It's hard to describe this quirky book - it would be a terrific book club selection and I would love to hear the discussions - bet they would go on forever! While I got bogged down in all the characters ( the author provides a family tree for each family he writes about in order for you to keep track ) I really enjoyed the book.

The Northern Reach is the biography of a small town on the coast of Maine where the long winters are bitter and so are the citizens are equally nasty.

The author strips away everything to expose the painful and raw short comings of rich, poor and founding families . They are all intertwined through marriage, lust, divorce, mental illness, greed, abuse and even murder. Parents and children dislike each other and brutal relationships abound among siblings. BUT - Winslow has laced this novel with some hilarious material as well. The funeral scene is just one of the many sections of the book that made me laugh out loud - a much needed balancing of all the ugliness that takes place among these folks.

" I realized war is monstrous - if it didn't kill those it touched, it took away a piece of their souls, so they could never be whole again "

The writing in this book is sometimes beautiful and often brutal as it reveals a history of Tran family in Vietnam, giving the reader a vivid account of what it was like to live through the Land Reforms of the Communist party, the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The very strong women characters end up sacrificing everything including giving up their children, their dreams. their homes and livelihoods to try and keep their family together during the years when their country was torn apart and everything they knew was changing. It is a story of strong family love, perseverance, bravery and extraordinary acts of kindness by complete strangers.

This novel will break your heart but at the end it is an amazing story of endurance and you come away with an understanding of what it was like for those living in Vietnam during the war.

An interesting and emotional read although you have to pay attention as the author chose to go back and forth every chapter from the 1940s and 50s to the years after the war. It takes a little concentration to keep all the characters and time lines straight but it is worth the effort.

The writing in this book is quite beautiful and almost poetic in places but the subject matter was really difficult in its brutality which made it difficult to devour it as I normally would do with a book. I enjoy WWII novels but knew nothing of this conflict in which the women of Ethiopia played such a large part. However, for me the history and the characters were overshadowed by a disturbing darkness and it was sometimes difficult to follow the story line which jumped around a bit. I do feel it was worth the effort to read this and open myself up to learning something totally new.

While the subject of Berg's book is not new, her characters make the novel a lovely way to spend an afternoon on your porch. 85 year old Arthur Moses and troubled teen, Maddy, have more in common that you would imagine. They first meet in a cemetery where each has gone to combat the loneliness they feel. They end up rescuing one another and the intertwining of their lives and the development of their relationship is what gives this book a sweetness we don't see much in our world today. A nice respite from things we are exposed to daily.

This story of a young single mother dealing with her fast approaching death from ovarian cancer is overflowing with emotion that is spot on. The journey of how she prepares her son for his future without her is masterfully presented and takes us into the deepest parts of Karen's being. It is painful and inspiring to see how she deals with the issues before her. What she really wants is to be sure 6 year old son Jake knows how much he was loved and that he will not forget what his mother was like. - As Karen realizes " I always thought I would have more time and now it is apparent I will not " In spite of the difficult topic, I really enjoyed this book. I think it would be great for book clubs as the issues of abandonment and betrayal and just the raw emotions of losing total control of your life make for lively discussion. I volunteer at Hospice and I found this book so honest in addressing many of these issues. One world of caution - I have a friend going thru ovarian cancer and I will NOT be sharing this book with her. It was very beneficial for me to read but it's honesty may a little too much for her .

Do not start this book unless you can read thru it fairly quickly. There are two reasons for this - # 1 it is a compelling and disturbing read and you won't be able to put it down and # 2 the author tells two parallel stories at the same time by alternating short chapters that are titled Emma ( the girl before ) and Jane - the women at the center of this psychological thriller. This novel is full of twists all the way to the end and you will be worn out when you finish it. Be prepared for a novel that is raw, cruel, devious, heartbreaking - you won't be able to put it down. And the movie rights have been sold to Ron Howard - this was mentioned in large print on the inside of the book jacket! Reminds one Gone Girl and other similar novels.

The story line centers around a disappearance so right from the start you want to dig deeper into this book.The interesting thing for me was that the story is built around 3 single parents and their children. Jennifer and Jared have a very solid mother/son relationship . In stark contrast the single fathers have a way to go in the parenting department - Ian can not get into a comfortable relationship with his daughter Ursula whose mother is the missing person in the novel. And William Rose is cast as a horrid example of parenting to his daughter Natalie. The comparisons in relationships are interesting. The raw emotions of the teenagers move the story along quite nicely as the reader waits for the mystery of Celia's disappearance to be put to rest. A good summer read that you want to devour quickly to get it all resolved.

When reading If I Forget You, I felt that the plot was predictable at times but that did not deter from an enjoyable reading experience. The college romance between Henry Gould, a poor Jewish poet, and Margot, the daughter from a wealthy family with all the advantages, abruptly ends leaving both of the lovers with a sense of failure and loneliness for what could have been that follows them into adulthood. The author pulled me in emotionally when the two run into each other 20 years later. This leads to an entertaining story that poses lots of questions about the events that unfold and the secrets that are exposed and how they are handled. This would be a great book club book as there is much to ponder and discuss. A good read to share with others or just enjoy by yourself. As the author writes : " love like this is far closer to insanity than it is to reality"

There is lots to be disturbed about in this novel and while I usually pass all of my books on to fellow readers, I would be careful who I would recommend this to - It is not for the feint of heart. It is an interesting but difficult read. The first sentence gets right to the subject matter - the brutal rape of a 15 year old girl ( Jenny) who runs off from a high school party after being ignored by the boy who invited her. She runs into the woods where she is brutally raped for over an hour by someone in a black ski mask who actually seemed to be enjoying it all. The graphic details are hard to take in. Even harder to take is the self absorbed psychiatrist Dr Alan Forrester who has been hired by her parents. The good doctor seems to think he has the ability to fix everyone he comes across and in this small town he has plenty who need to be fixed.

Shortly after the rape a somewhat controversial treatment was given to Jenny to induce amnesia and erase the trauma from her mind. " While she had no memory of the rape, the terror lived on in her body" " A type of monster " that eventually led to a suicide attempt. At this point her parents hire Dr Forrester to reverse the damage done by the treatment. The problem is that the solution is equally damaging to all those in his path. So who is the true monster here?

The doctor is the narrator and by his own admission a braggart of sorts who loves his wife even tho he says she is not particularly skilled in anything and he is intellectually superior to her. She is simple and he believes she would never hide a secret from him, she is also attractive and lets him make all decisions - thus he loves her. But you get the point - the author does a great job through out the book of building a case against this egotistical jerk! The worst is yet to come when the doctor gets worried that the evidence in the rape points to his son . He abandons all to protect his son by manipulating evidence and planting it in the mind of Jenny when he is in therapy sessions with her. He works out his diabolical plan which ends up being a disaster for all those in its wake.

This is not a book that makes you feel good after reading it but it is ripe for discussion for book groups. I found it to be an emotional read which would lead to lively discussion. Moral dilemmas abound and bad choices are made all around. The characters are all damaged and drag their childhood baggage around with them - and of course the good doctor is quick to point out all of their problems come from their childhood. As a parent this always makes me a little nervous, wondering what I have inflicted on my own children! Just a little warning - if you start this book I doubt you will be able to abandon Jenny even if you don't like the book. I know I couldn't - I had to see it through to the end.

If you like historical fiction, an entertaining story and unusual characters then this might be the book for you. The authors packs quite a story in the 10 year span of 1910-1920. Clare Clark does a masterful job of fleshing out her characters from the " infuriating weirdo " Oskar to the totally self absorbed and hateful Jessica and many more.

The characters are nicely tied together by their emotional connection to the Melville family estate and what will become of it as it passes on to the next generation and therein lies the richness of the plot. Wrapped around it are the sacrifices that war requires and the toll it takes.

None of the characters end up getting what they want but that does not detract from the enjoyment of the book. The " great war changes everything they knew of their world and and of the country of their youth."

I had recently enjoyed reading The Nightingale and also the Scent of Triumph which were about WW II and Clark's book about WW I was a nice way to learn more about that war .