I found this book to engaging and although slow to start the story became rich with detailed description of the people, their ways and the community they lived in, The smoothness in which the story is told, including difficult parts such as the Prisoner of War camp reward the reader who hangs in there and enjoys the story for the rich message. Many people will enjoy this book, and as the bees go about making their honey, we too keep busy with our tasks and enjoy the rhythm of the walk we engage in.

“A Place for Us” by Fatima Farheen Mirza is intriguing and captivating story of an Indian-American Muslim family. The struggle and conflict of observing one’s faith, tradition, needs and wants is intense. A constant theme of finding balance in a complicated society. The genres for the novel are Fiction and Women’s Fiction. The story mostly takes place in California. The timeline in this story vacillate between the past and present as it pertains to the events and characters.

The author describes her colorful cast of characters as complicated, complex and confused. The story can be told as seen through the eyes of each character. I appreciate that the author describes the religion, and traditions, culture and food, and clothing. Hadia, the oldest daughter in the family is getting married to a man that she chose herself, breaking away from the tradition of having a husband chosen for her. Hadia is a physician and has invited their estranged brother Amar to her wedding. Amar does come to the wedding, and surprises his parents Layla and Rafiq , and his other sister Huma. Betrayals, conflicts, and questions of forgiveness come up at this time.

The author describes the time period around 9/11, when Rafiq encourages his daughters to wear American clothes, not to be singled out. Amar gets into a major racist fight at school, when other students accuse him of being a terrorist. The students tell him to go home. Amar tries to deal with the fact that America is his home.

The author discusses the family dynamics of love, support , change, forgiveness, acceptance and hope. I would recommend this story for those readers who appreciate an emotional conflicted inspirational story. I received an ARC for my honest review.

I wasn't prepared to like this book or the main character. I thought it was going to be a very different type of book. The author brings the reader into Ginny's world as the story develops. I could empathize with all of the characters in her life and begin to understand how Ginny has invented ways to cope with the life she has been dealt. I found myself rooting for her dysfunctional mother despite what had gone before because the deep ties of family were apparent. I ended up loving the book and came away wiser having read Ginny's story.

Stay With Me, a slim first novel by Ayobami Adebayo is filled with emotion about a naive college educated couple facing infertility and their interfering family's cultural superstitions. 1980s Nigeria still practices polygamy and is facing political unrest and violence. Yejide is made to feel that she is failing her husband by not giving him a child to honor the family.

The book is very emotional and sad and showcases Yejide and Akin's deepest feelings about their suffering.Not a happy read but very powerful and beautifully written. Many thanks to BookBrowse for the chance to read and review Stay With Me.

I have a self imposed 125 page limit in reading a book before determining whether or not to keep reading. I've probably quit reading a book less than 15 times in a lifetime of reading books. Unfortunately, this is one of those times. Choppy, sophomoric writing....very loose plot. Don't recommend.

I so enjoyed this novel. It is about a father, mother (Japanese) and two sisters. The mother is in a nursing home with Alzheimers and on one good day she tells one of her daughters about a book that is hidden in her sewing room. The sisters find the book which is written in Japanese. This is where the novel truly begins as the book that the sisters find tells the history of a woman warrior Tome and the relationship to their mother. The two sisters renew their lost relationship while finding out the secrets of the past. This is a story of love, hope, and forgiveness throughout. A beautiful novel.

TRBLS is a captivating suspenseful blend of Finnish mythology, mystery and fantasy. The plot is unusual and creative and the characters are well drawn.
In short, the novel is the story of the pursuit by a young woman, Ella, of the deepest secrets of the Rabbit Back Literature Society. The RBLS was the creation of heralded Finnish children's book author Laura White in whom Ella had an academic fascination. Over a span of years early in her career Laura recruited a small group of children mostly from her village of Rabbit Back to the Society. Laura identified the children as possessing extraordinary writing skills, and they all developed into promising authors.

Laura controls the children as a svelgali, and the Society takes on the trappings of a cult. As the story unfolds Laura comes to know the darkest corners of the Society's history and of the relationships between Laura and the members and the members with each other. Along the way we meet water sprites, gnomes, book viruses and a phantom who all contribute to the fusion between fantasy and reality, between dreams and life.

The prose is thoughtfully crafted which one can assume is a tribute to both the author and translator. The narrative invokes suspense, fear, pity and wonder... and prompts a few laughs along the way with a dose of campiness. Ella is brought to life with insightful self-reflection, and the physical elements of the narrative are so vividly described as to create a picture in the mind's eye. The descriptions of the winter scenes in and around Rabbit Back are particularly well crafted.

The plot has many twists and turns, and as the end of the book approaches there remain a number of hanging threads. Some of these threads are resolved in the surprising climax, but not all. At one level this lack of closure is unsettling, but more importantly the author has invited the reader's imagination to roam on the dynamic narrative landscape that he has created.

A book about books, authors and writing, TRBLS would be an excellent selection for book communities populated by serious adventuresome readers. Not so good for casual readers.

In her first adult novel and her first to be published in the USA, McKenzie vividly brings us every couple's nightmare. Not just the loss of a child after a much wanted and anticipated pregnancy that is essentially without complication to the heartbreaking and sudden delivery of a stillborn child. Not just a stillborn child but one who is reportedly so disfigured and misshapen that her very presence is hidden from the mother both at the hospital and later the funeral. The pain of a loss like this is overpowering and especially so as there can be no closure. The hopes, dreams and desires that accompany the birth of a child are suddenly dashed and ripped away without ceremony and the pain felt is akin to that of a missing limb for the mother. A pain, that unless one has experienced it themselves is inconceivable to friends, family and even the spouse. Pain that Geniver, the mother in question will never quite overcome no matter what therapy, support or encouragement she gets from the outside world. She has only to look in the mirror to see the results of that experience.

Fast forward 8 years. Her husband feels compelled that they visit a fertility expert to recapture what they lost and begins to apply pressure in this pursuit, refusing to concede and acknowledge what his wife and partner is still experiencing. A knock at the door brings it all back tenfold when a woman appears with a deathbed confession of her sister's that confirms the nagging suspicions that Geniver has felt. Her child IS alive and to make matters worse her husband has known this all along. While friends and family try to convince her that this is nothing more than a scheme to extort money from her the woman is the victim of a hit and run accident which only helps to fuel a paranoia that causes Geniver to question everyone and everything in her life. When a former friend of her husband's listens and offers to help her get to the bottom of the accusations, she embarks on a game worthy of some of the greatest English mystery writers of the past.

With shades of "Gaslight", "Bunny Lake is Missing" and a tip of the hat to "The Other and The Omen", Ms Mckenzie builds a maze of a mystery that would have attracted Hitchcock. I encourage readers to push past the beginning of what appears to be simply another example of "chick lit" or a soap opera and give in as we watch Geniver's life simultaneously spiral out of control and back again. While all have tried to make her feel inept and weak, we watch and cheer as she gains the strength to push forward to go beyond the smoke and mirrors to the spine tingling chilling last page. You won't be disappointed. One can only hope this is not the lone attempt by Ms. McKenzie in adult literature and we have many more to look forward to in the future.

This women's story is filled with many contrasts: Motherhood, families, couples, a single parent, their livelihood, community, and their love for a five year old adopted girl.

This is a great book for discussion in a book group. It's more interesting than the usual adoption story of a child searching for its birth mother.

The conflicts and struggles of the three families draw you into this love story.