Mahboubeh Malacouti, an elderly woman, is perusing her garden in Los Angeles, thinking back to events that led up to her birth.  Her mother dies when she is quite young of “women’s problems”, and she is raised by her father and her aunt in a Jewish home in Iran.  The Malacouti’s are wealthy, thanks in large part to her Uncle Asher’s business smarts.  However, with all of his brains and money, Asher cannot produce an heir.  He and his wife will try almost anything to have a child.

This debut novel, which draws on the author’s family history, gets better and better with each chapter.

A beautiful, heart-warming novel about Todd Aaron, an autistic man who has been institutionalized for all of his adult life.  Todd is the narrator, so it is through his eyes, ears and voice that the reader experiences life at Payton Living Center as well as snippets of his childhood.  Todd also introduces his readers to Raykene, his favorite worker at the Center, Mike, his least favorite worker, Tommy Doon, his angry roommate, his parents, his brother, his sister-in-law and several other well-drawn characters.

Best Boy is a novel I could pick up again in several years and discover new and fascinating things within it.

Michael Turner, a successful author, moves from a small town in Wales to London after the sudden death of his wife whom he had recently married.  In London, he becomes friendly with his neighbors, Josh and Samantha Nelson.  However, Michael’s appearance at the wrong place and the wrong time forces all three to re-evaluate themselves and their relationship to each other.

Sheers is good at building suspense and getting his readers involved in the moral dilemmas that unfold in the novel.  An easy read that would be good for a semi-long plane ride.

Jean Perdu has foregone the pleasures of life since his lover left him twenty-one years ago.  One day he decides,after all these years, to open the letter he received from her days after she left him.  As a result of what is in this letter, Jean takes his business, a floating bookstore, down the Seine to begin the adventure of a lifetime.  There are no light touches in this novel; everything, for me, was heavy-handed, predictable and obvious from his name(John Lost) to his similarity to Huck Finn.  Also, although the word love is on almost every other page, nowhere did the feeling of love come across between any of the characters.

This debut novel is the story of Tee, a Korean orphan who was adopted in infancy by a Caucasian American couple.  When Tee is in his early 20’s, he travels to Prague where he befriends Pavel, a semi-famous artist, his wife, Katka, and their friend Rockefeller.  The crux of the novel is the twists and turns these relationships take.  I found the first third of The Hundred-Year Flood confusing.  It would go back and forth in time and place with very little or no warning.  However, the more I read the more I was able to adapt to Salesses’ writing style.

A big thank you to Kathy for introducing me to the English author Sarah Hall.  In her most recent novel, Rachel Caine, a zoologist who had been working with wolves in Idaho, has taken a job near her hometown in Northern England.  Employed by a wealthy Earl, she is hired to introduce a male and female wolf onto her boss’s estate.  Rachel must tackle the issues of a new job with new coworkers as well as confronting her past, her relationship with her brother and sister-in-law, and a very unexpected predicament.  Hall’s writing is wonderful-straightforward yet descriptive with no literary gimmicks.  I look forward to reading more of her works.

Hoffman writes a thoroughly compelling work of historical fiction.  It is the story of Rachel Pomie Petit Pizzarro who is born in the early 1800’s in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, the only child of a Jewish merchant and his unhappy wife.  Headstrong and opinionated, Rachel clashes with her family as well as the small, rigid Jewish community.  Her first marriage is a business transaction; the second is the love of her life and among her children from this marriage is Camille Pissarro, the impressionistic painter(he changed the spelling of his name to sound more French).  Alice Hoffman describes St. Thomas as a lush tropical island that is teeming with secrets, and Rachel, as she grows older, becomes aware of how these secrets destroy more than protect.

A fun, engaging work of fiction.  A goldfish names Ian falls out of his bowl and over the balcony of a 27 story apartment building.  During his rapid descent to the concrete street below, he passes and looks into a handful of windows.  As Ian looks in, we, the readers, learn about the characters who inhabit those apartments.  This is a good read for anyone who wants something, quick, enjoyable and not depressing.

A book as lovely as its title.  Like Corelli’s Mandolin and Birds without Wings,  de Bernieres describes how lives are affected by war.  This time he focuses on England before, during and after World War I.  Mr. and Mrs. McCosh and their four daughters live an almost idyllic life on the outskirts of London before The Great War.  Once war begins, all of their lives change in large and small ways.  De Bernieres writes with clarity and compassion about love, family and friendship in a time of upheaval.  I thought this was a wonderful work of historic fiction; however, I must confess that I skimmed several chapters that described wartime aviation.

I am taking a wonderful course title Eros and Gothic Literature.  Two assignments are Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.  There is a reason why these novels have survived the test of time.  They are beautifully written with strong characters.  They are about passion, love, and family with elements of mystery and surprise thrown in.  Both, but especially Jane Eyre, is the perfect summer read for a teenage girl.  I loved rereading both of them after at least a forty year hiatus.