Two you won't want to miss!

Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler

Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. Isabelle wants Dorrie, a black single mom in her thirties, to drive her from her home in Arlington, Texas, to a funeral in Cincinnati. Dorrie doesn’t know whose funeral it is and trusts that it must be important if she is being asked to do this.

Dorrie, fleeing problems of her own and curious whether she can unlock the secrets of Isabelle's guarded past, scarcely hesitates before agreeing, not knowing it will be a journey that changes both their lives.

Over the years, Dorrie and Isabelle have developed more than just a business relationship. They are friends. But Dorrie, fretting over the new man in her life and her teenage son's irresponsible choices, still wonders why Isabelle chose her.

As we join these two women on their journey secrets are slowly revealed that will keep the reader guessing until the unexpected ending.




Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

Desperate housewife Bernadette Fox is a woman on the verge. She’s in a vicious feud with a hysterical neighbor, her damp and neglected house is crumbling, she is disdained by the other mothers at her daughter’s school, and she hates the city where she lives. Only her cherished 15-year-old daughter, Bee, loves her unconditionally. Bernadette finally goes over the edge when she discovers that her husband, Elgie, a Microsoft hotshot, is trying to get her committed to a mental institution. She climbs out of the bathroom window and simply disappears. And yet this is a woman who in her younger days was hailed was a brilliant architect, the winner of a ‘genius’ award. So how did it all go wrong? The truth emerges as Bee’s search to find her missing mother takes her to one of the world’s remotest spots.

       

                                                                 

A New Way of Eating

If you train at a Cross Fit gym, you are usually encouraged to give Paleo a try. The Paleo way of eating can be a bit restrictive as it emphasizes whole, natural foods. Meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruit and nuts are delicious by themselves, but it’s great to read some cookbooks that show how to combine these foods to add variety to your meals. Here a few of the books in the Library’s collection and we have many more…come check them out!

The Paleo Diet Cookbook is written by Dr. Loren Cordain, whose book, The Paleo Diet, began the whole movement. It includes 150 simple recipes for delicious and Paleo-friendly breakfasts, brunches, lunches, dinners, snacks, and beverages.

Sarah Fragoso’s new title, Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook: RealFood for Real Life, features recipes that she cooks for her entire family. Since it has to be yummy or the kids won’t touch the food, the reader is assured some great tasting meals.

Mark Sisson’s two cookbooks, The Primal Blueprint Cookbook and The Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals:Delicious Primal-Approved Meals You Can Make in Under 30 Minutes, are filled with well thought out primal recipes that can easily be adapted to pure paleo.

For something really different try Melissa Joulwen’s Well Fed. She shows how to make a basic recipe and then gives further tips on how to spice each dish up in several other ways. She goes beyond standard American cooking and incorporates international ingredients in her fare. She is also the author of the newest Paleo title, Living Paleo for Dummies.

Bodies in the Backyard

These three compelling but different books all start with a body (or two) in the backyard.

The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

 “Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved”- Thus begins this darkly comic novel set in Glasgow. Life with her drug addicted, neglectful parents has made bright but troubled Marnie older than her years and determined to keep her odd younger sister, Nellie, out of the system after she finds her parents dead.  Struggling to get by, they form a tentative bond with Lennie, the gay old man next door, who has problems of his own. Soon however the life they have built together starts to unravel as people come looking for their parents. Told from the perspective of three flawed but sympathetic characters this novel is both heart wrenching and heartwarming.

Three Graves Full by Jami Mason

Mild-mannered Jason Getty has a big problem; his gardeners have discovered two bodies in his front yard.   While anyone would be distressed by this, Jason is especially unnerved since elsewhere on his property is the grave of the man he killed.  With the police on the scene, Jason knows his secret won’t stay buried long and devises a desperate plan to hide his crime –one that leads to more trouble than he dreamed.  Throw in an angry, grieving woman, a twin with secret, suspicious detectives and a loyal police dog and you have this well written thriller.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

 

Returning to the family farm for her mother’s 90^th birthday, successful actress Laurel Nicolson’s memories of a summer when she saw a man lying dead in their yard after being stabbed by her normally loving and gentle mother are re-awakened.  Determined to find truth, Lauren begins to delve into her mother’s past and the secrets that she has been keeping.  With plenty of twists and turns, this intriguing novel follows both Lauren on her quest to find answers and her mother’s life in World War II London.

Just read two great books........

A STUNNING AND MEMORABLE DEBUT

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Every few years a truly interesting, fully-realized novel comes along that leaves you wondering how an author can combine great literary skill with such an absorbing story. Such is The Light Between Oceans.

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on remote Janus Rock. Tom marries Isabel, a loving young woman and brings her to the lighthouse to share his isolated life. Their attempts to have a child fail and they have given up hope until a boat washes up on their island carrying a dead man and a baby. What follows is an incredibly moving novel about what happens when good people make bad decisions.

The East Meadow Public Library will be discussing The Light Between Oceans for its Lunch ‘n Book program on Monday, May 6^th, at 12:30 p.m. Join us with one of our favorite presenters, Jane Shapiro, for a rewarding talk.

BEST TANA FRENCH BOOK TO DATE....A REAL WINNER AND IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN!

Faithful Place by Tana French

Calling all mystery fans! Tana French has a linked series of psychological mysteries that involve the Dublin murder squad. Each book highlights one of the detectives in a gripping story. Her debut novel, In the Woods, won the Edgar Award for best first novel.

Faithful Place is her third book. When Detective Frank Mackey was 19 years old, he and his girlfriend, Rosie Daly, made secret plans to elope to England and start a new life together far away from their families. But Rosie doesn't meet Frank the night they're meant to leave. Instead he finds a farewell note and assumes she's left him behind. For 22 years, Frank, who becomes an undercover cop, stays away from Faithful Place, his childhood Dublin neighborhood. When his sister calls to tell him that someone found Rosie's suitcase hidden in an abandoned house, Frank reluctantly returns. Now everything he thought he knew is turned upside down: did Rosie really leave that night, or did someone stop her before she could? Start with In the Woods and enjoy!

3 to Read in 2013

I’m surprised that Oprah has not picked up on Attenberg’s The Middlesteins as it is perfect for her book club.  It is about an extremely dysfunctional Jewish family in Chicago-the mother, a lawyer, is eating herself to death, her husband has given up on his marriage much to the consternation of their daughter, and their son and daughter-in-law are planning a double Bar/Bat Mitzvah which will feature vegetables and other dietetic food.   The idea of exploring the implosion of a family through its food choices is interesting and guaranteed to make the reader a little uncomfortable and a bit hungry.

Seventeenth century Swedish politics, tarot cards, and the art of the fan artfully combine in the novel The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann.  Larrson, a young customs officer who excels at card games has insinuated himself into the lives of his betters.  After consulting a fortune teller who uses the octavo spread to map out his love life and political connections, Larrson participates in court intrigue that could topple King Gustav himself.

                

Mary Bowser was a young house slave in pre-civil war Richmond, Virginia.  Her abolitionist mistress decided to set her free and send her to Philadelphia to become educated. While in Philadelphia she met a black family who was an integral part of the Underground Railway. As she begins to help other slaves gain their freedom she realizes that her education can be used to further the cause and she becomes a spy in the heart of the Confederacy.  Based on true events, The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen is a very personal introduction to a slave’s view of the Civil War.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

In The Art Forger, Clarie Roth is plagued by the worst deja vu since Bill Murray was tormented by "I Got You Babe" in Groundhog Day.  Throughout B.A. Shapiro's thrilling novel, poor Claire must be constantly thinking that she's been there and done that.  Art forgeries, prisons, and untrustable men are leitmotifs that are vitally important in this work.

Claire Roth is a Boston artist with baggage.  Through flashbacks, we find out that she's an artist in disgrace, the art world has given her the moniker "The Great Pretender."   In an altruistic moment, Claire helps out her depressive boyfriend Isaac, who has artist's block, by creating a painting for him to pass off as his own for an exhibit at the Modern Museum of Art.  Fortunately or unfortunately, her painting is so good that it becomes a tremendous success and Isaac gets all the acclaim.  Isaac becomes a huge celebrity in the art world and breaks up with Claire, leaving her feeling betrayed and angry.  Isaac refuses to admit that Claire is the painter of his masterpiece and she is unable to get the art experts to acknowledge her as the creator.

Meanwhile, back in the present day, Claire ends up making a faustian deal with Aiden Markel, the owner of a prestigious gallery on Boston's fashionable Newbury Street.  After Claire is disgraced by the Isaac incident, the art world blacklists her so she ends up working for an art reproduction company and develops an expertise in making Degas copies.  Markel has somehow acquired one of the Degas masterpieces that had been stolen in the unsolved Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist.  Markel wants to take advantage of Claire's skills by having her paint a copy of the stolen Degas so that he can sell that one to the buyer and thus keep the real painting in order to return it to the museum.  In return for her help, Claire will receive a substantial sum of money, the honor of having been involved in getting a stolen masterpiece returned to the world, and most importantly, the opportunity to have her own art show at Markel's gallery, something she has always dreamed of, a way of showing the art world that she was misjudged and that she truly is talented.  Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...

After the dust settles, Claire ends up on a quest for the real Degas (the one in the museum isn't what it seems) in order to clear Markel and herself of the charges brought against them.  The forgery theme recurs throughout several of the storylines which are integrated beautifully by the end of the book.  The Art Forger is my favorite book for 2012, I highly recommend it.

Dog On It

Welcome to the Little Detective Agency.  It's named for my partner Bernie, Bernie Little.  You see, Bernie is the brains of the agency and no one can puzzle out a case like my partner, except maybe his reporter girlfriend, Suzy.  I guess I'm the muscle 'cause when I get the perp around the ankle it's "case closed."   I'm also a crack tracker, which comes in handy when our case is about finding missing persons, or elephants, or championship show dogs or movie stars.  But Bernie isn't so wise in the financial department, so we take anything we can get to keep us in food. And speaking of food, there is nothing like a great mess of bbq ribs to take the edge off-much prefer that to the usual kibble. Oh yeah, I'm a dog.  Names Chet, not Chester, not Chetter-boy, just Chet.   I'm big, have a great set of canines and  can be really ferocious if I have to, but I love Bernie's son Charlie-to him I'm Chet the Jet, his private pony.  Bernie got me after I flunked out of K-9 school.  I was passing every test with flying colors, but when it came to leaping (which is my specialty) I got diverted, mid-spring by an interesting scent.  But that turned out great, 'cause I joined Bernie's agency-and I love Bernie.  We even smell a little alike.  We live in the west (Arizona, maybe) and have a house right on the desert, with the backyard facing a canyon.  Bernie "knows" things about me that he thinks are true, like he knows that I can't jump the 6 foot fence around the courtyard, but I do anyway.  Well wouldn't you, if you heard the cry of a certain female across the canyon?  He also doesn't know where I've gone when I'm stolen or catch an irresistable scent and follow it.  He usually muddles into the solution to the mystery with his superior intellect, not with his tiny nose.

Anyway, since I don't have fingers on my paws, I've dictated our adventures to an author named Spencer Quinn, who also writes thrillers under the name Peter Abrahams.  The Chet and Bernie mystery series titles in order are:
Dog On It
Thereby Hangs a Tale
To Fetch a Thief
The Dog Who Knew Too Much
and in September, A Fistful of Collars.

A Fairy Tale Comes to Life

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
This novel is based on a Russian folk story of the same name. In this tale a barren couple builds a child made of snow and the next day a little girl, who eerily resembles the one they made, appears out of nowhere. Ivey moves this tale to rural Alaska in the 1920s- a place both beautiful and dangerous.

Trying to escape the lingering grief of their stillborn child and the rift this has caused in their marriage, Jack and Mabel, a couple in their 50s, relocate there from Pennsylvania and attempt to start life anew. Unfortunately they are ill prepared to survive farming in this wild land and the isolation wears on them. Despite living in a tiny cabin they feel more apart from each other than ever.

Then comes the first snowfall of the year and the fairy tale seems to come true. Slowly the little skittish girl, who appeared where once a snow figure was built, starts to trust the couple. Her name is Faina and she unbelievably seems to survive on her own in the vast wilderness with only a fox as a companion. Faina, as well as a new found friendship with a neighboring family, begins to transform the life of the couple. But mysteries abound - Why does Faina disappear each Spring? Why doesn't snow melt on her skin? Why has no one else seen her?

Alaska comes alive with in this tale of loss and hope; isolation and belonging; humankind and nature. It is a haunting, evocative story told elegantly and it stayed with me long after I finished reading it.

Is your son a murderer or not?

Reading Defending Jacob by William Landay is an exercise in twists, turns, bewilderment, red herrings and just plain enjoyment.

Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney, usually handles the more involved felony cases in his community. When a fourteen year old boy is murdered in the local park, Andy assigns himself the case and begins his investigation. What he doesn't expect is that his son Jacob will be charged with the murder by the District Attorney.

As Andy and his wife Laurie, popular and respected members of the community, deal with this horrible accusation, their marriage is tested. And, as the trial progresses, their love for their son undergoes a soul-searching quest for the truth, even as damning facts and heredity come into play and threaten their world. The ending is a real shocker.

This would make a great Book Club choice because the story can be be interpreted differently and the actions of many questioned. I really, really enjoyed this one!

"Oh, Look at all the Lonely People..."

Arthur Opp's life has been a study in disappointment. If he was a song it would certainly be the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, as he is the loneliest man in the world. With no family to speak of and no friends to brighten up his day, he stays at home in his Brooklyn brownstone, but only lives on the first floor. The sole happiness he has is to eat, and he has eaten himself up to almost 600 pounds-he isn't sure what he really weighs as he hasn't gone to a doctor in many years, and hasn't even ventured out of his house in a decade. His own stairs are an impossible barrier to conquer. He once had a relationship with a former student, Charlene Turner, which developed into a very satisfying mail correspondence. Wanting to maintain his last tie with humanity, he fudged a little bit about his life, saying that he still taught at the university, and that all was well with him. Even her letters eventually stopped coming. One day, to his surprise, he receives a phone call from Charlene who warns him that she is going to send him a very important letter. When it comes, in it there is only a small photograph of a teenager labeled "my son Kel." She calls again and he learns that she had briefly married and had had a son, Kel Keller. She explains that he has "baseball on the brain," and asks if Arthur will tutor him so that he can get into college. That puts Arthur's life in turmoil-how can he help her child when he can't help himself? But he can't let his friend down, so he proceeds to figure out how he can accommodate her. He begins by hiring a maid. He also tries to call Kel.

Meanwhile, Kel hasn't been having too happy a life either. Even though he attends a prestigious high school, is athletically talented, and is blessed with great looks, he is very troubled. His mom is a drunk and he has to hustle for money to feed them and to pay their utilities. He never knows what he's going to find when he walks into his house-whether his mother will be rational, or more likely passed out on the bed. He has seen this too much to know if she's drunk or ill, but this time its real...the bottle of pills is by her bedside. Of course, no one must know any of these things and while he tries to cling to the normality of his high school life as a way to stay sane, now it isn't working. And strangely enough, he is receiving calls on his cell from a number he doesn't recognize and when he picks up, the line goes dead.

Heft by Liz Moore is a quirky but wonderful book. Readers will identify intensely with the characters, root for them, and wonder how things went, long after finishing the book. The title gives a clue to themes in the novel, referring to Arthur's weight issues, the swing of Kel's bat, but also the ability to "lift something," perhaps like the burden of solitude from the shoulders of the lonely.

Color is Music to My Ears

The ability to hear color is not a common occurrence, but the protagonist in The Woman Who Heard Color by Kelly Jones has that very trait, which turns out to be both a blessing and a curse. Her discovery of this ability leads her to a lifelong love of art that brings both pleasure and misfortune.

The beginning of the novel focuses on the meeting between Lauren O'Farrell, an art detective whose vocation is recovering art stolen during World War II, and Isabella Fletcher, a woman whose mother was an art dealer suspected of collaborating with the Nazis. As Isabella proceeds to tell the story of her mother, Hanna Fleischmann, the preconceptions of Lauren begin to change. When Lauren first meets Isabella, she treats her with suspicion and is prepared to condemn her mother for helping the Nazis dispose of the "degenerate art" and making a profit off of it. As the story unravels, Lauren's opinions of Hanna change as she discovers the motives behind her actions. The dynamics between Lauren and Isabella change as well as the two women start off as adversaries but end up bonding after realizing they share much in common.

It was interesting how Hanna's passion for art both enhances her life and also brings grief. She starts off as a household maid to a wealthy art dealer and subsequently discovers her ability to hear colors. The art dealer helps to develop her interest in art and eventually the two become husband and wife. Unfortunately, her expertise in modern art interests the Nazis and she ends up working for them taking inventory and cataloging the so called "degenerate art". She despises working for them but then realizes that she might be able to save some of the artwork by getting it sold to foreign collectors, dealers, etc.

This book would be a good choice for discussion groups as it explores many challenging issues, especially ones regarding art. Questions such as what is art, should government/taxpayer money be used to fund art, who determines what is good art and what is bad art, and was it possible for a person to work for the Nazis and accomplish something noble? The question regarding government sponsored art is still very relevant today as seen in the challenges to art funded by The National Endowment for the Arts.

A Duo of Damaged Minds

Recently I read two novels that had something in common - their narrators were unreliable. This was not because they were being untruthful, but because their grasp on reality was fragile due to the fact that their brains were damaged.

In Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante, Dr. Jennifer White's best friend has been murdered and she finds herself a suspect. But there is a complication. Jennifer is suffering from advanced Alzheimer's dementia and half the time she can't remember that Amanda is dead, never mind if she was involved in her murder. Told completely from the point of view of Jennifer's deteriorating mind, you suffer with her as she slips further away from herself and those she loves. Your view of reality is hers - fractured, unsure and changeable as she has good days and bad days. While the murder and its solution is interesting in itself, it is only one aspect of the novel. It is also a fascinating look into the mind being lost to a horrible disease and a study of relationships - what binds people together and tears them apart.

S.J. Watson's Before I Go to Sleep opens with Christine waking beside a man she doesn't know, only to discover she is a middle age woman- not in her twenties like she remembers. The man, Ben, explains he is her husband and that she is suffering from a strange type of amnesia as a result of an accident. Every night when she sleeps she loses the past 20 odd years of memories. Christine soon discovers that unknown to Ben she is seeing a Dr. Nash who is trying to help her regain her memories and that she keeps a secret journal. As she reads her entries, Christine realizes that Ben may not be telling her the whole truth. Is he trying protect her from painful memories or is something more sinister going on? Knowing only what Christine does, the readers finds themselves on a roller coaster ride trying to figure out what is really going on and who to trust. This page turning thriller is hard to put down.

Liked The Help? This is your next read!

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

As the novel opens we are immediately drawn into the thread of the story. The two Allen brothers are covertly burying their father. Why are they so secretive and what caused his demise?

Equally involving is the story of the McAllen family. Laura is a city bred woman who has been transplanted to a farm on the Mississippi Delta. Her back story with her future husband Henry, his father Pappy and his brother Jamie is compelling and the story only gets better as we meet the other characters in the story. Jamie’s friendship with Ronsel Jackson, a black sharecropper, is based on their shared war experiences. Jamie has turned to alcohol for comfort and Ronsel is faced again with southern bigotry after having equality during his war service. Although they should not be friends in their circumstances, they find common ground.

Told in alternating chapters by Laura, Henry, Jamie, Ronsel, and his parents, Florence and Hap, the story of deep mindless prejudice and cruelty unfolds with a chilling inevitability. I could not choose which character’s viewpoint was better. All were so fully formed and compelling. And the ending left me speechless…I did not see it coming. The writing is exceptional, the story always forceful.

Highly recommended for all readers. There is so much to discuss here and this would make an excellent choice for book groups.

Apocalypse later?

On October 14th, millions of people all over the world disappeared. One minute they were there and the next they were gone. If it was "The Rapture," many evangelists were disappointed to learn that they were still alive while agnostics, atheists, and Muslims were among the missing. Children had to cope without parents, friends were separated, and the survivors were left to try and sort out their emotions. Three years after this horrible event, the town of Mapleton held a parade commemorating "The Departed Heroes' Day of Remembrance and Reflection " to aid its residents in their quest to move on. The speeches were disrupted, however, by a demonstration by the Guilty Remnant, a group of white-robed, cigarette smoking devotees whose mission was to make everyone continue to grieve. As the townspeople of Mapleton spin out of control, they experiment with religous cults, and face painful truths as they try to manufacture some semblance of normality.

Tom Perrotta, noted for making suburbia represent the universe, has written the best 9/11 novel yet in The Leftovers, even though it technically does not deal with 9/11. Using "The Rapture" as a metaphor for the randomness of the attack on the World Trade Center, Perrotta makes the reader experience the plight of those who were left behind and are charged with the obligation to keep on living.

"Good parents give their children Roots and Wings."

Cam Lightsey gave up her hippy chick counter-culture house in Sycamore Heights to raise her daughter in the staid, but educationally superior Parkhaven neighborhood. It was just one of the many sacrifices that she would make for Aubrey, but it was certainly worth it to know that her little girl would finally escape to college in a few days. Cam was all that Aubrey had for parents, as her father left the family to become a "Nextarian" (read Scientologist) when their daughter turned two. Still he managed to finagle a trust fund from the Nextarians that would at least cover her first year at a very good school, if only she would go to the bank with her mother to claim it.

Aubrey, a seventeen year old band geek was a good student, an obedient daughter, and a girl totally sick of her programmed boring life. Forced to march out on the hot field by her band teacher, she first faints then throws up on the school star quarterback. Miraculously they begin a friendly relationship that morphes into something else, radically changing her life and goals, much to her mother's dismay.

The Gap Year, by Sarah Bird, alternates between Cam and Aubrey's voices, each telling the same story with radically different views. Exploring the mother-daughter relationship with skill and compassion, Bird examines the pain of letting go and the struggles to find oneself and begin an independent life.

I must confess that Ms. Bird wrote one of my all-time favorite books, The Mommy Club, in the early nineties. The Gap Year has the same quirky romantic quality to it, combined with the poignancy of growing up, both on the child and the adult levels. This is a very satisfying read.

Mr. Tiffany, a Pain in the Glass

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland is one of those books that took me a little while to get immersed in, but after a few chapters, I was hooked. I became totally absorbed in the world of New York City at the turn of the century. We get a taste of both the poverty the newly arrived immigrants experienced in the Lower East Side, and we also see how the other half lived, the mansions of the monied Fifth Avenue crowd. The author has a knack for making the reader feel as he/she is part of the main character's circle of friends and is experiencing the exciting events of that time period. When Clara and her colleagues are confronted with a picket line, it was both nerve-wracking and thrilling.

Vreeland was inspired to write this historical novel after seeing the exhibit, A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls, at the New York Historical Society. After undertaking meticulous research on Louis Comfort Tiffany, the culture of New York City during the Gilded Age, and immersing herself in Clara Driscoll's letters, Vreeland proceeded to write a story (one that reflects many of the events mentioned in the letters) about the unsung artistic contributions of the Women's Department in Tiffany Studios. It seems that those beautiful, celebrated leaded-glass lampshades were conceived and designed by Clara Driscoll and not Louis Tiffany! Unfortunately, Clara and her industrious team of women were never given any credit for their achievements. Tiffany probably only initially created the Women's Department because he wouldn't have to worry about them going on strike like the unionized male employees were capable of. Another chauvinistic policy of Tiffany's was that he wouldn't allow married women to work for him.

I ended up caring very much for Clara and her friends. I totally empathized with Clara's frustrations with not having her artistic accomplishments recognized as they should have been. Louis Tiffany is portrayed as a man with many faults. At times he appears capable of breaking out of his prejudices and old fashioned ways of thinking, but he never fully does. I guess that is what makes him a fascinating character.

East Meets West

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
by Helen Simonson

It’s been a long time since I’ve read such a delightful book. Helen Simonson certainly tackles many weighty issues such as discrimination, honor, family relationships, and greed but does so within the framework of a story that is whimsical, laugh-out funny and unforgettable.

Major Pettigrew, 68, is a very proper widower with a wonderful English sense of humor who resides in the quaint village of Edgecombe St. Mary in Sussex. As the novel opens he realizes that the local shopkeeper, Jasmina Ali, is someone he has a lot in common with and that he is attracted to her. Of course, a Pakistani woman is not exactly what his son Roger or the other inhabitants of the village envision for the Major. There is also the matter of a family heirloom, matched Churchill hunting rifles, that the Major is fighting to keep his greedy relatives (including his son)from selling because he feels it symbolizes his family’s stature.

There are lovely romantic scenes, ones that are a testament to the human spirit and those that have marvelous understated humor. The book is also a lesson to never give up on life or love. For those who love the charm of the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", you're in for yet another treat.

A Death in Dublin

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Skippy dies, there is no doubt about this. The title proclaims it and in the first pages of this book Daniel "Skippy" Juster collapses in the local doughnut shop, writing "tell Lori" in the raspberry filling that he manages to squeeze from a jelly doughnut before he expires. The next 600 something pages (it was originally published in three volumes) of this absorbing novel explores what brought Skippy to this end and what happens to those around him after the tragedy.

Set in an all-boy Catholic prep school in contemporary Dublin, the story draws you in to the lives of the teens and teachers who populate the school as they cope with the casual cruelties and deeper tragedies of life. Here you meet Ruprecht, Skippy's roommate, who is "A hamster-cheeked boy with a chronic weight problem.." and is obsessed with string theory. There is Lori the girl Skippy falls for, a beautiful but troubled girl from the neighboring girl's school and her drug dealing, bullying boyfriend Carl. Howard is an alumni of the school who has returned in disgrace from his job in finance to take up a teaching position and must deal with bored students and a stagnant relationship. Most of all there is Skippy, a seemingly unremarkable, sensitive 14 year old boy who is struggling to get by.

In this complex novel told from multiple viewpoints, Murray beautifully writes not only about the growing pains of adolescence, but also the struggles of adulthood. The characters may appear stereotypical at first, but the author fleshes them out and makes them seem like real people. This challenging book is worth the effort.

Red on Red-Dead On

Nick and Esposito are newly partnered detectives for the NYPD. Although completely different from each other, their styles work well; Nick is quiet, introspective, and a master of detail and trivia, while Espo is the quintessential rogue cop, always living both his personal and professional lives on the edge. While Espo prides himself on his cop instincts, what he doesn't know is that Nick became his partner to spy on him for the Bureau of Internal Affairs in exchange for a reassignment out of the hellish Bronx precinct. While they help each other on cases, Nick is lead investigator on an unidentified suicide found hanging from a tree in Inwood, and Espo has cultivated a drug informant who is working to get his prison sentence reduced. As both investigations proceed they begin to bleed into each other, as loyalties shift and secrets are revealed.

Edward Conlon, author of the prizewinning memoir Blue Blood is a detective with the New York City Police Department. His writing reflects his understanding of the way police relate...to each other and to the "bad guys" that they must take down. In his debut novel, Red on Red, a phrase describing the situation when team members turn on each other, the reader is given a window into this world of slimy characters and tough situations. Warning! You might need a nice hot shower after reading it.