The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Two spectacular reads in a row! What can I read next that will even come close to this book and the one I finished last week, "The Goldfinch!"  They are very different books, but both captivated me!

This novel follows the fortunes an extraordinary woman, Alma Whittaker, daughter to the enterprising Henry Whittaker, who is a poor-born Englishman who eventually becomes the richest man in Philadelphia. The family's involvement in botany and what we know today as herbal medicine, brings them their wealth. The story deals with botany, spiritualism, illustration, and sexual desire. Alma is an amazing character - one the reader will not forget!

From the Westchester Library System review:

Alma has the benefit of wealth and books, spending hours learning Latin and Greek and studying the natural world. But her plain appearance and erudition seem to foretell a lonely life until she meets gifted artist Ambrose Pike. Their intense intellectual connection results in marriage, but Ambrose's deep but unorthodox spiritual beliefs prevent them from truly connecting. Alma, who has never traveled out of Philadelphia, embarks on an odyssey that takes her from Tahiti to Holland, during which she learns much about the ways of the world and her own complicated nature. Gilbert, in supreme command of her material, effortlessly invokes the questing spirit of the nineteenth century, when amateur explorers, naturalists, and enthusiasts were making major contributions to progress. Beautifully written and imbued with a reverence for science and for learning, this is a must-read.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

This book was just named one the ten best books of 2013 by the New York Times! I just finished it a few days ago, and I must say, I did love it!
Here is what they say about it:

Tartt’s intoxicating third novel, after “The Secret History” and “The Little Friend,” follows the travails of Theo Decker, who emerges from a terrorist bombing motherless but in possession of a prized Dutch painting. Like the best of Dickens, the novel is packed with incident and populated with vivid characters. At its heart is the unwavering belief that come what may, art can save us by lifting us above ourselves.

Since this book revolves around art, and a 17th century Dutch painting at that (one of my favorite genres), I was bound to love this book. The story pulls you in from the first pages with a compelling event and then gets deep into the characters, especially that of Theo. In many ways, you will be reminded of Holden Caulfield.

Also of great interest to me was the "Russian Connection."  Theo befriends Boris, quite a character himself.

I really did love this book. I want to go back and read The Secret History and the other Tartt novel I never did read.

We have to wait another decade for another book by her??? 

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Loved this book. It starts out in a small town in Italy in 1962 and a young innkeeper, Pasquale Tursi sees an approaching boat, carrying a beautiful woman, Dee. She is an American movie star, in Italy and part of the cast of the movie, Cleopatra. He falls instantly in love and that carries the book back and forth in time, ending in the present day in Idaho.
There are lots of intersecting stories here, all involving the same cast of characters over time. Walter combines his fictional characters with "real" people, including Richard Burton, who is the father of one of the fictional characters.  The story keeps the interest of the reader throughout, going back and forth in time, relating the different characters to each other. He also includes some other fictional works within his own novel: the first chapter of an unfinished novel by an American who comes to Tursi's hotel once a  year to write, but never seems to make any progress beyond that first chapter. And there's the beginning of a screenplay written by Shane, an aspiring writer who wants to have his story based on the Donner story turned into a screenplay.
The book is funny and satirical, and also touching.  I really enjoyed reading this and will pick up others by Jess Walter, now that I have been exposed to him as a writer.

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

This outstanding book, by one of my favorite authors, is a tale of two brothers, very different, and the different paths their lives take. One life ends very early...but another life takes root in the form of an offspring. The surviving brother takes on the responsibility of the widow and her child.
The writing is elegant and rich, as are the characters. Read this .... you will not be sorry!

Sisterland by Curtin Sittenfeld

I just love this author..... An American Wife was so engrossing.... and so is this book! It is the tale of two identical twins, Kate and Violet (Vi) who have "psychic abilities," although Kate is not really into it anymore. She has worked hard to mask her "sixth sense" by transforming herself into an ordinary wife to loving, even-keeled husband Jeremy and mother of two adorable kids, but she has enormous insecurities. Kate and Jeremy's neighbors are Courtney (who is also Jeremy's colleague) and her stay-at-home husband Hank, who is Kate's best friend. Vi is an exuberant, self-centered self-promoter who gives psychic readings for a living. When an earthquake rattles St. Louis in September 2009, Vi's prediction that a much bigger one is on the way gains national traction, setting off a media circus and geographic panic. As well, Kate's reluctant, growing involvement in Vi's life leads to a shocking, seismic disruption on her home front.

Help for the Haunted by John Searles

This book was recommended to me and I am glad that I took the plunge....it's not a book I would normally pick up.  It deals with demonology and has a "ghost story" aspect to it. But at its heart, it's a coming-of-age story of a sweet and precocious young girl, Sylvie, who is a member of a very interesting family. Here's the description on the Westchester Library site:

It begins with a call one snowy February night. Lying in her bed, young Sylvie Mason overhears her parents on the phone across the hall. This is not the first late-night call they have received, since her mother and father have an uncommon occupation: helping "haunted souls" find peace. And yet something in Sylvie senses that this call is different from the others, especially when they are lured to the old church on the outskirts of town. Once there, her parents disappear, one after the other, behind the church's red door, leaving Sylvie alone in the car. Not long after, she drifts off to sleep, only to wake to the sound of gunfire. As the story weaves back and forth through the years leading up to that night and the months following, the ever-inquisitive Sylvie searches for answers and uncovers secrets that have haunted her family for years. Capturing the vivid eeriness of Stephen King's works and the quirky tenderness of John Irving's novels, Help for the Haunted is told in the captivating voice of a young heroine who is determined to discover the truth about what happened on that winter night.

Searles has written a book that deals with strange people, but it's really quite a believable story.  It's great storytelling about human beings who are flawed and all too real.

Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O'Farrell

I am cheating here and copying and pasting the summary of the book from the Westchester Library Sysetem's website. I can't say it better:

A sweeping family drama, in which the disappearance of a family patriarch forces three adult siblings to gather together to find him and to confront what they really know about their father and themselves. It's the summer of 1976 and London is in the grip of a record-breaking heat wave when Gretta Riordan discovers that her newly retired husband, Robert, has cleaned out his bank account and vanished. Now, Gretta's three children converge in their mother's home for the first time in years: Michael Francis, a history teacher whose marriage is failing; Monica, with two stepdaughters who despise her and an ugly secret that has driven a wedge between herself and the little sister she once adored; and Aoife, the youngest of the Riordans, now living in Manhattan, a smart, immensely resourceful young woman who has arranged her entire life to conceal her illiteracy. As the siblings tease out clues about their father's whereabouts, they navigate rocky pasts and long-held secrets, until at last their search brings them to their ancestral village in Ireland, where the truth of their parents' lives--and their own--is suddenly revealed. Wise, lyrical, instantly engrossing, Instructions for a Heat Wave is a richly satisfying page-turner from a writer of exceptional intelligence and grace.

I really liked this book and the writing.  The end was so satisfying to me and the passages of the various characters when they "find themselves" very moving.