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.