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We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

May 2014

I read WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart  in four hours. For those four hours, I blocked out everything else that was going on. And since I read it in manuscript back in October, I have thought about it and looked forward to sharing it with readers. For those who like taut prose, you have it here.

Our narrator is Cadence Sinclair Eastman, who is 17. She is part of  the Sinclair family, which has old money, not new. Their wealth and privilege were born to, not earned. They “summer” --- and yes, they are the kind of people who use that word as a verb --- on a private island off the coast of Massachusetts. Cady’s mom is one of three sisters, and their father, Cady’s grandfather, is treated like a financial patriarch. But as always, there are family secrets and lots of lies and in-fighting. And Cady sees their family for what it is.

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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

May 2014

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr is oh so beautiful. Set during World War II, Marie-Laure is a young blind girl living in Paris with her father, who is a master of locks at the Museum of Natural History. His job has him in charge of some of their most valued works. He constructs a miniature model of the streets of Paris for Marie-Laure to study so she can navigate the world around her. When she is 12, the Germans move into the city, and they are forced to flee to the town of Saint-Malo, where a reclusive uncle lives by the sea. And Marie-Laure must learn to navigate a whole new world. In a parallel story, a young orphan boy named Werner lives with his sister in Germany and is tapped to be part of the Hitler Youth, eventually given a role to breach the Resistance.

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The Blessings by Elise Juska

May 2014

My immediate family is small. Growing up, we lived across the street from a family of nine, and some of my grammar school and high school friends came from large families, thus I got to know these families from afar. Their houses fascinated me with large tables in the kitchen, children of various ages spilling from room to room, and people pegging where they were in the family pecking order. Reading THE BLESSINGS by Elise Juska reminded me of these families, where alone time is hard to come by and everyone lives in and out of each other’s pockets.

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The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

May 2014

While I read a lot, a book like THE PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL by Nadia Hashimi is one that will stay with me and also made me feel grateful for where I live. It opens in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2007, where Rahima lives with her mother, sisters and opium-addicted father. The only way that she can leave the house is by adopting the bacha posh custom of dressing like a boy, which she can do until her body matures. In this way, she attends school and moves freely around their village. But eventually she must become a girl again. At that point, she and her two sisters are married off to give the family some much-needed money, as well as a pipeline to opium for their father. What happens to Rahima is not new to her family. A century before, her great-aunt Shekiba, who was orphaned, also adopted a disguise as a man to survive. Their stories are intertwined, and it makes for a very compelling read.

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Delicious! by Ruth Reichl

May 2014

I started my career at Condé Nast working at a magazine, so books set in the magazine world always capture my attention, as I like to see how authentic they are. With Ruth Reichl, I did not expect to be let down, as she was the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine before it folded, so her stories about Delicious! the magazine are spot on. Many know Reichl for her memoirs and her food writing, but she takes a new direction here with her debut novel, DELICIOUS!

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'Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma

May 2014

I love books where the characters’ voices are distinct to me and where place becomes a character. Both of these fine bookish traits can be found in ’TIL THE WELL RUNS DRY by debut novelist Lauren Francis-Sharma, which I knew I was going to love from chapter one. The story is told in three voices: that of Marcia Garcia; her lover, policeman Farouk Karam; and their second-born daughter, Jacqueline. It’s set in Trinidad, and I felt like frying up plantains and consulting a Caribbean cookbook as I read. I wanted to taste the marvelous-sounding foods that evoked the epicurean culture of the country.

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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

April 2014

I am wild, wild, wild about Gabrielle Zevin’s THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY, a brilliantly smart --- and fun --- novel that has as its protagonist a charming indie bookseller named A.J.

On the faded Island Books sign hanging over the porch of the Victorian cottage on Alice Island, which houses the store, is the motto "No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World." As the book opens, A.J. Fikry, the irascible owner, is about to discover just what that truly means. Left on his doorstep is a baby girl who wins her way into this widower’s heart and changes his world. Layer in the people who live in the town and visit the shop --- including Ismay, his sister-in-law who is determined to get him back into the world; Amelia, his favorite sales rep from Knightley Press; and Lambiase, the town policeman --- and you have a quick but memorable read.

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You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

March 2014

It’s often said that the clues as to whether a relationship will work or not are known in the early days. The quirky “oh-so-charming” trait in a future mate that is endearing at the start of a relationship may harbor clues of something that will be annoying or devastating later. How many times do we say, “Did she/he not see it?”

In YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Grace Reinhart Sachs is a therapist who feels she knows all about relationships and why they fail, and has written a book of her own: You Should Have Known: Why Women Fail to Hear What the Men in Their Lives Are Telling Them. Just as she is prepping for a round of pre-release media for the book, she learns that her own marriage is not what it seems. What then is Grace to do? This is the Grace who has grown up in New York and is still living in the apartment that her parents once owned and whose son attends the same tony private school that she once did. As the title of Janet Maslin’s New York Times review of YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN says so well, “Above It All Until Her World Turns Upside Down.”

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Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

March 2014

Last March, while sitting in a condo in Crested Butte, a small town in Colorado that I love, I finished reading a manuscript of Nickolas Butler’s fabulous debut novel, SHOTGUN LOVESONGS. The setting was fitting as the book is set in Little Wing, a fictitious tiny town near Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a place with a lot of heart that will touch your soul and a cast of well-drawn, memorable characters. So memorable that you will want to find Little Wing to see what they are up to while at the same time thinking about your own version of Little Wing, the place where you feel at home.

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Gemini by Carol Cassella

March 2014

Like her earlier books, OXYGEN and HEALER, Carol Cassella, who is a practicing physician (an anesthesiologist), takes on a complex medical issue in GEMINI, weaving a strong story from it.

A woman is found critically injured and unconscious on the side of a road and arrives at a hospital as a Jane Doe. There, ICU doctor Charlotte Reese is charged with her care. As she unravels this case, her longtime boyfriend Eric, a science journalist and author, becomes involved in Jane Doe's plight. At the same time, their relationship is tested in ways that they never could have imagined.

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