The Last Flight of Poxl West by

I enjoyed this book, but do admit that I am not a fan of the war scenes - descriptions of the bombing flights over Europe and Germany.  The book tells a good story, however, about a man's search to find meaning in his difficult life, and to explain that to the outside world.  Here's the synopsis from Westchester Libraries Website:

Poxl West fled the Nazis' onslaught in Czechoslovakia. He escaped their clutches again in Holland. He pulled Londoners from the Blitz's rubble. He wooed intoxicating, unconventional beauties. He rained fire on Germany from his RAF bomber.

Poxl West is the epitome of manhood and something of an idol to his teenage nephew, Eli Goldstein, who reveres him as a brave, singular, Jewish war hero. Poxl fills Eli's head with electric accounts of his derring-do, adventures and romances, as he collects the best episodes from his storied life into a memoir.
He publishes that memoir, Skylock, to great acclaim, and its success takes him on the road, and out of Eli's life. With his uncle gone, Eli throws himself into reading his opus and becomes fixated on all things Poxl.
But as he delves deeper into Poxl's history, Eli begins to see that the life of the fearless superman he's adored has been much darker than he let on, and filled with unimaginable loss from which he may have not recovered. As the truth about Poxl emerges, it forces Eli to face irreconcilable facts about the war he's romanticized and the vision of the man he's held so dear.

Daniel Torday's debut novel, "The Last Flight of Poxl West, " beautifully weaves together the two unforgettable voices of Eli Goldstein and Poxl West, exploring what it really means to be a hero, and to be a family, in the long shadow of war.

Dietland by Sarai Walker

I think this is a really important book that most people will not read - it's difficult. It starts out kind of funny and light and then turns into something very serious. But it's not quite real - you think to yourself, "This can't happen!" but you also think to yourself, "This SHOULD happen!"  (without the murder, I guess)

The Economist favorably reviews this  book! But will it sell?  NO! For exactly the same reason that it was written.  The way women are treated, in spite of the women's movement and the progress being made, has not changed much in reality. At least not in the minds of many.

I love Annalisa Quinn's last paragraph in her review on npr.org:

I've never dropped anyone out of a helicopter. But Dietland resonated with the part of me that wants, just once, to deck a street harasser. At the very least, I wish an incurable itch upon everyone who has catcalled me on the street. I wish food poisoning and public embarrassment on everyone I've heard make a rape joke. I wish toothache and head lice and too-small shoes upon every stranger who has told me to smile. Which is to say, sometimes I forget I'm angry, but I am. Dietland is a complicated, thoughtful and powerful expression of that same anger.

Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

I had not read anything by Elena Ferrante and now that her newest book is getting so much attention, I decided to start at the beginning.  And glad I did. This was an upsetting but excellent read and I am ready to dive into the next volumes of her work. 
This story tells of a woman, Olga, who is "abandoned" by her husband Mario. She has two children, and no real life outside of her marriage and children. This novel tells of her breakdown, after learning that her husband is leaving her, and then finding out about his infidelity.
It's a "common" story, but told very well. I really like her writing, although I realize that I am reading a translation!

Days of Awe by Lauren Fox

I really enjoyed this book....a fast read, well-written, engrossing,  characters that I liked, for the most part anyway.
Great review in the Boston Globe:

Boston Globe Review

The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell

From Westchester Libraries Website:

In her lengthy career, multiple-award-winning author Rendell has written about teenagers, the lonely, the lovelorn, the disturbed, the violated, and the just plain evil. This time she turns her keen eye on the elderly: how they manage the present, look toward the future, and, especially, remember the past. The story begins in the 1940s. After murdering his wife and her lover, a man buries their two joined hands in a tin box, deep in tunnels where his son and a group of other young children gather. There it stays for 60 years until a construction company unearths it. Such an old crime invites little interest from police until a link is discovered to an elderly man who lives in the area. As one of the children who played in the tunnels, the man volunteers to bring together the others, now mostly in their seventies, to see if anyone can help authorities. New information isn't forthcoming, but the reunion sparks old rivalries, loves, and disappointments that change the lives of everyone in the group. Using her customary spare yet decorous style and measured pace, Rendell, now in her 80s, beautifully and carefully individualizes each member of her ensemble cast, at the same time creating not a grim reminder of mortality but a picture of moribund lives renewed.

Did You Ever Have a Family? by Bill Clegg

This was a wonderful, yet, somewhat depressing, read.  Here is a review:

The stunning debut novel from bestselling author Bill Clegg is a magnificently powerful story about a circle of people who find solace in the least likely of places as they cope with a horrific tragedy. On the eve of her daughter's wedding, June Reid's life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter's fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke--her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor. Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak. From the couple running a motel on the Pacific Ocean where June eventually settles into a quiet half-life, to the wedding's caterer whose bill has been forgotten, to Luke's mother, the shattered outcast of the town--everyone touched by the tragedy is changed as truths about their near and far histories finally come to light. Elegant and heartrending, and one of the most accomplished fiction debuts of the year, Did You Ever Have a Family is an absorbing, unforgettable tale that reveals humanity at its best through forgiveness and hope. At its core is a celebration of family--the ones we are born with and the ones we create.

A must read!

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

This book has gotten rave reviews (although I just read the one from the New Yorker and it's not a rave), and I have enjoyed Groff's other novels so I was psyched to pick it off the shelf of my local library.
I liked it in fits and starts....at first I was drawn in aggressively, but my interest would wane.  The novel tells the story of a marriage in two parts: first from the husband's (Lotto) point of view and then from Mathilde's.  They are both interesting characters, and I wish I had known from the start that the novel would progress as it did (two parts told from two different points of view).
None of the characters are particularly likable, so I sometimes lost interest.
I also lost interest when Lotto's plays were included as chapters.  I am notparticularly fond of that technique.
In any event, I am glad that I read it and would recommend it with  some conditionals.....

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

From Westchester Libraries

Bravo to her for now fictionalizing the grandly adventurous, passionate, and scandalous life of British East African Beryl Markham, the first licensed woman horse trainer and breeder on the continent and an intrepid, record-setting pilot. Ernest Hemingway knew and admired Markham and raved about her breathtaking autobiography, West with the Night (1942), which McLain selectively mines. We meet Beryl as a child abandoned by her mother and allowed to run free as her father raises Thoroughbreds. Fearless, curious, and strong, Beryl learns a warrior's skills with Kibii, a Kipsigis boy, and dreams of a life larger than the confines of domesticity. She resolutely finds her way to daredevilry and terror, love and ostracism as she undertakes the sort of risky and exhilarating things men do even as she suffers through disastrous marriages, homelessness, and a complicated and wrenching entanglement with coffee grower and writer Karen Blixen (i.e., Isak Dinesen of Out of Africa fame) and Denys Fitch Hatton, the exciting and elusive man they both love. McLain sustains a momentum as swift and heart-pounding as one of Beryl's prize horses at a gallop as she focuses on the romance, glamour, and drama of Beryl's blazing life, creating a seductive work of popular historical fiction with sure-fire bio-pic potential.

Not sure I am as enthusiastic about this book as this reviewer is, but I did enjoy and learn stuff I didn't know before....always good.

Amherst by William Nicholson

This was an amusing quick read about a young woman writing a screenplay about the love affair between Emily Dickinson's brother and Mabel Loomis Todd.  I guess it's all based on fact and it was a pretty interesting story. The novel jumps back and forth in time, sometimes as Alice, the young writer, and sometimes to Mabel, the young woman who has the affair with Austin Dickinson.

There are parallel stories here as Nick, the older man that Alice stays with when doing her research in Amherst, is married (as was Austin).  Of course, Alice falls for him.  Some of this was predictable, but it was entertaining and had some interesting discourses on love, marriage, fidelity, and more.

Orient by Christopher Bollen

I heard about this book on NPR and read some reviews and was intrigued.  It's a LONG book for a "summer read" but it's interesting, captivating and very well written.  Here's a review from the LA Times that says it all.
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-christopher-bollen-20150510-story.html

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

I have always loved Anne Tyler's novels and this is no exception.  Read what the NYTimes reviewer says:

Give or take a few details, this extended/blended/fouled-up family could be any of ours. That makes it cliché territory, risky for an ambitious novelist. It’s also quintessential Anne Tyler, as well as quintessential American comedy. Tyler has a knack for turning sitcom situations into something far deeper and more moving. Her great gift is playing against the American dream, the dark side of which is the falsehood at its heart: that given hard work and good intentions, any family can attain the Norman Rockwell ideal of happiness — ordinary, homegrown happiness.

So true....and I love the way the story unfolds....a bit at a time.  The reader learns things about the characters as Tyler wants them to. You know from the start that Denny is the "problem" child, but then you learn new things along that way that make you understand why he is the way he is.

And Junior and his wife - that story unfolds at the end of the book

It's a really enjoyable read. I highly recommend!

Pretty is by Maggie Mitchell

From the last paragraph of the very favorable NewYork Times Review:

What a satisfying novel, with its shifting perspectives and competing stories and notion that our relationship to the truth changes with time and distance. And what a relief to read a kidnapping thriller that is not an extended piece of fetishistic torture porn, that does not end with some nice young woman lying dead and dismembered in a pit.

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

I really enjoyed this book and read it quickly.
I had no idea about the 3 plane crashes in Elizabeth, NJ in the early 50's but, I was a toddler and wouldn't know. But I wonder if those events were the cause of my mom's fear of flying. She was a fearful person, in general, but especially fearful of flying. And at the time of these three crashes, she was a young mother living in Buffalo, NY.
Review from Library website:

"...the story of three generations of an Elizabeth, New Jersey, family: her protagonist, 15-year-old Miri; Miri's mother, Rusty; and Miri's grandmother, Irene. Their lives and those of their friends are impacted when a plane falls out of the sky over Elizabeth, and, in the course of the next 58 days, two others follow. Miri's friends are sure it's the work of aliens or zombies or, more simply, sabotage. Miri's reporter uncle, Henry, who will make his reputation covering the crashes for the local newspaper, says they're coincidences. But who is to say? In the meantime, Miri's boyfriend, Mason, becomes a hero in the wake of the third crash, but will their relationship survive? Like many family stories, this one is not without its life-changing secrets and surprises. There is no surprise that the book is smoothly written, and its story compelling. The setting the early 1950s is especially well realized through period references and incidents: God Bless America sung by Kate Smith, praying in public schools, reading the new novel Catcher in the Rye, watching Your Hit Parade on TV, and more. With its focus on Miri's coming-of-age, this could have been published as a YA novel, and it will doubtless reach a wide crossover readership.

Golden State by Michelle Richmond

I remember LOVING The Year of Fog by this author so was excited to find this online from the library. I was a little disappointed. I wanted to love it considering its location and the author, but the characters didn't really thrill me.
Here is the review from Library System:

Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Jacquelyn Mitchard, and Anna Quindlen, Golden State is a powerful, mesmerizing new novel that explores the intricacies of marriage, family, and the profound moments that shape our lives. Doctor Julie Walker has just signed her divorce papers when she receives news that her younger sister, Heather, has gone into labor. Though theirs is a strained relationship, Julie sets out for the hospital to be at her sister's side--no easy task since the streets of San Francisco are filled with tension and strife. Today is also the day that Julie will find herself at the epicenter of a violent standoff in which she is forced to examine both the promising and the painful parts of her past--her Southern childhood; her romance with her husband, Tom; her estrangement from Heather; and the shattering incident that led to her greatest heartbreak. Infused with emotional depth and poignancy, Golden State takes readers on a journey over the course of a single, unforgettable day--through an extraordinary landscape of love, loss, and hope.Praise for Golden State "A stirring look at the ties that bind husband-wife, mother-child and even sisters, and what happens when they're torn asunder. Set in a San Francisco chafing with unrest both political and personal, the world Richmond creates is exquisitely charged with regret and hope."

The Arsonist by Sue Miller

From Westchester Libraries:

From the best-selling author of While I Was Gone and The Senator's Wife, a superb new novel about a family and a community tested when an arsonist begins setting fire to the homes of the summer people in a small New England town.Troubled by the feeling that she belongs nowhere after working in East Africa for fifteen years, Frankie Rowley has come home--home to the small New Hampshire village of Pomeroy and the farmhouse where her family has always summered. On her first night back, a house up the road burns to the ground. Then another house burns, and another, always the houses of the summer people. In a town where people have never bothered to lock their doors, social fault lines are opened, and neighbors begin to regard one another with suspicion. Against this backdrop of menace and fear, Frankie begins a passionate, unexpected affair with the editor of the local paper, a romance that progresses with exquisite tenderness and heat toward its own remarkable risks and revelations. Suspenseful, sophisticated, rich in psychological nuance and emotional insight, The Arsonist is vintage Sue Miller--a finely wrought novel about belonging and community, about how and where one ought to live, about what it means to lead a fulfilling life. One of our most elegant and engrossing novelists at her inimitable best.

I enjoyed this very much!  Have to get back to reading Sue Miller again!

Our Souls at Night by Ken Haruf

This short little book reeled me in and touched me deeply! It's quite a powerful little story.  Ken Haruf, who died in November 2014, wrote it near the end of his life but never saw it published.  So the manuscript was found, and thank goodness, published!

The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer

I like this author. I recall Dive From Claussen's Pier fondly so couldn't wait to get this book from the Library. I did like it, but it frustrated me a bit. I wanted to understand Penny, the mother, a little better. While I respected her as a feminist and an artist trying to find her "soul" through her art, her character seemed distant and cold.
Here is a review from Booklist:

Told in the most elegant prose, this extraordinarily compassionate tale, set in the Bay Area and spanning 30 years, follows a doctor, his wife, and their four children. Bill Blair is a gifted healer and near-perfect role model who worries that his wife Penny's unhappiness will traumatize their children. With the birth of their fourth child, Penny is suddenly deeply unhappy with her domestic role and opts to turn their garden shed into an art studio, where she spends most of her time. The children, meanwhile, feel her absence deeply and try to lure her back into the fold, with mixed results. Years later, three of the children still reside near their family home: headstrong Robert is, like his father, a doctor; Rebecca, always so helpful as a child, is a psychiatrist; and dreamy, sensitive Ryan is a schoolteacher. But when rootless James, the youngest and always the problem child, suddenly turns up, the family is thrown into disarray and must find a way to recalibrate old dynamics. Packer fully captures the intimacy of this family's life and, by extension, the way the children's interactions impact their adult lives. A masterful portrait of indelible family bonds.

After I went back to read the Times reviews, I found that one reviewer really didn't like the book at all, but the other one did! Not surprising.

Missing You by Harlan Coban

Publisher's Weekly Review:

An unlikely bond develops between NYPD detective Kat Donovan and 19-year-old Brandon Phelps in this page-turning, stomach-churning standalone from bestseller Coben (Six Years). While exploring a dating site called YouAreJustMyType.com, Kat discovers the photo of Jeff Raynes, her ex-fiance, who dumped her 18 years earlier. Brandon's widowed mother, Dana Phelps, has also met someone from that site and is now missing. Several puzzles emerge. What happened to Jeff? What is happening to Dana? What is the real story behind the murder of Kat's cop father, Henry Donovan, years before? Who is Titus Monroe, the man pulling the strings on the dating site? Coben orchestrates his story perfectly as Kat begins to sense the magnitude of horror at work and Titus becomes aware of her investigation. Once again, Coben has brilliantly used a current trend, in this case Internet dating, to create a can't-put-it-down thriller.

The Stranger by Harlan Coben

Library Journal Review

Adam Price's biggest concern is whether his son will be part of the high school's traveling lacrosse team. During a team draft meeting, a stranger approaches Adam, giving him devastating news about his wife, Corinne. When Adam confronts Corinne, she asks him to give her some time and disappears, leaving him a cryptic text message. This begins Adam's nightmare as he tries to find out the truth, protect his sons, and find his wife. He must also come to realize what Corinne had told him: it isn't what he thinks, and many things are not what they seem. Coben (Missing You) deftly weaves many seemingly disconnected characters into one cohesive tale of suspense, with an expertly realized New Jersey setting. Verdict Coben's latest stand-alone is a great story for people who like to examine the ephemeral nature of those strings that bind our dreams to our reality. And while it is a slight departure from his usual type of thriller, this book will be enjoyed as well by Coben's many fans.

Us by David Nicholls

I loved this book!  Here's Kirkus Review:

In his picaresque fourth novel, Nicholls (One Day, 2010, etc.) artfully unveils 25 years of a couple's relationship.
Shortly before Douglas Petersen, his wife, Connie, and their 17-year-old son, Albie, are to take a “Grand Tour” of Europe, Connie makes a surprising announcement: She thinks their marriage “has run its course” and is thinking about leaving. Connie is panicked at the thought of Albie going to college at the end of summer, leaving her and Douglas alone in the house. Douglas, a straight-laced biochemist who “had skipped youth and leapt into middle age,” came along at a time when Connie, artistic and free-spirited but directionless, needed someone sensible. Despite the announcement, Connie still wants to take this holiday together, and as their journey begins, so does Douglas’ examination of his marriage. Part travelogue, part personal history, Douglas’ first-person narration intersperses humorous observations of their travels, during which Douglas usually finds himself out of step with his art-loving wife and son, with his wistful recounting of their back story, from his unlikely courtship to his recent positioning as a misfit in his family of three. After a ruinous morning in Amsterdam, when Albie unwisely confronts a trio of arms dealers and Douglas intervenes in a way that infuriates his family, Albie runs away, and the “Grand Tour,” deemed a failure, comes to an end. Yet before it’s too late, Douglas seizes a chance to find his son, win back the affections of his wife, and make this journey, both literal and figurative, a heroic one after all. Nicholls is a master of the braided narrative, weaving the past and present to create an intricate whole, one that is at times deceptively light and unexpectedly devastating. Though the narration is self-conscious at first, it gradually settles into a voice that is wistful, wry, bewildered and incisive, drawing a portrait of a man who has been out of his league for a long time.
Evocative of its European locales—London, Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Madrid—and awkward family vacations everywhere, this is a funny and moving novel perfect for a long journey.

The Harder They Come by T.C. Boyle

Not my favorite Boyle book, but I did enjoy it.  As usual, Boyle explores lots of themes - and the environment plays a big part, too. There are three interesting characters in this book and one "real" hero from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Sten Stenson, the 70 year old ex-Marine, recently retired as a high school principal and on a trip to Costa Rica, murders a man who was robbing their entire tour group. Sten becomes a hero as a result and when he returns home to Mendocino, CA, continues to be recognized as one by the locals.  He soon finds his life complicated by the antics of his schizophrenic son Adam, who is delusional and unstable and hooks up with an woman involved in a right wing anarchist group.  Adam also believes he is John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition who was a true survivalist.Lots of interesting ideas here, as usual.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Waited a long time to get this book from the Library. Everyone is reading it and it's a fast and furious read about some disturbing events and characters. I would label it a "Gone Girl" wanna-be, but it's actually quite different, in the end. (USA Today actually called it "the next Gone Girl.")
It's a fast and compelling read, told from the point of view of the three women in the book: Rachel, Anna and Meghan. It's also told over the course of time, but jumps back and forth, which made me have to go back and refer to the dates from time to time. Luckily, each chapter is marked by the narrator and the date, even the time of day. Events and dates are very important in the unfolding of this story.
The last 100 pages move quickly and I had to read them in one evening; I couldn't put the book down.
In the end, I am glad I read it for what it is - a nicely crafted intriguing book about some really unpleasant women. In the end, Rachel ends up in your good graces. She's very flawed, but you sympathize with her in the end.

Canada by Richard Ford

I had never read a novel by Richard Ford, but he's long been on my "want to read" list and now I wonder why I waited so long. He is a creative writer who really gets down into the characters depicted in emotionally engaging writing.
This book is told from the point of view of Dell Parsons, who looks back on his life and one big event that changed the entire course of a life that could have been quiet, uneventful.

“First, I’ll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later. The robbery is the more important part, since it served to set my and my sister’s lives on the courses they eventually followed. Nothing would make complete sense without that being told first.”

Right away the reader is hooked. But then it's the writing, not the story, that keeps you hooked. Again, from the NY Times review:

"But “Canada” is blessed with two essential strengths in equal measure — a mesmerizing story driven by authentic and fully realized characters, and a prose style so accomplished it is tempting to read each sentence two or three times before being pulled to the next."

Time to pick up another Ford novel. Sorry I waited so long!

One Day by David Nicholls

I enjoyed this quick read, but knew nothing about it when I started it.  It's refreshing sometimes to pick up a book that you have not sought to read...it just happened to be available on OverDrive and I wanted an eBook to read on my iPad at the gym

So I downloaded it and loved it! It's funny and moving. The novel spans a couple of decades and each chapter takes place on the same day, usually a year or so apart. It is a chronicle of a friendship between Dexter and Emma and the first day we meet them is on the day of their college graduation when the "hook up," as we say today.

Over the course of the next twenty years we catch up with them as they reconnect and bicker and eventually end up together. Dexter is a mess throughout, until he finally gets with Emma, who stabilizes him.

I think I will look for other David Nicholls books. I think that there is a brand new one out now!

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

I don't think I have ever read a book by King before.  Why not!@? What a good author!!!

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

I love this interview with the author. After all, who can explain the book better than the author. I must say....I really enjoyed reading this book!

Florence Gordon by Brian Morton

A finalist for the 2014 Kirkus Award, this was a short and easy read about an interesting elderly feminist.  Here's the Kirkus Review:

Unexpected celebrity and long-absent family members distract a heroically cantankerous 1960s-era activist in the summer of 2009 as she reluctantly confronts the challenges of age.
Morton (Breakable You, 2006, etc.) returns to the world of writers with Florence Gordon, a feisty literary lioness of the U.S. feminist movement. At 75, she has a just-published book that’s languishing, and despite years away from the limelight, she's embarked on a memoir only to learn that her longtime editor is retiring. No matter: She treasures her solitude and “having fun trying to make the sentences come right.” Yet fame befalls her in the form of a top critic’s review of her book in the New York Times. Family matters also intrude. Her ex-husband, a vicious burned-out writer, demands that she use her contacts to get him a job. Her son and his wife are back in New York after years in Seattle. Their daughter, Emily, helps Florence with research and almost warms up the “gloriously difficult woman.” Then the matriarch’s health begins to nag her with strange symptoms. While Florence dominates the book, “each person is the center of a world,” as Emily thinks, and Morton brings each member of the small Gordon clan to life at a time when there is suddenly much to discover about their world. He’s also strewn the novel with references to books and writers and the craft itself, which is appropriate for the somewhat rarefied setting—Manhattan’s historically liberal, bookish Upper West Side, where Morton’s characters often dwell—and a treat for anyone keen on literary fiction.
Always a pleasure to read for his well-drawn characters, quiet insight and dialogue that crackles with wit, Morton here raises his own bar in all three areas. He also joins a sadly small club of male writers who have created memorable heroines.

This was a really good find!

Before, During, After by Richard Bausch

I first read Richard Bausch years and years ago and remember that I really liked his writing. At this point, I am not even sure what the book was (I think Violence) but I do recall that he was an author that I sought out.
This book did not disappoint!

This is "a gorgeously rendered, passionate account of a relationship threatened by secrets, set against the backdrop of national tragedy. When Natasha, a talented young artist working as a congressional aide, meets Michael Faulk, an Episcopalian priest struggling with his faith, the stars seem to align. Although he is nearly two decades older, they discover in each other the happy yearning and exhilaration of lovers, and within months they are engaged. Shortly before their wedding, while Natasha is vacationing in Jamaica and Faulk is in New York attending the wedding of a family friend, the terrorist attacks of September 11 shatter the tranquility of the nation's summer. Alone in a state of abject terror, cut off from America and convinced that Faulk is dead, Natasha makes an error in judgment that leads to a private trauma of her own on the Caribbean shore. A few days later, she and Faulk are reunited, but the horror of that day and Natasha's inability to speak of it inexorably divide their relationship into "before" and "after." They move to Memphis and begin their new life together, but their marriage quickly descends into repression, anxiety, and suspicion. In prose that is direct, exact, and lyrical, Richard Bausch plumbs the complexities of public and personal trauma, and the courage with which we learn to face them. Above all, Before, During, After is a love story, offering a penetrating and exquisite portrait of intimacy, of spiritual and physical longing, and of the secrets we convince ourselves to keep even as they threaten to destroy us. An unforgettable tour de force from one of America's most distinguished storytellers."

Orphan Train by Christine Baker Kline

Close to aging out of the foster care system, Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer takes a community service position helping an elderly woman named Vivian clean out her home. Molly discovers that she and Vivian are more alike than different as she helps Vivian solve a mystery from her past.
This book was entertaining, but predictable.
On the subject of orphan trains, I much prefer The Chaperone by Laura Moriarity.

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Toibin is a fabulous writer....
The NYTimes describes his talent so well.

The story of a middle-aged widow struggling to remake her life after the premature death of her husband, it is written without a single physical description of its characters or adverbial signpost to guide our interpretation of their speech. The emotional distance between protagonist and reader is so great that at times the title character seems almost spectral. Yet it is precisely Toibin’s radical restraint that elevates what might have been a familiar tale of grief and survival into a realm of heightened inquiry. The result is a luminous, elliptical novel in which everyday life manages, in moments, to approach the mystical.

after I read the novel and went back to read this review, I realized that I had NO idea what Nora looks like.  I can imply through passages what she may look like, but it's strictly MY interpretation of her actions and of the narrative that lead my to draw my own conclusions. It's really a remarkable piece of writing. Very different from Brooklyn, which I also loved.

Nothing "happens" in this novel. Rather it is just that Toibin is describing life as it happens to most of us.....little events going on each day that add up to transforming us.  Nora's transformation comes from her interest in music...something that could not happen when Maurice was alive.  But in the end it's what helps her move from that part of her life to the next part...her life without him.

A very interesting read. Quiet, profound, touching....

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Boy, do I love this author's writing....the second book in about a month of hers that I have read. I liked "The Little Stranger," but I LOVED "The Paying Guests."
The story is gripping, the writing impeccable, the characters deep and interesting.
Some quotes:

NPR "One of the year's most engrossing and suspenseful novels...a love affair, a shocking murder, and a flawless ending ... Will keep you sleepless for three nights straight and leave you grasping for another book that can sustain that high."

From Westchester Library System Review:

 It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa-a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants-life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers. With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the "clerk class," the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances's life-or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be. Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters's finest achievement yetFro

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

I wanted to love this book.....but I just didn't.  I thought it would be much more about Russia, but it wasn't.  It was highly recommended....but it didn't do it for me. I did finish it, but reluctantly.
Other people really like it so here is a review from Publisher's Weekly:

Nicola Marter has the gift of psychometry-the ability to touch an object and discover information about its previous owners. Her grandfather's adamant instructions to never reveal her abilities, coupled with the negative reactions from those who do not understand her, has Nicola eager to keep her talent a secret. Margaret Ross appears at Nicola's artifacts and art gallery with a small carving of a bird, called the Firebird, and claims the item was given to her ancestor, Anna, by Peter the Great's wife, the Empress Catherine of Russia. Once Nicola holds the Firebird, she sees a vision of Anna with the Empress and realizes the carving could bring Margaret, who is in dire need of money, a fortune. Determined to help Margaret and prove the authenticity of the Firebird, Nicola enlists the help of Rob, who also has the same psychic abilities as Nicola's, only stronger. Following Anna's path, Nicole and Rob find themselves crossing Scotland, Belgium, and Russia, taking the reader on a journey spanning the Jacobite Rising of 1715 and its aftermath. Historical novelist Kearsley (The Rose Garden) wonderfully weaves past, present, and paranormal in this enjoyable adventure.