River Road by Carol Goodman FIC Goo

A snowy night, a dangerous part of a road, a flash of white, and a sickening thud.  Nan Lewis is an emotional basket case.  Part of it is her concern for the deer - she is sure it was a deer.  Maybe it was injured.  She has to get out of the car and trudge through the snow to see if she can find it.  Not the best idea but Nan isn't thinking clearly.  She has just come from a faculty Christmas party where she had been drinking and also where she found out that she wasn't going to be offered tenure.  Nan doesn't find any trace of the deer.  But she does see that her accident had taken place in the same place where her young daughter had been hit and killed so many years before.  She gets her car as far as her driveway when she realizes it has snowed so much she will never get the car up the driveway.  So she leaves it in a turnabout and climbs the hill to her house.

The next morning she receives a visit from the police.  She is shocked to find out that one of her students, who was also at the party, was killed in a hit-and-run where Nan had had her accident.  Seeing her damaged car the police were immediately suspicious.  And just like that Nan becomes a pariah.  This was a great book - interesting characters and plot that kept me guessing.

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This Was Not The Plan by Cristina Alger FIC Alg

I liked this book a lot!  It is the story of Charlie Goldwyn.  He is 35 and has been working like a madman at a high-pressured litigation firm and he is up for partnership.  You would think that he had it made.  But things have been tough for Charlie.  Two years before this his beloved wife, Mira, was killed in a plane crash leaving him heart-broken with a young son, Caleb, to raise.  If it weren't for his twin sister, Zadie, Charlie couldn't have survived.  She has been living with them and seeing to all of Caleb's needs while Charlie has been burying himself in work for these two years.  There have been lots of broken promises and Charlie hasn't really been much of a father.  But the partnership is all he has been thinking about.

Then one night he has a bit too much to drink and when asked to give an impromptu speech at a firm function he makes a big mistake - he tells the truth and it is captured on someone's cell phone.  By the next day Charlie is out of a job.  His sister wants a bit of a break (for the first time) and Charlie gets to actually be a day-to-day father.  He has a lot to learn.

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Too Close To Home by Susan Lewis FIC Lew

 

It was time for an easy but entertaining book and this was perfect!   Jenna Moore had a young daughter when she married Jack.  They added three more children to their family.  They were happily living in London but economic reasons (Jack lost his job as a sales manager for a publisher) led them to move to Wales where they were working on setting up an e-publishing business.  Jenna is also supposed to be working on a novel.  She is feeling the pressure because she is having writers' block and she has to deliver because she has taken an advance on it.  Still, she is enjoying their new life - until she starts noticing that Jack is going to a lot of meetings and answering a lot of phone calls that he prefers to answer in private.  Hmmmm.  Sounds a bit suspicious, doesn't it!

If you think Jenna is having a hard time wait until you read about Paige's life.  She is now 15 and although she quickly made some friends when she moved to Wales she is now being bullied at school.  But of course she doesn't confide any of her problems to her mom or to her step-dad.  There are lots of secrets to unfold in this book.

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When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi 616.99 Kal

Paul Kalanithi loved writing.   He planned on doing that after a career in neurosurgeon.  But first he had to finish up his training.  He was in his last year of residency - just months to go.  And then he began having some symptoms.  He is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.  He does finish his residency and begins practicing.  It is also obvious that he can't wait for twenty years to begin his writing.  So he begins to tell the story of his wife, the baby they decided to have, and what it is like to have a terminal diagnosis.

It is a beautifully written book that will grab you from the first page and leave you in tears by the last page.  Paul didn't live long enough to totally finish the book.  His wife finished the story sharing with us Paul's last days in a touching epilogue that she wrote.

I loved this book.  It is a great reminder about how quickly life and plans can change.

From the introduction to the book by Dr. Verghese:

" I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option. There is so much here that lingers, and not just about matters of life and death: One of the most poignant things about Dr. Kalanithi’s story is that he had postponed learning how to live while pursuing his career in neurosurgery. By the time he was ready to enjoy a life outside the operating room, what he needed to learn was how to die."

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King and Maxwell by David Baldacci MYS Bal

This is a novel which welcomes back the dynamic team of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, former Secret Service agents and presently private investigators.  Their newest case begins on a rainy night when they come across a teenaged boy running with a gun.   His name is Tyler Wingo.  He and his step-mother had just received the news that his dad had been killed in action in Afghanistan.  But after the death of his dad he receives an email from him written in their secret code.

He hires King and Maxwell to find out what is going on.  In the meantime we the readers know what is going on with the dad and the mission he was on.  There are people who are not happy when they find out what King and Maxwell are up to.

A fairly fast-paced book as we follow the two parts of the story unfold.  We also get some more insight into the relationship between the two investigators.

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The Longest Night by Andria Williams FIC Wil

This is a debut novel.  The basis of this novel is a true event in American history.  It was the only fatal nuclear accident to happen in the U.S..  Nat and Paul are a young couple with two daughters.  Paul is in the military and he has been assigned to work at one of the first nuclear reactors built in the country.  So the family moves to Idaho Falls.  Nat is finding it to be a challenge.  Making friends will not be easy.  Soon after arriving they are invited to a dinner party at the home of Paul's boss, Master Sergeant Richards and his perfect wife Jeannie.  Nat is definitely out of her league with the wives but the drunk Richards seems interested in her.  As Paul begins his job he is shocked at the way things are run - and he begins to doubt the safety of the reactor.

With the reactor problems as the background, most of the novel is about the relationship between Nat and Paul......and did I mention that there is a really nice guy who meets Nat and is willing to help her out any way he can.

I loved the era (what pressure for those wives to present a certain façade), a little glimpse into the age of nuclear reactors and the characters.

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The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati FIC Don

It is 1883 and in New York City, two cousins, Anna and Sophie Savard, are doctors in a time when women doctors are looked down upon.  Sophie, as a mixed-race woman, finds it difficult to practice as an obstetrician.

In the course of her work, Anna, a surgeon, comes across four orphaned children and feels compelled to help them.  Sophie must deal with her love of their childhood friend who suffers from tuberculosis and has shut himself away from the world for fear of spreading the infection.

And while both women go about their lives and practices they must deal with Anthony Comstock, whose fight to prevent the spread of obscene and pornographic materials, includes the spread of any information regarding contraceptives.  Both Anna and Sophie must deal with how this affects the lives of the women, from rich to poor, whom they try to help.

This is a long book and any brief description fails to do it justice.  The author does a wonderful job of portraying what life was like in New York City in the late 1800s.  Raised in a home of luxury, the two doctors are exposed to the lives of the very poor through their medical careers.  Life in the city is described in a way that makes all those history books come to life.  From the excitement of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge to Staten Island, then a rural area full of farms and small villages, the book is full of what life was like then.

I raced through it in record time and can't wait for the promised sequel...

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