The Garden of Small Beginnings is a delightful read. The characters sparkle and it is laugh-out-loud funny. It could be read in one afternoon but because I was enjoying the humor so much, I made myself read it in small chunks to get the most our of the feel good laughter and smiles. There are serious themes that are woven through: love and loss, grief and moving on, the importance of family. The everyday nature of a life for a widowed mom and her 2 young girls is told with the over arching theme of gardening. Each chapter begins with a bit of advice (how to grow garlic etc) for your garden and stories the journey this family has learning to be a part of a community garden.
For all the characters in this tale there are many small beginnings-a reminder to all that each day in our ordinary lives can bring these moments. As I read this book, I was constantly making a mental note of all the readers I know who would love this book as I did. The list was long, high praise for any book. Job well done, Abbi Waxman.

If I Forget You is delightful afternoon or two of reading. It follows Henry and Margot as they meet and fall in love in the 1990s and moves back and forth between that time and 2012 when they meet again. As the decisions that define their lives play out, it is impossible not to like them both and feel for their struggles. The story is of love and loss and life's endless set backs and possibilities. The language is sparse get beautiful and moving. When I finished this book, my first thought was "there should be more". As I imagined several continued story lines, I realized that this was the author's intent: to let the reader's imagination run free and enjoy the musings. This is a story that resonates and stays strong long after the finish.

The Alaskan Laundry has crisp, concise prose and short, compact chapters. At times, the storyline is as brutal as the Alaskan landscape and the characters equally as rough and tough as the land itself. The dialogue is blunt yet sporadic and eloquent, nearly poetic phrases leap forth. These were surprising gems and inspired re-reading to ponder their beauty and wisdom.
This is the story of Tara's journey from rejection to acceptance, from weakness to strength; a journey that leads her to find the true meaning of "home".
Brendan Jones is a very skilled and talented author. I would recommend this book for any book club that enjoys a gritty adventure as well as for young adult readers just beginning their own "journey".
I enjoyed this book. It is not a "comfortable" read but one that will stay with the reader for a long time. Enjoy the journey.

Linwood Barclay has once again given us "the common man" encountering extraordinary circumstances. David Harwood is trying to hold life together for himself and his young son after the death of his wife and the loss of his job. Living with his parents in his childhood home in Promise Falls, NY he is drawn into a drama involving his cousin, a kidnapped child and murder. In his efforts to put the story together and help his cousin he meets all sorts of characters in this small town who are not what they would seem to be. As all of this unfolds, the reader finds answers to some of the questions but is left with the biggest one unanswered. In this way, the book seems to be the beginning of a series and would not appeal to those who want all the loose ends tied up at a story's end. I felt it was an entertaining read but not his best work.

The Sweetheart Deal was a book that I read in two days - would have been one day if it had arrived earlier on day 1.
It is written in alternating voices between Leo (only the first chapter to set the story line), Audrey his wife, their 3 sons, and Garrett his best friend. The emotions evoked punch hard-prose is crisp; grief, anger, confusion are tangible. While believable and heart-rendering, I read to the final page and felt that there should have been more to the story. So many questions left unanswered. Perhaps this is the sign of successful writing when the reader is left wanting more - I did.

The Secrets of Midwives is written following the lives of three generations of women who are all midwives. Neva, her mother Grace and her grandmother Floss all have secrets that they are guarding while dealing with the complexities of their differing views of midwifery. The research into the history of midwifery is well done and the story of the three generations of women is developed nicely as the book progress. Although these characters were well developed the men in their lives were less defined. This was the only disappointment in this generally well written and well researched story.

I have been a fan of Kristin Hannah for a long time and have read most of her books. Given that, I was very happy to be selected to read her latest book, and to put it simply, I just devoured this story. Kristin Hannah has reached a new level with this strong and enduring cast of characters and themes.I would challenge anyone to read this book and not feel deeply moved by it's message. I felt proud of these women, struggling to survive in times of war and wondered "what would I do" to save my family, my freedoms and all that I hold dear? Beyond that question looms another: "Do I have that deep core of bravery so desperately needed in the darkest of hours?"
Relevant today and always this story will stay with me a long time. It has my strongest recommendation.

The author grabs the reader's attention immediately by using an email from November of 2010, then a short passage from April, 2011 which is chillingly alarming before moving back in time to April, 1981 to introduce the Bird family. As the novel moves back and forth in time, often using Easter as the time visited you meet the family and watch as they begin to react in their own ways to the chaos that is the home they live in. After a tragedy occurs, each one spins away to try and find a different and better existence only to find in the end that the home they grew up in is the one uniting thing to bring them together again. This is a novel that will stay in the reader's thoughts for a long time. I highly recommend this book for individuals and book clubs- much to discuss about this story.

The Deepest Secret explores the many kinds and layers of secrets. It will make the reader stop and think about their own relationships (family and community) and how even small secrets can have big impact. As the story unfolds there are plenty of surprises for the reader and an ending that is sure to leave one thinking and revisiting the main themes for a long time. Strongly recommend and feel it would be an excellent book club selection.

This thought provoking novel is about identity and what defines it. Themes include how disaster, emotional upheaval, aging and even geographic relocation strongly impact our identities. Largely told through a young girl's search for her mother with clues along the way from an old diary written in Yiddish and the fragments of memories and perceptions of her relatives concerning her mother the "imposter". It is about our universal need "to know where we come from, to connect it to who we are and where we are going". I think there is much for book clubs to discuss from this story and the personal connection most readers are likely to feel.

This engrossing novel is about loyalty, love, and loss. It explores how a tragedy affects the direction and life path of all impacted. The main character, Claire inspires empathy, sympathy and at times anger as she faces the personal hardships that surround her and struggles to maintain her hard-earned life and land. When she meets a character who's response to early tragedies is much more sinister than her own the reader is pulled in and a bit breathless as page by page the intensity mounts and the question is whether Claire will prevail or succumb like the frog swimming in the ever hotter pan of water (the author's analogy). This was a very satisfying read and would be a good choice for book clubs.

This was a very enjoyable book. It reminded me of other books I have read that involved rural, mountain people however the plot was a gripping and emotional one. The author was able to masterfully tell his story through the narration of three characters: a young boy forced to grow up too rapidly, an old woman who was wise but lacked the power to totally intervene, and the sheriff who was an outsider in the community committed to doing what is right but with his own past sorrows.
I think that this would make a very good book club book as it would spark intense discussion of a variety of themes concerning religion, family, love, and loss.