Passing

Author: Nella Larsen
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penquin Publishing Group, 2003 (first published in 1929)
Pages: 94
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Clare Kendry leads a dangerous life. Fair, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, but refuses to acknowledge the racism that continues to constrict her family’s happiness. A chance encounter forces both women to confront the lies they have told others—and the secret fears they have buried within themselves. 

Rating: I loved this. It was compelling on so many levels. The ending is fabulous. It was my choice for a book that is less than 150 pages from my 2016 Reading Challenge.

Summer's Child

Author: Diane Chamberlain
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Mira, 2010
Pages: 400
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Early on the morning of her eleventh birthday, on the beach beside her North Carolina home, Daria Cato receives an unbelievable gift from the sea—an abandoned newborn baby. When the infant's identity cannot be uncovered, she is adopted by Daria's loving family. But her silent secrets continue to haunt Daria.

Now, twenty years later, Shelly has grown into an unusual, ethereal young woman whom Daria continues to protect. But when Rory Taylor, a friend from Daria's childhood and now a television producer, returns at Shelly's request to do a story about the circumstances surrounding her birth, something precarious shifts in the small town of Kill Devil Hills.

The more questions Rory asks, the more unsettled the tiny community becomes, as closely guarded secrets and the sins of that long-ago summer begin to surface. Piece by piece, the mystery of summer's child is being exposed, a mystery that no one involved—not Shelly, Daria, not even Rory—is prepared to face.

Review: Checking off another book from my 2016 Reading Challenge. I really liked Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain, and wanted to read another. Lucky for me she wrote Summer's Child and gave it a blue cover :-)

Chamberlain does a great job of building the plot, and then offering the reader tidbits of information and little twists and turns throughout. It's a clever way to weave a novel.

I found Necessary Lies more compelling and complex than Summer's Child, and therefore the better of the two, but I may have found another go-to author.

Other Diane Chamberlain Novels
Big Lies in a Small Town
Necessary Lies
Pretending to Dance
Reflection
The Courage Tree
The Dream Daughter
The Last House on the Street
The Silent Sister
The Stolen Marriage

The Island

Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company, 2011
Pages: 512
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Birdie Cousins has thrown herself into the details of her daughter Chess's lavish wedding, from the floating dance floor in her Connecticut back yard to the color of the cocktail napkins. Like any mother of a bride-to-be, she is weathering the storms of excitement and chaos, tears and joy. But Birdie, a woman who prides herself on preparing for every possibility, could never have predicted the late-night phone call from Chess, abruptly announcing that she's cancelled her engagement.

It's only the first hint of what will be a summer of upheavals and revelations. Before the dust has even begun to settle, far worse news arrives, sending Chess into a tailspin of despair. Reluctantly taking a break from the first new romance she's embarked on since the recent end of her 30-year marriage, Birdie circles the wagons and enlists the help of her younger daughter Tate and her own sister India. Soon all four are headed for beautiful, rustic Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, where their family has summered for generations. No phones, no television, no grocery store - a place without distractions where they can escape their troubles.

But throw sisters, daughters, ex-lovers, and long-kept secrets onto a remote island, and what might sound like a peaceful getaway becomes much more. Before summer has ended, dramatic truths are uncovered, old loves are rekindled, and new loves make themselves known. It's a summertime story only Elin Hilderbrand can tell, filled with the heartache, laughter, and surprises that have made her page-turning, bestselling novels as much a part of summer as a long afternoon on a sunny beach.

Review: This was my choice for a book set on an island from my 2016 Reading Challenge. This is the second Elin Hilderbrand novel I've read (The Castaways was my first). Generally I like a little more substance in my fiction, but these are fun beach/summer reads and move quickly.

Other Elin Hilderbrand Novels:
The Five-Star Weekend
Summer of '69
The Blue Bistro
Golden Girl
The Hotel Nantucket
The Castaways

The Winter Street Series
Winter Street
Winter Stroll
Winter Storms
Winter Solstice

The Winter in Paradise Trilogy
Winter in Paradise
What Happens in Paradise
Troubles in Paradise

In the Beginning was the Sea

Author: Tomas Gonzalez

Genre: Satire

Publisher: Steerforth Press, 2015

Pages: 224

Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The young intellectuals J. and Elena leave behind their comfortable lives, the parties and the money in Medellín to settle down on a remote island. Their plan is to lead the Good Life, self-sufficient and close to nature. But from the very start, each day brings small defeats and imperceptible dramas, which gradually turn paradise into hell, as their surroundings inexorably claim back every inch of the 'civilisation' they brought with them. Based on a true story, In the Beginning Was the Sea is a dramatic and searingly ironic account of the disastrous encounter of intellectual struggle with reality - a satire of hippyism, ecological fantasies, and of the very idea that man can control fate.

Review: From my 2016 Reading Challenge, this was my choice for a book translated into English. I found this book to be entertaining in that all I could picture were families or couples from House Hunters International on HGTV, a show Sal and I watch from time to time. One particular family stands out to me. Their daughter loved horses, but it was too expensive for them to own horses in Texas so they picked up and moved to Panama. The final clip showed them with a pasture full of horses, living the dream. This book was how I picture life will be for them once the novelty wears off. I thought it was great.

The Sleeper and the Spindle

Author: Neil Gaiman

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishing, 2015

Pages: 64

Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In this captivating and darkly funny tale, Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have twisted together the familiar and the new as well as the beautiful and the wicked to tell a brilliant version of Snow White's (sort of) and Sleeping Beauty's (almost) stories.

This story was originally published (without illustrations) in Rags & Bones (Little, Brown, 2013). This is the first time it is being published as an illustrated, stand-alone edition, and the book is a beautiful work of art.

Review: I started my 2016 Reading Challenge a little early. This was the first book on my list, "a book based on a fairy tale." I don't typically read such things and was sort of dreading this category, but I loved the re-imagined or fleshed out tale of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. 

I started this book when Sal said he was going to go get a shower. I was done by the time he came downstairs after, so it's not a huge time commitment. I was sorry it was so short actually since it had left me wanting more. That's why I typically don't read short stories.

The illustrations are true works of art as well. Enjoy!

Love Anthony

Author: Lisa Genova
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2012
Pages: 309
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In an insightful, deeply human story reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Daniel Isn't Talking, and The Reason I Jump, New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientiest Lisa Genova offers a unique perspective in fiction - the extraordinary voice of Anthony, a nonverbal boy with autism. Anthony reveals a neurologically plausible peek inside the of autism, why he hates pronouns, why he loves swinging and the number three, how he experiences routine, joy, and love. And it is the voice of this voiceless boy that guides two women in this powerfully unforgettable story to discover the universal story truths that connect us all. 

Review: Lisa Genova just doesn't disappoint. This wasn't my favorite of her books that I've read this far, but it was still excellent reading. 

Other Lisa Genova Novels
Inside the O'Briens
More or Less Maddy
Still Alice

Inside the O'Briens

Author: Lisa Genova
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2015
Pages: 352
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice Lisa Genova comes a powerful and transcendent new novel about a family struggling with the impact of Huntington’s disease.

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

Praised for writing that “explores the resilience of the human spirit” (The San Francisco Chronicle), Lisa Genova has once again delivered a novel as powerful and unforgettable as the human insights at its core.

Review: I drank the Genova Kool-Aid. I don't think this author can write a bad book. I felt a little ripped off by this ending, but on the other hand, it's actually brilliant. Good luck putting this one down before you turn the last page.

Other Lisa Genova Novels
Love Anthony
More or Less Maddy
Still Alice