It all began because of an illicit kiss.

Bert Cousins kissed Beverly Keating at a family christening party, and that set in motion two divorces, a marriage and a Brady Bunch of six kids who get tossed back and forth from the state of California to the commonwealth of Virginia and yet become what one of them later describes as "a fierce little tribe." Their lives are forever marked by a tragic event, and the role they believe they played in it.

The story continues over five decades, focusing especially on one of those six children--Franny. By the time she is in her 20s, she has dropped out of law school and is working as a cocktail waitress at the swanky Palmer House in Chicago when she meets Leon Posen, a renowned novelist who hasn't written anything in decades. Even though there is a 32-year age difference, they begin an affair, and Leon writes a stunningly successful novel about Franny's childhood and family. The book forces the now grown-up and somewhat estranged siblings and stepsiblings to come to terms with their volatile, but deeply connected, relationships.

Author Ann Patchett has written a powerful and compelling story about love and family, death and heartbreak. Highly recommended.

This is by far THE strangest book I have ever read. And maybe ever will read. The full title (and this is important) is "Moonglow: A Novel." Yes, it's fiction. But wily author Michael Chabon has written it and presented it as a memoir of his (never named) grandfather. Assuming it is based on fact and then embellished, this man led a heck of a life. But we don't even know that much! Is it really a novel that is pretending to be a memoir--or a memoir pretending to be a novel?

The writing has a touch of the genius. The story bounces back and forth in time but always in a way that works and isn't jarring. This grandfather was quite the guy--a stellar engineer who stalked Nazis in World War II, a man who spent time in prison for trying to kill his boss, a man who married a woman who already had a daughter and loved both until the day he died, a man who started and lost his own business(es), and a man who spent the last months of his life falling in love again while hunting a python. You just have to read it to really get it. And it's worth your time to read it--bizarre and strange and really odd though it is.

Riveting. Captivating. Spellbinding. Entrancing. Get the idea? This short, can't-put-it-down novel by Ann Weisgarber will grab you at page one and not let go. This is the kind of book that will make you forgo sleep, housework and other responsibilities. Just one more page. (Yeah, right...like you could stop after just one more page.)

It's 1900. Catherine Wainwright of Dayton, Ohio has been caught in a horrific scandal of such magnificent proportions that she is shunned by proper society and forced to flee. Even her mother is appalled by her only child's behavior. So Catherine writes a letter to Oscar, a boy she knew as a young girl--a working class boy who left Dayton to build a new life in Galveston, Texas. Oscar had always admired her from afar. It just so happens that Oscar, now a widower with a 5-year-old son, needs a wife. And Catherine needs to escape. A train ride across the country, a quickie wedding by a judge, and the two strangers begin their new life together in Oscar's tiny house on the island of Galveston.

The story is told in the first person alternating between Catherine and Nan Ogden, who was a dear friend of Oscar's first wife and who now keeps house for Oscar and his son. There are a series of storms. The inner storms that Catherine and Oscar suffer individually, the storm of the first days of their hasty marriage, the storm going on inside Nan and finally the biggest storm of all: The September 8, 1900 hurricane that is still the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States.

Just one more page...and you'll finish this book, wiping tears from your eyes.

I have recently discovered the joys of reading a well-written short story collection. Short stories are a tough sell to readers. The writer has to reel in the reader fast--in the first few sentences, ideally. And when each story ends, often abruptly, the next one had better have a riveting first sentence to clear away the hangover caused the previous story's ending.

Molly Antopol does this magnificently in her collection "The UnAmericans," eight stories about Eastern European Jews who either live in the United States or have a connection to it--albeit quite a slim connection in two of the stories that are set in Israel. The characters have been powerfully shaped by political events in their country of origin or by the violence of history that personally touched them. They are, for the most part, dissidents and intellectuals. For those who fled to the United States, they had to reinvent themselves as Americans. But are they treated as Americans? Not always. Hence, the "UnAmericans" designation.

There is heartbreak and humor, passion and pain, sympathy and solace in this compelling and intelligently-written collection that explores what we have in common as humans: our relationships to one another. And that is true no matter where we were born.

P.S. "My Grandmother Tells Me This Story" is worth the price of the book alone!

FYI: It's a sin to covet the riches of others. And that's exactly what makes this book so delicious!

In this case, we're talking about the filthy rich--those who are so rich that they can buy anything they want at any time they want--and they don't even have to work. That is...until the unthinkable, the unimaginable happens. The money disappears. It's gone! All of it. hat is the premise of this inspired book by Ramona Ausubel.

Edgar, the only child of Mary and Hugh, comes from new money. Fern, the daughter of Evelyn and Paul, comes from old money. They marry, have three children and are supported primarily by her father. And suddenly, the money dries up. What do they do? How do they react? That is the story! I won't reveal anymore, as do so many reviews, because anything else I say would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say that how Edgar and Fern react individually and as a couple nearly destroy them and their family.

There are two storylines in the book, as the chapters seamlessly switch between before the money is lost and after it is lost, and three points of view: Edgar, Fern and their 9-year-old daughter, Cricket. And while the book is quite focused on materialism and conspicuous consumption, it is also just as much about the inner turmoil of losing life as we know it--no matter what that life may be--and the emotional toll that takes. Yes, even the 1 percent have troubles!

But above all, it's just a good story. Ramona Ausubel takes a "what if..." and extrapolates it in a way that shows us the heartbreak and humor of life's gut-wrenching changes.

I am arriving late to the Liane Moriarty party, as this is the first book I have read by this best-selling author. Now I know why she is a best-selling author. What a fun book! It's almost like time travel--but more believable. Thirty-nine-year-old Alice Love falls down her own rabbit hole, so to speak, after she faints and falls off her bike during a spin class in 2008. When she comes to on the gym floor, she thinks it's 1998, she is pregnant with her first child and madly in love with her husband. But it's not 1998. It's 2008, and she has three children and is in the middle of a nasty, acrimonious divorce. She remembers none of that!

But this is more than Alice not remembering her children and thinking of her closest friends as complete strangers, including the new guy she is dating. More important, Alice doesn't recognize or like the person she has become in the last decade.

While the book is entirely plot-driven and not much more than escapist reading with a purely predicable story line, it does have at least one message for the thoughtful reader: If you could time-travel 10 years into your future, would you like who you have become?

To become a physician, I believe, requires as much of a spiritual calling as it does to become a priest, minister or rabbi. If a fat paycheck is the primary motivator for a career in medicine, I suspect that person will not survive residency. Exhibit A: This book.

Written by a practicing internist a decade after he completed his three-year residency in internal medicine, this book will give the non-medical person a hint of what this grueling training is all about. I say a hint, because simply reading the book will not make you feel what all residents must endure: the utter exhaustion of seemingly endless shifts, the pressure to remember so much information at a moment's notice, the mind-numbing paperwork and the heartbreak of losing patients. But it will give you more empathy for your own doctor.

The writing is superb, and while it's nonfiction, it is as engrossing as a novel. Unlike other types of medical residencies, internal medicine is a kind of medical catch-all. These residents do it all--from the emergency room to intensive care, from clinics to hospice. And that is what makes this book so compelling. Author Terrence Holt takes you along as he experiences it--the adrenaline-pumping code blue, a young woman who commits suicide by Tylenol (a death that is excruciatingly drawn-out and painful), in-home hospice care with a woman whose mouth has been eaten away by skin cancer, a psychiatric hospital where two patients do horrific and gruesome things to hurt themselves (no spoilers here), and being with a family as the matriarch dies. There is more. A lot more.

While some of the stories are disturbing (you won't want to read this book while eating lunch), they will all give you an appreciation for the medical profession. My hope is that if I am ever hospitalized, I have a resident who is as caring as Dr. Holt. It's a fascinating book, and I highly recommend it.

This is a dark book. With an even darker ending. But that's not a spoiler because this extraordinary tale by Hannah Kent (published in 2010 when she was only 25 years old!) is based on actual historical events. While it is a novel, the author's prodigious research gives the story authenticity.

Taking place in Iceland in 1828, "Burial Rites" is a (partially) fictionalized account of the life and death of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a young woman found guilty of the murder of her lover. While she awaits her execution, she is housed in the remote country home of a low-level government official, his wife and two grown daughters. She chooses a young and inexperienced priest named Tóti to counsel her. The family is frightened to accommodate the prisoner, but something happens over the months that Agnes lives with them. She talks. Tóti listens. The family listens. Is Agnes really guilty of this horrific, bloody crime?

While the murder may be the tantalizing centerpiece of the story, the descriptions of the north of Iceland are so vivid, the reader can almost feel the brutal cold, see the snow and hear the howling winds. Like I did, you may find yourself looking online for photos of a badstofa, turf homes and the barren winter landscape of north Iceland.

This isn't a light beach book. It is by turns disturbing, alarming and sorrowful with no humor to lighten the woeful tale. But it is an incredible book that will give you an appreciation for this time and place and the most basic of human emotions that transcend both.

Delicious! Delectable! Daring! Oh, dahling...you simply must read this. Great literature it is not, but it is so much fun. So between Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Austen and Anne Tyler (all of whom I highly recommend), read this sinfully delightful book by Beatriz Williams.

It's the dawn of the Roaring '20s where sex (not necessarily with your spouse), drink and other shenanigans rule the day. The rules of society are changing. The plot is complex (so I won't even try to summarize it here--you can read that easily enough elsewhere), and the writing keeps up the pace in what turns from a love story/love triangle to a murder mystery (with exciting twists and turns) and then back to the love story/love triangle. Williams brilliantly captures the aura of these freewheeling times from the sordid speakeasies to the grand parties in elegant Fifth Avenue apartments that are mansion-like in size.

This is a fun, easy read--ideal for the beach or a snowstorm. This is the classic "can't-put-it-down" novel. Get it!

It's summer 1961 in New Breman, Minnesota. JFK is president. It is a time of innocence. Kids wander everywhere in this small town--in the fields, down by the river, on the railroad tracks. But this idyllic town is rocked by five deaths--accidents, suicide, homicide--in just a few short months, and life for some will never be the same. Frankie is 13, the son of a Methodist minister. He narrates the book as an adult, recalling that dreadful summer 40 years ago. This is a who-done-it wrapped in an emotionally-charged tale about the fragility of life and the roles we each play--often unwittingly--in the hurt and happiness of those around us. It is the story of Frankie leaving childhood behind and becoming a man. It is the story of God's grace in unexpected and brilliant ways as a family struggles to still breathe after the worst happens. It is about grieving and becoming whole again.

I found the book to be a riveting read--not so much because I wanted to find out what happened next (even though I did!), but rather because I wanted to find out how the characters would feel and handle the crises all around them. Yes, there is a wonderful plot that keeps you reading, complete with lies and secrets, adultery and teen sex, hatred and prejudice, but this book is so much more than plot. And that is what separates it from the pack. This is a book that means something and will haunt your thoughts for a long time.

If you read this book, do so with caution! Why? It's really good. And it's the first in a series of six books (with a seventh reportedly in the works). I read the second in the series, "The White Queen," first, and it's even better than this one.

Written by Philippa Gregory, whom USA Today has dubbed "the queen of royal fiction," this book begins in 1430 in France with the story of Jacquetta, a young girl with the "sight" (ability to foresee the future), and her eventual adult life serving in the English court of the rather inept King Henry VI and his wife, Margaret of Anjou. It is under his reign that the War of the Roses--the bloody battle between cousins--begins and nearly tears apart England.

And while there is a lot of history packed into this book, the main focus is on the women--those unheralded and forgotten characters that had such a powerful and influential impact on their husbands and, thus, on events that shaped the times.

I don't know what most impresses me about author Chris Bohjalian's writing in this book:
--He wrote from a woman's perspective.
--He wrote with the knowledge of a physician.
--He wrote with the knowledge of an attorney.

And he pulled it off expertly!

When a woman giving birth dies in the care of experienced midwife Sybil Danforth in a perfect storm (literally) of everything that could possibly go wrong, she is arrested and tried in a court of law. The story is told from the perspective of her daughter, Connie, who narrates the book as a 30-something adult recalling this tragic piece of their family history when she was a young teenager.

The plot moves quickly and holds the reader completely, and the characters are fully developed and three-dimensional. Best of all, the last three chapters are so riveting, you will not be able to stop reading. (If you're the family cook, I hope no one wants dinner when you get to that point of the story.)

This is not-to-be missed story of hopes and dreams, of tragedy and consequences, of the power of the law and the force of conscience. Most of all, it is a story of love. What we do and how we act under the most extreme circumstances is the true testament of who we are as human beings.

Plain and simple: This is a work of literary genius.

But this is what it is not:
• It is not an easy read. Don't even think of taking it to the beach.
• Even though it is billed as a "multigenerational novel," it is not. It is four novellas about four people spanning 100 years who are not related to each other--except that they are all Chinese-Americans.

The writing style and structure of each novella is unique. The stories are so unrelated to each other that they could be read separately, which is why I have called them novellas. But the element that connects the four is the symbolism of the elephant. (English majors, this is for you! Non-English majors--just Google it.)

Author Peter Ho Davies very creatively and seductively explores the extremely different lives of four people--three of whom were real, although he has reimagined their lives. (I call that daring for a novelist!) As disparate as these three men and one woman are in time, place and prosperity, their stories show the hatred of racism, the importance of identity in the larger society, the power of ambition, the frailty of life without love--and above all the place of family in our lives.

English major that I was, I was riveted. It made me think. It made me weep. It made me laugh. And it made me want to read a lot more about China.

If just the thought of reading Shakespeare is enough to make you groan, grunt or growl, this is just the book for you!

As part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project in which the Bard's plays are retold for a modern audience by some of today's best-selling authors, the incredible Anne Tyler (Confession: She is one of my favorite writers) has created a laugh-out-loud funny and very readable post-9/11 take on Shakespeare's comedy "The Taming of the Shrew." (This isn't the first such rewrite. Exhibit A: The movie "10 Things I Hate About You.")

Set in Baltimore, the book contains all the players: Kate Battista (Katherine, the shrew), Pyotr Shcherbakov (Petruchio), Bunny Battista (Bianca), Dr. Louis Battista (Minola Baptista) and Edward Mintz (Lucentio).

Anne Tyler fans, beware! This is not your typical Anne Tyler book. Remember, she was given a specific task: Rewrite "The Taming of the Shrew." That means this book (almost) has more plot points than all her other books put together! The characters are not the quirky, eccentric, bemused beings we have come to expect from her. She is following the Bard's lead on this one. But it works--and works magnificently--as long as you know what to expect.

And while you certainly don't get Shakespeare's lyrical poetry in such a rewrite, "Vinegar Girl" might just be the impetus to send some people back to the original.

Even students of British history who know how this story ends will find this fictionalized version (that is solidly based on historical facts) a riveting and even mesmerizing read. Author Alison Weir masterfully tells the life story of Jane Grey, known as the nine-day queen of England. The great-niece of King Henry VIII, Jane was the eldest of three daughters in a time when only sons were wanted. She was physically and emotionally abused by her mother, but found solace in books and learning--highly unusual for a young girl of these times. But her life only gets worse. When her marriage is consummated, she is brutally raped by her husband.

The entire book is written in the first person but from the viewpoint of several people, including Lady Jane Grey; Mrs. Ellen, her loving and trusted nursemaid; Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, Jane's hateful mother; Queen Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII who took an interest in Jane; and John Dudley, the man who wrested the crown, albeit temporarily, from Princess Mary, the rightful heir.

The book is filled with the gossip, intrigue and conspiracies of court life with such vivid descriptions that the story just pops--making you feel as if you're living in the middle of it. In the author's note at the end of the book, Alison Weir writes: "It is my sincere hope that the story that has unfolded in these pages has both enthralled and appalled you, the reader." It did both magnificently.

This is one of those rare books: A delicious, gossipy, laugh-out-loud funny, escapist read with an intricate "can't-put-it-down" plot with a message that is quite profound. And while there is a murder--we are told that at the beginning--it's not a classic style murder mystery. It is far more sophisticated, complex and tragic than that.

Written by Liane Moriarty, the cleverly told story focuses on three young mothers--Madeline, Celeste and Jane--who are living in a fairly upscale beach community in Australia. Each of the women has her own secrets and tells her own lies--until their world comes tumbling down and one of their own is killed.

This is a story about love and friendship and the incredible bond women forge with one another. It's a perfect summer book--fast and fun, but it will still make you think.

This should be required reading--for everyone.

"Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic" is the tragic, frightening and prescient story of the heroin and opiate epidemic in the United States. And if you think none of this applies to you, that is all the more reason to read this book. Although it's especially corrosive in the heartland of Ohio, this is a nationwide problem, and we all need to be educated.

Reading more like a novel or a detective story, this cross between journalism and storytelling traces the "perfect storm" that led so many people--from professionals to prostitutes, teachers to cheerleaders--to became hooked on painkillers. Occurring in tandem was the uptick in heroin addictions, led primarily from high-quality "black tar heroin" from Mexico with dealers following business models that rival the nation's best-run corporations and delivery methods as efficient as your favorite pizza parlor. And then all hell broke loose when the paths of opiates and heroin crossed.

For five years author Sam Quinones did prodigious on-the-ground research to write this book that is on the one hand the most fascinating tale I have read in ages and on the other scarier than anything Stephen King could dream up--because this is real. And it's in your community. Find out how young men from Xalisco, Nayarit, a tiny village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, became heroin entrepreneurs in the United States using methods that confused and confounded local law enforcement. Find out how Big Pharma embraced nefarious marketing methods for painkillers, especially OxyCotin, to convince family doctors to write millions of prescriptions. Find out how doctors, who were taught in medical school to be wary of prescribing addictive painkillers, found their hospitals' accreditation was at risk if patients were not aggressively treated for pain. Find out about quack MDs, who set up pill mills in hard-hit communities in southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky, became extremely wealthy off the residents' addictions. Find out how Walmart became an unwitting accomplice in the scourge of opiate addiction.

But there is hope. A lot of hope. The book ends on a positive note about all that is being done--finally--to fight the opiate epidemic, especially in southern Ohio.

"Dreamland" is compelling , riveting and eye-opening because it is not only the story of what has happened, but also the tale of the people--the individual lives--who got caught up in it. I gave this book five stars, but I would give it 10 if I could.

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.