Author: Sandra Ritter

This was written by an acquaintance and I learned a lot about her life – maybe a little too much information.

But, after Pat’s book came out, I wondered if people would feel the same way.

Author: Nadia Hashimi

I’ve had this book for quite awhile but I first heard of it long before I picked it up (from somewhere). I don’t know why it took me so long to read it; maybe because the recommendation came from a friend who has passed and I didn’t want to break that small connection.

The book follows the lives of two Afghan women; Shekiba is the great-great-grandmother of Rahima. The story is told with a chapter about one woman and the next chapter about the other woman. I found this to be very confusing and eventually blocked off a section and read only one story and then, on another sitting, went back and read the chapters of the other story.

Both stories are interesting but at the end it felt unresolved. For that reason, and the way it is written, it dropped lower on my Goodreads scale.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Maysie Greig

I found another old one on the bookshelf. I remember how I got this one though; Audrey and Jackie gave it to me when we were at Roberta’s farm for a cousins’ get-together.

The book, written by Maysie Greig, was first published in 1941. The book I have is a reprint from 1944. Greig was considered the most prolific woman novelist of the time; there are 64 other books listed on the pages of this book, and 172 books are credited to her and her aliases. The book is a romantic novel and pre-dates the first Harlequin book by almost ten years.

The inscription on the cover notes it was given to Grandma McKnight at Christmas, 1945 when she would have been 57 years old. She’d been a widow for over five years at the time. There is no indication of who gave her the book.

Goodreads Rating: Forget the story, the book is priceless to me!

Author: Julia Glass

I don’t know where I got this book but when I pulled it off the shelf the title intrigued me. Were we talking about three women named June? Did the story take place over three Junes? The book cover was of no help.

As it turns out the story takes place in June but over several different years. The first section tells the story of Paul, a recent widower, who is on a tour of Greece. The main story though is his life with his wife and their three sons – Fenno and the twins Dennis and David.

The second section takes place six years later, after the death of Paul. This story focuses on the life of Fenno, a gay man living through the AIDS pandemic in New York City. Up to this point I could hardly put the book down.

The last section was a disappointment. I expected the back story of Dennis and David but that was not the case. It takes place four years later and, although it ties in a few ends from the earlier stories, it hardly seems to fit.

Goodreads Rating: * * *