The first line of "Everything We Never Knew" almost scared me from continuing the novel. "The form fitting mermaid dress….hugs my curves in all the right places." Uh oh, is this going to be a book filled with cliches about shallow characters? Luckily, I kept reading and my initial impression was turned upside down. Although I do think that the joint authors, Hough & Goodlett, could have fleshed out their characters a bit more thoroughly than they did, I truly enjoyed the narrator's, Lexi, explorations into energy fields. There are really so many occurrences in life for which we have no explanations. Personal energy fields are as valid and fascinating reason as any other. I liked, too, how Lexi changed as a person and how she moved beyond past sorrows. All in all, this was a very worthwhile read and a book that I would recommend to anyone who is open to looking beyond traditional explanations of life.

For some reason, I procrastinated in reading this book. Perhaps it was because I feared the setting in Sudan would be grim & poverty stricken. Indeed, the residents of Saraaya live a life most of us would find difficult to endure. However, Fatin Abbas has created some of the most vivid and realistic characters I have encountered in years. Just as the filmmaker, Dena, carefully framed her photos to present the picture she wanted, Abbas sketched her characters to perfection. What a welcome treat!

The synopsis of Susanne Pari's book intrigued me from the beginning. Since both of my parents grew up outside the United States, I am always interested in reading first generation tales. Mitra, the main character, idolized her father as a child and followed his career footsteps in becoming a builder and contractor. However, I did find Mitra to be a rather cold woman who scorned the more convention lives of her mother and sister. Many different family members and friends flit in and out of the narrative and they were a bit difficult to keep straight. Mitra did change her outlook by the end of the book but I found her redemption to be a bit hollow. I did appreciate learning how all the different strands of this family intertwined and interacted.

Authors spend a considerable amount of time and effort on writing, rewriting, and editing their books and I truly would like to like Andrea Barrett's "Natural History." However, I could not warm up to any of the characters in her short stories. The stories felt like I was dropped into a party where I knew no one, didn't know what was being discussed, and where the guests were all trying to play a game of one upmanship. I wanted to leave the party as soon as possible. Barrett did include some lovely images but they were not enough to make up for the very unpleasant people who populated her stories.

The premise of "Good Husbands" is intriguing. Three married women receive identical letters stating that one of their husbands is the father of Holly Waite, the letter's author. Narrating from the viewpoint of each women, Ray
details the women's story lines and families. However, I just was not able to bring the characters to life in my imagination. None of them resonated as real people and I found myself indifferent to their situations. My focus as a fiction reader is generally focused on the characters. Ray's plot is interesting, I just wish that I had enjoyed the book more than I did.

At first, this book was a bit slow & I didn't know if I could be drawn into it. However, I was quite glad that I persevered as the novel began to pull me in more and more. Claire Adam skillfully outlined the lives of Clyde, Joy, and their twins, Peter & Paul, and how they were intertwined with their extended family and the community. The author made me want to learn more about Trinidad and its inhabitants. I would certainly recommend this book to others.

Daniel Mooney's "Me. Myself, and Them," explores a little discussed topic of men's emotional health and the reluctance imposed by our culture for men to ask for help. The main character, Denis, undergoes an horrific tragedy and copes with the aftermath by creating four housemates who rule his life. Mooney's descriptions are wonderful. For example. he described Denis's friend, Frank, had a "well-trimmed beard that stuck to his jawline." I could immediately visualize all of the characters in this book, even the imaginary housemates in Denis's house. Also quite well done is the depiction of Denis's obsession with order and routine. However, after midway through, this book began to drag for me. Some of the plot development should have been tightened. At times, I felt like Mooney was attempting to hit me over the head with his message. Overall, I would recommend this book for its purpose although not necessarily for its brevity.

I did try to like this book. The premise is intriguing although I would argue that Buddhism is a major religion and not a cult. However, Nicole never came alive for me and neither did the Master. Unfortunately, I only made it 1/3 of the way through the book before giving up on it. Hurley's descriptions of Boston were excellent.

Abbi Waxman's new novel, "Other People's Houses," is one that I wish I liked more than I did. In this story of four Los Angeles area families, Waxman attempted to take a tone of irony on her reflection of suburban life. However, she is a bit too obvious in some of her references and does not allow the readers to deduce the irony on their own. Of the four families, only the characters of Frances Bloom and her husband, Michael, and their three children really come to life. The other neighbors are presented as caricatures and Ann and Charlie are plain obnoxious. This isn't a bad novel, just one which could have used fewer & more clearly defined characters. The ending did pull up loose ends and come together nicely.

The premise and setting for Jessica Keener's novel are so intriguing.. With the collapse of the Soviet domination of eastern Europe, there were all sorts of opportunities for savvy minded entrepreneurs from the west. Having visited Budapest a few years before the 1995 setting of this novel, I was eager to read Keener's perception of this bridge period in history. Her setting rang true but none of the characters came to life in this novel. Annie was unhappy and whiny and seemed to delegate much of the rearing of her long awaited adopted son to her Hungarian babysitter. Her husband, Will, did make the effort to become moderately fluent in Hungarian, but seemed to leap into the opportunity to start his own business in Budapest without much foresight. The elderly man whom Annie befriended, Edward, was obsessed and irrational about his daughter's death and Annie showed very poor judgement by believing him. I wish that the author had fleshed out the characters' motivations a bit more than she did because the setting and place of this novel are fascinating.

I must admit that when I first began this book, the author's attitude & actions annoyed me quite a bit. She had been dating a man who told her early on in their relationship that he was not interested in having children and a typical family life. After Ms. Harpham became pregnant, she stubbornly clung to the belief that the baby's father, Brian, would change his mind and embrace her idea of the future. However, Gracie was born with a serious blood disorder which endangered her very existence. Gracie herself was the one that pulled her parents together and changed everyone's life. After finishing the first third of the memoir, I couldn't stop thinking of how everything would turn out for this makeshift family. The writer's honesty shone through and her Grace is a girl to cherish.