The Sweet By and By by Todd Johnson

At a nursing home in North Carolina, four very different women become friends. Margaret and Bernice, residents, are cared for by Lorraine and have their hair done by Rhonda. Their stories and that of Lorraine's daughter, April, are told in alternating chapters.

This is a very sweet story (no pun intended!) of these women and how their lives intersect and depend on one another. Aging and death are treated in a sensitive manner with humor. As the story moves through time, we see how these women change and grow. I liked them all and felt like I was getting reacquainted with old friends.

When Will there Be Good News by Kate Atkinson

This exciting book begins with a crime that happened thirty years ago. Six-year-old Joanna survived a horrible attack. Today she is a successful doctor, a wife and a mother. Louise Monroe, from the police, comes to alert Joanna that the man responsible for the crime is being released. When Joanna abruptly leaves with her baby, Reggie, the 16 year-old nanny is sure that something terrible has happened. This book has several main characters whose lives intersect. It kept me reading at an ever quickening pace because I wanted to know what was going to happen. Loved it!

Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich

Let me just say - I love the Stephanie Plum books. I look forward to the arrival of a new one each year with great anticipation. When my turn comes on the hold list, I take it home, curl up on the sofa and look forward to getting reacquainted with old friends, sharing a laugh or two or three, and helping to solve a mystery.

So you can imagine how disappointed I was in this latest offering by Janet Evanovich. I could hardly follow the plot and couldn't see how everything tied together. I found I didn't care if Stephanie apprehended her skip. In fact, I'm not even sure that Stephanie cared. There was too much Diesel and not enough Morelli. In fact, Ranger got more mention than Morelli did. And who cares about Diesel anyway?

In short, I skimmed through the 309 pages (the novel ended so abruptly that I figured the author had reached her publisher-designated page count) and moved on to the next book on my list. From now on, I'll skip the "between-the-numbers" books in this series and read the main ones.

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

This was a fascinating read. The main character is Cassandra Fallows who has been very successful with her first two books that were memoirs - at least she thought what she wrote was all true. Then she tried a fiction book - but that didn't go so well. She's already written about her childhood and about her two marriages so she thinks she has nothing else to write about. Then she hears a report about a crime which is compared to one that happened in her hometown of Baltimore. It involved one of Cassandra's friends from junior high who was arrested on suspicion of murdering her son. She refused to talk and spent 7 years in prison. Cassandra decides she could write an interesting book comparing the lives of her friends then with the lives they are leading today - with the murdered baby as the hook. None of her friends are very excited about being written about again. Intriguing plot.
I liked the book.

Addition by Toni Jordan

This is a first novel by Ms. Jordan and I think it was a good one. Our main character is Grace who lives a tightly ordered life because she is constantly counting things - number of steps, number of poppy seeds on her roll, number of clothes she puts in her washer, etc. At one time she had a more normal life and taught school. The kids were really good at counting - but not much else. One day she meets a man at the cafe and he is interested in going out with her. She can tell you exactly how many years, days, etc. it has been since last she had a date. Can a guy break through to the real person behind all of the numbers? You will just have to read the book to find out!

Bikini Season by Sheilia Roberts

Almost everyone wants to lose weight which is why most of us can relate to parts of this book. Erin, Angela, Megan and Kissy belong to a cooking club. Erin is going to drop out (as are some others) because she can't fit into her wedding dress and her miserly fiance would be very unhappy if she had to spend more money. They quickly decided to change the cooking club to a diet club. Of course all of the members have issues they are working on which will be resolved as the book progresses! A light, easy read.

Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay

When the Langley's (husband, wife, and teen-age son) are murdered in their home, neighbors Bill and his wife, Ellen, find themselves wondering how their own family might be involved. Bill is now a gardener but used to be a driver and gofer for the town's completely corrupt mayor. His wife, Ellen, works for the local college planning a literary event. Their son, Derek, was a friend of the boy who was killed. Should they have known more about their neighbor's lives? When Derek is arrested for the murders, Bill and Ellen know he is innocent - but how do they prove it?

I read 330 pages of this 400-page novel in one day. The pacing is fast, the characters likable, and it made me wonder how I would react if my normal life suddenly wasn't. A good, fast read.

The Girl in the Green Sweater by Krystyna Chiger 940.53

I have always been intrigued by the Holocaust and have read many books on the subject. In my opinion there is no reason to read fictional books about this event since the truth could never be outdone by the reality. I have read about people who survived in concentration camps and people who survived by hiding in attics. In this book Krystyna tells the story of how she went from being a normal child living with her baby brother and parents in a nice apartment, to living in the sewers of Lvov Poland. This is a remarkable story of survival, faith and friendship. The green sweater in the title refers to the sweater that she wore during the entire ordeal. You won't soon forget this book.