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.