Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain

From 1933 until 1973, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina, sterilized, with or without permission, over 7000 individuals. Maybe many were young girls just like  Ivy.  She lives with her increasingly ill grandmother and beautiful but mentally challenged 16 year old sister who does not know that she was sterilized after she gave birth to her son two years ago.  They live in a ramshackle home provided by the owner of the tobacco farm where they live and work.  They rely on the benefits coordinated by Jane, a brand new social worker.  When Jane learns that Ivy is also scheduled for a secret sterilization, a practice she questions, she sets in motion events that quickly spin out of control.  It is a story of class, race and above all choice.  All sides of the issues come to play providing great fodder for discussion.

City of light by Lauren Belfer

Buffalo, New York - 1901.  Electricity is stilled viewed as scary magic by some and a possible economic boon by others.  The city is preparing for the Pan American Exposition and there is a environmental controversy brewing about the affect of power generating plants on the free flowing waters of Niagara Falls.  The drama in the story centers around Louisa Barrett.  As head mistress of a well regarded private school for girls, a confirmed spinster, and a significant figure in the intellectual life of the city, Louisa has access to some of the most powerful political and business circles in Buffalo.  But Louisa has secrets to keep - some her own and some of the students she teaches.  The book is 689 pages but there are many different layers to this story - life at the beginning of the 20th century - the role of women - the beginning of the electrical age - so it's a big story to consider and worth the read.

First Impressions by Charlie Lovett

The subtitle is A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love and Jane Austen.  I'm not a Jane Austen fan so it was a bit of a slow start but once the mystery, revealed in parallel and alternating chapters, kicked in, I was hooked.  One story begins in 1796 with a young Jane Austen as the central character.  The other is a contemporary story in the English countryside where the young book lover, Sophie Collingwood, is grieving the loss of her favorite uncle and the further loss of the family's extensive library. The object at the center of attention in both is the one and only copy of a little book written by the Rev. Mansfield, close friend of Jane.  The book was once in the Collingwood library.  In the book was  a story that would grow up to be Pride and Prejudice.  Did Jane Austen steal her most famous novel from her elderly friend and is this mystery somehow connected to her uncle's mysterious death? The fact that Lovett moves so easily between the style of the Victorian novel and contemporary writing was one of my favorite parts of this book - one every bibliophile would enjoy.

The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

Two stories - Afghanistan in the early 1900's and Afghanistan today - both tales of women who must make difficult decisions to survive.  Rahima is the second of five daughters in a contemporary Afghan family.  To make it possible for someone in this family of women to move freely in town, she becomes Rahim - a bacha posh - a girl who will be treated as a male in society. The entire community joins in the deceit.  She is free to go to school, shop in the market, play soccer with the boys - all freedoms she relishes.  But one of her favorite things is listening to her aunt Khala Shaima tell the story of Bibi Shekiba, her great, great grandmother who risked a great deal to survive in the early twentieth century.  As Rahim's father falls prey to the affects of opium and the family descends into poverty, she must become Ramina again so that she and her two sisters can be married off.  She is 15.  Her younger sister is 13.  The results are tragic. It is Shaima's story that provides Rahima the courage to escape a hopelessly restricted life and a brutal marriage.  It makes one ponder the difference between superficial change and fundamental change - certainly in this culture and just a surely in our own.

Camino Island by John Grisham

I am not a Grisham reader but Kirk suggested I might like this because it is a book about the black market buying and selling of rare books.  Five rare F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts disappear from the Princeton University Library.  The thieves and just about everyone else loose track of the books as they pass through various sketchy hands with big money.  The unnamed company hoping to return the books to the library approach a young novelist with serious writers block to help.  Mercer Mann has serious debt and a family connection to the small town on Camino Island.   The company believes Bruce Cable, quirky but successful owner of Bay Books, has the books.  They offer to payoff Mercer's debt in addition to a significant salary if she will use all her "skills" to get close to Bruce and find a way through his security systems to the books.  It was a relatively bloodless romp and a great ending - not the kind of serious thriller I imagine from Grisham.  You kind of wonder if he wasn't reading a good book while vacationing in a place like Camino Island and just got inspired.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

The Imperfectionists reads like a lot of related stories which center on a dying English language newspaper being published in Rome.  The paper was begun in the 1950's by wealthy American, Cyrus Ott for reasons not revealed until the end. By 2004 it is in the hands of his disinterested grandson Oliver.  Each chapter centers around one individual employed by the paper at one time or another.  As the reader, I found myself often wanting to go back to previous stories to see if I was connecting the dots properly.  It is about the world of journalism, the stories journalists tell and secrets they keep - many about their own lives.   I liked The Rise and Fall of Great Powers better.

The Address by Fiona Davis

Another title for NYC lovers.  The address referenced is the Dakota - one of the most identifiable buildings in New York City.  In 1884, young Sara Smythe leaves England to be the new manager of a new apartment building being designed by Theo Camden.  Over the top in every way, he hopes to draw the rich and famous into what is then almost considered countryside.  In 1985, Bailey Camden has just completed a stint in rehab.  When the design company she had worked for refuses to rehire her, she takes a job coordinating the renovation of her cousin Melinda's apartment in the Dakota.  And so the stories weave back and forth.  There is an inheritance at stake and a murder to solve and so much history.  Great escapist stuff while isolating with COVID-19.