I love how she writes about writing and writers in such a personal manner. 

Her characters are drawn beautifully and honestly.

The ending was a tear-jerker, but beautiful.

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown

“A mesmerizing blend of coming-of-age and psychological suspense, set against the birth of the internet age.”—People

This book kept my attention, and I enjoyed reading it, but I recognized some flaws, and some characteristics that could make it a future Netflix series.

There are stimulating ideas here that sometimes get lost in plot turns that are too obvious I thought. After one such turn, I nearly put the book down but kept at it and glad I did. 

From the New York Times: 

a father-daughter duo live off the grid in remotest Montana. Only something isn’t quite right in their tightly controlled world: Jane, a perspicacious teenager, begins to realize that her father isn’t who he says he is. When she makes a courageous — and dangerous — break for freedom, we find ourselves embedded in the early dot-com boom in San Francisco. If the Unabomber had a daughter, this could be her story. It might prompt a pop-up book club, and it will definitely make you think about our reliance on technology

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

A thoughtful, delightful book! So glad I read it.

From Westchester Library System: 

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters - to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has - a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp's life of letters might be "a very small thing," but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci

I have never read anything by this popular author before and I guess it is not his usual type of book. I liked it - but felt it was a bit predictable in the end. It is set in London in 1944, and deals with a bereaved bookshop owner and two teenagers scarred by WWII, and the healing and hope they find in one another.

I've read lots of WWII books; this is not my favorite. But I recognize why it is so popular.