This book grabbed me on page one and never let go. It's a riveting page-turner not because it's a thriller or a whodunit but because it's a compelling story about people…people who are acting up, while trying to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons—and utterly failing.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020, this is billed on the cover as a social satire about privilege in America. It's the story of two women—one White, one Black. One is the employer; the other is the employee. Alix Chamberlin is a privileged, wealthy, slightly dishonest mother of two adorable girls, who is used to getting her own way and always coming out on top. Her husband, Peter, is a local TV news anchor. So Peter can get a better job, they move out of New York City to Alix's childhood hometown of Philadelphia, and Alix mourns the loss of the big city. They live in a huge home in a prestigious neighborhood. Alix has a book contract, so she hires Elmira Tucker as a part-time babysitter for the girls to give her time to write. Elmira is Black, and even though she is a Temple University college graduate she is 25 and hasn't figured out what she wants to do with her life. She has no money and is about to lose her health insurance when she turns 26 in a few months.

The novel opens when Elmira receives a frantic call from Alix very late one night to immediately come get Briar, the two-year-old, and take her to the nearby grocery store for about an hour. Why? Peter (we find out later) said something very stupid on air, and their house got egged, causing one of the windows to break. Peter and Alix are calling the police, and they don't want their little girl to witness this. Elmira is all dressed up and out having a grand time at a friend's birthday party, but drops what she's doing to go get Briar, a precocious child whom Elmira dearly loves. While they are in the grocery store, the security guard confronts Elmira, accusing her of kidnapping Briar. A crowd gathers, and a witness named Kelley Copeland, captures the scene on his phone. It is this video that guides the rest of the story in ways that are hilarious, profound, degrading, shocking, and (finally) liberating.

Ingeniously plotted with superb pacing, this is a fabulous story with an important message about prejudice and expectations, deception and forgiveness, but one that is wrapped up in an intriguing storyline, brilliant (and sometimes blistering) dialogue, and colorful characters. Read it!

In a modest barn in small-town, Wisconsin, a calf is born on Christmas Eve, and instead of the usual spots, it has the unmistakable image of Jesus Christ on its flank to which the farmer said, "Well, that's trouble." Indeed.

Harley Jackson is a quiet, unassuming man living on the land and house in which he grew up. He is not a religious man, but the calf that soon becomes known as "the Jesus cow," upends his careful, unobtrusive life in ways he could never imagine as thousands of people from every state and several countries visit the calf with the unusual birthmark.

Written by Michael Perry, this novel is a profile of rural life in America with quirky characters who embrace beloved small-town values. It's also an understated, simplistic study in religion—specifically, what it means to believe in God without all the hoopla.

It's an amusing story and a fun read even though the plot's climax is totally predictable from early on in the book.

This book made me weep. This book made me angry. This book made me frustrated. This book broke my heart. This book is also a literary masterpiece with a formidable and vital story to tell.

Expertly written by Colson Whitehead, this is the story of Elwood Curtis, a black teenager living in Tallahassee, Florida in the early 1960s. His parents deserted him years ago so he lives with his grandmother, who is raising this child right. He loves school, he takes his part-time job seriously, he wants to go to college, but sometimes he has no common sense—and that is what leads to trouble. When Elwood is sentenced to a reform school called the Nickel Academy for Boys for a crime he did not commit, his life changes in such violent, cruel, and sadistic ways that his soul is forever seared. How he survives this piece of hell on Earth is the crux of the novel with an astonishing plot twist at the end that left me physically shaking.

Elwood Curtis is a fictional character, but the Nickel Academy for Boys is solidly based on the very real Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. Whitehead honors its former students/inmates by telling this composite story. When such bloody, vicious, and deadly secrets are exposed to the light, one hopes they will never be allowed to happen again.

This book won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for a reason. With a gripping plot, bold and vibrant characters, and razor-sharp prose, the novel's underlying message is so unflinching, significant, and searing it will take your breath away.

Read it!

There is only one way to describe this book: Unputdownable. As in, once you start reading, you really will not be able to stop.

Written by Anna Jean Mayhew, this is a snapshot of August 1954 in the deep South, three months after the Supreme Court ruled to integrated public schools in Brown vs. the Board of Education. Jubie Watts lives a white, middle-class life in Charlotte, North Carolina with her (dishonest and abusive) entrepreneur father Bill, her housewife mother Paula, three siblings, and their black maid, Mary Luther. At 13 years old, Jubie is mostly concerned about seeing forbidden Marilyn Monroe movies and sneaking a peek at her older sister's diary. In August, Paula, the kids, and Mary pile into their Packard to travel to Pensacola to visit Pauly's brother. Later, they will meet Bill at Pawley's Island for a week's vacation at the beach. Although traveling with Mary is problematic as she is not welcome in restaurants or motels, they manage. But on the way to Pawley's they are in a car crash in Claxton, Georgia. No one is hurt, but the car repairs will take several days. It is here that a horrific, heartbreaking crime occurs that will forever change the family. Jubie grows up seemingly overnight, making choices that will define who she is forever.

With vividly drawn characters and a riveting plot, this captivating novel is written with such remarkable insight that it is far better than a history book when it comes to exposing the evil underbelly of racism in the deep South at the cusp of the civil rights movement. It grabbed me on page one and never let go!

This is a book about family. And friends. And lovers. It's a book about the choices we make and the choices that are seemingly thrust upon us—for better or worse. It is a book about the human condition.

Written by Emma Straub, this is the story of the Strick family who live in the small, picturesque town of Clapham, New York. In the opening pages, the family matriarch, 68-year-old widow Astrid Strick, is an eyewitness to a horrific accident. She watches as someone she has known almost her entire life is mowed down by a speeding school bus. Tough-as-nails, strict, and unforgiving Astrid suddenly has a change of heart, not only worrying about all the mistakes she made as a mother, but also confessing a long-held secret to her astonished grown-up children. Life is changing fast. Astrid's granddaughter, 13-year-old Cecelia who lives in New York City with her parents, has come to live with her in Clapham after a mysterious incident (with very creepy undertones) at her NYC school has left her an outcast. Meanwhile, Astrid's three children all have issues of their own: Elliot, who appears successful on the outside, is supremely miserable; at 38, Porter is unmarried and pregnant (by choice); and Nicky, a former movie star and Cecelia's father, is more lost than most adolescents. Oh, and there is sex. A lot of sex and sexual confusion and sexual revelations and sexual angst.

A novel's form determines its function. This novel's form is ChickLit through and through, so it's almost all plot-driven, and at times eyerollingly so. Had the same storyline been written by a more literary author, the psychological issues and emotional breakthroughs of the characters would have resulted in a more structurally complex novel. But it's not that kind of story. It's a breezy, easy read that is not likely to result in readers having fervent, haunting thoughts long after the book ends. Reading this book is like eating cake for dinner. Fun and sweet, but ultimately not fulfilling.

This is a treasure, a true gem of the literary world. It's short, sweet, and absolutely beautiful.

Addie Moore has been widowed for many years. So has her neighbor, Louis Waters, whom Addie knows more as an acquaintance than a friend. One day, Addie does something that some may find shocking: She asks Louis to come to her home and sleep with her every night. Sleep. Just sleep. Nothing else. Louis is surprised, but agrees to the unusual proposition. And their lives will never be the same again. Between the sheets, they tell each other about their past, their present, and their hopes and regrets. When Addie's young grandson, Jamie, comes to live with her after his parents' separation, things change even more. Meanwhile, when Addie's son figures out what's going on, he is scandalized—and angry.

This charming and astute little book by Kent Haruf is a delight to read. It offers such wisdom—and hope!—about the human condition, the mistakes we make, and the anguish we cause those we love. Most of all, it's a testament to the power of love—no matter how old we are.

Oh, this is a depressing book. Melancholy. Tragic. And bleak. The story will grab some dark place of your soul and not let go. Eventually, there is hope and redemption, but it is a deeply sorrowful read to get to that point.

That said, it really is an extraordinary book.

Written by Eleanor Henderson, this is the story of Jude, whom we meet on his 16th birthday, and Teddy, 15, who are best friends living in a small college town in Vermont in the late 1980s. They both come from tragically dysfunctional families. Teddy's father is dead; his mother disappears, leaving him all alone. Jude's parents are divorced; his mother is barely making ends meet as a glassblower artist, while his dad, who lives in New York City's crime-infested Lower East Side, is an upscale drug dealer. Both boys are into drugs and huffing. Teddy dies, which is not a spoiler because the author gives away this eventual plot line in the second sentence of the book. Jude copes by moving to New York to live with his dad and to find Teddy's half-brother, Johnny, a tattoo artist and hardcore punk musician. Jude also finds a friend in Eliza, the trust-fund daughter of his father's girlfriend. But Teddy left them all a big secret, which is revealed soon enough, and it becomes a burden that nearly destroys Jude, Johnny, and Eliza.

The setting is raw, the characters are rough, and like the music they listen to and play, the plot is hardcore.

While this could be described as a coming-of-age story, it's so much more than that because Jude had been living such a loveless life without any of the boundaries parents typically set. It's more a coming-into-the-world story as Jude learns how to live in a way that is not self-destructive.

Ultimately, the dark, melancholic story becomes one of hope and redemption, but the danger is that the journey there is so somber and truly sad that many readers will give up just to exit this gloomy and despondent place. If you start the book, do finish it. It's so worth it.

You can't judge a book by its title. This book may sound like the ultimate ChickLit, but it's not.

Yes, at its core, it is a love story, but that love story is a tightly woven, multilayered historical novel beginning in 1951 during the Korean War and continuing through nearly two decades of political and cultural strife in South Korea. It is a love story that is poisoned by the wounds of war.

Each chapter, which advances the story in leaps of one or two years, is told from the point of view of one of the characters. Haemi is a feisty 16-year-old when the book opens, caring for her sickly little brother and widowed mother as they live in a refugee camp, barely subsiding. Military forces from what would become North Korea invaded their home and so they fled south to the seaside city of Busan to safety and crushing poverty. They became refugees in their country. Haemi's best friend since childhood, Kyunghwan, is equally poor. But he is the one she truly loves. Kyunghwan's cousin, the wealthier Jisoo-hyung is besotted with the spirited Haemi. Since he (and his money) is the key to the family's survival, she marries him. But theirs is a loveless marriage, fraught with anger, violence, and betrayal, and Haemi's response to this life—her profound unhappiness, bitterness, and resentment—will set in motion a swirl of events that quickly catapults out of her control, forever altering their lives.

Just know this before you begin reading: This is a desperately sad book.

Beautifully written by Crystal Hana Kim with vivid descriptions and colorful characters, this book will transport you to a Korea that is poised between two worlds—the steadfast and traditional that is being shattered by contemporary forces of change. Still, at its core, it is a love story—passionate, fiery, and forbidden—that will break your heart just as it broke theirs.

Oh, this book! And it's all because of the writing. Exquisite. Eloquent. Exceptional. This stunningly beautiful novel is very short, but I found myself taking longer to read it than the page count would indicate simply because I reread so many (many!) passages just to savor the sheer poetry of the words.

Masterfully written by Jacqueline Woodson, this is a multigenerational story of a Black family living in Brooklyn, New York. Iris, a good Catholic girl from a stable, upstanding family, is 15 when she gets pregnant with Melody. It's a classic tale of an unintended teenage pregnancy and the ripple-like effect it has on so many lives, but in Woodson's hands this is a tale you've never heard before. It is uplifting and heartbreaking. It is realistic and fantastical. It is beautiful and dangerous. It is prose and poetry.

This succinct novel has it all: a solid, emotionally-charged plot, vibrant characters, superb pacing, and most of all lyrical prose that transforms a simple story into a masterpiece. This novel is nearly perfect.

I am smitten with Louise Penny. And that's saying a lot because I am not enamored of murder mysteries. But her mysteries are another thing all together. Her books are expertly written with not only a compelling whodunit plot, but also extraordinary, entirely human characters that are so real they pop off the page.

Louise Penny's novels—there are 16 of them now—all "star" the brilliant and loveable Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who is repeatedly sent to the tiny and picturesque Canadian village of Three Pines to solve the latest murder. (Other than the extremely high rate of murder, this would be an idyllic place to live!)

In this, the second of the series, Chief Inspector Gamache is called to Three Pines to investigate the murder of a woman named C.C. de Poitiers, who was inexplicably electrocuted—and not by accident—on Boxing Day while sitting in a chair on a frozen pond watching a community game of curling. Taking place from December 23 through New Year's Day, the book also has several subplots, including a murder of a homeless bag lady on the streets of Montreal, as well as the fractious interactions of some of the detectives and the delightful interactions of the Three Pines residents. Enough clues to the murderer's identity are given so the particularly astute reader stands a chance of figuring it out before the last page (surprisingly, I did), but the plot has enough twists and turns to keep even those astute readers riveted.

Louise Penny's books are highly intelligent, and that's what I enjoy the most about them. She peppers the story with numerous cultural references—literary, poetic, musical, and historical—which truly engaged my mind. I loved asking my Amazon Echo to play the Tchaikovsky violin piece she cites, and I eagerly Googled some of the history she discusses because I wanted to know more. So here we have the ultimate entertainment book, but it's also educational!

This is a multilayered, literary mystery that is perceptive and smart. Wonderful!

This book had me riveted. It's the rarest of nonfiction tomes in that I couldn't stop reading. Just a few more pages…just a few more pages.

That said, it is emotionally exhausting to read. Even if you yourself are not financially squeezed, chances are pretty good you know people who are. Finding out what must go on behind their closed doors is heartbreaking—and frightening.

Written by Alissa Quart, this is a well-researched and spot-on explanation of why and how the middle class in the United States is being squeezed out of existence. And this isn't happening only to high school dropouts and people who may have loafed through college. It's happening to college professors with doctoral degrees, attorneys, journalists, and teachers, among others.

Find out:
• Why having a baby may place a middle-class couple in a financial downward spiral from which they may never recover;

• Why your child's geometry teacher may be grading tests and planning the next day's lessons between his trips driving for Uber;

• Why some day care centers now offer care 24 hours a day;

• Why so many people are drowning in student loan debt.

• Why you may lose your job to a robot.

With each of the reasons why families are being squeezed, Quart attempts to offer solutions. Some are more tenable than others. I don't fault her in this because the solutions to most of these problems are far bigger than something she can conjure. Rather, they go to the heart of who we are as a country—and what we intend to do about it.

This book is shocking, heartbreaking, and an absolute must-read for everyone.

This is a very special book. And while I absolutely loved it, I know it's not for everyone.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Geraldine Brooks, the story takes place in the mid-1600s in Massachusetts in Cambridge and on what we now know as Martha's Vineyard. Bethia Mayfield lives a happy, albeit incredibly hard, life with her English Puritan parents and siblings as new settlers on a beautiful island. Her father is a Calvinist minister who views his life's work as preaching to the wild Wampanoag, who also live on the land. As a girl of 9, Bethia befriends a boy in the tribe that she names Caleb. Their secret friendship—were it known, it would be scandalous—brings her much joy as she teaches Caleb English and her catechism. Caleb is brilliant, kind, and honorable in contrast to many of the white settlers. Eventually he is offered admission to Harvard, the fledgling new college in Cambridge. Bethia doesn't fit the mold of women for her time, and her curious, vibrant, and independent spirit takes her places she otherwise would never go, but it also sparks trouble. The story is framed by questions of religious belief, awakening sexual passion, and the sense of right and wrong in a strict and stilted society.

While this book is totally fictional, Caleb was a real person, who was the first Native American graduate of Harvard College. The title of the book reflects his "crossing" from his native culture and life to that of a scholar in English society.

What makes this book so special is its style and tenor. Brilliantly written in Bethia's first-person voice, the rather slow-paced story reads much like it would if it had been written in the 17th century, including judicious use of some archaic words. (The Kindle dictionary was VERY helpful!) While it takes a few pages to adjust to that tone, what requires a bigger adjustment is the occasional use of words in Wampanaontoaonk, the language of the Wampanoag—and these words are never defined. That said, by paying close attention (Google isn't much help), the discerning reader can figure out what they mean.

Most of all, this is an extraordinary writing achievement, and I was utterly enthralled!

This is a book that is steeped in white male privilege…and the white male who has all this privilege is only 14 years old. But that is the point. Ben, the privileged white teenager, is coming into his first realization of who he is, all he has, and all he could lose.

Written by Alexander Tilney, the novel takes place in the 1990s at St. James School, a posh and storied boarding school in New Hampshire. As Ben enters as a third-former (translation: ninth grade), he is following in the footsteps not only of his brother, father, and uncle, but also generations of his family who have matriculated here. However, all does not go as expected. Ben's randomly-assigned roommate, the fabulously wealthy Ahmad, has brown skin and no sense of how he should act among all these wealthy American boys. It's embarrassing to Ben! But trouble at home soon finds its way to St. James, and Ben quickly realizes his first semester at St. James could be his last. It is only then that he starts to appreciate all he has and mourn what he could lose.

If you can get past all the white male privilege, there is a tender and moving story of adolescence, emotional insecurity, and the pain and travails of growing up. It is a book—as the title says—about expectations: the expectations that Ben has for his new life at St. James, the expectations that the adults have for him, and the expectations of all the rules, written and unwritten. Most of all, it is about expectations unmet and unrealized…expectations that cause great disappointment.

But still…the book presented an obstacle I just couldn't surmount: Ben and the other characters are so (so!) wealthy and have had so (so!) many advantages in life, it was hard for me to feel much empathy for their trials and tribulations. And if I, as the reader, can't feel empathy for the characters, much of the story's meaning gets lost.

This book. This book is gripping. This book is provocative. This book is haunting. This book is intense. This book is genius.

Written by S.M. Hulse, this masterpiece novel takes place in the tiny mountain town of Prospect, Montana. The two mines that once offered employment and prosperity—Eden and Gethsemane—have long been shuttered, leaving a dying town in their wake. Josephine Faber and her older brother, Samuel, have lived together—just the two of them—for years. Their father was killed when the Gethsemane mine collapsed. Their mother was horrifically murdered in front of them by an ex-boyfriend, and when the carnage was over, Jo, who was still a little girl at the time, was shot in the spine and paralyzed from the waist down. But Samuel became her beloved guardian and protector. He was her everything--until the day he did the unthinkable: set off a bomb at a courthouse that gravely injured a little girl, the daughter of the pastor whose church across the street was inadvertently caught in the blast. Samuel thought he could get away with it, but a surveillance camera captures his image. The FBI hounds Jo for any information, while agents search for Samuel, who has seemingly disappeared. Or has he? Meanwhile, Jo befriends a most unlikely man, someone who slowly brings out the story of her past and her terrors of the present.

This is a multilayered psychological novel that is so intricately and tightly woven it will leave you reeling. Shrouded in extraordinary biblical symbolism, the story examines the meaning of faith, the importance of family, and the heartbreak that only those we love the most can cause.

Even though the plot is well-developed, the novel's strength is in the finely-wrought characters. The story slowly unfolds but in such a tantalizing way that it pulls in the reader bit by bit by bit. The writing is absolutely beautiful with stunning language and astonishing descriptions of seemingly minor details. Brilliant imagery of light and dark, earth and sky, and love and evil cement the novel as true literature.

This book is genius.

This is a 10-star book in a five-star world. With an imaginative structure, a riveting storyline, and incredibly vivid characters, this book by author Elizabeth Strout is one to read slowly, fully savor, and treasure.

This is the sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Olive Kitteridge," and, yes, you absolutely must read them in order. Although it is titled a novel, it's really a hybrid—as was "Olive Kitteridge"—between a short story collection and a novel. Each chapter is really a short story about a person, couple, or family living in Crosby, Maine. Olive Kitteridge is often the central character in these stories, but sometimes she makes only a cameo appearance. Still, there is a definite connecting thread through all the stories, and that's what makes it a novel.

Strout has so brilliantly crafted the character of Olive that I almost think she might be joining me on the sofa while I read. She is older now—in her 70s and 80s as the book progresses—but still a large woman with brightly-colored clothing, a big handbag, and distinct quirks, such as waving her hand over head when she says good-bye, responding "ay-yuh" a lot, and saying exactly what she thinks.

This is a book about life…and death. It's a book about life in the face of death. It's a book about life in spite of death. It's a book that will make you laugh and cry as we all must face not only the deaths of parents and friends, but also our own demise. It is a book packed with wit and wisdom and pithy life advice. But most of all, this is a book filled with grace and goodness.

Warning: Do read Elizabeth Strout's novel "The Burgess Boys" before you read this book. The chapter titled "Exiles" is essentially an epilogue of what happened to the Burgess family 10 years after that novel ends. In other words: Major spoilers!

This is a fairy tale for grown-ups. And quite a tale it is with the suffering heroine, the monster with whom she falls in love, and a desperately unhappy life that happily turns around.

As a little girl, our heroine said something almost every angry child utters at one time or another. But in this case, the meanspirited wish came true, causing the unnamed narrator to believe she could make bad things happen just by wishing it so. After living a solitary, loveless life with a heart that has turned to ice, her brother, Ned, essentially forces her to move from their family home in New Jersey to be near him in Florida. And then the seemingly impossible happens: She is struck by lightning. While the physical effects of the lightning strike are horrific, it gives her a new beginning as she embarks on a passionate love affair with another lightning strike survivor — a man who is so burning hot that his breath can make water boil. Can love make the ice queen's heart melt? Like her, he harbors secrets that are almost too terrible to speak aloud, but it is only when the strange and horrific secrets are revealed that they lose their power to hurt.

Like all good fairy tales, there is a moral lesson that leads to a healing redemption and a bold transformation. Author Alice Hoffman, who is a genius at the tricky genre of magical realism, has created an imaginative, emotionally-searing story that is absolutely spellbinding. And the ending is perfect. (Well, it is a fairy tale!)

Bonus: This is also a fascinating scientific primer on the physical and psychological effects of lightning strikes on human beings, as well as the basics of chaos theory.

This is a difficult book to read because it is so very sad. But even though this historical novel by Emma Donoghue is raw and emotionally draining, it tells an important story about the 18th century: the plight of girls and women who were abandoned and the degrading, awful lives they were forced to live just to survive.

It is 1760, and 13-year-old Mary Saunders, a poor girl with a cold and detached mother and a cruel stepfather, makes a mistake that will forever and tragically alter the course of her life: for a bit of red ribbon she lets a course peddler kiss her—and more. She is ruined. Her mother throws her out of the house, and she must fend for herself on the mean streets of London. Mary quickly realizes there is only one thing she can do to survive. She has never known love, so working as a prostitute is just a job. But through all the horrors she experiences, Mary has a fierce will to better herself. Most of all, she wants to control her own destiny. But the horrors of her past will always haunt her every step. This is her story.

Loosely based on a true story, the novel is packed with fascinating historical details, finely-wrought characters, and a riveting plot. It is a gripping saga that reveals the underbelly of a brutal and ultimately tragic life.

Be forewarned: This book is filled with graphic descriptions and violent scenes that may be difficult for some readers.

If the front cover didn't list Stephen King as the author, I would never have guessed he wrote it. Mind you, I don't read horror novels, so I dance around the edges of King's oeuvre, and this one is definitely on that edge. No horror at all, but also not much of a story.

Recently divorced Scott Carey lives in a wealthy, gated community in fictional Castle Rock, Maine. He has some minor issues with his new neighbors' unleashed dogs; the neighbors are married lesbians who are setting this conservative town on edge. But that's the least of his worries. Scott is losing weight—rapidly—even though it doesn't show. He looks out of shape and obese, but the weight is falling off. What is happening?

This novella, which can easily be read in a couple of hours, is most of all a lesson in tolerance and the value of diversity, but it's told a bit like a hammer over the head. No subtleties, no nuances. While it's still a good story, I'm disappointed. King is one of the most talented American writers living today, and I think he could have done better.

If someone were to ask me to describe this incredibly creative book in three words, this is it: Innovative. Imaginative. Inspiring. It may take you a few pages to become accustomed to the highly original writing style, but the payoff is so worth it. This is one of those books that I will be thinking about for a long, long time to come.

The narrator of this book is Death. He is the one who releases the soul from a body once it has died, and he carries it away. It is January 1939 in Nazi Germany, and 9-year-old Liesel and her little brother are being sent to a foster home to be cared for by strangers. Her brother dies, so she is all alone when she enters the home of Hans and Rosa Hubermann on Himmel Street, which is in the shadow of Dachau. When Liesel steals her first book at her brother's graveside, she doesn't even know how to read. Stealing books becomes an obsession—a potentially dangerous one not only because it is theft and a crime, but also because this is a time when books are burned. Books are seditious. Words have power. This is the story of Liesel's life in Germany during World War II told from the perspective of a German child who is not Jewish, but whose family is harboring a Jewish man in their basement. Her life is filled with love, but also incredible danger and tragedy. And her life is filled with words—words that give and words that take.

The characters are vivid and strong, the passionate writing is superb, the novel's structure is ingenious, and the plot is profound and moving. This is a brilliant and unforgettable must-read novel.

When I was about halfway through reading "America for Beginners" by Leah Franqui, I had the (admittedly odd) thought: I just want to hug this book. In addition to being a delightful story—more enchanting than a page-turner—this book is filled with pithy wit and wisdom about life, love, and truly living.

At 60 years old and newly widowed, Pival Senjupta scandalously decides to leave her lifelong home Kolkata, India (a place in which she has only ever traveled five blocks) to take a tour alone of the United States with the hope of reuniting with her son, who may or may not be dead and may or may or may not be alive and living in Los Angeles. Soon after Rahi told his parents he was gay, his incensed and outraged father told Pival that her beloved boy had died of a heart attack. She signs up for a private tour of the U.S.A. with a New York-based tour company of Bangladeshis who pretend to be Indian. Her guide is Satya, an undocumented immigrant who has never been anywhere other than New York, along with her American female companion, Rebecca, a desperately unhappy, somewhat jaded wannabe actress. Each is in for a life-changing experience that hinges not on the sights they see, but rather on their interactions with one another.

Bonus: Pival and Satya's first experiences of America are poignant, hilarious, and illuminating.

Written with humor and grace, this moving story is a new twist on the age-old idea of a journey as a means for quest and transformation. And the physical monsters Ulysses conquered in "The Odyssey" are no less daunting than the psychological monsters this trio battles.

Most of all, this is a story that offers hope, love, and understanding written in a brilliant and beautiful way.