After Anna by Lisa Scottoline FIC Sco

Maggie has not had a great life.  She was married with a baby named Anna. But when Anna was six months old Maggie's marriage is over and worse of all her ex gets full custody of Anna. Eventually Maggie's life improves when she meets a pediatric allergist named Noah.  Noah is a widower who has a son and Maggie becomes the perfect person to fill the void in their lives. And then one day Maggie receives a phone call from her daughter!  Anna, in high school now, is in a boarding school but her life has turned upside down.  Her father, step-mother and two step-brothers have died in a plane crash in Europe where they lived.  With her father gone Anna wants to reconnect with her mother.  Maggie is ecstatic and Noah is very supportive. At the initial meeting between mother and daughter Anna is clear that she wants to come live with Maggie.   But it is not all roses.  Anna is used to spending money (lots of money) when and where she wants.  She is manipulative and doesn't like rules.  Tensions mount as Anna makes accusations against her new step-dad who leaves the family home.  When Anna is found murdered all evidence points to Noah.   Another great book by ScottolinClick for availability.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman FIC Hon

Eleanor is one of a kind.  She is socially awkward and just plain odd.  She does have a job but that is about all she has in her life.  After working Monday through Friday she stops on her way home to buy a couple of bottles of vodka and settles in to drink and heat up a pizza.  She remains isolated in her little apartment until she returns to work on Monday morning.

She becomes aware of a wanna-be star who sings with a band.  When she becomes totally obsessed with him she decides she should try to make herself look better.  It's fate that they should be together - she is certain of that!  So she goes to a hair salon (a first) for a new look and then to a department store. Having no clue what to buy, she is fortunately helped by a patient clerk.

While Eleanor is setting her sights on the musician she actually makes a friend at work who tries to bring Eleanor out of her isolation.

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Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate FIC Win

I love history and I enjoy fiction - so historical fiction is one of my favorite genres since I usually find out about a piece of history that I missed along the way.  In this heartbreaking book we learn about the scandal of the Tennessee Children's Home Society. What these people did to make a buck will turn your stomach.

The book flips back and forth between present day South Carolina and the story of a twelve-year-old girl, Rill Foss, in 1939 Tennessee.  Rill has four younger siblings and they live with their parents on a river.  When their mother, pregnant with twins, goes into labor and has complications their father has to take his wife to a hospital.  Rill is left with instructions to watch over her siblings. She is doing her best until the police come to their boat and take them away.  They end up in the orphanage where they live a hellish life.  It was a fascinating book.

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The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin FIC Ben

In 1969, four siblings living in New York City visit a traveling psychic.  Rumor has it that this woman can tell them the date of their deaths.  For Varya (age 13), Daniel (age 11), Klara (age 9) and Simon (age 7), things well never be the same again.

Over the next 40 years, the prophecy either haunts or informs their lives.  Simon escapes with Klara to San Francisco where he immerses himself in the gay lifestyle of the late '70s.  Klara is determined to become a magician and bases her act on that of her daredevil grandmother.  Back in New York City, Daniel becomes a doctor and Varya becomes a biologist who conducts research on how to extend longevity.

How much did the prophecy affect the way their lives turned out?  Did they live their lives the way they wanted to or was the prophecy real?

Although I wanted to shake the siblings at times, I enjoyed this book a lot.  It is both a story of how people face their future as well as a story about family bonds and caring.  Not always fun to read but well worth the time I spent reading it.

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Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen FIC Qui

This is a novel about characters - not a lot of action!  It all takes place in NYC on a dead-end street.  The buildings are old.  Some of the tenants have tried to bring their apartments back to former glory and others to completely modernize them.  Their street is like a very, very small community where people can get on your nerves.  There is George who likes to send out edicts to the neighbors about what they should and shouldn't be doing in their little spot of the city.  They gossip, they have traditions that they follow and they all share the same handyman.  One of the true jewels of their location is a small parking lot. Nora's husband, Charlie is thrilled when he scores one of those parking places.  He can use a break because things haven't been all that great at work and he has been on edge.  But all in all Nora is happy and keeping busy with work and running and surviving the empty nest now that her twins are off at college. 

One day she is returning from a run and is stunned to see violence taking place before her eyes.  What happened is disputed by those who were involved or by those who were there (including Charlie).  And with that one act things begin to change.

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The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen FIC Hen

Well this one is going to be hard to explain!  I liked it - one of those psychological novels which are now so popular.  You don't want a review to tell you too much so I won't!

There are two narrators.  One of them is a bitter ex-wife.  Forced to move in with an elderly aunt she is trying to hold onto a job as a saleswoman in a department store.  Drinking helps her cope.  It is quite different from living the life as the wife of a very, very rich man.

Then she learns that her ex is now engaged to her replacement and she becomes obsessed with her.  The "replacement" is the voice of the second narrator.

I listened to the audiobook and it kept me entertained and wondering where the story was going to end up.

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Every Note Played by Lisa Genova FIC Gen

Ever since reading Still Alice, I have been a huge fan of Genova.  With her background as a neuroscientist her books are factually correct with the physical/mental conditions of her characters.  This book deals with the subject of ALS (often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease).

Richard and Karina are both pianists and fell in love when they were young.  Richard has had a very successful career as a concert pianist.  He has travelled the world - not always compatible with marriage.  Karina had shifted her focus to jazz (partly because she didn't want to outshine her husband with her gift for classical music).  Karina's dreams didn't really work out.  Richard made them move from NY to Boston, away from the jazz scene.  As he traveled she was stuck at home being a mother to Grace and giving piano lessons.

When the story begins Grace is off at college and Karina has been divorced from Richard for years.  She couldn't take his infidelities any longer.  She stayed in the home and he moved to an apartment.  They have no contact.  His career had been going great except that he was having some trouble with one of his hands.  Thinking it was only tendonitis he wasn't worried at first but eventually he was diagnosed with ALS.  He hasn't told his daughter or his ex-wife.  He is managing with outside help.  But that won't last long.

It is difficult to read about this disease.  It isn't easy for the patient or the family and Genova takes you through the struggles, both physically and emotionally of everyone involved.

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The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean Pendziwol FIC Pen

Loved this book!  It is a story which covers decades but it begins with the day Morgan met Elizabeth,  Morgan is a troubled teen who is in yet another foster home.  She sneaks out at night to meet her no-good boyfriend.  When she gets into trouble she is assigned community service and finds herself helping a handyman by painting a fence at a retirement home.  That is where she meets Elizabeth, an old woman who is still mentally sharp but whose eyesight has dimmed so much that she can no longer read.  She has recently been given some journals that had been written decades before by her father when he was a lightkeeper on Lake Superior.  Elizabeth wants to find some family secrets that she is sure are hidden in those journals and Morgan seems like she might enjoy some breaks from painting to help her out.

As Morgan begins to read to Elizabeth her story is slowly revealed.  Lots of twists and turns along the way!  The characters are interesting - some endearing and some not so much.  I found myself wanting to read faster to find out all the secrets but needing to slow down so I didn't miss something important.

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The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden FIC Ard

At the conclusion of the first book in this trilogy (The Bear and the Nightingale), Vasya ran from her home village leaving behind the death and destruction she felt she caused.  Determined to see the world, she rides away on her magnificent stallion, Solovey.  She might be traveling alone but the frost-demon, Morozko, looks after her, protects her and often comes to her aid.

Disguised as a boy (because girls just don't ride alone), Vasya stumbles upon a village which has just been burned and raided by bandits who also took three young girls with them.  Responding to the pleas of the villagers and aided by the household spirits it seems only she can see, she sets out to find the girls and return them to their families.

As a result of this venture, she is hailed as a hero and reunited with her brother and sister.  It seems the bandits have been killed and disbanded but have they?  Who is Kasyan Lutovich and who is the ghost who roams her sister's palace in Moscow?

This book is a combination of fiction and fantasy set in medieval times.  I loved the first book but could barely put this one down.  Fantasy isn't necessarily my "thing" but I loved the blend of mystical with reality.  Vasya is a heroine to root for.  She is determined not to live the life normally prescribed for girls of her time - marriage or the convent.  In trying to forge her own path, she must also come to terms with how her actions affect those around her.

I can't wait for the final book in this trilogy which comes out in August.

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