Author: Dana Sachs

This is the story of Anna and her grandmother, Goldie. When Anna married a man Goldie did not approve of the two were estranged, but a few years later, after the death of Anna’s husband, the two are reunited. Goldie asks Anna to drive her from New York to San Francisco to return a piece of art that she was given when friends were forced into an internment camp during the Second World War. Sections of the book fill in both Anna and Goldie’s back stories.

The book had some potential and the writing was good but it just missed in my mind.

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Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I’ve read a lot of novels about India and I usually can get an Indian accent going on in my head. This novel is based in Nigeria and I had a difficult time getting that Indian accent out of my head.

The story is told by Kambili, a fifteen-year old girl, who is the daughter of a very devout Catholic businessman. While her father is revered by the public he is not a very kind man to his wife and children. It isn’t until Kambili and her brother visit their aunt that they realize that a home can be a much happier place.

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Author: Catherine Alliott

Poppy has often imagined a life without her husband but when he is killed in a freak accident things don’t necessarily work out the way she thought they might. Living in a small village she has the support of her best friends, but is under the watchful eye of the entire village.

This book reminded me so much of a Maeve Binchy novel. I’ll read more by this author but I think each book has a different set of characters, which is too bad because I’d love to know what comes next with Poppy and her friends.

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Author: Liane Moriarty

I was about a quarter of the way through the book before I really started liking the characters. After an accident at the gym, Alice has lost ten years of her memory; she thinks she is married and pregnant with her first child when in fact she is divorcing her husband and she has three children.

It was most enjoyable as Alice began remembering snippets of her life; the comparison with what Alice assumes to be true and what is actually true lead to some fun moments.

The story also has snippets of a journal that Alice’s sister, Elisabeth, is writing at the request of her therapist. The letters that Alice’s “adopted” grandmother, Frannie, is writing to her dead fiancé are also included. I’m not sure why these appear in the story, but they are a good diversion.

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