The Girls by Emma Cline

This was an enjoyable, but difficult book. It's a fictional retelling of what it was like to be one of Charles Manson's girls during the Summer of Love. Some of the characters are drawn upon real people and I am assuming, Evie, the main character, is too. Here is a piece of the review in the New Yorker:

Evie Boyd, an only child whose upper-middle-class parents have recently divorced, wants to be older than her fourteen years, and is drawn to the free-spirited, rebellious young women she sees one day in a Petaluma park. They are looking for food to take back to the ranch where they live. The novel charts Evie’s accelerated sentimental education, as she is inducted into the imprisoning liberties of free love, drugs, and eventual violence, all of it under the sway of the cult’s magus, Russell Hadrick. In another way, though, Cline’s novel is itself a complicated mixture of freshness and worldly sophistication. Finely intelligent, often superbly written, with flashingly brilliant sentences, “The Girls” is also a symptomatic product not of the sixties but of our own age: a nicely paced literary-commercial début whose brilliant style, in the end, seems to restrict its reach and depth.

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

This was a great page-turner that I read in about 3 days.  It would have been faster if it weren't for work!
The NYTimes summarizes it well: 

“Before the Fall” is a complex, compulsively readable thrill ride of a novel. On the other, it is an exploration of the human condition, a meditation on the vagaries of human nature, the dark side of celebrity, the nature of art, the power of hope and the danger of an unchecked media.

I was disappointed in certain aspects of the plot/story, but it didn't stop me from poring through this at a fast pace!

The Nightengale by Kristin Hannah

This is a LONG book....maybe too long but a good and compelling story. I had LOTS of time to read on planes to and from California, so it helped the time go by

My Brilliant Friend

One down, three to go in the Neapolitan novels from this enigmatic author.  Loved this book, love the characters, love the writing.....but I have a few other books to read before I continue with this saga

The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henriquez

I really enjoyed this book and it was very timely, given the political climate here now, with Donald Trump wanting to send all illegal immigrants home.

In this book, however, the immigrants are here legally, but they are still not really considered Americans and live lives that are extremely difficult.

“We’re the unknown Americans,” says a character, “the ones no one even wants to know, because they’ve been told they’re supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to get to know us, they might realize that we’re not that bad, maybe even that we’re a lot like them.”

Here's a shortened version of the synopsis, from Wikipedia:

Alma Rivera, her husband Arturo, and daughter, Maribel, emigrate from Pátzcuaro, Mexico to Delaware on a visa Arturo obtained through work. Though the couple had a rich life in Mexico, they emigrated in order to send their daughter Maribel to a special needs school after she sustained a head injury. The family find it difficult to adjust as they know no English and Arturo's work picking mushrooms, which was the only work he could obtain legally, is monotonous and degrading. Their lives become easier when they meet the Toro family, who occupies the same tenement building as they do. The Toro parents are immigrants from Panama who have become legal citizens but struggle to get by on one meager income. Celia Toro and Alma Rivera become fast friends. Meanwhile, Mayor Toro develops a crush on Maribel and, after she is sexually assaulted by Garett Miller, a boy at Mayor's school, Mayor becomes protective of her.

The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos

This was a good short read, not a great book.
Here is the description from the Library website:

A novel about friendship, family, second chances, and the redemptive power of love.
In all her life, Eustacia "Taisy" Cleary has given her heart to only three men: her first love, Ben Ransom; her twin brother, Marcus; and Wilson Cleary--professor, inventor, philanderer, self-made millionaire, brilliant man, breathtaking jerk: her father.
Seventeen years ago, Wilson ditched his first family for Caroline, a beautiful young sculptor. In all that time, Taisy's family has seen Wilson, Caroline, and their daughter, Willow, only once.
Why then, is Wilson calling Taisy now, inviting her for an extended visit, encouraging her to meet her pretty sister--a teenager who views her with jealousy, mistrust, and grudging admiration? Why, now, does Wilson want Taisy to help him write his memoir?
Told in alternating voices--Taisy's strong, unsparing observations and Willow's naive, heartbreakingly earnest yearnings.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Beautifully written, elegant and melancholy story. It's almost a short story rather than a novel.

I can't say it any better than the Claire Messud in her NYTimes Book Review:  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/books/review/elizabeth-strouts-my-name-is-lucy-barton.html?_r=0