02 Monday May 2022
Posted in Fiction
Tags
brothers and sisters, Caribbean Americans, families, family secrets, mother's death, surfers, swimmers
Bereft at their mother’s death, Benny and Byron have the shock of their lives when the lawyer tells them their mother left a voice message revealing a heartbreaking story that they never knew. The instructions to them were to share the family traditional black cake when the time was right. A mother’s wisdom: we can’t choose what we inherit … but we can choose who we become?
01 Saturday May 2021
Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction
Tags
aristocracy (social classes), brothers and sisters, family secrets, illegitimate children, Japanese Americans, Kyoto (Japan), musical prodigy, racially mixed cildren
After she is abandoned by her mother, Noriko is taken in by her strict Japanese grandparents only to suffer stinging, chemical baths and regular confinement to the attic. Life takes a new twist when her older half-brother (unbeknownst to her) comes to live with them. The author’s new voice and storytelling won me over completely.
“Fifty Words for Rain is an impressive debut novel about a mixed-race girl growing up in post WWII Japan. Sensitive and bristling with closely-observed humanity, Asha Lemmie tells a story that we have not heard before with an ending that is as surprising as it is brutally honest.” —Mark Sullivan, bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky
“[An] epic, twisty debut… Sometimes bleak, sometimes hopeful, Lemmie’s heartbreaking story of familial obligations packs an emotional wallop.” —Publishers Weekly
“Lemmie’s debut novel is a gripping historical tale that will transport readers through myriad emotions… Lemmie intimately draws the readers into every aspect of Noriko’s complex story, leading us through the decades and across the continents this adventure spans, bringing us to anger, tears, and small pockets of joy. A truly ambitious and remarkable debut.” —Booklist
14 Monday Dec 2020
Posted in Fiction
Wren is a teenage girl living an isolated life with her parents in rural West Virginia, where her father works as a minister and snake tamer. A tragic accident involving her mother’s best friend leads Wren to learn more about her mother’s past and the community where they grew up. The story is often bleak, but it is balanced by the beautiful writing and characters. If you enjoy stories like Winter’s Bone or Educated, you may like this one.
“This gorgeously written, plot-rich novel examines the complex lives of these five beautifully realized characters . . . Being set in Appalachia, it is no surprise that the novel is also about story and its gradual morphing into legend . . . This memorable first novel is exceptional in its power and imagination. It’s clearly a must-read.”— Booklist (Starred Review)
“In spare yet lyrical prose, Amy Jo Burns brings to life a brutal landscape and its dangerous, alluring inhabitants. A haunting glimpse into a strange, mystical world with its own laws and customs, filled with fiercely independent people, this novel combines a memoir-like intimacy with the mythic power of a fable. Burns is a writer to be watched.”—Christina Baker Kline, #1 NYT bestselling author of Orphan Train and A Piece of the World
“Wren’s engaging, convincing voice leads the reader through her strange world. A teenage girl is the strong center of a fever-dream story of hidden pasts.” – Kirkus (Starred Review)
16 Friday Oct 2020
Posted in 20th century, Biography, Non-fiction
Tags
family secrets, Galvin family, genetic aspects, mentally ill care, mentally ill history, schizophrenia, schizophrenics, United States
The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science’s great hope in the quest to understand the disease. (Amazon)
“Hidden Valley Road is a riveting true story of an American family that reads like a medical detective journey and sheds light on a topic so many of us face: mental illness.”—Oprah Winfrey
“The curse of the Galvin family is the stuff of Greek tragedy. Kolker tells their story with great compassion, burrowing inside the particular delusions and hospitalizations of each brother while chronicling the family’s increasingly desperate search for help. But Hidden Valley Road is more than a narrative of despair, and some of the most compelling chapters come from its other half, as a medical mystery.”
—Sam Dolnick, The New York Times Book Review
“A stunning, riveting chronicle crackling with intelligence and empathy . . . Kolker tackles this extraordinarily complex story so brilliantly and effectively that readers will be swept away. An exceptional, unforgettable, and significant work that must not be missed.”—Booklist, starred review
“Riveting and disquieting . . . Kolker deftly follows the psychiatric, chemical, and biological theories proposed to explain schizophrenia and the various treatments foisted upon the brothers. Most poignantly, he portrays the impact on the unafflicted children of the brothers’ illness, an oppressive emotional atmosphere, and the family’s festering secrets . . . A family portrait of astounding depth and empathy.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
09 Friday Oct 2020
A Jewish son (American) can pry no family history from his Jewish father (Hungarian). Even when a painting stolen by the Nazis surfaces trying to be reunited to it’s rightful owners – in fact his family! He can elicit nothing from his hard-love father. Masterfully told, intricate relationships, scathing humor……an unpredictable ending awaits you.
“A riveting story–and, in Sarvas’s able hands, artfully told . . . Sarvas has created a gripping, twisty mystery that deftly tackles big questions–about the weight of history, the intricacies of identity, the often anguished love between parents and children…” –Barbara Spindel, Barnes & Noble Review
“Sarvas’s rich and engaging second novel is worth the decade’s wait since his first . . . Sarvas couples a suspenseful mystery with nuanced meditations on father-son bonds, the intricacies of identity, the aftershocks of history’s horrors, and the ways people and artworks can–perhaps even must–be endlessly reinterpreted.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“What does the next generation carry forward, and why is it so compelling? In his powerful novel Memento Park, Mark Sarvas explores the essential questions of history, its burdens, and legacies. The gifted novelist Sarvas takes us by the hand and tells us a story that demands to be heard.” –Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko, finalist for the National Book Award
02 Monday Mar 2020
Tags
Chelsea, cold cases, England, family secrets, inheritance and succession, murder investigations, orphans, pyschological fiction, suspense, thriller
Fans of Ruth Ware and A.J. Finn will be glad to follow Lisa Jewell. Written from 3 points of view, a warped family history unravels revealing the players and events that led up to a crime investigation of 3 dead adults dressed in black, a 10 month lively baby in her crib upstairs, and missing family members once having all lived in a mansion in Chelsea. You’ll still be guessing right up to the last page.
“No one can write a creepy domestic suspense thriller quite like Lisa Jewell.” —Goodreads
“Mesmerizing. . . Another dark winner from Jewell, who expertly teases out her tricky tale with stunning moments and richly drawn characters.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Un-put-downable . . . distinct, well-developed characters, shifting points of view, and a disturbing narrative that pulses with life create an enthralling tale full of surprises.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
01 Friday Sep 2017
Tags
adoption, corrupt practices, family secrets, foster home care, Massachusetts, missing children, murder investigation, suspense
Chosen by the Weston Library Mystery Group. Now the AGATHA AWARD WINNER for Best Contemporary Mystery and the DAPHNE AWARD WINNER for Best Mystery/Suspense!
Investigating allegations against an adoption agency that is suspected of reuniting adopted children with the wrong birth parents, Jane Ryland finds her efforts suspiciously tied to Jake Brogan’s case involving a young woman’s brutal murder and the disappearance of a baby.
THE WRONG GIRL has all the right stuff! The pacing is furious, the characters are great fun, and the dialogue crackles.–Linwood Barclay
A riveting story that will hook you from page one! Unputdownable–Deborah Crombie
Find this book large print audio cd’s playaway
02 Wednesday Aug 2017
Posted in Fiction
Tags
Americans, desertion and non-support, family secrets, mothers and sons, Norway, riots in Chicago, runaway wives, self-realization
Samuel, a college professor and failed novelist, has not seen his mother in over twenty years since she left him and his father. When she is arrested for a political protest, he decides to see her again and learn more about her past, particularly her time as a young woman in 1960s Chicago. An engrossing, funny book with many characters and time periods.
“A fantastic novel about love, betrayal, politics and pop culture—as good as the best Michael Chabon or Jonathan Franzen.” —People
“It broke my heart, this book. Time after time. It made me laugh just as often. I loved it on the first page as powerfully as I did on the last.” —Jason Sheehan, NPR.org
11 Wednesday Jan 2017
Posted in Fiction
With remarkable wit and insight, Ann Leary pulls back the curtain on one blended family, as they are forced to grapple with the assets and liabilities – both material and psychological – left behind by their wonderfully flawed patriarch. Told from the perspective of the reclusive 29 year old daughter who has a secret life on the Internet.
“In this deeply satisfying novel about how unknowable people can be, intrigue builds with glass shards of dark humor toward an ending that is far from comic.” ―Kirkus, starred review
“Ann Leary’s latest novel, The Children, delivers the same page-turning story telling and complexity of characters as her last book, The Good House…As always, Leary makes dysfunction, pathology and even tragedy completely compelling.” ―The Huffington Post
25 Monday Jul 2016
Posted in Fiction
Led by matriarch Kathleen, a charismatic, cruel, and complicated woman now in her 80s, the Kelleher family has spent decades of summers at their Maine summer property. Maine alternates chapters between four women in the Irish Catholic family as they converge at the summer house and confront each other. While the book’s title is Maine, there are also many references to Boston history and locations. Maine is a good book to take on your own summer vacation, with a little more substance than the average beach book.
“I have never stayed at this cottage in Maine, or any cottage in Maine, but no matter: I now feel I know what it’s like being in a family that comes to the same place summer after summer, unpacking their familiar longings, slights, shorthand conversation, and ways of being together. J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine is evocative, funny, close-quartered, and highly appealing.” —Meg Wolitzer, author of The Uncoupling
“Ah, family. Isn’t it satisfying to leave your own briefly behind to drop in on another—and see how thoroughly they bungle it all up? This is the pleasure of Maine, J. Courtney Sullivan’s second novel, which delves into the secrets and simmering emotions of one dysfunctional family over the course of a single summer month. . . . The dialogue sizzles as the tension between the women’s love and anger toward one another tightens. . . . You don’t want the novel to end.” —Lily King, The New York Times Book Review
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