Author: Emma Donoghue

I finished this (on my Kindle) a bit ago but I guess I moved right on to the next book and forgot to do an update.

I really liked the book. The story takes place in the mid-1880s when an English-nurse (Lib) is called to Ireland to oversee a child (Anna) who is claiming to have lived without food for four months. Is it a miracle or is someone secretly feeding her?

The end was a surprise and maybe not realistic, but I enjoyed getting to know both of the main characters.

Goodreads Rating * * * * *

Author: Jodi Picoult

I don’t know how she does it, but Jodi Picoult never disappoints. Race relations are the topic of this book and she has some great insights into the topic.

The book is told from the viewpoint of three main characters. Ruth is an African-American labour and delivery nurse, Turk is a white-supremacist whose child has died while under Ruth’s watch, and Kennedy is the lawyer assigned to Ruth when she is accused of murder.

Goodreads Rating ****

Author: Scarlett Savage

Three generations of women, all struggling in their own way. Suzanne has moved in with her mother, Ava, as she goes through the final settlement of her divorce. Ava likes to be the centre of the show and is attending AA meetings on a regular basis. Molly, Suzanne’s daughter, has come to visit before she starts her first year at Vassar. But Molly has brought along a friend, Brandon, and she has an important announcement for her mother and grandmother.

The story is pretty predictable, but amusing none-the-less.

Goodreads Rating * * *

Author: Lene Fogelberg

I zipped through this book in no time at all. Not because it was short, but because I couldn’t put it down. The book reads like a novel but it is the true-life tale of a woman’s battle with a heart condition that isn’t diagnosed until it is almost too late. She was diagnosed with a heart murmur when she was six but her mother was told it was nothing to worry about and they’d never have to have it checked again. All throughout her life the author knew there was something wrong but the doctors in Sweden always told her she was a hypochondriac. When her husband was transferred to the States the American doctors took her symptoms very seriously and she was in the final stages of congenital heart disease.

What was particularly astounding to me was the medical system in Sweden. She wasn’t allowed to pick her own clinic or her own doctor and it seemed like nothing was covered in any insurance plans. At the end of the book she says that new legislation has come into force that changes some of the restrictions she faced.

Goodreads Rating * * * *