Author of the 2012 bestseller, You Know When the Men Are Gone, Fallon again writes about the wives of military men.  This time her work centers on two very different women living in Jordan.  Cassie is realistic, even a bit cynical, lonely and childless and has been living in Jordan for a while.  Margaret has just arrived in Jordan with her husband and young son.  She is idealistic, naive and lonely.  Cassie takes on the roles of mentor and friend as she tries to teach Margaret the proper way to behave in a Middle Eastern, Muslim country.  After knowing each other for four months, Margaret asks Cassie to stay with her son while she clears up a matter at the local police station.  Waiting for her friend to return home, Cassie finds Margaret’s journal, reads it and begins to understand who this young woman really is.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Confusion of Languages.  Both main characters are complex, yet identifiable.  There are many themes running throughout this novel which would make it good for book group discussions.

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In this lyrical novel, Alexandra Fuller has proven that she can write fiction as well, if not better, than nonfiction.  Quiet Until the Thaw tells the tale of three generations of Lakota Native Americans living in South Dakota.  Ironically,  most of these individuals are not related by blood, rather they are men and women who feel responsible for the well-being of abandoned children.  Some of these children become role models for future generations, others turn to drink, drugs and violence.

Told in very short chapters, Quiet Until the Thaw takes a while for the reader to discern what exactly is happening.  However, if you keep on reading, everything becomes clear, and you will be richly rewarded.  I think this would be a wonderful read for a book group.

Well-loved children’s author Mort Lear accidentally dies falling off his roof while trimming a tree.  His will bequeaths everything to his secretary/housekeeper/ companion Tomasina Daulair.  She is used to always being in the background, and thus is overwhelmed with all of the duties she feels she must carry out.  Some of these obligations include entertaining an Academy Award winning actor who will play the part of Lear in an upcoming film while also trying to appease a  museum curator who felt betrayed by Lear and coping with the appearance of her estranged brother.

A House Among the Trees is a good, not great, read.  Often Tomasina is too good to be true-always trying to do what’s best for everyone else without thinking about her needs and desires.

 

On the outskirts of Tokyo is The Nakano Thrift Shop where the owner likes to tell his customers that he deals in second hand goods and not antiques.  Mr. Nakano’s employees are Hitomi, a young woman who works the cash register and is the narrator of the novel, and Takeo, a quiet young man who helps his boss with pick-ups and deliveries.  Hitomi and Takeo’s relationship has the potential to become serious but neither knows how to get it to move forward.  Although not an employee, Mr. Nakano’s sister is often at the shop helping out, serving noodles and offering her opinion about any and everything.

I enjoy Japanese literature and I found The Nakano Thrift Shop fun with quirky, yet realistic, characters, but I’m not sure this book would appeal to everyone.

I was asked to read Tyson’s most recent book to see if someone like me, who had never taken a physics class, could easily understand what he was explaining.  The simple answer is no;  the more complex answer is usually.  I love Tyson’s subtle sense of humor.  I found fascinating his discussions on planets, galaxies and stars.  I enjoyed reading about telescopes, scientific discoveries and gravity.  But for me, a nonphysics individual, I am still on shaky ground when it comes to topics such as, the speed of light, matter and energy , and protons and electrons.  However, even if you took a high school or college physics class decades ago, I think you will enjoy and appreciate Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

A friend asked me to draw up a list of some of my all-time favorite books.  None of these lists are complete and they are not in any order.

Some Favorite Works of Fiction

A Prayer for Owen Meany by Jon Irving

Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Consequences by Penelope Lively

The Magus by John Fowles

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Some Nonfiction Favorites

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

The Color of Water by James McBride

The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz

 

Some Favorite Classics

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dosteovsky

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

 

 

Nora and Theresa Flynn leave Ireland for Boston in the early 1950’s.  Nora, the older of the sisters, is on her way, with much trepidation,  to meet her -soon-to-be husband, Charles.  Theresa is seventeen years old and eager to start a new life in America.  What happens to the Flynn sisters as well as the rest of  their family over the next five decades is the plot of Saints for All Occasions.

Although this novel concerns an Irish Catholic family, believe me, you don’t have to be Irish or Catholic to enjoy it.  Sullivan’s engaging, vividly portrayed characters kept me reading and being concerned for all of them, especially Nora and Theresa.

Sometimes truth is weirder than fiction.  A Stranger in the Woods is Christopher Knight’s story. Knight lived in complete solitude in the dense, unfriendly Maine forest for over a quarter of a century.  Breaking into nearby homes and camps and stealing only what he felt he needed to stay alive, Knight became a legend that had some neighbors hating him, some fearing him and others admiring him.  After he is caught in the acting of stealing and imprisoned,  the author travels from Montana to Maine eight times to interview Knight and try to discern what kind of individual would desire no human contact for twenty-seven years.

I read A Stranger in the Woods to understand the psychology of Christopher Knight.  Perhaps because Knight’s communication skills were sometimes lacking, I never truly felt I knew him.

The latest work by Richard Russo is described as stories-not short stories,  yet not long enough to be novellas.  These “medium to long stories” define Russo at his most poignant with little of his usual laugh-out-loud humor.  Each has main characters who must face life’s disappointments and take a good look at themselves and their relationships.  However,  each vignette ends with a positive, uplifting epiphany.

I have always enjoyed Russo, and,  for me, Trajectory is just one more example of what an accomplished,  versatile writer he is.

The author who wrote a A Man Called  Ove writes a completely different work of fiction this time.  Beartown is a small,dying village in Sweden.  Factories,  schools and shops are closing, and many in the community are leaving for larger and more prosperous cities.  The junior hockey team is practically the only reason for excitement in Beartown.  Made up of a group of remarkable heterogeneous young men,  the team may be on its way to a national championship.  However, when the star of the team gets into trouble,  the townspeople are deeply divided about what should be done.

Backman writes an engaging story that keeps the reader yearning to know more.  Beartown has a lot of characters, and it takes a while to differentiate some of them, but stick with it.  You will be rewarded.