This book is two disparate stories with loose threads that bind them together, and first-time author Tara Conklin brilliantly succeeds in weaving this tale of Josephine Bell, a slave on a Virginia plantation in the mid-1800s, with the modern-day story of Lina Sparrow, a first-year attorney at a high-powered New York City law firm who traces Josephine's descendants to find a lead plaintiff for a reparations class action lawsuit.

The story of Josephine is realistic and heartbreaking--a story of courage, spunk and determination against all the odds. The story of Lina is peppered with unexpected twists as she learns much about her own history in the process of uncovering the mysteries that surrounded Josephine's life.

This historical novel has an absorbing plot with fully-developed and meaningful characters. And it is something that is quite rare: It is VERY New York and VERY Southern--at the same time. This is a magnificent book!

Imagine "Downton Abbey" meets "Rebecca." Well, a downtrodden, shabby, dilapidated Downton Abbey, that is. This gothic ghost story set on a crumbling and decaying English estate just after World War I tells the story of a small family--Mrs. Ayres and her two grown children, Caroline and Roderick. It is narrated in the first person by a country doctor, Dr. Faraday, who meets the family as a physician and then becomes entwined in their affairs--personal and supernatural.

Written by Sarah Waters, the book is filled with vivid descriptions that make the scenery, the estate and the characters just pop into something very real. That said, the descriptions are quite long-winded so the book definitely drags along. Not much happens until about 20 percent into it, and even then it still moves like molasses. Most of the action occurs in the last 20 percent of the story. I have a feeling most readers end up finishing it just because of all they have put into getting to the halfway mark. Still, there are enough plot developments to give you the shivers--and keep on keepin' on. It really is a very good ghost story, although one that takes way too long to tell. That is why I gave it three stars.

Warning to Kindle readers: DO NOT use the X-ray feature for the characters, as it is a huge spoiler by giving away key plot points--including the ending.

This book is profound. But it is also a great disappointment.

This is the story of Eileen, an Irish-American from a working class family in Queens, who marries Ed. Together they have a child, Connell. This is the story of their lives--Eileen's determined quest for a large and beautiful home, Ed's dedication to teaching at the community college level and Connell's growing up. It's a boring story--until the halfway mark. And then the crisis happens that forever and unalterably changes their lives. Unfortunately, many readers may give up on the book long before that point. The writing is uneven. For example, there is a description of Eileen's completely uneventful commute home that takes up several pages, while the announcement that she is finally pregnant after years of trying is one sentence long and comes totally out of the blue.

Still, the second half has an important message, addressing one of the biggest health scourges of our time. And author Matthew Thomas handles this difficult topic deftly and with aplomb, compassion and empathy.

So why did I not like the book? It took me a while to figure it out. The main character, Eileen, is mean. She's a mean girl through and through. She's mean to her husband. She's mean to her son. She's mean to the people at work. She is also angry and materialistic. She is the kind of woman I would avoid in real life, so having to read a (very) long book about her felt like spending way too much time with someone I perceived as toxic. (Why did I finish it? I'm one of those readers who just does that.)

Although the book has been recognized with scads of accolades, I think it's missing something at its very core: a heart and soul.

You don't know this story. This is almost a secret story. Not because it was kept secret on purpose; it was just not deemed to be worth telling. But it is not a secret any longer. Thanks to this book and the movie with an all-star cast we are now privy to the extraordinary--but ordinary--careers these black women had at Hampton, Virginia-based NACA and then NASA. Extraordinary because they were brilliant mathematicians whose calculations put planes in flight in World War II and eventually sent astronauts into space. Ordinary because they worked like we all work...every day getting up and sitting at a desk and doing their jobs. Extraordinary because they were four black women in a professional club that was (almost) exclusively composed of white men. Extraordinary because they helped break the color barrier, as well as helped break the sound barrier.

This book is solid nonfiction--not historical fiction--with a hefty index to prove author Margot Lee Shetterly's extensive research. At some points it's even a bit dry. This is serious writing about a serious subject. The personal stories of the four women--Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden--take second place to the larger tale of their professional impact. Still, it's a fascinating read as their careers take off while they are living in the midst of Jim Crow laws and the societal fears that preceded the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

This is a story of what happens when smart people are loved, supported and encouraged by their parents, get an education and work hard...very hard. This is a story of what happens when smart people change the world--against all the odds.

This is a story about the human condition. Of happiness. And sadness. Of love. And hate. This is a story of life--childhood, marriage, motherhood. It's all here in a very short book that will grab your heart and not let go. It is a simple story written in exquisite prose with a sophisticated message. This is as nearly perfect as a novel can ever be.

Now living in New York City, Lucy Barton recalls one brief time in her life when she was hospitalized in Manhattan with a mysterious infection. While in her hospital bed, she recalls her impoverished childhood life in rural Amgash, Illinois and the people who influenced her as she grew to adulthood--from the school janitor to her abusive and dysfunctional parents to a college professor with whom she had an affair to her husband. It is so engrossing and meaningful. Much in this book will make you pause and think.

This is the prequel to "Anything Is Possible," which is a series of stories about the people in Amgash with Lucy Barton as a thread throughout. Do read "My Name Is Lucy Barton" first to fully appreciate "Anything Is Possible."

Aside to Elizabeth Strout: YOU are a ruthless writer!
Aside to Everyone Else: Read the book, and you will know why this is a compliment.

I just want to say this first: Elizabeth Strout is my new favorite author. She consistently writes with an empathetic and wise compassion of the human condition. Her books touch my heart.

"Anything Is Possible" is a continuation--not a sequel--to "My Name Is Lucy Barton." Do read "Lucy Barton" first as it adds to the richness and depth of "Anything." Lucy grows up in an impoverished and abusive home in Amgash, Illinois. She marries, moves to New York City and becomes a successful and somewhat famous author. "Anything Is Possible" is a novel in stories with each story about someone who lives in Amgash and knew Lucy as a child. These are not happy people, for the most part. These are people who have had to fight for just about everything. But there is hope and solace in these stories.

I was enveloped by this book in a way like no other. Strout's understanding of human nature--of how we think, how we act and how we treat one another--is soul-deep.

If you think Greek mythology is boring, dull and ancient, think again. "House of Names" by Colm Tóibín is an exciting, thrilling and imaginative retelling of the story of Clytemnestra's murder of her husband, Agamemnon, after he brutally sacrificed their 16-year-old daughter, Iphigenia, in a bid to entice the gods to assist them in their war against the Trojans. And then their son, Orestes, and second daughter, Electra exact their own vengeance for the murders.

In Tóibín's hands, this tale is a chilling and dramatic page-turner filled with the most basic of human emotions--violence, sex, lust, treachery and rage. It is a gripping ancient story retold in modern English--expanded with a bit of poetic license--and you won't be able to put it down!

Aside to Mr. Tóibín: Please do this again with other tales from Greek mythology!

Imagine a mountain. A boulder is on the top. The wind and rain eventually--but slowly--push the boulder inch by inch to the crest. And then gradually it begins to tumble down that mountain...ever so slowly at first and then it picks up an inexorable amount of speed until it comes crashing to the bottom. That crash is the reader finishing this book. And the sudden wind that just blew over the boulder at the bottom of the mountain? Those are the goosebumps on the reader's arm.

"The Sleepwalker" tells the story of a typical, but accomplished, woman, Annalee Ahlberg. Married with two daughters and a successful career as an architect, Annalee could be anyone--except she sleepwalks. And her sleepwalking has an unusual, if not creepy, undercurrent. One night, Annalee simply vanishes from her home in a small town in Vermont. Author Chris Bohjalian expertly tells this tale that morphs from a simple story about a grieving family into a thriller laced with lies, guile, sex and mystery.

The book starts out VERY slowly. Repeat: very slowly. I imagine there are some readers who give up. Don't be one of them. And pay attention. There are important clues embedded in this somewhat mundane beginning. But all of this is absolutely required as fuel for the powerful blast that is to come. Stick with it, and you will be richly rewarded. (See goosebumps above.)

Hint: Read the Kindle Single "The Premonition" first. It's a short story prequel to "The Sleepwalker" and offers great insight into the characters' lives before the events of the novel.

In 1922, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is declared by the new-to-power Bolsheviks of being a Former Person and is sentenced to house arrest. It just so happens that the good count, a highly-educated, well-read aristocrat who has never worked a day in his life, has lived for the past four years in the world-renowned and very posh Metropol Hotel, located directly across the street from the Kremlin. And so he must spend the rest of his life as a guest of the Metropol. He may never leave the building.

This delightful book tells the story of how he manages to not only survive, but also thrive. (Hey, it's better than Siberia!) Ever the optimist and ever the gentleman, the count's daily existence is influenced in countless ways by the Metropol's ever-changing roster of upper crust guests, including the Kremlin's top leaders, movie stars, international journalists and wealthy travelers, as well as the hotel's surprisingly stable staff--the bartender, concierge, chef, waiters, maître d' and seamstress.

Written with empathy, incredible skill and a touch of the absurd, author Amor Towles proves once again that he is a master of storytelling. Because more than anything else, this book is a good read! Laugh-out-loud funny in many parts, compassionate in others and distressfully sad in some, this is a book that will charm you and touch your heart for a long time to come. The cherry on top of this delicious book is the ending: It is absolutely inspired.

P.S. The footnotes are delightful and quirky! Yes, this novel has footnotes. And if you're reading it on the Kindle, do click on every one of them--because they are that good.

This book will leave you emotionally raw and potentially bruised, but it's worth the psychic pain because the story--illegal immigration and its consequences big and small--is vitally important, perhaps more so now than ever.

After a seesaw life of ups and downs in China, unwed Peilan moves to New York City to have the baby she is carrying. It soon becomes apparent she cannot care for her son, Deming, so she sends him back to China to live with her father. Eventually Deming returns to New York, but the fates are against Peilan, who has Americanized her name to Polly. When she disappears one day, Deming is declared abandoned. He is adopted by well-meaning white parents, and his world is upended. What happens next is heartbreaking--one person's distressing and tragic tale of illegal immigration. In this case, the microcosm explains the macrocosm.

Lisa Ko's "The Leavers" is a coming-of-age novel that works on many levels. In addition to exploring what it means to fully belong--or always live as "the other"--it examines the meaning of family, the meaning of the individual and the meaning of hope.

And best of all, it's a really good story.

Wow! (Sigh.) Wow! (Sigh.) Oh, wait. This is a book review. I should use real words to describe it. Let's see...Genius. Astounding. Mind-boggling. An absolute must-read. I would give it 10 stars if I could.

The title of the book comes from a Norwegian superstition about the Nix, a cruel, vicious water spirit that appears in the form of a gentle horse. The moral of this fable is that the things you love the most will hurt you the worst.

Due to author Nathan Hill's incredibly creative structure, style and plot execution, this is unlike any novel I have ever read. The plot, which is complex and jumps back and forth primarily between 2011 and 1968, is far too difficult to summarize here. Read the official reviews for that, but know that you'll only get a sliver of it. The plot simply defies succinct description! But don't worry. Complex though it is, it is easy to follow.

As much as this book is about plot, it is even more about the characters. The main character is Samuel, a young professor of English at a small liberal arts college outside Chicago. He is the hub from which the other characters are the spokes--his mother who abandoned him when he was a child, a beautiful violin prodigy and her twin brother, a student who obsessively cheats, '60s college radicals, a violent police officer named Charlie Brown and a video gamer who plays to such excess that this addiction has extraordinarily dire effects on his health and brain.

One of the most interesting aspects of the author's form/function is that we as readers know things--a lot of things--that the characters don't know (or take a LONG time to learn/figure out). So we have background and insight into what is happening in a boldly innovative way that is curiously effective.

Most of all, Nathan Hill has accomplished every author's ideal hat trick: Great literature, highly-enjoyable entertainment and commercial success.

Epilogue (added after I published this review on Amazon and Goodreads): I was privileged to hear Nathan Hill speak at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. on September 2, 2017, and even he can't summarize the plot!

Although it's very sloooow in getting started (Hang in there! It's worth it!), this becomes a can't-put-it-down book that tells a heartbreaking tale based on historical facts. From the 1920s to 1950 in Tennessee, wealthy couples were able to adopt babies and children who had been taken from poor families--from trickery to outright kidnapping--in a scheme that essentially put those children up for sale. Even more tragically, while awaiting adoption, the children who were under the auspices of the Tennessee Children's Home Society were housed in horrific conditions, including being routinely fed bug-infested food, beaten and placed in solitary confinement, sexually abused and even murdered.

Written by Lisa Wingate, the book is structured as two stories in one, alternating chapter by chapter. The present day story focuses on Avery Stafford, an attorney and daughter of a U.S. senator from South Carolina, who is trying to uncover the secrets of her family that she traces back to the Tennessee Children's Home Society. The other part of the book takes place in 1939 during the Great Depression and focuses on Rill Foss, a child who lives with her parents and siblings on a shanty boat on the Mississippi River, and is terrifyingly kidnapped with her sisters and brother and sent to live at a notorious Memphis boarding facility that is part of the Tennessee Children's Home Society while awaiting adoption.

This novel is compelling and eventually becomes a real page-turner as it explores what it means to be a family, as well as the power of secrets--even those decades in the past--to unravel and hurt us or empower us and make us stronger.

I read the first sentence and thought: "Oooh! This is going to be a good book."
I read the second sentence and thought: "I adore Richard Russo. Such a good author."
I read the third sentence and thought: "Hmmm...this might be a five-star book."
I read the fourth sentence and thought: "Everyone leave me alone. I'm reading!"

This book tells the story of Louis Charles "Lucy" Lynch, aged 60 on page one, and the life he has led in a small town in upstate New York. It also follows his boyfriend friend, Noonan (originally named Bobby), who grew up in the town but moved out as quickly as he could.

While it is always profound and deeply sorrowful at times, it is also highly entertaining, exploring the full circle of life. The book deftly explores themes of love and hate, good and evil, belief and doubt--and not in the big sense, but rather how we as individuals feel and act. What drives us to love? To be good? To believe? But most of all, this book is about change. The changes that just happen to us whether we like it or not and the changes we consciously make. But can anyone REALLY change?

Russo is an extraordinary writer, who speaks truthfully and insightfully--with compassion and humor--about the human condition. Every word is perfect. Every sentence is exquisite.

I read the last sentence and thought: "Genius. Pure genius."

Warning: Do not start reading this book unless you have hours and hours to read. It will suck you in and not let go, and your planned schedule will fly out the window.

Girl No. 1, Genevra (Ev for short), comes from a New York family that is wildly wealthy in money, real estate and art. It is not only a world of privilege, but also a world of family, love and values. (Or so it seems.) Girl No. 2, Mabel, comes from a poor, dysfunctional family in Oregon, and she is harboring lots of secrets about them. The two young women are assigned as roommates at a tony East Coast women's college (which Mabel is attending on full scholarship). Until a series of events occur in February of their freshman year, Ev is oblivious to Mabel's existence--even though they live together in a small room. That bonding entices Ev to invite Mabel to spend the summer with her family at their palatial lakeside compound in Vermont. And then the action kicks into high gear as Mabel discovers the dark underbelly of this moneyed dynasty--from shocking sexual secrets to reprehensible financial schemes.

Written by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, "Bittersweet" is part thriller, part romance and part women's fiction, this book is the quintessential page-turner. Read it! But save it for when you can really READ and not just skim a few pages at a time.

The 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witch trials and executions can be considered America's first true-crime story. And a helluva story it is! Mass hysteria turned the idle chatter and bizarre accusations of several bored little girls into mass hangings of innocent people. It happened 325 years ago and lasted less than a year, and we still do not fully understand it!

To appreciate the magnitude of what happened in 1692 in Salem requires an understanding of the times. While today we scoff at the notion of sorcery or witches, the Puritans believed both were just a real as the sun shining at noon. Besides, what better way was there than witchcraft to explain why a child died or why a young wife had black and blue marks on her arm? It was also a convenient way to get rid of society's least desirable and often annoying people--the homeless, the desperately poor and the mentally ill, as well as smart, sassy, strident and outspoken women.

This solid, nonfiction account, which reads a lot like a textbook in places, is meticulously researched. But it is not all dry. Some of the descriptions are so vivid that you will feel you are in the courtroom or on the hillside as the noose is pulled over a condemned witch's head. On the other hand, the account of the trials is very long and a bit meandering. It's hard to keep the players straight because so many witches and so many accusations and so many stories all blend into one. At times, reading this book takes work and intense concentration.

Author Stacy Schiff offers an excellent account/theory of what caused it all--and that alone is worth the price of the book if this is a subject that interests you. In addition, there is a fascinating list of celebrity Americans who are descended from the Salem witches (Lucille Ball) and the trial judges (Walt Disney).

This book is ideal for the serious history buff. If you're looking for a more gossipy, lascivious account of the Salem witch trials, this is not for you.

This is a novel about life. About death. About memories. About the future. About faith. And the loss of it. About truth. And lies. And secrets. And most of all about the relationships that bind us to one another.

This book is essentially the written form of an Irish Catholic wake. Billy Lynch, beloved by many, dies. The story opens with the luncheon in Queens, New York that follows his funeral and continues through the next two days. But the heart and spirit of the book are in the flashbacks about Billy's life--ordinary in so many ways and extraordinary in others (just like all of us?).

Author Alice McDermott, who is one of my very favorites, has created a book that will make you laugh and cry and puzzle about the mysteries of life--just as her characters do. As the story progresses, more layers are revealed--like a closed flower that opens up--each adding plot reverberations and complexity to what happened before. It's a masterful way to tell a tale!

Hint: Pay close attention to the first chapter, which is the funeral luncheon. You might even want to reread it a second time before continuing with the book. So much is in there! And it leads to everything else in the book.

You know the painting. It's called "Christina's World." Painted by Andrew Wyeth, it depicts a young woman crawling up a hill toward a home. (Google it. You'll recognize it!) This magnificent book by Christina Baker Kline tells the story of Christina Olsen, the real-life model for the painting. Based on solid fact but embellished with fiction--that is, after all, the definition of historical fiction--this book opens up Christina's world in a way I found fascinating and lyrical. The writing is beautifully haunting, vividly bringing to life the time and place near the turn of the last century and continuing through World War II.

Christina lived with her family in their 18th-century farmhouse on the coast of Maine. Think glorious summers but bitterly cold winters when the sun set at 3:30 p.m. There was no electricity or running water. It was a difficult, work-intense life for all. Headstrong, determined and smart, Christina suffered from a degenerative bone disease that left her so disabled by middle age that she was forced to crawl everywhere she went. Yet she still did most of the chores expected of a woman living on a working farm. By necessity, Christina's world was very limited.

The book not only tells Christina's story and her complex and sometimes bitter relationships with her family and friends, but also that of Andrew Wyeth and how he evolved as a painter as he used the Olson home as a makeshift studio. Many of his paintings are of the house and area around it. His interactions with Christina are a very special part of this book showing how life and art merge.

Most of all, this is a story about the human condition. Who are we? How do others see us? How do our choices--and those others make--affect our lives decades later?

Oooh! Oooh! I loved this book! Set in 16th century Northern Italy, this is the story of a 16-year-old novice entering a convent--absolutely against her will. In this time, women of good birth had one of two choices: marry or become a nun. And neither one was really her choice, since her father would make the decision for her. Marriages were arranged, and if the family was unable to afford dowries for multiple daughters, those daughters were forced to enter a convent--something that happened to more than half of all noble women.

Our story begins when the novice nun, Serafina, who has the singing voice of an angel, is "imprisoned" (in her mind that's what has happened) at Santa Caterina convent in the distant city of Ferrara, far from her home in Milan. Her younger sister is the one who was married, but Serafina has a lover of her own. Like she, he is a musician with a voice that makes the heavens weep with joy, but he is not of good birth or reputation. So Serafina is whisked far away from him and locked securely in the convent. And she does all she can to escape.

Meanwhile, there is also great turmoil beyond the locked walls of the convent where the Roman Catholic Church is undergoing massive changes as the Protestant Reformation sparks a cataclysm that is both religious and cultural. And those seismic shifts will soon envelop the convent in ways that are terrifying to some of the nuns.

The plot is fully and skillfully developed, which keeps the pages turning quite fast, and the vivid and colorful descriptions of life in a convent in 1570 are riveting. Author Sarah Dunant has written an extraordinary historical novel that will keep you up way past your bedtime!

This book grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go! By turns quite humorous and bring-out-a-tissue heartrending, this book by Natasha Solomons is the story of Elise Landau, a 19-year-old in Vienna, Austria in 1938. She has lived a life of luxury in an upper-class world. But her family is Jewish, so for her safety her parents send her to England to work in service at a manor house called Tyneford. It is a wrenching separation, and now Elise, who has lived with the services of a maid all her life, becomes a maid herself. And then she falls in love with Kit, the young, handsome heir. But war comes and everything changes.

The plot is solid, but the real the strength of the book is in the characters, who are all so real—from the crusty butler to the confused Elise—that they just pop off the page. Excellent!

If you plan on ever staying in a hotel again, read this book first. Author Jacob Tomsky, who has worked in a variety of jobs in two luxury hotels in New Orleans and New York City, gives the inside scoop on how to get the most from your stay. And while most of it is legal, some of it is not ethical. (You decide how far you're willing to push it for a free minibar drink.) Find out how to get a free room upgrade, late checkout, a complimentary bottle of wine and lots more—and all of that can be done legally and ethically. Find out why you should tip generously, always be friendly and never (ever) bring your own pillow.

The book is eminently readable and filled with anecdotes about guests rich, famous and ordinary. Some of these stories are laugh-out-loud funny, while others are absolutely astonishing. (People really DO that?!? Apparently so.)

Caution: There is a lot of foul language liberally sprinkled throughout the book. Some of it is perfectly acceptable, such in quotes from bellmen, doormen and valets. It's part of their job, and using it this way adds color. I get that. But there is a lot more that is not necessary and adds nothing to the text—so much so that I would have given the book five stars except for the language.