It is 1972 and twelve year old Tomoko leaves her mother to temporarily live with her aunt and family in a village near the mountains. Unlike Tomoko, her relatives are wealthy; her uncle inherited a popular soft drink company. Tomoko becomes close with this eccentric family, but especially with her brilliant, asthmatic cousin, Mina.

I didn’t realize until I had finished this novel that Yoko Ogawa had also written The Housekeeper and the Professor – a work I greatly admire. I enjoyed Mina’s Matchbox just as much. Written from Tomoko’s point of view, her year with these relatives is told in simple prose, yet her observations are perceptive, insightful and heart felt. Her telling is emotional without being dramatic. I must read more of Yoko Ogawa’s books.

The setting is the present in Crosby, Maine. A number of Strout’s characters from previous novels come and go in Tell Me Everything. Olive Kitteridge is in assisted living, Lucy Barton is still living with her ex husband, William, and Bob Burgess is married to Margaret, the minister. These characters and others form the loose plot of the novel as well as a mysterious murder.

Elizabeth Strout is not for everyone, but I enjoy her seemingly effortless writing style, and her ordinary, mostly goodhearted characters. If you enjoyed most of Strout’s other novels, you will want to read Tell Me Everything.

Another classic. Mostly told in the form of diaries written by most of the main characters, Dracula tells of the vampire’s travels from his castle in Transylvania to neighborhoods in London and the six brave individuals who try to put an end to his horrific deeds.

Although I knew the outline of the Dracula tale, I didn’t know any of the particulars. And though I’m not really a fan of horror stories, I found Dracula entertaining, innovating and exciting. Bram Stoker is able to keep his readers in suspense until the very last page.

In August of 1975, Barbara Van Laar is missing from the overnight camp that her wealthy New York family owns. Coincidentally, fourteen years ago her older brother, Peter Van Laar IV(nicknamed Bear) went missing on the same property and his body has never been recovered. Is it a coincidence? Is it the same perpetrator? Going back and forth in time from the 1950’s to 1975, The God of the Woods keeps its readers guessing who is responsible for the two disappearances and what is his/her motivation.

For me this the ideal airplane read. It is a page turner-a mystery that is more than a mystery. The God of the Woods has a lot of characters, and it often switches from past to present, so it does require a fair amount of concentration.

It is pre World War II on a small island off the coast of Wales. Two unusual things have occurred: a beached whale dies on the island and two ethnographers arrive to study the people whose family have survived there for centuries. Manod, an eighteen year old girl who lives with her father, a lobster fisherman, and her younger sister, is asked to act as the scientist’s interpreter since most of the inhabitants only speak a form of Welsh.

I did not get into Whale Fall until the ethnographers, Edward and Joan, arrive on the island. Then this novel really took off. This slim work has a lot to say about family, nature, isolation and the unreliability of the social sciences.

Jane Flanagan’s life is falling apart. After years of binge drinking, her behavior has finally caught up with her. She has been temporarily suspended from her job, and she and her loving, patient husband have decided to separate. With no where else to go, Jane returns to her hometown in Maine. Because she has nothing better to do, she accepts a job offer that involves delving into the history of an old house on the cliffs-a house that Jane loved while growing up.

J. Courtney Sullivan’s sixth novel is an easy, quick read. There are a few subplots that for me were a distraction from the main story.

This is a prequel to Wroblewsi’s first novel, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It is about Edgar’s grandparents, Mary and John Sawtelle, their life in rural Wisconsin, their friends and the many, many Sawtelle dogs that they breed, train and find homes for. Familiaris is a love story and an in depth description of life in rural America from 1919 to 1961.

If you aren’t a “dog person,” don’t read Familiaris. If you don’t like long, descriptive works, don’t read Familiaris. However, if you like man’s best friend, don’t mind spending weeks reading one book, appreciate complex, heart warming characters and long, beautifully descriptive digressions, I highly recommend this novel. I loved Familiaris!!

Like Disappearing Earth. Julia Phillips’ second novel is about two sisters, but this time it takes place on an island off the coast of Washington state. Sam and Elena appear to be as close as sisters can be. They work hard, take care of their single mother who is quite ill with an unnamed lung disease, and never have enough money. Sam works at the concession stand on a ferry that travels from island to island. One day she spots a huge bear swimming towards the island where her family lives. From that day forward, the sisters’ lives slowly change.

I think Julia Phillips is a fine author, and Bear is a book that gets better with each chapter. It is a novel about devotion, family, secrets, resentment and danger. Sam and Elena are complex, realistic characters.

Cleo has organized a hike through England. She, her son, and friends Marnie, Michael, Tessa and Conrad are invited. Tessa can’t go, and Cleo, her son and Conrad leave the hike several days after it has begun. That leaves Marnie, a freelance copy editor who has been divorced for six years and Michael, a geology teacher who is newly separated from his wife, to finish the hike together.

Like David Nicholl’s One Day, You Are Here is a nice, predictable romantic comedy. The repartee is witty, the situations are never disastrous and all the characters are well meaning. A light, easy, but not simplistic, summer read.

I chose this as my “summer classic” because I had never read any Flannery O’Connor. What a disappointment!! Wise Blood is weird, violent, and uncomfortable with no redeeming characters.

Ordinarily, I only read one classic every summer, but since Wise Blood was such a let down, I want to read another classic. I’m happy to take suggestions.