To me, what makes "America for Beginners" an excellent read is not the theme of immigrants learning about America, but rather the more universal theme of young adults struggling to live their lives fully despite parental disapproval. As the wealthy Indian widow, Pival, crosses the country searching for knowledge of her estranged son, accompanied by a young unemployed actress and a lonely Bangladeshi immigrant, she struggles with an unhappy life created by the crippling expectations of her parents and her unloving husband. The hapless tour guide, Satya, provides humor through his clumsy, well-meaning performance of his job, while Rebecca, the paid companion, models resilient independence. I was drawn into the stories of each character's struggles as they came together to see America.

I was looking forward to reading a new novel by Elizabeth Berg, but I was sorry to find it disappointing. It's a sweet tale of the relationships of a lonely widower, a solitary teenage girl, a never married neighbor lady, and a lovable cat. A nice story, but it just seems too predictable and unrealistic although the themes of acceptance, self-actualization and love are worthwhile and well developed. Maybe my problem is that I can't help comparing it to "A Man Called Ove" which has similar themes and cemetery scenes, plus a real punch of humor and three-dimensional characters conveyed in more depth.

At its core, this is an excellent story of a family's move from New York to rural South Dakota in the early 1950s. The author's skillful character development and her description of the hardships they endured made an interesting story. The political events seemed all too real today. However, I felt the 1985 portions were tacked on in an effort to add suspense, and they actually weakened the plot.

I found this slim historical novel completely absorbing and satisfying. Both main characters, a retired seventy-year old army Captain and a ten year old girl who was kidnapped by a Kiowa tribe when she was six, captured my heart as they grew to know and appreciate each other on their hazardous journey back to her family. Well-researched, filled with beautiful description and wry humor, the story was also highly suspenseful all the way to the Captain's terrible moral dilemma at the end.

Seventy-eight year old Neltje's memoir starts with a miserable childhood rich in privilege but poor in familial attention and love. An excellent writer, she is at her best when conveying her love of the natural world and her mature development as an artist, contributor to her Wyoming community, and mother. Her inherited wealth gave her entry to a very interesting life; however, the book might have held more interest without so many name-dropping anecdotes.

Using her extensive Shakespearean research and a delightful imagination, Mary Sharratt asks what if The Dark Lady of Shakespeare's work was a young woman who actually co-wrote several of his plays and was romantically involved with him. An uncommonly clever woman, Aemilla struggles to obtain an education, is denied a chance to use it, and is forced into a loveless marriage, but never gives up her quest for equality. I sympathized with her every step of the way and loved the way she rose to each challenge.

At first I wasn't sure Paula wasn't just another hard boiled detective/lawyer, but this story is so much more. The suspenseful story of her current life and flashbacks to her broken family drew me in emotionally to the very end. I'm sure reading groups would find plenty to discuss here. I hope to read more by Joshilyn Jackson.

Girl Waits with Gun is an original and amusing look at the lives of unmarried females in the early 1900's through three young sisters trying to make a go of it on a little farm without much income or male help. Constance, the narrator, is an unusually plucky and daring woman with the strength and size of a man. The conflicts with a local bad man and his gang seem a bit unbelievable, but are based on actual news stories of the time. Although a bit dragged out in places, worth reading for a view of what our female ancestors had to endure.

Missing children, unreliable narrators, a dangerous and interesting setting in the Falkland Islands: all of these should add up to an exciting mystery. I admit that the story did keep my interest and I read to the very end, but I was not able to like or care about any of the three narrators. Maybe it is because each is so self-absorbed. I felt that the plot contained too many poorly developed side tracks, and readers were not prepared for the sudden twist at the end. I love a good mystery, but this one didn't do it for me.

Although this fictional memoir gets off to a slow start, its story becomes more and more compelling. The plight of unmarried women in the 19th century was sad indeed, no way to live independently and earn a decent wage, they often were forced into brutal marriage or disgrace. Lucy was brave enough to try living as a man, only to go from one frightening situation to a worse one. I thought the role of the church in condemning her was particularly sad. This historical fiction based on a real woman's life made me think of the portrayal of Sarah Grimke's struggles in the same time period as told in "The Invention of Wings." There is much here for a book group to discuss.

Readers would never guess that "Five" is the work of an award winning author of children's and YA books penning her first adult novel. Adult indeed!
"Five" is a page-turning psychological thriller sprinkled with enough graphic and gory descriptions to turn off some faint-hearted readers.
I empathized with the main character Beatrice Kaspary throughout. She's a detective with an uncanny ability ability to intuit solutions to difficult cases, a single mother with a nasty ex-husband, an angry, woman-deprecating boss, and an empowering partner, Florin Wenninger.
On the feet of the first victim, Beatrice and Florin find tattoos indicating location coordinates directing them to the first site in a series of geocaches. I found the use of the geocaching sport lent a welcome change from the usual serial killer plot and I enjoyed the very clever clues. As the novel progresses, the killings come faster and faster and the danger to Kaspary and her family increases. I could not put down the last hundred pages of "Five".