THE MEMORY LIBRARY by Kate Storey

A mother and daughter who once loved to read together and discuss the books they had read are now estranged for no apparent reason. When the daughter, who now lives in Australia, learns her mother has fallen and needs help, Ella grudgingly flies to England to assist her mom. Secrets and old wounds are gradually revealed. Ella increasingly discovers her mom’s life before and after Ella left in anger 20 years ago was very different from the way she remembers it. Storey reveals both mother and daughter in bits and pieces as this heart-warming tale unfolds. Readers who look for books that slowly reveal the characters and what makes them who they are will revel in this tale of love, heartbreak, friendship, the value of books and the ties that bind a mother to her children. Lots here for book groups to discuss. A good choice for mother/daughter book group. 4 stars for a slow start.

EXODUS by Leon Uris

I reread this book because I was interested in the Jewish defense of the modern nation of Israel. EXODUS, while definitely a fictionalized account, does give the Jewish perspective of the search for a homeland by those who had suffered pogroms and discrimination for centuries. The novel introduces a variety of characters and then gives each backstory. This makes the book very lengthy, but also provides the reasons each character is part of the search for a new Israel. At times heartbreaking, but at other times full of the joy of life, EXODUS covers the time period from the late 1800s to the founding of Eretz Israel and the ensuing war for independence when Britain reneges on their promises to both the Israelis and the Palestinians. 5 stars for telling a story that needs to be told and understood

THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride

Heartwarming and yet filled with the frailties of humans is my one sentence comment on this book. HEAVEN AND EARTH tells the story of the town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the 1920’s and the disparate group of people who live there. The Jews and the Colored live on the hillside above the town, the “arrived on the Mayflower” whites live at the bottom of the hill and the “new” immigrants live somewhere in the middle. Do they get along? Well, maybe. Chona, the Jewish woman who has always lived in Pottstown and runs the grocery store is a good (and beautiful) woman. She lives among and is friends with the Colored folk who live about her on the hill. She feeds everyone whether or not they can pay. Her husband is the successful owner of the TWO local live music theaters that cater to both Colored and white folk. The local doctor is enamored of Chona and is NOT a good doctor although he is the only doctor. In 1972, long after Chona, her husband and Doc are gone, a skeleton is found in an abandoned well. Who is at the bottom of the well and why? And that, friends, is the plot of the story. Excellent writing, characters that leap off the page and a plot that will keep you guessing are the hallmark of this author. McBride has a clear understanding of his characters and the interactions between them. The intricacies of the plot will keep your attention and stay with you long after you have finished the book. Pay careful attention as the “plot thickens” in the last fourth of the book. (If you are triggered by the use of “Colored” or “Negro” you might want to skip this book. Please don’t!) 5 of 5 stars

THE BLETCHLEY RIDDLE by Ruta Sepetys & Steve Sheinkin

Although labeled as a young adult book this intriguing mystery by a delightful author will keep the attention of adults. A love of riddles and puzzles keeps a brother and sister close. So when Jakob disappears to Bletchley in 1940 to work as a secret codebreaker for the British, Lizzie is determined to find him and their mother instead of sailing to America and safety. What ensues is a madcap adventure with Lizzie being chased by her erstwhile chaperon, aided by her new friend Colin and castigated by her brother and the Colonel all while attempting to discover the secrets of Bletchley and searching for her missing and presumed dead mother. Does she succeed in any of these? You will have to read THE BLETCHLEY RIDDLE to find out. This is a fast, entertaining and informative read by two award winning authors who excel at historical fiction. 5 of 5 stars

THE MISTLETOE MYSTERY – A MAID NOVELLA by Nita Prose

Let me start by saying I loved THE MAID. It was a delightful, insightful and charming mystery with a unique character in Molly the Maid. Molly was somewhere “on the spectrum” without it ever being said or alluded to. Molly had a wise and understanding grandmother who loved Molly just as she was and a job that fitted her personality perfectly. If you haven’t read THE MAID, you should. Unfortunately, THE MISTLETOE MYSTERY while having the quirky Molly as the main character and her boyfriend, Juan, as a good foil for her, simply misses the mark. Molly’s quirkiness seemed forced. Her boyfriend seemed too good to be true. The plot (I’m not giving it away) was too transparent (I solved the mystery in the first few pages), and the situations were too obvious. So – did I enjoy the book? Yes, it was a good read for a lazy afternoon. Will I keep this book on my shelf? NO, a second read would simply be boring. Will I recommend this book to someone else? Probably not, but I might give it away to someone who just needs a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. My final take – Nita Prose, a good author, was asked (forced?) to write a Christmas story and she briskly polished this off with dispatch in order to fulfill her contract. 3 of 5 stars

WE SOLVE MURDERS by Richard Osman

Osman has written another intelligent murder mystery peopled with fully drawn characters, an intricate plot, and a sense of humor. He does spend a fair amount of time establishing his characters, but the intelligence of the resulting plot and writing makes the time spent worthwhile. This time his series is peopled by a private detective (Amy Wheeler) protecting a world famous author (Rosie) who happens to be a scheming curmudgeon, and Amy’s father-in-law, Steve, a blissfully retired police detective. When bodies (several) and money (lots of money) show up, the question becomes who is Francois Loubert and why does he want Amy dead? Hijinks abound along with murder, mysterious characters, round the world plane rides, and danger in plenty as our intrepid PI and her erstwhile protectee, now her companion is sleuthing, and her reluctant father-in-law attempt to answer those questions and, more importantly, stay alive. After Osman’s successful run with the Thursday Murder Club books, he entertains us with a new set of engaging characters and engrossing story lines. I’m looking forward to further adventures with Amy, Rosie and Steve. This series is lots of fun and lots of intrigue. Enjoy! 5 stars and well worth your time.

DEN OF INIQUITY by J A Jance

Jance may have written a police procedural, but what I read was a family story. Beau’s family is in upheaval when his teenaged grandson shows up on his doorstep announcing he would like to live with Beau and Mel. Darius’s family is devastated by his death, assuming he has succumbed to illegal drugs. Then the deaths and shattered families start mounting. Jance has written a lively and entertaining murder mystery with some humor along with the excitement of a chase to catch a serial murderer before they can strike again. As always, Jance’s characters are well defined and complex. Her plot is multi-faceted and leads to a brilliant conclusion. Altogether a mystery well worth your time with a complex and satisfyingly intricate plot. 5 stars

FALLING by T J Newman

After you suspend logic, this thriller delivers thrills a minute and then some. The premise is simple. The bad guys have kidnapped a pilot’s family and want hm to crash his plane or they will kill his family. What follows is a relentless thrill ride as we travel along with the crew and innocent passengers. How can our brave pilot save both his family AND his plane. And, of course, why do the bad guys want him to crash the plane anyway. The crew and bad guys are pretty standard characters. Jo, the head flight attendant, is actually a more well drawn character than the pilot. It is obvious that the writer is extremely familiar with planes, the security systems on board them, and the flight attendants whose real job is to keep the passengers safe not serve them coffee. You WILL get drawn into the intricacies of the plot. You WILL stay up late reading to discover how this turns out. A good debut for a first-time author (and former flight attendant) who puts her knowledge of flight systems to good use. 4 stars for a thrilling ride.

GIRL FALLING by Hayley Scrivenor

Insidious and evil. Dark and depressing. Murder or accident? And yet I HAD to keep reading. The writing was beautifully done, keeping ones desire to know and understand at a high pitch. Three women, one evil, one good, and one …also evil?...also good?….which is it? Who is doing the manipulating and who is being manipulated? Interspersing the darkness are lovely descriptions of the landscape of Australia. The mechanics of rope climbing become a part of the story. The characters and situations are believable. There were many times I was ready to put this book down and not pick it up again. But the depth of the writing kept me reading. It is difficult to recommend the book because there is so much of the book that is triggering. I could only recommend it to a limited number of people and I would have to know them and their reading habits well to offer this book to them. There is little light or joyous to be gotten from reading FALLING GIRL. I would not use this book in a book group because of too many triggers and no real resolution. 4 stars for the writing, 2 stars for the darkness of the story

BAD ANIMALS by Sarah Braunstein

I have given BAD ANIMALS a couple days to "sit with me" before writing this review. I'm still not sure how I feel about the book. It was well written, the story was mostly engaging; but I didn't like any of the main characters. I can't decide if Maeve was just a total innocent caught up in circumstances beyond her control or she was a jaded and cynical psychopath who attempted to destroy a child. Or maybe the child was the psychopath who attempted to destroy the adult Maeve. I am certain Harrison was a cynical "user" of people for his own enjoyment and financial gain. Poor Jack was caught in the middle of Harrison and Maeve's shenanigan's and the ultimate loser. The other librarians were simply there for the author's ability to tell the story. So, would I recommend this book to another reader? Maybe? Maybe not? Would I have finished the book if I wasn't writing a review? NO, I would have given it maybe 100 pages instead of my usual 50 before dropping it, but I wouldn't have finished it. But maybe would I have, if only to find out what ultimately happened to Libby, the only character I cared about. SO…. 4 stars for writing . 2 stars for story. 3 stars for the total book.

THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE by Richard Osman

How can a book about 4 murders be a tender love story? And yet, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE is a tender love story. Our four senior sleuths, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim, are caught up in a drug war, an art forgery, a “love for money” fraud and the murder of one of Stephen’s friends along with three other murders. Osman, who has written three other novels starring the four members of the Thursday Murder Club is back again with a delightful, charming and intriguing mystery. His characters are true to form and fine companions for a chill autumn evening or two with a hot cup of tea. Who will be the “last devil to die” and, therefore, the murderer will keep you guessing to the last pages. The main characters are clearly the focus, but Osman makes even minor characters, like the fox, a fully developed personality. A delightful story well told. Buy it! 5 of 5 stars

DAUGHTERS OF SHANDONG by Eve J Chung

“Girls are nothing more than wives for other people’s sons.” And so begins the story of Hai, her mother and her sisters. When the communist revolution comes to their area, the girls and their mom are left behind by their wealthy landowning family with only a vague promise to return for them. Enemies of the communists because of the family’s wealth and importance, the girls and their mother are evicted with no money or food as enemies of the people. Hai, the eldest daughter not yet a teen, narrates this compelling, barely fictionalized account of the journey by foot through China toward Taiwan. The girls come alive on the pages as their harrowing tale is told. Chung relates the story of her grandmother with deftness and empathy. Although filled with danger, poverty, and continuing disasters, the story offers hope, resilience, love and the power of faith and kindness. Readers will learn much about the Communist takeover of China and the ravages war brings to a peasant population. Book groups will have many topics for discussion from foot binding to the importance of education. I highly recommend this book 5 of 5 stars

DEVIL MAKES THREE by Ben Fountain

I very much disliked this book. It was too long by at least 100 pages. It was too disjointed as time, place, and characters jumped from page to page, even paragraph to paragraph with not even a line break to give the reader a clue to the jump. There was too much incomprehensible talk among the characters about Haitian politics and too many untranslated French words, phrases and sentences for this German speaking American. I knew little about Haitian politics before I read this book and I am still in the dark. I often felt I needed to stop reading and consult Wikipedia’s version of Haitian history. Parts of the book were interesting and well written. One blurb writer called this book “a fast, riveting read. A gripping thriller…” he must have read a different book. This book was a struggle to get through the first hundred pages before the characters and plot started to become clear. I would have enjoyed a 300 page book of Matt and Alix’s treasure hunting adventures much more. I found Audrey/Shelly simply too confusing to like or dislike or to follow her part in the story. Matt had an interesting ethical dilemma. Alix apparently had no problems in the ethical field at all. His sister chose and was in that way my favorite character. 4 stars for the writing: 3 stars for the plot and length.

ABOVE THE SALT by Katherine Vaz

ABOVE THE SALT by Katherine Vaz After a slow start, due primarily to the detailed, short and apparently unconnected vignettes, I got into the rhythm of this detailed tale of one family persecuted for beliefs and forced to leave their homeland for America. John, the main character, starves with his mother for her religious beliefs when she is jailed. Although soon released, John is forever scarred by this episode. John, continues to America where he continues to grow successful gardens (beautiful writing here) meet various people, including Abraham Lincoln, and reconnects with Mary, a former neighbor, in the enduring and endearing love story. Although a bit too long (where have all the editors gone?) this is a well written, engaging story with real events and persons seamlessly woven in. Well worth the time spent wading through the initial disconnectedness to a classic tale of family, endurance, pride, hard work, serendipity and love. 4 ½ stars

PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING by Melissa Fu

The turmoil in China from 1938 to 1998 is the background for this family tale. Meilin, a young wife and mother, loses her husband to the Japanese invasion and then must flee with her 4 year-old son when the marauding Japanese attack her family’s village. The book continues with mother and son as World War Two, the communist uprising, the Nationalist movement and other calamities affect them. Renshu, the son, quickly becomes the focal character in this richly descriptive and harrowing tale. Fu’s character study of Renshu as he progresses through life, first in China and then the United States, education, then marriage and a family of his own, makes the book believable and engrossing. A scroll depicting various folk tales is the link for each episode in his life. After a slow start the book is compelling reading. The scholarship is impeccable. China comes alive as Renshu and his mother contend with the vicissitudes of life in a country racked by turmoil. 4 of 5 stars

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES BY Shelby VanPelt

I was prepared to dismiss this book as entirely ridiculous after my self-appointed requirement of 75 pages; however, what I discovered was a perfectly delightful, well written and tender character study. The story concerns a 70-year-old woman stuck in grief for a teenaged son lost to an early death, a 30-year-old man-child stuck in anger at a mother who abandoned him at age 9 and an aging octopus stuck in a too small “prison” longing for the vast ocean he can hear outside the aquarium. One supporting character I enjoyed was the busybody owner of the grocery store who inserts himself into everyone else’s business. To tell you more would spoil this novel. Read it for yourself and be delighted. I hope the author writes another tale for us to enjoy. 5 of 5 stars for a surprisingly good novel with an unusual collection of characters and a first-time author.

ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL by Susan Meissner

This two-pronged story tells of the young vinedresser’s daughter, Roseanne, who is orphaned and then turned into a maid/servant by her supposed guardians. The inter twining story tells of Roseanne’s “aunt” who has shown her great kindness and love, but is far away in Europe facing her own devils when Roseanne’s parents die. These two stories are dependent on each other as they tell of man’s inhumanity to man and also great love and resilience. Meissner is able to show both good and characters in all their faults, but also their humanity. She has done her research on vine dressing, wine making and on Europe in the years preceding and during Hitler’s rise. Meissners’ great ability to empathize with her characters and cause them to grow and change in the course of the story makes the novel radiant with life. Book groups will have many topics to discuss – meaning of family, child abuse, discrimination, grief, adoption, exploitation of minors, mental health, abusive laws, sterilizations, love, empathy and more. 5 of 5 stars

KING OF THE ARMADILLOS by Wendy Chin-Tanner

KING OF THE ARMADILLOS by Wendy Chin-Tanner I had a hard time putting this book down. I needed to find out what happened to Victor, his family and his friends in the 1950’s. Chin-Tanner made them real people and I was invested in them from the first pages of this coming-of-age novel. Victor, a 15-year-old Chinese immigrant boy living with his father, brother and his father’s live-in girlfriend in New York City, discovers he has Hanson’s Disease (leprosy, a slur) and must be confined to the National Hospital in Carville, Louisiana until he is cured. At Carville, for the first time, Victor is able to make his own friends and decisions and discovers he has talents and capabilities he was unable to foster in the confines of his brother’s shadow. As an educator I was able to visit Carville in the late 1960’s. Chin-Tanner got the atmosphere, fear and hope of the place exactly right. She wrote expressively of being a teenager in a state of anxiety and dread with great empathy and reality. The alternate plot of the family left behind in New York was equally fascinating. The oppressive climate of hot, humid Louisiana in the summer was clear. Altogether this is a great book well worth your time. You will learn a lot about Hanson’s Disease and Carville, teenagers and their path to adulthood. KING OF THE ARMADILLOS is full of love, despair, hope, friendship, betrayal, passion, talent, family, and much more. Book groups will find a plethora of topics to discuss. 5 of 5 stars

NEW MERCIES by Sandra Dallas

Dallas is a master of the slowly unfolding plot and this book is one of the best. The Civil War is long over but the Great Depression is still affecting people’s lives when Nora, the daughter of two socially prominent Denver families, inherits a Southern mansion from an hitherto unknown relative. Stilling from a divorce and then the death of her former husband, Nora escapes to Natchez, Mississippi. Nora discovers that her aunt had secrets just as Nora herself has secrets. Avoca, now her mansion, comes complete with retainers, secrets, a herd of goats, and a murder. Natchez is a major player in this family drama. Its citizens - family retainers in the form of two former slaves - a family lawyer who knows more than he lets on - as well as friends (and enemies) of her aunt abound. You will laugh at the foibles of various characters, be shocked at the secrets as they are slowly revealed and be heartened by the writing of a master story teller. Lots to love and discuss here. 5 of 5 stars Note: if you are easily offended by non-PC language and situations, you have been warned.

The LIGHT IN THE RUINS by Chris Bohjalian

The LIGHT IN THE RUINS by Chris Bohjalian This a mesmerizing story of love, war, murder, betrayal, politics, desire, despair, forgiveness and revenge. A noble Italian family is devastated by events during World War II. Their beloved villa, surrounded by centuries old olive and grape orchards, and a depository of Etruscan artifacts, becomes a meeting place for treasure seeking Germans. At the same time a partisan group seeks refuge in the Etruscan burial vaults. Ten years later someone begins murdering the remaining Rosatis one by one. Bahjalian is a master of character, place and plot. They come together in this thrilling detective tale to surround the reader with Italy in the waning days of the war, a family trying without success to maintain their traditions and young people coming of age in a time of great turmoil. Book Groups will find a wealth of material for discussion. 5 of 5 stars