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.....