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.