The Jane Austin Society by Natalie Jenner
304 pages

What’s it about?
 This story takes place in the small town of Chawton, England just after World War II.  Chawton is best known for being the last home to novelist Jane Austen.  An unlikely group of people band together to form a society dedicated to preserving the famous writer's legacy.  We are introduced to  a small group of local villagers as well as a few visitors in this homage to Jane Austen.

What did it make me think about?
 This was just an enjoyable, light book that made me think of the enduring legacy some writers leave behind. 
​
Should I read it?
 This book really is written for true fans of Jane Austen.  For all those who enjoy her work- you will enjoy this charming,  sweet novel.  Do not expect anything deep or terribly thought provoking- but sometimes that's a perfect option.  A really nice respite during a pandemic!

Quote-
​"Part of the comfort they derived from rereading was the satisfaction of knowing there would be closure- of feeling, each time, an inexplicable anxiety over whether the main characters would find love and happiness, while all the while knowing, on some different parallel interior track, that it was all going to work out in the end."

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The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennesy by Rachel Joyce
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart
​The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach

7 1/2 stars

This is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf
332 pages

What’s it about?
 In 1995 16-year-old Eve Knox is found murdered in the caves near her home.  Her best friend, Maggie Kennedy and her sister, Nola find the body.  The case is never solved.  In 2020 a new piece of evidence is found at the murder site and the case is reopened and assigned to new detective Maggie Kennedy O'Keefe.  For decades both Nola and Maggie have been haunted by the murder.  Will the truth finally come out?

What did it make me think about?
 Who did it?

Should I read it?
 This is a  quick thriller with a lot of suspects and a good plot.  I found it slightly predictable but enjoyed it.  It would be a great vacation book for anyone who likes a murder mystery.

Quote-
"​ 'We're going to send it all in,' the chief says, spreading his arms open wide.  'Have the state lab retest all the old evidence.  A lot has changed in forensics in the past twenty-five years.' "

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The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz 

7 1/2 stars

Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan
395 pages

What’s it about?
 Elizabeth is an accomplished author and journalist when she and her husband Andrew decide to move with their new baby out of Brooklyn and back to Andrew's small-town.  As she makes the transition away from New York she begins to rely on her college-age babysitter Sam more and more.  Sam is about to finish college and is struggling with her own choices as she and Elizabeth bond over wine and the baby.  

What did it make me think about?
 Privilege. Perspective.

Should I read it?
 So I loved ​Saints For All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan and was really excited to get this book from the library.  I liked aspects of this book, but too often I felt detached from these characters.  Elizabeth was hard to like, and yet I didn't dislike her...  I think that lack of feeling for the characters just left me a little ambivalent about the story.  I do think the book raises a lot of interesting issues and would make for a good discussion.  I will still be looking forward to the next book J. Courtney Sullivan writes.

Quote-
"The bond between parent and child was all-consuming, and yet its power was not cumulative.  It had to be remade again and again throughout the course of a lifetime.  A mother could do everything right early on, and still, if she failed to renegotiate the terms, all would be lost."

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Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Saints for All Ocassions by J. Courtney Sullivan
Dominicana by Angie Cruz

7 stars

Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
178 pages

What’s it about?
 Micah Mortimer is a quiet man who strives to lead an orderly life.  When a young man shows up at his door believing Micah might be his long lost father, it throws into motion a series of events that upend the "perfect" life he envisions.  

What did it make me think about?
How different we all are in the ways we connect to other people.  This story also highlights the pitfalls of looking for perfection in others.  Something to think about...

Should I read it?
 I just love Anne Tyler.  I am so glad she is such a prolific writer!  I thoroughly enjoyed her latest novel.  

Quote-
"Does he ever stop to consider his life?  The meaning of it, the point?  Does it trouble him to think that he will  probably spend the next thirty or forty years this way?  Nobody knows.  And it's almost certain nobody's ever asked him."

If you liked this try-
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
​The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
Saints for All Ocassions by J. Courtney Sullivan

8 1/2 stars

Writers & Lovers by Lily King
324 pages

What’s it about?
Casey is in her early thirties and still struggling to finish her first novel.  She waits tables in Harvard Square as she recovers from her mother's unexpected death and a brief love affair. She is burdened by grief, anxiety, and debt but she continues to try to write. "I liked reading, but I was picky about books.  I think the enthusiasm came when I started writing.  Then I understood how hard it is to re-create in words what you see and feel in your head."    
​ 
What did it make me think about?
I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this book.  This is a novel for those that love the written word.  However it is also about so much more.  "I squat there and think about how you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them."    So many small revelations- so much hope.

Should I read it?
The first novel I read by Lily King was "The Pleasing Hour" and I have not missed any of her books since. For some reason I have been putting this one off.  Shame on me!  I am sure "Writers & Lovers" has an autobiographical element to it, and for that reason alone I would love to get stuck in an elevator with Lily King one day!  

Quote-
"Nearly every guy I've dated believed they should already be famous, believed that greatness was their destiny and they were already behind schedule.  An early moment of intimacy often involved a confession of this sort: a childhood vision, teacher's prophesy, a genius IQ.  At first, with my boyfriend in college, I believed it, too.  Later, I thought I was just choosing delusional men.  Now I understand it's how boys are raised to think, now they are lured into adulthood. I've met ambitious women, driven women, but no woman has ever told me that greatness was her destiny." 

"I just nodded.  I wish I had been awful to her that day.  I wind I'd thrown my food and screamed vile things at her.  I wish she'd dug all my feelings out of me.  Maybe I'd be better at saying them now."

If you liked this try-
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

9 1/2 stars

The Last Flight by Julie Clark
302 pages

What’s it about?
 This is a thriller centering around two women who are both fleeing troubled lives.  Mmmm....  No need to tell you more.

What did it make me think about?
 How fast can I turn the pages?

Should I read it?
 Who doesn't love a little suspense?  This is a great summer read.  Pick it up!

Quote-
"I glance over my shoulder, as if I expect someone to catch me in my own office in the middle of the night, reading my thoughts, knowing what I am about to do.  I listen hard, the silence a loud rush in my ears, straining to hear the hint of footsteps two floors above me.  But the door remains empty, and the only sound is the pounding of my heart."

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American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

8 stars

All Adults Here by Emma Straub
354 pages

What’s it about?
 Astrid Strick is the mother of three grown children- and a grandmother as well.  One day as she is doing errands a bus hurtles by and kills a woman right in front of her.  The victim is someone she has known for years. The shock seems to heighten her awareness of how quickly her time is passing.  With a renewed vigor she sets out to share her biggest secret, and also right some wrongs from her past as a mother.  

What did it make me think about?
 Does anyone ever get parenting completely right?

Should I read it?
 This was a delightful book!  When I really think about it - the book did not have a stellar plot but I just did not seem to care.  The family was lovely.  Lots of family members doing their best with what they are given.  Lots of forgive and lots to love- just like most families.  I would recommend this one as a great beach read!

Quote-
" That pierced her too- the thought of her children alone, none of the three of them quite adults, still, even now!  When she was their age, she'd been ancient."

​" So much of becoming an adult was distancing yourself from your childhood experiences and pretending they didn't matter, then growing to realize they were all that mattered and composed 90 percent of your entire being."

If you liked this try-
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
Saints for All Ocassions by J. Courtney Sullivan
The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

8 1/2 stars

Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf
260 pages

What’s it about?
 Maryanne Wolf is a neuroscientist who studies the reading brain.  In a series of letters to us, the reader, Maryanne Wolf addresses her concerns over how the digital world may change our brains and what those changes may bring.  In these letters she cites different research and covers a wide range of topics. 

What did it make me think about?
How can Maryanne Wolf be scientific and folksy at the same time?  I think it would be kind of hard to do...

Should I read it?
 I really enjoyed this work of non-fiction.  Lots to think about here!  I will let the quotes speak for themselves.

Quote- so many quotes in this book to share....
 "The unsettling reality, however, is that unbeknownst to many of us, including until recently myself, there has begun an unanticipated decline of empathy among young people.  The MIT scholar Sherry Turtle described a study by Sara Konrath and her research group at Stanford University that showed a 40 % decline in empathy in our young people over the last two decades, with the most precipitous decline in the last ten years."

 "The sheer amount of information that we all consume involves one set of inherently game-changing issues after another.  What do we do with the cognitive overload from multiple gigabytes of information from multiple devices?  First, we simplify.  Second, we process information as rapidly as possible: more precisely, we read more in briefer bursts.  Third, we triage.  We stealthily begin the insidious tradeoff between our need to know with our need to save and gain time.  Sometimes we outsource our intelligence to the information outlets that offer the fastest, simplest, most digestible distillations of information we not longer want to think about ourselves."

"More disturbing altogether, close to half our children who are African-American or Latino do not read in grade four at even a "basic" reading level, much less a proficient one.  This means they do not decode well enough to understand what they are reading, which will impact almost everything they are supposed to learn from now on, including math and other subjects. "

"As depicted earlier, we need to confront the reality that when bombarded with too many options, our default can be to rely on information that places few demands upon thinking.  More and more of us would then think we know something based on information whose source was chosen because it conforms to how and what we thought before.  Thus, thought we are seemingly well armed, there begins to be less and less motivation to think more deeply, much less try on views that differ from one's own."

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Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
​The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

9 stars

A Burning by Megha Majumdar
288 pages

What’s it about?
Three lives intersect in present day India when a terrorist group bombs a train.  The bombing sets off a series of events.  Jivan is a young Muslim woman accused of helping the terrorists after she carelessly posts a flippant comment on Facebook.  PT Sir is her old teacher, who in the aftermath of the attacks finds himself immersed in a right wing political party.  And finally, Lovely is an aspiring actress who might finally be realizing all her dreams.  The public wants someone to pay and Jivan is chosen by the authorities as that someone.  Will Lovely and PT Sir take a stand or will they use this situation to further their own ambitions.  This novel goes back and forth between the characters to give us a unique perspective on India.

What did it make me think about?
 India- complicated problems and I am sure complicated solutions.

Should I read it?
 This was a quick page-turner with an interesting plot and plenty to think about. What would we choose if the direction of our lives would be forever changed?
​
Quote-
"I admired these strangers on Facebook who said anything they wanted to.  They were not afraid of making jokes.  Whether it was about the police or the ministers, they had their fun, wasn't that freedom?"

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And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
​Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
​Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji
​The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach

8 1/2 stars