Black and White

by Dani Shapiro

Another thought provoking novel from the author of Slow Motion and Family History. Clara Brodeur's quiet life with her family in Maine is suddenly interrupted by an early morning phone call from NYC. Her sister Robin is calling to tell her that their difficult and overbearing mother is very sick with advanced lung cancer. Clara and Ruth have been estranged for 14 years, when Clara left home at eighteen. Ruth is a photographer who became famous after shooting a very controversial series of nude photos of Clara from age three to fourteen. Clara hates everything about the photos and has never forgiven her mother for caring more about her career than the feelings and needs of her child. Now Clara must decide whether she will make amends with Ruth before she dies. An interesting book about art, families, secrets and forgiveness.

The Lavender Hour

by Anne D. LeClaire

One of the best books I've read in a while, the Lavender Hour is the time of evening when the sun sets and the sky turns shades of violet and rose; the day is dying. "...Most people think black is the color of death but its true color is lavender."
Jessie Long is an artist from Virginia living on Cape Cod after her job teaching art in a high school is downsized. She spends her quiet days walking on the beach and creating jewelry made from human hair, then decides to be a hospice volunteer in her spare time. Jessie, who lost her father to a heart attack at age 14 and recently survived brain cancer herself, was taught to give back to the community and believes that people in the last stages of life have lessons to teach the living. She is assigned to care for Luke Ryder, a 46 year old fisherman suffering from pancreatic cancer, who wants nothing to do with hospice. Jessie is just supposed to give his elderly mother a much needed break a couple of times a week. However, Luke and Jessie develop a special friendship and begin to fall in love, despite his advanced illness and her longtime fear of love. Soon, Jessie is breaking hospice rules, desperately wishing for a miracle and forced to make a heartbreaking decision. This beautifully written book is difficult to put down and you can't help wishing Luke & Jessie could be together somehow. The dark subject matter is not for everyone, but many people who have lost loved ones to long illnesses will find it a riveting and rewarding novel. ****

So Much For My Happy Ending: A Novel

by Kyra Davis

I feel a little bit cheesy for admitting that I liked this book. April Silverperson is a 28 year old department store manager living in San Francisco. She agrees to marry Tad Showers after a whirlwind three month romance, even though the little voice in her head is screaming, "Don't do this!" Life with Tad is dreamy one minute and a complete nightmare the next. He lies to her about their finances, her mother and his past, plus his moods can turn on a dime. Most readers probably aren't too surprised when April's McDreamy turns out to be bipolar, but her struggle with her marriage, her family problems and her career choices make for an interesting story. Davis's writing is a step above most of the chick lit I've picked up lately.***1/2

The Kommandant's Girl

by Pam Jenoff

Its the beginning of WWII in Krakow, Poland. Emma and Jacob are a young Jewish couple, recently married when the Nazis invade. Emma is forced to fend for herself after Jacob disappears underground to help with the Resistance Movement. She lives with her parents in the ghetto until the resistance workers rescue her, give her a new identity as a Catholic girl named Anna and send her to live with Jacob's wealthy aunt outside the city. Things get interesting when Emma nervously accepts a secretarial position working for a high ranking Nazi commander, in the hope that she will be able to find a way to help the resistance. Although she loves her husband deeply, Emma finds herself strangely attracted to the Kommandant and she realizes that both her identity and her marriage vows could be compromised at any moment.
Publishers Weekly gave this novel a starred review and called it "a breathtaking debut." Maybe the fact that I've read so many Holocaust memoirs made me a tougher critic here but I thought it was just okay. The plot is interesting, the characters are courageous but it just isn't very believeable and it doesn't feel bleak enough. A book like this should make you cry or feel something and I didn't. It's an interesting novel if you like historical fiction mixed with chick lit and your expectations aren't too high.

The Knitting Circle: A Novel

by Ann Hood

Mary Baxter's life changed the day her five year old daughter Stella died suddenly of meningitis; she is understandably completely devastated. Months later, her mother suggests that Mary learn to knit and despite her initial reservations, she joins a local knitting group. She is surprised to find comfort in the way the movement of the needles calms her nerves and quiets her mind. Knitting also brings a new circle of friends into Mary's life, friends who also know about great loss and finding solace in knitting. This is a story about friendship between women and the love between mothers and daughters. It is about the love between Mary and Stella as well the complicated relationship between Mary and her own mother, a recovering alcoholic who also lost a young daughter, a sister that Mary never knew. In a beautiful passage, Mary's mother expresses her love for her daughter, a love that she could never show, in a letter that she wrote and kept for many years before finally giving it to Mary. She writes, "Daughter, I have a story to tell you. I have wanted to tell you for a very long time... It is my story, yet I do not have the words to tell it. Instead I pick up my needles and I knit. Every stitch is a letter. A row spells out 'I love you'. I knit 'I love you' into everything I make. Like a prayer or a wish, I send it out to you, hoping you can hear me. Hoping, daughter, that the story I am knitting reaches you somehow. Hoping that my love reaches you somehow." A well written novel that doesn't take the easy way out with an instant, magical cure for Mary's immense grief and sadness. Instead, Mary loses everything she loves most before she can begin to live and love again.

Nineteen Minutes

by Jodi Piccoult

After reading rave reviews for Nineteen Minutes in Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, LJ and People magazine, I was really looking forward to this one. Ever since The Pact came out a few years ago, I considered Jodi Piccoult to be one of my favorite authors -- until The Tenth Circle last year; I hated that one. Nineteen Minutes is a little better but just SOOO LONG - over 450 pages! I like long books if they are interesting but this one just didn't hold my attention; I kept thinking about all the other good books I could be reading instead. It starts out okay and it has an interesting plot, however the pace is a little slow and some things just did not make sense to me. The author almost seemed to be saying that a school shooting was justified in some ways because the shooter had been teased for years by the popular kids; I just could not feel that bad for him after what he did. There's twist at the end, of course, but it felt false and completely unbelievable to me. Kind of disappointing.

Woman's Best Friend: Women Writers on the Dogs in Their Lives

Edited by Megan McMorris

Foreward by Pam Houston

A collection of twenty-six essays about women and their canine companions. I WANT THE DOG ON THE COVER SO BAD!! Anyway, the foreward was written by one of my favorite authors, Pam Houston. Since much of her writing is based on her life, reading her words here was like catching up with an old friend. In 2005, she wrote Sight Hound, a wonderful book about the relationship between a lonesome writer living on a Colorado ranch and Dante, her wise, lovable Irish wolfhound recently diagnosed with cancer.

In her moving introduction to this book, she writes, "Dante taught me that if your paws are too big to fit in your ears, you have to find someone else to do the scratching, and that if you want your hand to be licked, you might have to put it under somebody's nose. He taught me that sitting in the grass together doing nothing isn't really doing nothing at all, and that sometimes even if you haven't acted perfectly, the good thing happens anyway. He taught me that if you really love somebody, cleaning their bodily excretions off the carpet is no problem, and in the end, money doesn't really matter a bit. He taught me that loving in the inevitable face of loss, is the single most important challenge of our lives; that without loss, love isn't worth a hill of beans, and without love, life is nothing more than a series of losses. He taught me that everything is forgivable, that every moment contains eternity, and that loving unconditionally doesn't mean you are a self-annihilating fool. After he died he taught me how to live without him, but also that I didn't have to. He taught me that because we loved each other so completely, a part of him would always be with me."

Some of these stories are cute and funny, others made me cry, but anyone who loves animals will appreciate this well written collection. Most entries include a small photo of the dog that the author is writing about so that is a nice touch. The editor has a similar title coming out next month about cats. I can't wait to read it! ****