Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

 Black Cake is a dense, rum soaked, fruit filled cake - a part of every Caribbean celebration in spite of its colonial roots - a favorite treat for Eleanor Bennet to bake.  It is a mystery then why Eleanor leaves a note to her children, who travel to Southern California for her funeral, that there is just such a cake for them to share when "the time is right".  But first they are asked to listen to a long audio recording Eleanor left behind.  Daughter Benny and son Byron are not expecting surprises. They have always known they were children of Jamaican immigrants who faced the discrimination rampant in American society together as a family.  But there are secrets that go back to the time when Eleanor was named Covey, a fierce swimmer who fought against the constraints in her traditional upbringing in Jamaica.  And their father - well that's another story.  So back and forth between times and many places the truth is shared, the definition of home and family is challenged and connections between things like black cake and identity are explored.  It's a rich, complicated journey.

Fast Girls by Elise Hooper

 In the 1928 Olympics, Betty Robinson won a gold medal in the 100m race. It was the first time women could compete and there were many who thought this was a fluke and women should not be competing in such a demanding sport.  Inspired by her win, women continued to find ways to race.  This is the story of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. While the light shone brightest on Jesse Owens that Olympic year and on the rise of Nazi Germany for many years after, there were women who also felt they had something to prove.  This story focuses on three of the women.  Helen Stephens, a farm girl from Iowa; Louise Stokes, a young Black woman from the Boston area; and Betty.  Through their stories we learn about the racism, sexism and homophobia these women had to struggle against to compete and how the power of team work helped them overcome the obstacles in their paths and lead to a golden moment.  Enlightening and inspiring, it is not a surprising that we didn't know about these women - just sad that it took so long.

The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson

 Honey Lovett is the daughter of the blue skinned pack horse librarian we met in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.  It is the 1950's in these hollers of Kentucky but not much has changed from the poverty, lack of education and prejudice that Honey's mother so bravely overcame. Now it is Honey's turn. Even though some real libraries have been established in the small towns, they are still not accessible to the people in the hills. Although only 17, circumstances make it necessary for Holly to take up her mother's old route. It turns out that she has much more to contribute to the people on her route than books.  This is feel good historical fiction.

Happiness by Aminatta Forna

 I found the two main characters interesting but I think this novel was just trying too hard.  Attila Asare is a noted psychiatrist from Ghana who specializes in trauma due to conflict.  As an expert he has travelled to many of the war torn areas of the world.  In fact many of his former patients turn up in this London based story.  Jean is an American urban biologist studying the fox population in the city.  They bump into each other on the Waterloo Bridge (symbolic? over-thought?) and the connection is made. Back and forth through time and place, we are offered multiple thoughts about war, family, environment, death, love and even happiness.  There is trouble with immigration officers, a lover with Alzheimer's, estranged family members, conflict between nature lovers and city dwellers, a lost niece - just to name a few.  In spite of all of this, it made for a great book group discussion.

This is Happiness by Niall Williams

 I am too A.D.D. to focus on an audio book but I would love to hear a voice with a real Irish lilt reading this. Noa at age 17 has abandoned his priesthood preparation and returned to his grandparents home in the Irish village of Faha.  It is the 20th century everywhere else in the world but Faha is rich with old traditions and eternal characters.  Also staying with Noa's grandparents is Christy.  In his 60's, he is in Faha to get everything ready for the arrival of electricity - not a change welcomed by everyone.  He is also hoping to correct an "error of the heart".  The story is actually a simple coming of age story which is secondary to the exquisite writing.  Rich - maybe a little too rich - with detail,  The place, the people, so very present.  Every page has some observation or insight that makes you stop and ponder and want to discuss - love, faith, tradition, family, rain...  It is sure to frustrate anyone looking for a quick read.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

 Tova Sullivan lives simply in a small town on Puget Sound.  Her husband has died and her son disappeared years ago in a strange boating accident.  She meets weekly with the Knit Wits  and works in the evenings at the Sowell Bay aquarium tidying and cleaning.  The other narrator in our story is Marcellus McSquiddles, resident octopus.  The two form a special bond during their shared hours at the aquarium and although there is a remarkable level of communication between them, it turns out that Marcellus still has something very important to share with Tova.  Their lives become complicated when Cameron enters the scene. Thirty years old having lived a life determined by bad luck and bad choices, he arrives in a broken down van from California in search of a father he has never known.  Three characters looking for some kind of connection, some kind of family and a secret that connects them all.  Heart-warming, almost believable, the book is a good alternative to the difficult reality we are all too aware of in the world.

 

A Place called Freedom by Ken Folliett

 Our story begins in Scotland in 1767.  Malachi McAsh (Mack) and his sister both work long and treacherous hours in the mines owned by Sir George Jamisson.  Mack's soul mate is Lizzie Hallim, daughter of the titled but impoverished Lady Hallim.  As  was so often the case, Lizzie is forced to marry Jay Jamisson to save her mother and the estate.  Both Mack and Lizzie are far too independent for that to be the way of the story.  Events find them all on a ship to the colony of Virginia - Mack as an indentured servant out of Newgate prison and Lizzie and Jay on the way to run their tobacco plantation.  It takes a different kind of person to succeed in this New World and a host of interesting characters change the course of all their lives.  Along with some real historical figures we meet Peg - abandoned as a child, she is a talented thief and hustler and an unlikely hero.  As the title suggests, all the adventure, in well researched Ken Folliett style,  is a way of moving west toward a place called freedom.

The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore

 In the 1920's America's only "leper colony" was in Carville, Louisiana.  Leprosy at the time was still misunderstood, considered highly contagious and reason to force those suffering from it out of society and into the prison like confines of the Carville hospital and residence.  Enter Mirielle West, troubled mother of two and wife of a Hollywood personality whose career could not stand the stigma of a wife with leprosy.  Her gruesome journey from one LA to another LA, the courage of the people she encounters at Carville and the true science and history of the disease form the bones of the story.  She finds friendship, a purpose and even love in the most unlikely of places.  Not very sophisticated writing but the characters are engaging and historical fiction never ceases to surprise me with people and places I never knew existed.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

 Too thoughtful to be called chick lit. Too funny to be a treatise on feminist awakening in the '50s and '60s.  Let's just say the humor is used to expose the hypocrisy and irrational sexism of that period. Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant chemist in spite of a spotty educational path and abuse by her male colleagues. Through workplace theft and then "out on the town" vomit, she meets her soulmate, brilliant chemist Calvin Evans. They make chemistry and baby Madeline, aka Mad.  Because someone steals Mad's much superior lunches, Elizabeth ends up on a TV food program that is mostly a chemistry lesson but really a wakeup call to the hibernating intelligence of the women who watch. Oh and there is a dog named six-thirty who knows about 900 words and everything about humans.  An unlikely but you-wish-it-worked-like this read.

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad

 Amir is nine when he follows Quiet Uncle onto a boat filled with asylum seekers leaving the coast of Africa and headed to Greece. He is the one person left alive when the bodies wash ashore a small Greek island.  But he must still run. He is rescued by 15 yr old Vanna who hopes to guide him to a safe place.  They do not speak each others language but it does not keep them from understanding each other.  What to do with these books - stories of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers? Tragic, horrifying, inspiring stories.  What do the authors want of us? Empathy? Knowledge?  Help? A solution? All the positions on the asylum seeker issues are  here. Resentment. Compassion. Ignorance.  The writing is outstanding but the ending is a challenge.

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

 In the 1840's England and Ireland made a practice of emptying the inmates of  prisons like notorious Newgate  onto ships and sending them to the island colonies - in this case Tasmania then called Van Diemen's Island. The story of one such experience begins with Evangeline, falsely accused of theft to preserve the reputation of a wealthy family in London and ends with her daughter Ruby almost 30 years later.  In between we learn of the horrific conditions in prisons, slaver ships, and orphanages. But there is also the gift of friendship. Olivia, tough and big hearted, nurtures baby Ruby.  Hazel, the healer becomes both protector and mother to the child. Dr. Dunne observes the horrible situation of all the women and becomes a reformer.  
But that is just one side of the Tasmanian history examined here.  There is also the story of the Aboriginal people whose culture was destroyed by the British colonists.  We learn about Mathinna.  Although Palawa royalty and English educated, she is kept as a "trained pet" by the local British governor and then discarded - no longer able to fit in either world. 
A large portion of the white population on the continent of Australia is descended from these early convict settlers. Kline has done extensive research to explore the affect this history has had on this part of the world as well as the social injustice inherent anywhere that embraces the notion of social entitlement.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

 Diana and Finn have planned a trip to the Galapagos.  She is a rising star at Sotheby's and he is an exhausted resident at a NYC hospital.  Just as they are ready to leave, Covid is identified.  Finn is told he cannot leave because the hospital is anticipating many cases - little do they know.  Finn encourages Diana to go anyway - why waste both tickets and he will be too busy to play if she stays home.  Diana arrives at the hotel on the island just as the world shuts down.  No way home.  Sketchy communication.  One handsome English speaker to talk to.  Left with lots of time to think, she begins to reevaluate her life, her carefully laid out plans, what in life is really important, And so the story goes - but maybe not really.  There is a catch but I'll not even give a hint here.

The Last Mona Lisa by Jonathan Santlofer

 This looked interesting because it was based on some real facts and. well, it was the Mona Lisa.  However there is a whole lot of fiction happening in an attempt to connect the fact dots.  Luke Perrone is an art history professor who decides to spend a summer in Italy researching his grandfather - the man accused of stealing the Mona Lisa in 1914. It turns out that in the world of rare art dealing, a lot of other people are interested in what he may find.  People are murdered, people fall in love, forgeries seem to be everywhere,  - it's a mystery.  Is the painting hanging in the Louvre the real DaVinci painting?  Maybe - maybe not.

The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman

 One of many novels that will likely draw comparisons between the 1918 flu epidemic and the recent Covid epidemic.  Pia is a 13 yr. old German immigrant.  Her father goes to fight in WWI and her mother dies of the flu.  To try and find food for her infant twin brothers, she places them for safety in a cubby behind a bedroom wall and looks for help.  First stop is the apartment of Finn, an Irish immigrant who is her best friend.  When no one answers the door, she suspects the worse and heads out to the ravaged city of Philadelphia.  While searching, she falls victim to the flu that can strike and kill in minutes.  Six days later she awakes with no idea what has happened to her brothers.  She is driven by her hope that they survived and her need to find them.
Beatrice Groves lives in the same apartment building as Pia.  She is grief stricken by the death of her infant son.  This, mixed with her hatred of the crowds of immigrants entering the country, drives her to unthinkable acts of selfishness and cruelty.  And so their stories begin to intertwine.  There is so much depressing detail - rotting bodies, cruel orphanages, the orphan train, separated families - it was hard to believe there could possibly have been a happy ending.

Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan C. Slaght

 Slaght's love of the Russian far east wilderness began as a young boy when his father was part of the USA diplomatic corps in Russia.  Then as a Peace Corps volunteer he began to zero in on giant owls of the same area.  Eventually his focus was on the endanged Blakiston's fish owl.  For a good part of every year, Slaght followed these owls through frozen rivers and rugged terrain.  The quirky characters that join him create another story.  The conditions went beyond challenging straight to horrible.  Got to admire his commitment - this would be a no way situation for me.

The Air Between Us by Deborah Johnson

 Dr. Cooper Connelly and Dr. Reese Jackson are both doctors in Revere, Mississippi - one is white, one is black. One works in the top floors of the Doctor's hospital and one serves clients from the back door. But this is post "Brown v the Board of Education" and changes are on the way. When a 10 year old black child arrives at the hospital with a white man suffering from mysterious gun shot wounds, there are more questions to be answered other than which door is the right one to use. There is reason to feel good about events in the end of the story but a lot of secrets to unravel first. Start your pondering with Connelly's words on page 155 about "the air between us".

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

 If ever a book screamed Booker Prize, this is it - uniquely structured, thought provoking and really really depressing.  Four people set out on a trip from NYC to Arizona - 2 adults and 2 children. The adults are married. The boy child came to the marriage with the man.  The younger girl child, with the woman. They are never named.  They are identified by the role they play in the narrative - mother, child sister, husband, lover..etc.  The adults are documentarians.  They met recording sounds and languages of the city.  But that project has ended and now they are each pursuing a different path - a path away from each other.  He is recording "echoes" of Geronimo and the Apache nation.  She is focused on the lost children attempting to cross our southern border.  Among their luggage are seven boxes which introduce various sections of the book..  Four are all the notes and history gathered for his project. One is the beginnings of her research including a small red book that appears to be both historical and prophetic.  Boxes six and seven belong to the children and are empty at the beginning. The boy hopes to fill them with the images he is capturing with his new Polaroid camera.  His lack of technique often produces hazy almost ghostly images. The girl is too young to record anything but memories.  With the marriage unraveling, the tension in the car is punctuated by conversations about Native American genocide and the tragedy at the border.  At one point the children get lost and the young boy records their journey on 20 pages of thoughts and observations unhindered by any "full stop" punctuation.  It is a book I kept reading because it was so highly recommended.  Not something to read if you are looking for a cheery tale.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

 I read somewhere that Doerr kept a chart of the characters and events of this book so he wouldn't lose track of the story. In the beginning there seems to be too many threads to possibly make sense of it all.  Really it turns out to be three stories with multiple narrators and lots of time leaps all connected by a single book.  The earliest story is the tale of Anna and Omier.  Both young and poor, their paths cross during the  battles of Constantinople in the 1400's. They find the book.  The "contemporary" story follows the life of Zeno who, at the age of 80, is helping a group of young children in a library in Idaho perform a story from the book- and Seymour, a troubled teen whose attempt to blow up the library is thwarted by their practice. The third story is told by the young girl, Konstance, locked in a room alone aboard an interstellar space ship in the not-so-distant future.  Frantically, she copies, from memory, bits of the book her father read to her.  The technology aboard the spaceship keeps her alive and oddly connected to life on Earth but to what end? 

All of this, Doerr says, is to honor books and the libraries and librarians who guarantee our right to read them, to freely "know".  As Licinius, the old man who taught Anna to read says, "But books like people, die.  They die in fires or floods or in the mouths of worms or at the whim of tyrants.  If they are not safe-guarded, they go out of the world.  And when a book goes out of the world, the memory dies a second death."  This 600+ page journey is at the very least memory making.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

 Really more than one specific sentence but - actually more about the power of books.  This fiction skirts around the biographical reality that Erdrich owns Birchbark Books in Minneapolis.  She even appears briefly in the story as herself and maybe parts of her live in the other characters as well, all members of various Native American traditions.  Typical Erdrich, the mythical and supernatural are just as central to the story as the realities of Covid and the George Floyd tragedy.  Flora, a regular at the bookstore, has died but her ghost lingers.  Her favorite target for misty mischief, is Tookie.  Tookie believes books saved her in prison and fears Flora's actions will drive her from the bookstore job she loves. Tookie's story and struggles are shared with humor and stunning language for most of the book but the events of 2020 drive the rest of the novel.  So much to ponder - one sentence at a time.

The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

 Although Garvin's book has a "Hallmark Special" feel about it, these days a happy ending is welcome.  Plus - it is about bees in Hood River, Oregon.  Alice is 45 and hoping that raising bees will fill the "love of the land" void created when her family loses the apple orchard they love.  But the work is hard and she knows she will need help.  Enter Harry, a lost soul with a record, but looking for a new way to be.  And then there is Jake, bitter and isolated. One foolish act ended his HS hijinks to begin life in a wheel chair.  When she almost runs him down one evening, he is added to the crew - and the bees lead the way forward for all of them.  There is a good bit of environmental conflict to add to the huge amount of bee information and life lessons. All raised up sweet as honey.  You knew that was coming.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

 Although Davis' style is more young adult than grand literary, it's a book about the New York Public Library so you know I had to read it.  Like her other books, this one celebrates one of New York's iconic buildings.  And like her other books she attaches a fictional female hero from past and present to tell its story.   In 1913, Laura Lyon and her family actually live in an apartment within the library while her husband serves as building superintendent but she has dreams that extend even beyond these grand library walls.  In 1993, Librarian Sadie Donovan is distressed over the loss of several valuable books just as she prepares for an important exhibit.  She also has a worrisome secret of her own - Laura is her grandmother - but there is a mysterious, troublesome history there that she fears might affect her career at the library she loves. And so back and forth across the decades - red herrings abound.  Still - it is about the New York Public Library and there really is a secret apartment - and hidden staircases - and the remains of the walls of the old city water reservoir and ...

ALEK by Alek Wek

 The subtitle is : "From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel" and that is exactly what this book is about. In the 1980's when Alek was nine, she and her family became a party of the tragedy that was South Sudan. Unlike some of the other Dinka families, her parents were educated and monogamous.  Some of her older siblings were already living abroad.  Still when the war started, they were forced to leave the life they had established in the town of Wau until 1 by 1, they were able to follow those siblings out of Sudan. Much of her story is tragic but with a little luck and a lot of grit, she has built a successful place in the fashion world.  Her story makes clear she is not just a pretty face.

10 Books the Screwed up the World by Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D

A discussion about the placement of Mein Kampf in bookstores and on library shelves led me to this book. He begins with the writings of the philosophers Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes and  Rousseau and then examines The Communist Manifesto. Utilitarianism, Descent of Man, Mein Kampf, Coming of Age in Samoa, and the Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan among others.  Unfortunately he uses a very narrow lens to examine these works.  He identifies all the authors as atheists and it is this failure to believe in the  rewards of heaven or the punishment of hell that let them to imagine these dangerous worlds of free love, personal choice, and the preference for power.  It was kind of a disappointment but might be a good discussion starter.

Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

 I 'm not sure where I heard of this book but it was hard to put down.  It is really just a story of a seriously dysfunctional family - almost a little Flowers in the Attic - but in an unusual time and place.  The Kamiza family is both ancient Japanese royalty and contemporary Japanese corruption.  The matriarch of the family clings to the old ways in the sacred city of Kyoto but in 1951 Japan, her only daughter rebels.  After dutifully producing an acceptable heir, she becomes pregnant by an African American soldier.  Disowned by her family, she tries to live on her own but circumstances cause her to drop her 4 year old daughter, Nori, at the gates of the family estate. Ridiculed, abused and hidden in the attic, Nori's life is a horror until her honored half brother, Akira, returns to the family home.  Using his power as the family heir, he frees her from the attic but her innocence and his musical genius put them at odds.  And so the story goes - for many years a struggle between personal freedom and family responsibility.  Certainly a common and safe theme for a first work by this author but the addition of the complication of skin color in this time and place makes it worth the read - even with the hurried ending.

Apeirogon by Colum McCann

 Two men - one Israeli - one Palestinian.  Each has lost a daughter to the random violence that is so much a part of life in this region.  Their stories are at the core of this strangely structured book.  Also included are the history of the area, observations of birds in flight, the absurdity of war, a tale of Philippe Petit, the geology of the Levant, Biblical references, so many things - all shared in numbered commentary - some a few words long - some many pages - in an order that seems both random and purposeful.  The two men meet each other in a group of grieving survivors like themselves - from both sides - from no sides. The group is real. It is called the Parents Circle Families Forum.  In the real world and in this book, they try to understand the why of any of it and seek an end to the conflict.  Apeirogon means an infinitely sided object - an impossibility.  The title certainly fits the organization of the book.  One only wishes that the peace the people seek in this unusual telling was in fact possible.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

 After reading this I wondered if I have enough time left in my life to become a rare book conservator just so I could become Hanna Heath. She is called to Sarajevo after the war to determine the authenticity of a rare copy of the haggadah saved from the library in that city. As she examines the pages she finds bits of this and that left in the book by previous owners. At each discovery, we are treated to beautifully written historical fiction attached to that item all the way back to the 15th century. It is part mystery, part romance and all wonderful. It is one of my all time favorite books.

Someone by Alice McDermott

 How would you summarize any one life? A long narrative OR by glimpses of the best times, the worst times, the ordinary times - sometimes leaping across decades to make the connections?  McDermott has chosen the second alternative to share the life of plain but sturdy Marie Commeford.  Born in pre-Depression Brooklyn she begins her observations from the stoop of her largely immigrant neighborhood.  Her profoundly Irish Catholic family struggles no more or less than most.  The neighbors all share in the kind of tragedy that comes of poverty and disappointment as well as the comfort that comes with the sharing.  It is life daily lived but the language of the novel elevates the telling.  Each of us, it turns out, is someone.  We become someone from observations and life experiences we would often count as inconsequential.  Marie watches the boys playing stick ball in the street and never questions that Billy, blinded in WWI, is called upon to make the calls from his chair outside his door.  Years later it will figure into her understanding of both caring and grief.  So many little details, so often exactly the right word, so many moments of recognition - a very thoughtful read.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

 This is a phenomenally beautifully written book about a profoundly disturbing time in history. Most of the story takes place in five days in Chechnya in 2004 with lots of leaping back in time for context and back story.  The wars are over but the destruction and repression remain.  The utter futility of war couldn't be more eloquently described.  Akhmed is prepared to do anything to save his eight year old neighbor Havaa after her father is "disappeared" by the feds.  They escape to a hospital nearby where the only doctor left is the enigmatic Sonja.  As the story unfolds their lives turn out to be connected in multiple ways.  You care profoundly for all of them and their story is gripping but it is the writing that is so unbelievably beautiful.  If I could think of more superlatives to use, I would use them. 

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

 This is a story about the 1930's but if you trade homeless for Okies, climate crisis for dust bowl and socialist fears for red scare - it could be today.  In fact such a comparison is at the root of the author's incentive to write the book.  It is also a story of incredible strength in the face of horrible conditions. Elsa comes from a wealthy but restrictive family in Texas. Circumstances find her in love with farming and the land.  The drought forces her and her two young children to head to California hoping for a new chance.  What they find is abject poverty, cruel land owners, and a local community that resents them.  They respond with friendship, resiliency and bravery.  Elsa's fierce determination to provide for her children must be duplicated numerous times in today's world of severe economic inequality. It makes you ask, "Have we learned nothing?"

The Maid by Nita Prose

I couldn't put this book down but can't tell you why.  The writing isn't brilliant.  It feels like a mystery but some things are pretty predictable.  I think it is just because you really want Molly to win.  Molly is a maid at the Regency Hotel - a job she loves.  Molly has always been "different" - "on the spectrum" maybe.  Life can be mostly negotiated using the rules laid down by the boss she admires and her gran who has been her guiding light all of her life.  The death of her gran has made her life lonely and difficult but it is the shock of finding one of the hotel's residents dead in his bed that sets her life spinning.  Molly's very literal interpretation of the world makes her the prime suspect and you, as the reader,  just keep pulling for her - ready to throw the book across the room if the world doesn't make this right.  Reader Alert - I was able to return the book to the library unharmed.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

 As much as this sounds like a 1950's road trip adventure, it is not - although at moments it does have a bit of a Three Musketeers feel.  It is all about the delightful characters and a little about the plight of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and vice versa.  Emmett Watson, 18 years old, has been released from a juvenile work camp where he was sent for accidentally killing another young man in a fight.  His release has followed the death of his father and the loss of their Kansas farm.  Mom disappeared long ago so Emmett is now the sole caretaker of his very precocious brother Billy whose guiding hope for the future is a book -  Professor Abernathy's Compendium of Heroes, Adventures, and Other Intrepid Travelers - stories that stretch as far back as Ulysses.  The plan - to head to California on the Lincoln Highway in the only thing they own - a baby blue Studebaker.   Unfortunately two of Emmett's bunk mates turned escapees arrive to derail that plan.  Duchess, son of a former vaudevillian, operates under a questionable moral code but a clear sense of balance between right and wrong.  Woolly is a gentle, confused soul who has drifted far from his wealthy Northeastern roots. They get in trouble.  They get saved.  They head east instead of west.  They make mistakes.  They meet heroes.  And there are many more interesting characters to meet along the way including Professor Abernathy himself. Towles has an amazing ability to draw you into his world.  This is a  novel worthy to follow the wonderful Gentleman in Moscow.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

 So if we can agree that race is a social construct and not a real thing, how do we feel about color? 
An ex-slave created the town of Mallard, Louisiana where only light-skinned blacks may live.  Twins Stella and Desiree Vignes are raised there.  Both run away to New Orleans - one bristling at the absurdity of color discrimination - the other hoping to "pass".  They go on to lead very separate lives very far away from each other.  Then Desiree returns to Mallard with her very dark skinned daughter Jade.   As it turns out the world is a very small place and no matter how far you run, it is never really "away".  Which raises the next question - How much about who we are is about who we have been? Identity, abuse, family are all explored in the 50 some years of this family saga but for me as the reader, exploring identity from the inside of these two sisters was eye opening.  I don't know how many times I said to myself, "I never thought about it that way".  I have always maintained that every book is a conversation between the author, the characters and the reader.  This conversation was definitely worth having.

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

 This might be the most romantic book ever!  Floating down the rivers and canals of France in a book store on a barge - sign me up!  Jean Perdu's floating bookstore is called The Literary Apothecary where books are organized by the emotion they evoke - and Perdu has the uncanny knack of matching the book with the reader.  He has not been so successful in his own life having lost his one great love.  Then events require that both the barge and Perdu break free from their Seine River moorings and adventure and self discovery begin.  Within the main story is the diary of Manon, Perdu's lost love.  Such sadness! Such joy! Such scenery.!  Such food!  An unopened letter, a mysterious author,  love lost, love found - pure escapist delight!  You cannot be sad at the end of this book.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

 It is hard to imagine actually creating a dictionary and that very process imagined in this story is mind boggling. Just the dates alone hint at the monumental task: 1857 - a call for a new dictionary to replace Samual Johnson's 1755 version; 1879 - James Murray named editor; 1888 - first volume, A and B, is published; 1928 - V to Z is published, 71 years later.  

This is the story of all the years in between the beginning and end of that first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary but mostly the story of Esme.  Her father was one of the men working on the dictionary.  Her mother had died so Esme spent many hours under the writing tables of the "Scriptorium" watching the slips of paper filled with words drift around her.  Later she would become part of the dictionary creating team.  But the events of her life outside the world of words brought her to the realization that the words and definitions that went into the dictionary were greatly dependent on who put them there.   The lives of the underclass,  the demands of the suffragettes, women of all classes - this was a vocabulary that was easily overlooked by a committee of educated white men.  That connection between words and the world they describe - that one might shape the other - well, those are just some things to think about.  There is a lot of real history in this work of fiction.  It is a great companion read to Simon Winchester's The Madman and the Professor. By the way, the second edition of the OED wasn't published until 1989,  61 years after the first. 

The Night Portrait by Laura Morelli

 The portrait in question is "Portrait of a Lady with Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci.  One story takes place in Milan in 1492 when the Duke of Milan commissions a portrait of his 16 year old mistress.  Think court intrigue, artistic drama and one feisty young woman.  The other story begins in Munich in 1939.  Edith is a talented but shy art conservator at the Alte Pinakothek Museum.  She is honored to be ask to make a presentation about the art collection owned by single family.  Her audience turns out to be  a group of important men in Hitler's inner circle but when the unthinkable becomes the reality of Hitler's Germany, she feels responsible for what she fears is a great mistake.  At great risk she makes a connection with an American soldier who is one of the Monuments Men and so begins a new chapter in the story of this very famous painting.  Wonderfully imagined historical fiction.