This is a political message disguised as a novel and delivered with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

And you can almost choose your favorite cause because they're all here: racism, sexism, environmental rights, rich vs. poor, suburban sprawl, the role of women in society, and teen sex/hook-up culture.

Written by Therese Anne Fowler, this is the story of two very different families who must coexist as neighbors. Valerie Alston-Holt, a black college professor, and her biracial and uber-talented son, Xavier, live in Oak Knoll, a quiet and established suburb of a major North Carolina city. Their home is modest: a three-bedroom, one bath model built in the 1950s. Growing in the backyard is a century-old massive oak tree, which Valerie loves like other people love their dogs. But all is not well. The small house behind them has been razed, all the old trees cut down, and a showcase McMansion with an inground pool has been constructed. The Whitmans—Brad, Julia, Juniper, and Lily—move in. Both families have their backstories, albeit very stereotypical and one-dimensional. When the oak tree shows serious signs of distress and decay, caused by the disruption of its root system from the house construction, relations between the neighbors rapidly deteriorate. Adding to the tension is the developing love relationship—from simple flirting to a whole lot more—between Xavier and Juniper. He is a graduating high school senior headed to the prestigious San Francisco Conservatory of Music, while she, who harbors a deep, dark secret, is one year younger and a white Evangelical Christian.

What I liked: The form of the novel appears to mimic a Greek tragedy, complete with the omniscient, third-person chorus chiming in (a lot!) to offer "off stage" comments and background information. This is a clever literary trick that works quite well.

What I didn't like: The novel's greatest defect is the writing. I expected more from Fowler. Much of the dialogue seems fake (who talks like that?), the plot is forced without flowing naturally, and some of the main characters are so superficial they come off as both unappealing and inauthentic. The bad guy is very, very bad, and the good guy is very, very good. No subtleties here.

I rolled my eyes so much while reading this novel that it's amazing I could keep them on the page long enough to finish it.

If a book were your favorite comfy sweater, this would be it. It's a slow, steady, and quietly fascinating read about the men and the very few women who were involved in the making of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

It's also a book about linguistic inequality (although that makes it sound boring, and this book is the opposite of boring). If men write the dictionary, what happens to the words that define women?

Written by Pip Williams, this is the fictionalized story of Esme Nicoll, the motherless daughter of one of the top men writing/editing the OED in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Because she had no mother, Esme would accompany her father to work in the Scriptorium—a fancy name for what was actually a garden shed located on the property of the top editor, James Murray. Esme loved to sit under the massive work table, while above her head the men wrote words on slips of paper, each carefully measured to be six inches by four inches. One day a slip floats down to her spot under the table and lands on her lap. The word: bondmaid. She pockets it! (Fun fact: The word "bondmaid" was lost from the first edition of the OED, and no one knows how that actually happened.) Thus begins her passion for words and collecting them. As she grows older, Esme learns of words that might not be considered proper or polite, as well as words used only by the working class. Using the same kind of slips of paper, Esme collects these lost words as diligently as the men who are working on the OED.

Grounded in the fascinating facts of writing, editing, printing, and binding a reference tool that we still rely on more than a hundred years later, this captivating story of Esme's life from childhood to womanhood, is imaginative, tender, and filled with love and tragedy.

Williams has brilliantly captured a slice of history and made it come colorfully to life through Esme's story. You'll never look at any dictionary the same way again!

If you love words, you'll love this book.

This is the power of reading: It will take you places you can never go in real life. Exhibit A is this book.

This is a coming-of-age story about a nerdy and awkward 15-year-old, prep school-educated black boy, who is spending the summer of 1985 at his family's beach house in Sag Harbor, New York.

Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead, this is the sometimes hilarious and always introspective story of Benji Cooper, the son of a podiatrist and corporate attorney who attends a tony Manhattan prep-school during the school year and lives in Sag Harbor in the summer in a community populated by black professionals. At age 15, he is straddling the line between childhood and adulthood, a line made ever the more clear when his parents essentially leave Benji and his younger brother, Reggie, alone at the beach house, coming out only on occasional weekends. The boys have friends, they get jobs, and they enjoy the beach. They have adventures—some intended and some thrust upon them. They get in a little trouble. They develop a taste for beer. From BB gun mishaps to flirting with girls to scooping ice cream, Benji grows up this summer. And he realizes something about his homelife that he tries to keep secret from everyone else.

The best part of this book is the writing. It is absolutely brilliant. Still, don't expect the plot to zip along. It doesn't. It crawls. Whitehead takes pages and pages to describe the smallest detail, and that's OK in his talented hands. But instead of an ongoing story with one thing building on another, this novel is more like a series of highly-connected short stories.

So just relax, pretend you're at the beach, and go along for the ride. I call shotgun!

Just an aside: This slice of ocean nirvana is real. Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Beach were founded after World War II as a summer retreat for black families that were not allowed at the beachfront resorts—a kind of refuge from racial strife, according to Wikipedia.

If you need a summer escape from the real world, just open this delightful book by Sarah Addison Allen. It’s the literary equivalent of a bundle of fresh, colorful flowers.

This novel is written in the genre of magical realism, so you must be able to suspend your belief (somewhat) in the natural order of things. Do that, and you are in for a treat!

At age 34, Claire Waverley is satisfied with her life. She may be lonely without many friends or family, but she can better shield herself from hurt this way. Everything changes one summer when two things happen almost at once: First, Tyler Hughes, a new art professor at the local college, moves into the house next door and immediately develops a passionate crush on Claire. Then Claire’s rebellious sister, Sydney, who has been away without any contact for a decade, shows up on Claire’s doorstep unannounced with a little girl of her own in tow. Claire can tell that they are running from something, but what? The Waverleys have long lived in this small town of Bascom, North Carolina, and most everyone agrees they are a bit odd. The garden in the back of the house, which has been in the family for generations, is shielded by a nine-foot fence. There is magic in this garden, including an apple tree that seems to know good from evil. Eat one of the apples, and you will see the biggest thing that will ever happen to you—and that’s not always a good thing.

More than anything, this is an enchanting love story infused with a touch of magic. It’s a true pleasure to read!

This is a story about the deep South. This is a story about the indelible bond and incredible courage of women. But most of all, this is a story about our shared humanity. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time.

Magnificently written by Deb Spera, this novel takes place in and near the swamps of South Carolina in the 1920s just after a boll weevil infestation destroyed the cotton crops and the livelihoods of countless people rich and poor. The book is written in the first person by three women:
--Annie is wife of a powerful man who has lost everything but quickly switches from growing cotton to tobacco on his plantation that still has empty slave cabins on the property.
--Gertrude is a poor, white woman with an abusive husband, four daughters, and no money.
--Retta is the black maid for Annie’s family. Happily married to Odell, the couple still grieve for the only child they lost when the little girl was eight years old.

The lives of these three women intersect in surprising ways, beginning when Retta rescues Gertrude and her daughters and takes them in, much to the disapproval of her black neighbors. But evil and dark, ugly secrets are lurking in the swamp and on the plantation, and when the three women figure out something so horrible, so wicked, so reprehensible, they have very different reactions as to how to tame it. Together, these women and mothers have a power they wouldn’t have alone.

The writing is brilliant with each woman’s voice so distinctive, so nuanced, so razor-sharp that the chapter headings listing the narrator’s name don’t even need to be there. You will know who it is by the style, which is quite a literary accomplishment.

Like the swamp around which the novel is set, this story will suck you in. The last third of the book is so compelling—actually, explosive—that it’s nearly impossible to stop reading. But the book is a tough one emotionally. The plot is unerring and relentless, exploring age-old taboos and physical abuse that hit me hard in the heart. Just know this going into it. A happy, carefree beach book it is not. Instead, it is emotionally searing. But isn’t that true of a lot of great works of literature?

This is an extraordinary book and one of the best I have read.

This book is a ChickLit escape read. Take it to the beach. Read it curled up in front of the fireplace during a snowstorm. It will keep you entertained for hours. But like most ChickLit, it’s all plot without the enduring depth of literature. That said, we all need books like this once in a while!

Written by Amber Brock, this is the story of Vera Longacre Bellington, a beautiful, charming, sophisticated young married woman who seemingly has it all—a handsome, wealthy husband, a penthouse apartment on New York’s exclusive Park Avenue, and so many servants she doesn’t ever lift a finger except to ring the bell. It’s the socialite life to which she was raised to live. So why is she so unhappy? Shifting back and forth in time between Vera’s senior year at Vassar in the fall of 1913 and 10 years later in 1923, this coming-of-age novel starts out a bit slow but soon picks up the pace as Vera, desperately hurt by her cold, inattentive husband, becomes enamored with a European artist hired to paint a mural on the walls of the apartment building’s subterranean pool. Will she risk everything she has for this passionate, illicit love? And what price will she pay if she is caught?

Not only is this book a wonderful dive into the roaring ‘20s among the super wealthy with lots of period details that make it all just pop, but also it’s a solid exploration of the high-end world of fine art. It’s obvious that Brock did her art history research, and this adds so much to the book—sort of like the difference between seeing a black-and-white photo of a painting vs. the real thing in color.

Kudos to the author on the title of the book, which is a clever play of words on several levels. Still, at its core this is ChickLit with a very well-crafted plot that boasts several clever twists (some of which are predictable if you’re paying attention) that will keep you engrossed in the story until the last page. It’s really quite entertaining!

It’s just an old cotton seed bag. But it is truly priceless.

Sometime in the 1850s, Rose, an enslaved woman in Charleston, South Carolina, gave the bag to her nine-year-old daughter, Ashley, on the eve of her being sold away from her family to another South Carolina plantation. It contained a tattered dress, three handfuls of pecans, a braid of Rose’s hair, and all her love. The two never saw each other again. But the story of little Ashley being ripped away from her mother and her mother’s attempt to make sure the child knew she would always be loved by giving her this sack of useful items and whispers of her kisses and hugs, is the premise of this exceptional book.

Written by Harvard historian Tiya Miles, this is an extraordinary testament to Black family love and history. In 1921, Ashley’s granddaughter, Ruth Middleton, who inherited the precious sack, embroidered fewer than five dozen words on it that told not only its history, but also the tragedy of slavery.

Without knowing anything more about the sack or the people who owned it, Miles has written a timeless book for the ages that tells its own chronicle of love, handiwork, and the power of story, all the while putting on full display the cruelty, degradation, and horror of what it meant to be a slave.

Miles quotes Civil War historian Stephen Berry as saying of the sack, "It is the world’s shortest slave narrative, stripped down to its essence, sent back to us through time like a message in a bottle."

Prodigiously researched and magnificently written, this book takes readers down the deep, dark hole of slavery with a special focus on what it meant to be an enslaved woman in South Carolina in the mid-1800s. While very little to almost nothing is recorded about Rose and Ashley, Miles uses the stories of other enslaved women who lived similar lives to illuminate what may have also been true for Rose and Ashley. And what Miles discovers about Ruth brought a smile to my face after all the tears.

A brilliant melding of the scholarly and the personal, this book is a masterpiece. It is impossible not to be deeply affected by it. Quite simply, this is essential reading.

Despite the title, this is a not a light and romantic romp at the beach. This is a serious book about serious subjects—from the horrors of Nazi brutalities to the isolation of the Covid pandemic—but the story had me riveted.

Written by Ali Smith, this is the fourth in her seasonal quartet that officially begins with "Autumn: A Novel," but can be read in any order, since the stories are not related to each other. That said, I would advise—just for the fun of it—reading them during the season for which each is named. The author’s purpose for the four books is daunting: Each book is topical about current news events as they were happening when she was writing. (Novelists don’t do that! Except Ali Smith did. And pulled it off. Somehow.)

The barely-there plot begins in February 2020 just as people around the world are learning about a vicious and highly contagious virus. The story focuses on a handful of people—from a 13-year-old boy who is brilliant but somewhat delinquent to a 104-year-old man whose memories are more real to him than his daily existence. While the core of the story takes place in winter, many of the characters remember a summer that was special to them.

This is how it begins: On the beach in Brighton, Robert, age 13, does something truly mean and dangerous to his older sister, Sacha. Charlotte and Art (characters from "Winter"), who are wandering on the beach in the dead of winter, offer her assistance, accompanying her home. It is there that they meet the children’s mother, Grace, along with Robert (who hilariously falls madly in love with Charlotte), and the five of them—strangers who become like family—go on an unlikely journey together. From this barebones plot the story branches out so we learn the detailed backgrounds—some filled with joy, some with tragedy—of these and other characters. And the tie that binds these disparate people together is…summer.

Each of the four books in the series features a Shakespeare play, a Charles Dickens novel, and a contemporary artist. In "Summer," we have "A Winter’s Tale," "David Copperfield," and Italian filmmaker Lorenza Mazzetti. Yes, it’s an intellectual book about summer!

This final book in the seasonal quartet is far less political than "Autumn" (Brexit) and "Spring" (immigrants who are detained illegally) and more focused on the human psyche with characters so vivid, complex, and real that they just pop off the page.

The writing is exquisite, and it was this more than anything else, that kept me turning the pages. This book is a literary delight.

As much as this is the story of a marriage, it is even more a story of a bygone era when men were the ones who went to work, women were housewives, races and ethnicities lived in separate neighborhoods, and Dad’s word—no matter how unfair—ruled. This is a story that will take you back in time to a place that some still call "the good old days" even if they really weren’t.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Connie Schultz, this is the story of Brick and Ellie, high school sweethearts in 1957 who "have" to get married when Ellie gets pregnant before they even graduate. Both come from troubled backgrounds—Brick’s dad physically abuses him, while Ellie’s father abandoned her to her grandparents after his wife died. They find solace in each other. But the pregnancy changes everything when Brick must turn down a basketball scholarship to Kent State University, and Ellie gives up her dreams of nursing school. The novel spans nearly 40 years as Brick and Ellie build a life together that is sorely tested by mistakes big and small, infidelity, heartbreak, and seismic societal changes.

While this book is almost 500 pages long, it’s a fast read. The plot, filled with family secrets and tension, keeps the reader turning those pages. Yes, some of it is quite predictable and sometimes too much like a soap opera, but it’s still a captivating book that brilliantly captures the era.

One of the main "characters" is the setting of the fictional Northeast Ohio town of Erietown. If you’re a baby boomer who grew up in Northeast Ohio during the ‘50s, ‘60s and early ‘70s, you’ll enjoy the shoutouts to such favorites as children’s show hosts Barnaby and Captain Penny, Indians announcer Herb Score, Lawson’s convenience store and its famous French onion dip, Higbee’s department store in downtown Cleveland and its Silver Grille, CKLW radio station, lake effect snow, and Ohio heroes John and Annie Glenn.

This is the story of a bank robber who botches the job and then inadvertently takes eight people hostage, all of whom are viewing an apartment for sale in a small town in Sweden the day before New Year's Eve. It's also the story of the two police officers—a father and a son—who end the hostage siege and then investigate the crime. And there is a lot of bridge symbolism and imagery.

Except that's not it at all.

This is the story of all those people, all those troubled, hurting, anxious people who meet and share their stories and learn so much about themselves, each other, and the point of living together on this planet. THAT is what this book is really about. It should win an award for Most Heartwarming Book of the Year—without being all treacly and sweet. Instead, it's hilarious, so it could also win Funniest Book of the Year—without being filled with stupid jokes. (OK, maybe there are a few of those, but only a few!)

But there definitely are lots of bridge symbols and imagery, which elevates this from a fun novel to literature.

Written by the incredible Fredrik Backman, the story bounces back and forth in time over just a few hours on December 30. It is brilliantly plotted. And I mean that—it's brilliant. How Backman figured out this particular way to tell the story is a sign of his writing genius. It's one of those books that I kept saying to myself, "Just one more chapter…just one more chapter." And since the chapters are relatively short, this is the kind of thing that leads to hours in a reading chair.

Bonus: This book has the BEST ending. And by that I mean not the last sentence, not the last paragraph, not the last page, and not even the last chapter. It takes the last 44 pages for the ending to be fully told.

And if you have ever lost a loved one to suicide, as I have lost two, then this is a book that may just offer you a bit of hope and peace and respite as it did for me.

Read this book when you're feeling sad because it is packed with common sense life advice that will make you feel better. Read this book if you want to laugh because we all need to laugh. And definitely read this book if you want to know how NOT to rob a bank.

Actually, just read this book.

This a historical novel/family epic masquerading as the most creative collection of short stories I have ever read.

The premise: It is the summer of 1775 on the Gold Coast of West Africa. (The Gold Coast was a British Crown colony until its independence in 1957 when it became known as Ghana.) Effia and Esi are half-sisters, but they do not know of each other's existence. Effia catches the eye of James, a white British trader of slaves, who pays her parents a large bride price and takes his teenage bride from her forested village to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean to live in the Cape Coast Castle, the center of operations for his dirty work. Meanwhile, in a nearby village, Effia's half-sister Esi, is captured in a raid by slave traders where she, too, is taken to the castle. But her quarters are in the dungeon until she is thrown on a ship and transported to the United States to be sold into slavery in the South.

This incredibly imaginative book by Yaa Gyasi follows generation by generation the descendants of the privileged Effia, who remain in Africa as royalty but still living in slavery's horrible shadow and its evil ramifications, as well as the descendants of the American slave Esi, who live a life filled with cruelty, hardship, toil, and discrimination. Each chapter is titled with the name of a person, and the narrative in that chapter not only moves the story forward, but also ties up the loose ends in previous chapters. The final two chapters, taking place in the current day, circle back and bring the story to a marvelous close.

The writing is magnificent, drawing in the reader completely. The images Gyasi paints with her words seem so real I could almost reach out and touch them.

This a fierce, unflinching, and absolutely triumphant novel that becomes a personalized history of Africans and African-Americans told in a way that will sear your heart and soul. It's impossible to read this book and not be greatly affected by it.

It could happen! Well, maybe. OK, never. But that doesn't mean this book—a summer ChickLit delight—won't tug at your heartstrings and make you smile. It is an endearing novel about the tragedy of death, the anguish of grief, and the power of love to heal. And it's partly narrated by an octopus.

Written by Shelby Van Pelt, this is the story of Tova Sullivan, a 70-year-old woman whose husband died a few years ago and whose son died under mysterious circumstances some 30 years ago. To keep herself from drowning in grief, Tova takes a job—just to keep busy—cleaning the Sowell Bay, Washington aquarium at night. Tova loves to clean! While she often talks to the aquarium's diverse creatures while she's polishing the glass of their displays, it isn't long before she realizes that Marcellus, the aging, cantankerous giant Pacific octopus, is talking right back to her—well, in his own octopus way. Yes, Marcellus is a most unusual creature.

Meanwhile, we also meet Cameron Cassmore of Modesto, California, a 30-year-old who was abandoned at age 9 by his mother to live with his Aunt Jeanne. Cameron has no idea who is father is, and there is a persistent heartache and resentment for both these losses. One day, Cameron thinks he figures out his dad's identity, and if he's right this could change his life. The man is a millionaire. Cameron sets out to find him.

The two stories meet in a somewhat predictable but quite delightful way. This is a tender, almost magical novel that explores both the perils and wonders of what it truly means to grow up, as well as to grow old.

Bonus: You'll learn a lot of fun facts to know and tell about octopuses.

The best way to describe this unusual novel by Elisabeth Thomas is: Peculiar. It's strange, odd, and weird. It's also creepy and eerie.

This Gothic mystery, thriller, coming-of-age novel is both a page-turner and a slog. How can it be both? The twisted, mysterious, and very dark plot makes it tempting to binge-read the book, but the novel just drags on and on and on.

It takes the first 60 pages to set up the story, so if you're the kind of reader who gives a book 50 pages and then calls it quits if it's not enticing enough, don't bother with this one. Then it takes the next 60 pages for something to really happen. Eventually, it picks up quite a bit, but it can still get bogged down in parts and then crawl to a sloooooow read before picking up again. Where was the publisher's editor in all this?

The twisted, mysterious, and dark plot: Catherine House is an elite college nestled in the woods of a small town in Pennsylvania. Students study there for three years, including the summers. Every student is given a full ride with absolutely no expenses. Sound good? There are also the creepy requirements and rules that all students must obey: The college is walled in by a fence. No one may leave. Students are totally isolated from the outside world—no news, no music, no phone calls. They may not have any contact whatsoever with family or friends until after graduation. They can't even wear their own clothing; the college provides everything they will need from jeans and white T-shirts to shampoo. But this is no convent or monastery. The college encourages students to drink LOTS of wine (all provided free) and to have rampant casual sex and out-of-control parties. An initiation and weekly "sessions" make this very much a cult-like experience. The academic work is rigorous in all disciplines, but this is especially so in the "new materials" concentration, where faculty and students are experimenting with a substance called plasm. This mysterious material can heal physical wounds and psychic disorders. But something nefarious, sinister, and top secret is going on in those labs. The main character is Ines Murillo, a mediocre, lazy student concentrating in art history. After the unexplained death of her roommate and other weird things she notices, Ines tries to crack the mystery of the plasm labs.

With more astute editing to create a more succinct storyline, this novel could have been far better. It's a shame it's not.

This literary novel is so beautifully and powerfully written that the prose sings like poetry, demanding that readers stop and reread not only paragraphs but also entire pages.

Masterfully written by Robert Jones Jr., this is the story of the forbidden love between Samuel and Isaiah, two slaves on the Elizabeth Plantation (but everyone aptly calls it Empty) in Mississippi in the early 1800s. Joined at the soul when they were little boys, the two become best of friends and eventually lovers. They live in the barn, caring for the animals, and together they do more work than any of the other slaves. Everyone is fine with this arrangement until the slave Amos ingratiates himself with the master, Paul Halifax, and asks to preach Christianity to his fellow slaves. Amos then decides that this unholy relationship must be stopped and punished—so he tells the master what's going on in the barn. What happens next is astonishing, tragic, horrifying, and strangely liberating.

That is just a simple description of a complex, multilayered plot told from both the slaves' and enslavers' points of view. It is brilliant, ingenious, and emotionally wrenching. But most of all, this novel is a love story, and it is one that first made my heart sing and then broke it. It's a tribute to the power of love in any time or place--to transform and help us survive the horrors of life—but it is especially poignant here. The body may be enslaved but the heart and soul soar free with love.

One of the most creative aspects of this novel is the chapter titles, all of which are biblical. Sometimes the chapter refers to a character's name, such as Samuel or Isaiah, but other times the chapter title reflects a biblical book, such as Exodus, Song of Songs, or Bel and the Dragon. A solid grounding in the Bible is helpful, but if you don't have that knowledge, Google the biblical name and you can probably make the connections between that chapter's narrative and the corresponding book in the Bible.

This is not an easy read. Emotionally, it's a sucker punch to the heart—over and over and over. But it's so worth that anguish!

When my oldest child was engaged to be married, a dear friend asked me, "Do you know the most important job for the mother of the groom?" I eagerly replied, "Do tell!" She quipped, "Shut up and wear beige." After I stopped laughing, I realized that this is spot-on advice for not only being the mother of the groom, but also being the mother and mother-in-law of grown children male or female. Keep your opinions to yourself unless you are asked and stay in the background.

Even if you are blessed with a good relationship with your grown children and their spouses as I am, there will still be times of conflict. That is the point of this book by Jane Isay: Tips on navigating these relationships now that everyone is an adult and you, the parent, have lost your parental authority. We all must learn and master new roles, and this can be tricky at times. After all, when we experience conflict with our grown-up children, it can be unnerving at best and extremely hurtful at worst. Our advice is not appreciated and can even be resented. So parents must relearn how to parent.

Most of the book's advice is given through real-life examples of parent/grown child relationships, some of which are nearly off the rails but most of which are very solid with just some bumps of conflict. How these various conflicts started, what happened during the conflict, and how the conflict was resolved—or not—is the crux of the book. Some readers may find this quite helpful, especially if they see themselves in one of the examples, but others may not find value in something that doesn't mirror their own situation. Still, there is value in realizing you're not alone, as well as that others have it far worse than you do!

Some of what you will learn in this book is:
• How to foster a peer relationship between the generations with love and understanding. This requires more change and growth on the part of the parents than it does on the grown children.

• How to better communicate with your grown children, especially when they aren't living up to your expectations, hopes, and dreams for them.

• Find out THE most difficult task for parents of adults, but if you can do this and you are almost ensured of relationship success.

• Find out a lot more, including how to deal with divorce, stepfamilies, the challenges of giving/loaning money to grown children, and those emotion-packed holiday get-togethers.

I read this extraordinary book by Italian author Elena Ferrante with a bit of trepidation. Two of my bookish friends whose opinions I greatly value have wildly different views of this novel. One friend loves it so much that this is her go-to book to give as a gift; it is so important to her that she simply must share it with many people. The other friend is vehement in her dislike, going so far as to tell me, "I hated the book!!!" (Yes, with three exclamation points.)

I fall somewhere between the two. The colorful characters just drew me in to their insular working-class world of 1950s Naples, Italy. The streets came alive, I could feel the crowded apartments, and I could always sense the underlying current of anger and violence that filled the hearts of so many of the men. It just seemed so real. And, oh, the writing! It's simply exquisite.

This, the first of a quartet of books about the lifelong friendship between Lila Cerullo and Elena Greco, focuses on the girls' childhood and adolescence—that emotionally volatile time when girls make decisions about their grownup lives while wondering all the while how they could be so ugly and stupid and inept. Who would ever love them? Where will they work? Who will they BE? Although the book is narrated by Elena, the real star is Lila. Naturally brilliant, Lila is forced to quit school at age 12 and work in her father's shoe repair shop along with her angry brother, Rino. Her best friend, Elena is allowed to go to the private middle school and high school, and Lila does her best to keep up with Elena by actually teaching herself Latin and Greek on her own. They are smart and bookish in a world that wants them to just be pretty, silly, and marry young. Still, both girls are caught up in the little neighborhood's social scene, learning to dance, meeting boys, and falling in love. Their friendship is truly based on love for each other, but like adolescent girls from time immemorial, they have deep conflicts and complicated lives, which take very different paths by the book's end.

This is a literary novel about a deep and abiding female friendship that relies on characters instead of plot to propel the story. I was captivated by the novel, delighting in the wisdom, wit, and insight of Lila and Elena as they navigate growing up and becoming young women.

This is summer ChickLit with a big ol' helpin' of whining and complaining. Enough already!

Written by Meg Mitchell Moore, this is the story of William and Ginny, sixty-somethings who are happily retired in Burlington, Vermont on the shores of picturesque Lake Champlain and still living in the home in which they raised their three children. Those three now-grown kids each have problems they think are so insurmountable that they rush home to Mom and Dad. But here's the weird part: The kids show up on the doorstep one-by-one, but it takes seemingly forever for each of them to actually reveal to the others why they are there and why they are suffering so.

• Lillian is living in a beautiful home near Boston with husband Tom and their two children Oliva, 3, and Phillip, three months. The home is decorated from the pages of a Pottery Barn catalog. Soon after baby Phillip's birth, Tom has a drunken one-night stand with his very young secretary at an out-of-control office party, and of course someone immediately calls Lillian to squeal. In a fit of anger, she flees with the kids, yelling at Tom not to contact her—ever again.
• Stephen, a mediocre freelance editor lives in a tony New York City loft apartment with his MBA-credentialed wife, Jane, who makes the big bucks. Jane is pregnant and very moody, so Stephen decides the best way to cheer her up is to whisk her off to his family's home for a long weekend. This is puzzling because Jane and Ginny are like oil and water. THIS is going to cheer up the moody pregnant wife? But then there is a medical emergency, and Jane is ordered to bedrest in Vermont for 10 weeks.
• Rachel, who just broke up with her live-in boyfriend because he won't marry her, is failing at her job as a casting agent for one reason only: She has given up trying. Meanwhile, she can't afford the rent on her New York City apartment since the boyfriend walked out. Instead of trying to make the job work out, she flees to Vermont in emotional and financial distress.

That's the set-up. Everyone is home in Vermont in a house that isn't big enough for all of them. Chaos ensues. There is much rage and resentment. The problems take a long, long, long time to come to light before they resolve, which only happens because Ginny and William finally have had enough and force the "kids" to act like the adults they are. (But first they blame themselves that their children are so unhappy. Sigh.)

What bothered me the most about the book—in addition to nothing happening except a lot of noise and laundry—was the unrealistic expectations and actions of every character. They are all wrapped up in their own little world and can't see past themselves to reach out and help the ones they love the most. Instead, they just whine and complain. I had little patience for the characters because they were ALL so selfish, spoiled, and entitled. The result? A boring book.

A warning. That is what this book is. A chilling, daunting and, perhaps, prophetic warning. And you don't even have to be a particularly astute reader to see that.

This is the personal life story of one of the most despised and reviled assassins in American history, but instead of being told from the point of view of John Wilkes Booth, it is told from the perspective of three of his siblings. This is a brilliant and compelling historical novel that is firmly grounded in prodigious research and sweetened with an imagined rendering of the Booth family daily lives, thoughts, and conversations.

Written by Karen Joy Fowler and longlisted (as of this writing) for the prestigious 2022 Booker Prize, this is the story of one American family that mirrors the divisions and hatreds that consumed our nation in the mid-1800s. Junius Brutus Booth is a highly revered and hugely popular Shakespearean actor. Even without the benefit of mass media, he is a celebrity. Junius is harboring a big, dark secret, so he moves his wife, Mary Ann, and their children—eventually there are 10 children, although four die in childhood—to what he considers a secret farm in Bel Air, Maryland. Junius is away touring with his theater troupe nine months of the year, leaving the family on their own and often without money. The ninth child in this brood and the obvious favorite of everyone is John Wilkes. He is charming, brave, and daring.

This novel is told through the eyes of three of John's siblings: sisters Rosalie and Asia and brother Edwin. The siblings are so different from each other! Rosalie is a slightly physically deformed spinster, growing more bitter by the years. Asia is beautiful but can be coldhearted and even cruel. At one point in the book, she is described as "all ice and iron." Edwin is the only one in the family who makes money, but he is a raging alcoholic. The family eventually move to Baltimore, and when Junius's deep, dark secret is revealed, it causes a scandal for the entire family. The children grow up, and Edwin and John become actors. Edwin rises to fame and a bit of fortune; John is mediocre. But John has passionate feelings about the South's position in the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln—feelings that horrify his family. These feelings eventually consume him until he assassinates the president during a stage performance at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865.

Interspersed throughout the book are snippets about Lincoln—what he is doing at the same point in time, as well as brief excerpts from his speeches and letters. It's a subtle and tragic reminder of what's to come.

Even though we all know how this story ends, the novel is still a captivating read. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a page-turner—sometimes Fowler gets bogged down in the historical minutiae—but it is original, imaginative, and ingeniously plotted. Because we know John Wilkes Booth only through his siblings' eyes, we see him as a real human being. His sisters and brothers loved and adored him so it's hard for readers not to do the same—except when we remember his evil, murderous deed.

But this is more than history transformed into story. It is also an unnerving and prescient allegory for today's divisive politics that spark hatred, fear, and dissension both within our own families and our communities. And that hatred, fear, and dissension are what lead to tragedies.

This is not only a good book, but also it's a warning.

This book is nonfiction. And that's a good thing because it's too unbelievable to be fiction. But…wow. It's (mostly) true.

Ostensibly, this is about the baffling May 2, 1981 murder of a 21-year-old out-of-control, drunk, drug-addicted, kid with a history of violence named Danny Hansford by millionaire Jim Williams. Was it a cold-blooded shooting of the boy or self-defense? I say the book is "ostensibly" about this because the murder doesn't occur until just before the halfway point of the book. Until then, author John Berendt gives us a character-driven travelogue of upper- and lower-class Savannah, Georgia circa the early 1980s. And what characters they are!

In addition to Danny, whose violent rampages and extensive sexual conquests with both men and women are enough to give Savannah matrons the vapors, we have:
• a voodoo priestess who wears purple glasses, talks to the dead, and puts curses on the living—for a fee;
• a man who hoards a poison potent enough to kill most of Savannah if he ever dumped it in the water supply (which he sometimes threatens to do);
• a black drag queen named Lady Chablis, who reveals secrets of the drag queen trade that readers will likely find humorous or revolting—or both;
• a man who is (legitimately) paid to "walk" a dog that has been dead for 20 years;
• a professional squatter, who doesn't live in downtrodden, abandoned buildings but rather in unoccupied mansions. And he isn't quiet about it. He opens the mansion for tourists who pay admission for a tour and lunch!

But back to the point of the book: the murder of Danny Hansford. Jim Williams, who owned Mercer House, one of the grandest old mansions in the city that he filled with priceless antiques and paintings, was a bachelor in his 50s who made his fortune as an antiques dealer. He was an outsider who successfully climbed the Savannah social ladder. Many admired him for this accomplishment, especially because he hosted the most incredible parties, but others were envious and even outraged. Williams says he hired Danny because he thought he could help him. Danny had a habit of repeatedly getting so incensed over almost anything that he vented his anger by storming through Mercer House destroying random contents. The reality is that he kept Danny around as a sexual partner, a fact that came to light in his first trial and truly shocked those aforementioned Savannah matrons. Williams was eventually tried four times for this one crime, a record in Georgia.

Just so you know, the title of the book refers to something the voodoo priestess told the author: "Dead time lasts for one hour—from half an hour before midnight to half an hour after midnight. The half hour before midnight is for doin' good. The half hour after midnight is for doin' evil."

In many ways this is a love letter to a historic Southern city by a transplanted New Yorker. It is one of those rare nonfiction books that I couldn't put down. It is a bizarre, strange, peculiar, curious, and incredibly compelling to read.

Oh, this book! This is classic Richard Russo: a really good story written with wit, verve, and so many life-truths that I was nodding my head in wonder when I wasn't laughing out loud or reaching for the tissues. There is a reason this gifted writer won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature (for "Empire Falls").

This is the story of a year in the life of 50-something Jack Griffin, bookended by two summer weddings—the first in Cape Cod, Massachusetts where his parents vacationed every summer when Jack was a child and the second on the coast of Maine where his wife's family vacationed when she was a child. Griffin, as he is called throughout the book, is a former Hollywood screenwriter of B-list TV shows and movies who is now teaching screenwriting in a B-list liberal arts college in New England. He is bitter, deeply unhappy, and incessantly questioning his life choices. As he and his wife, Joy, go the Cape Cod wedding of their daughter Laura's best friend, he plans to scatter his father's ashes on the cape. (He's been toting them around in the trunk of his convertible for almost a year.) But the ghost of memories, centering largely on his dysfunctional parents and childhood, echo all around him, dredging up previous hurts that have the unsettling effect of unraveling his marriage of 34 years. The following summer is his daughter's wedding, and it is here that Russo's writing chops are on full display. The scene of the rehearsal dinner where half the guests end up in the emergency room is worth the price of the book alone!

In typical Russo style, the characters own this story far more than the plot. They seem so real, so authentic, and so human that I just couldn't wait to rejoin them each day. This really is an introspective and highly entertaining novel about the meaning of life—what we inherit from our parents, what makes us truly happy, what cuts us to the bone with heartbreak, and how we handle it all to wake up another day and start all over again.

An aside: In 2018, I had the privilege of hearing Richard Russo speak at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., and he mentioned that "That Old Cape Magic" started out as a short story, but when he finished writing it, it was a novel. I'm so happy it turned out that way because this novel is a literary treasure.