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!