the next person you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom FIC ALB

    If you loved the first book you will love this one.  I was afraid it had been so long since I read the original that I would be lost.  Not true.  As he referred to things that happened in the original it came back to me.
     Eddie was the war veteran who returned to work at an amusement park where he was in charge of keeping kids safe by keeping the rides in perfect condition.  But one day there was an accident and the cart from one of the rides began to fall.  Eddie threw himself in harm's way to push a young girl out of the way and he was crushed.  That young girl's name was Annie.
     This book is about Annie.  When the book opens we immediately know that Annie is going to die and how many hours she has left.  That is particularly sad because she is a young woman and she is getting married to Paulo, a childhood friend with whom she had reconnected.  The have a wonderful wedding and go to a hotel after the reception.  But there aren't many hours left before she is going to die.  She will be going on the same journey that Eddie took - meeting people from her past.   I love the way he writes and I loved this one.  If I had my way he would kill one person a year and tell this person's story through the people they meet in heaven.  As with his first book, I will probably spend some time wondering which five people I would meet.
   

Until I Say Good-bye: my year of living with joy by Susan Spencer-Wendel 616.83 SPE

      ALS is a devastating disease.  If you have known anyone with this diagnosis you have seen or heard about what it does to the person.  Spenser-Wendel  was able to write such a beautiful memoir because she was a journalist.  She is also a wife and mother.  ALS doesn't attack all at once.  There are little signs - most easy to ignore for a while.  Eventually she seeks medical attention and is given her 'sentence'.  The way she chose to live her final year is inspirational.
      She takes many trips that year- sometimes with family and sometimes with the special friends in her life. All the time her physical condition is deteriorating .   The most gut-wrenching one for me was when she took her 14 year-old daughter to NYC to shop for her wedding dress knowing that she would not be around when her daughter got married.
     Want more inspiration?  She typed out her memoir on her iPhone with her right thumb!  

Fear by Bob Woodward

      There are two types of people.  One group has no interested in reading this book.  The second group has been waiting to dig into it.  I obviously was in the second group.
      Bob Woodward is a very talented writer, winning two Pulitzer Prizes among his 18 books that he wrote or co-wrote.  He has worked for 47 years at The Washington Post.  He knows how to research and write a book.
        It is a very readable book.  I am not going to comment on the content.  Read the cover and you will know what it is about!

Something In The Water by Catherine Steadman FIC STE

      Loved this book!  It begins with a documentary filmmaker struggling in the woods to dig a grave big enough for her husband's body.  After that brief intro the story really begins.  Erin and Mark, an investment banker, have been together for quite a while.  Now they are ready to get married and start a family.  Big plans are made for the wedding, the reception and of course the honeymoon.  When an economic downfall leads to Mark losing his job, some of their plans are scaled back.  The honeymoon to Bora Bora is still on except for only two weeks.
      While there they are having a wonderful time.  One day they take a boat out for some scuba diving.  When they find something -yes it was in the water! , they have to make a big decision.  Do they tell what they found or do they keep the secret to benefit themselves?
      I see a movie in this book's future!

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molly FIC MOL

      There must be thousands of women who give birth every month in New York City.  This book is about a group of women who live in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.  They are all first-time moms and they have a lot to learn.  So this group is perfect for them.  They are called the May Mothers.  They meet regularly in the park with their babies to hear everyone's birth story, exchange worries, and offer support.  One of them organizes a moms' night out on the Fourth of July.  The husbands can get a taste of what they go through - well, except for Winnie.  She is a single mother and after only six weeks of being a mother to Midas she doesn't want to leave him with a babysitter.  The others insist she needs to come and one of them offers her nanny as a babysitter.
      The evening is filled with a lot of alcohol which often leads to bad actions.  At the end of the evening there will be lots of headaches........and a missing Midas.    Another psychological thriller - and I loved it.

The Home For Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman (electronic resource)

     In the middle of the last century the French and English who lived in Quebec put up with one another but that's about all.  Maggie's father speaks English but the boy she falls in love with is French.  There is no way he will allow this romance to lead to marriage.  And he got his way even though at 15 Maggie finds herself in the family way.  Her parents force her to give her daughter Elodie up for adoption.  Maggie goes on with her life and eventually marries.  She never stops missing Elodie and thinks of her constantly.
      Elodie did not get adopted by some loving family.  Instead she lived in an institution run by nuns.    It was not a great life but things get even worse.  A law is passed regarding funding.  Psychiatric hospitals will receive more funding than the orphanages.  To get money thousands of orphans were classified as mentally ill.  Elodie is a bright girl and she survives this awful life until she turns 17 and is allowed to leave.  She enters a world that is like another planet.
     Eventually Maggie decides to take on the daunting task of finding the daughter she never stopped loving.
This is a great book.  And it is a novel.  However it is inspired by events that really happened and that adds to the heartbreak of the story.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage (electronic book )

       Suzette should be happy - a great husband and a young daughter named Hannah.  But Hannah isn't a normal child.  She doesn't talk.  There isn't a physical reason for it.  There is a diabolical reason behind her silence Hannah adores her father and would prefer to have him to herself.  So she plays games with her mother.  And she is clever enough that her father never sees what she is doing.  She is no angel at school either -but he has excuses for that.
      The chapters alternate between what Suzette is thinking and what Hannah is thinking.  And what Hannah is thinking will give you the creeps!  
       A classic Bad Seed story!

The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse by Alexander McCall Smith FIC MCC

     In a world that seems so crazy it is a nice escape to find a book like this one! It is a heartwarming story of a Border Collie with the unusual name of Peter Woodhouse.  The poor thing is abused by his owner and finally an angel comes to save him.  The angel's name is Val.  She is young and to earn money and help with the war effort she is a working on a farm.  When she takes the dog she realizes that she needs to hide him from his owner.  She had met an American pilot named Mike who was stationed nearby.  Peter Woodhouse finds himself being named a mascot for the unit.  And as you can tell from the title he also gets to fly in airplanes and becomes a good luck charm for the men.
      The love of a dog can bring people together - even those who are on opposite sides of the war.

                  

Clock Dance: A Novel by Anne Tyler FIC TYL

      Instead of using flashbacks to flesh out the story of a character, Tyler took a different approach which I really liked.  We are introduced to Willa when she is 11 in the year 1967.  That is a year in which her mentally unstable mother left home again.   Of course this has a great influence of how Willa views herself and her role in life.  We are treated to a few more glances of Willa's life as she becomes a wife, a mother, and a widow.
     All of this sets the stage for her story in 2017.  She is remarried and is longing to be a grandmother but that doesn't seem to be happening.
      One day she receives a phone call from a stranger across the country asking for her help.  The woman is calling on behalf of the former live-in girlfriend of her son.  It seems the ex has been shot and this neighbor has been taking care of the daughter and the dog but she can't continue to do it, so Willa has to come immediately.  Willa's desire to be useful in life does what is asked of her and with her husband in tow takes off to save the day.  After decades of not feeling that she fits in, Willa finds a whole neighborhood of quirky people where she feels more at home.

The Half Life of Everything FIC GAN

     This novel has an intriguing twist.  Kate and David have been  happily married a long time. In her early fifties Kate began to lose herself.  Once a woman with an excellent memory, she becomes a woman in decline.  Finally she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer diseases.  With the help of their sons and eventually some paid help, they are able to keep her at home for years.  Inevitably the day comes when that is no longer possible and Kate is moved into a facility.  Even though Kate is disappearing more each day, David faithfully visits her everyday and begins to think of himself as a married widower
     Kate was the one who kept track of all the paperwork in the household so David is finding insurance overwhelming at times. One day at his wife's facility he meets someone who can help him.  Her name is Jane.  They develop a relationship.  So David, who has never cheated on his wife falls in love.  Is it cheating if your spouse doesn't even recognize it?
       The book was entertaining - sad, humorous, heart-warming - a bit of everything!

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern (FIC Hal)

In Riverton, New Hampshire, in 2010, Kit is the reference librarian at the local public library.  Riverton is a mill town fallen on hard times but Kit doesn't mind.  No one here knows her past or asks her any questions which is just fine with her.  The last thing she wants to do is talk about her past.

When 15-year-old Sunny is caught trying to steal a $30.00 dictionary from a local bookstore (it needed to be hardcover and she only had $12.00 with her), she is "sentenced" to do community service for 40 hours a week all summer long - at the local public library.  The child of parents who have lived "off the grid", Sunny is eager to learn more and meet more people.  She is assigned to "work" with Kit.

As Sunny and Kit gradually become friends, they notice the continued presence in the library of Rusty, a late 30-something who lost everything in the crash of 2008 and comes into the library every day to use the computer.  Pretty soon, Rusty has become part of the regulars.  He, Kit and Sunny are drawn to one another as each struggles to move beyond their past and into an unknown future.

Unlike most books set in a public library, this one really captures what it's like - the regulars, the staff (OK, there are some stereotypes there!), the atmosphere and the importance of a public library to its community.  The library and the people who inhabit it are as much a part of the story as the three main characters.  Watching Kit, Sunny and Rusty move closer to each other and find a kind of family was time well spent.

Ghosted by Rosie Walsh (FIC Wal)

While visiting her parents in England, Sarah meets Eddie while he is sitting in a village green talking to a goat.  Instantly charmed, she strikes up a conversation which leads to drinks which leads to the most magical seven days Sarah can remember.  She knows it's crazy but she also knows she has fallen in love and Eddie returns her feelings.  Eddie has booked a trip to Spain so they part reluctantly promising to be in touch as soon as he returns, if not sooner.

And then.....nothing.  Eddie just drops off the face of the earth. Frantic, Sarah, a successful executive for a charity she started, finds her life falling apart.  She barely recognizes the person she is becoming.  Could she have been so mistaken about Eddie's feelings for her?  Has something happened to him?  How could she have been so wrong?

Only when they both come to grips with their past, and tell each other the truth, will they be able to resolve their relationship.

(I will admit that I had to look up the definition of "ghosting".  It is defined online as "the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.")

Sarah's desperation to find Eddie at first seemed a little hard to believe.  I wanted to tell her that she was being silly, to grow up, that he wasn't worth it.  But gradually, I became as curious to find out what had happened to him as Sarah was.  And almost as frustrated!  If the ending was a little pat, I still enjoyed the journey and finding out just what drove Eddie away.

The Spy of Venice by Benet Brandreth

It is fact that William Shakespeare disappeared from historical records between 1585 and 1592.  No one knows where he was or what adventures he had during that time.  What if...

...His wandering eye wandered too far and he was forced to leave his wife, Anne Hathaway, and their three young children and flee to London
...Where he joined forces with a group of players
...And somehow caught the eye of Sir Henry Carr, an English gentleman about to leave London for Venice to negotiate for help against the Spaniards
...And while underway things went awry and William ended up in Venice with one member of the company masquerading as Sir Henry and his steward?

Well, what if?  No one can say otherwise, right?

William, as portrayed here, needed to do some growing up.  What better way to do that than to send him, fictionally, of course, to Venice.  (References in his plays to happenings in Venice at the time give credence to this possibility.)  Over the course of his time there, William does begin the process of maturing but not before angering some wealthy and powerful people in Venice.  Will he have to flee Venice as well?

A fun book to read, a fascinating look at Venice and the promise of a sequel to come.