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Reviews by Susan P. (Boston, MA)

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The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
by Phaedra Patrick
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper (4/29/2016)
A retired older widower in England is cleaning out his wife's closet a year after her death (he can finally face it) and finds a charm bracelet he never knew existed. Based on various clues from the charms and from the people he speaks with/meets, he discovered his wife had …more
The Opposite of Everyone
The Opposite of Everyone
by Joshilyn Jackson
The Opposite of Everyone (12/21/2015)
The narrator of the book is an Atlanta family lawyer practicing in a high-end practice, mostly on outrageous expensive divorces. She also does pro bono work for young women who've had bad starts in life (because she herself spent time in a group home while her mother was in …more
Letters to the Lost
Letters to the Lost
by Iona Grey
Letters to the Lost (4/13/2015)
A parallel tale about a young woman in England during WWII who falls in love with an American soldier, even though she is married to a vicar who does not love her. In present-day London, a young woman singer has run away from her cruel boyfriend and finds (in an unused …more
The Life I Left Behind
The Life I Left Behind
by Colette McBeth
The Life I Left Behind (12/3/2014)
This was a good mystery about lack of memory due to trauma. A young woman was attacked years ago and her attacker is released from jail. Suddenly another woman is attacked in a similar manner and killed. The chapters are told in alternating chapters by the first woman and …more
Her
Her
by Harriet Lane
HER (5/27/2014)
This deceptively calm novel is told in alternating voices -- by Nina, painter with a comfortable life, and Emma, a slightly younger former professional trying to cope with life with very young children. Nina knows Emma from many years ago and gets to know her again, but …more
The House We Grew Up In
The House We Grew Up In
by Lisa Jewell
I Wouldn't Want to Grow Up in That House (4/3/2014)
While the family in this very readable novel would be considered dysfunctional, there are characters to like, even as they struggle. No one really addresses the mental health issues of the hippie hoarding mother and her infantile, selfish ways; the fascinating parts are …more
Safe with Me
Safe with Me
by Amy Hatvany
Safe With Me (11/25/2013)
The story is told in the alternating voices of a well-off but badly treated wife, her daughter who has had a liver transplant, and the mother of the child who died and whose liver was transplanted. It's more realistic in the telling than one would think. The real suspense -- …more
Jacob's Oath
Jacob's Oath
by Martin Fletcher
Jacob's Oath (9/25/2013)
Although Martin Fletcher says he does not write Holocaust novels, this really is one. It's also a story of why Jewish Holocaust survivors would actually go back home to live in Germany. A man survives a camp and goes back home to Heidelberg -- because it was home and also …more
Close My Eyes
Close My Eyes
by Sophie McKenzie
Close My Eyes (5/7/2013)
A London woman very close to the end of her childbearing years still cannot forget her stillborn child from 8 years ago and is not sure whether she wants to keep trying IVF, as her husband wants. Then a stranger tells her that her child is alive. The news sends her into an …more
Golden Boy
Golden Boy
by Abigail Tarttelin
Golden Boy (2/11/2013)
Written in the first person by 6 narrators in alternating chapters, this novel tells the story of an intersex 16-year-old boy who lives in an Oxford suburb. His life, which is very comfortable, is shattered by someone close to him. His life appears to be golden to people …more
Beneath the Shadows
Beneath the Shadows
by Sara Foster
Beneath the Shadows (5/30/2012)
A story of a young couple who have inherited a house and move to North Yorkshire, a place where the husband spent a little time in his youth. (The place itself seems also to be a character in the book.) He disappears one day and the book covers the wife's determined plan …more
King Peggy
King Peggy: An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village
by Peggielene Bartels, Eleanor Herman
A Woman Makes a Strong King (1/3/2012)
KING PEGGY is a warm, delightful book. As has been pointed out, it will appeal to the fans of the No 1 Ladies Detective series. It's enjoyable to learn about modern life in Ghana and Africa, and about the foibles and strengths of various people, some of whom can be called " …more
All the Flowers in Shanghai
All the Flowers in Shanghai: A Novel
by Duncan Jepson
All the Flowers in Shanghai (10/28/2011)
A very enlightening story of an innocent young woman exposed to privilege but against her will. Can be enjoyed by anyone interested in the place of girls and women in pre-WWII and in the Cultural Revolution that follows. Enjoyable but heartbreaking as well. Oddly, though, …more
Next to Love
Next to Love
by Ellen Feldman
Next to Love (7/25/2011)
The best part of this book revolving around wives of soldiers going overseas during WWII was in-depth understanding of the women. The issues of army wives following husbands from camp to camp was unknown to me, especially the strong feelings people had about it. However, I …more
Sister
Sister: A Novel
by Rosamund Lupton
If You Have a Sister You Love, You'll Love This Book (5/23/2011)
This is a very hard-to-put-down story about a young British woman living and working in NYC who goes back to London when her younger sister goes missing. She tries to find out what happened and why. The story is believable although almost no one believes the older sister's …more
Outside Wonderland
Outside Wonderland: A Novel
by Lorna Jane Cook
For Those Who Like the Idea of heaven (2/23/2011)
This is the story of three young adult siblings who were orphaned in childhood. Their individual personalities and life events are engaging enough, but the plot seemed a little soap opera-ish (but who doesn't like a little of that?). The parts where their parents are …more
The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai
The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai: A Novel
by Ruiyan Xu
Disordered Lives from Disordered Language (10/24/2010)
Aphasia literally means "no speech," but neurologists define it as a "language disorder." This nicely conveys the disorder to some lives that bilingual aphasia creates for several people.

From a traumatic brain injury, a successful young Shanghai businessman loses his …more
The Nobodies Album
The Nobodies Album
by Carolyn Parkhurst
You Don't Want to Read On But You Can't Stop (6/19/2010)
Carolyn Parkhurst has done it again: She's written a very disconcerting book (Dogs of Babel was very upsetting) that bothers me but I couldn't stop reading. I had to finish it! The central character, a novelist, has just finished her last book -- a book with the endings to …more
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