The Golden Hour

Fiction by Beatriz Williams

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1943 Lulu Thorpe travels to war-torn England from Nassau, the Bahamas, with one goal in mind: to get her husband back. Benedict Thorpe had been working undercover for the British government and had been captured by the Germans.

Lulu had met and married Benedict during her two years working as a magazine journalist in Nassau. She was specifically covering the society pages and focusing on the serving governor of the island: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who of course were formerly King Edward VIII of England and the divorcee Wallis Simpson. Lulu comes to England with inside information about the semi-royal couple that she hopes to leverage into her husband's rescue if possible. Her other idea is to contact Benedict's older sister for help. 

The story then goes back in time in two directions: to Lulu's 1941 arrival in Nassau, and to a Swiss asylum at the turn of the century where Benedict's parents met. It takes a rather convoluted journey through those timelines and finally returns to 1943, where Lulu is still holding out hope to get Benedict back.

This was a long book and it was somewhat confusing. I almost gave up in the middle. All in all it was a good story worth reading, but I think it might have been better if organized differently.

I also read by this author: The Summer Wives

The Floating Feldmans

 Fiction by Elyssa Friedland

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a fun little story about an extended family taking a cruise together at the behest of the matriarch. The Feldmans love each other, but they don't always like each other, and there is more than one secret threatening to be revealed during the trip.

An Unwanted Inheritance

Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Imogen Clark

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this story, Caroline Frost finds a suitcase full of money under her late father-in-law’s bed, cash adding up to over a quarter of a million pounds. 

What would you do in this situation? Keep it all? Divide it among all of the family? Report it to the police?

This was a really good story about how money can cause trouble in family relationships, and how different people’s feelings can be about money in general.

I also read recently (for free) from Amazon Prime Kindle: In the Time of Our History

Little Monsters

 Fiction by Adrienne Brodeur.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

As Dr. Adam Gardner, PhD, approaches his seventieth birthday, he doesn’t want to think about retirement.  In fact, he’s confident he has at least one more brilliant idea in him. The idea is out there, somewhere just out of reach; he can feel it. All he has to do is go off his bipolar medication and induce a manic episode. Wait, what?

Well, obviously this is a terrible idea, as either of his adult children could have told him if he’d let them in on his plan, but Adam has never considered anyone’s opinion besides his own. And now, just as his daughter Abby is gaining recognition for her art and his son Ken is gearing up for a congressional campaign, their father’s craziness is the last thing they need. Plus there’s a secret he’s never told them that is about to come to light…

This was a really good story with interesting characters. 

I also read by this author: Wild Game

The Sweetness of Forgetting

 Fiction by Kristin Harmel

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Hope is the mother of a teenaged daughter trying to keep her family’s bakery afloat after a messy divorce. On top of that, her beloved grandmother Maime is slipping away with Alzheimer’s disease. But Maime has a secret she’s held onto since her childhood in wartime Paris, and it’s up to Hope to find out what it is. 

This was a nice story but the plot was a little contrived, especially compared to the other book I’ve read by this author (see below). But it’s one of her early efforts, so I can definitely see how she improved as a writer. It was still worth reading. 

I also read recently by this author: The Forest of Vanishing Stars

Black Cake

 Fiction by Charmaine Wilkerson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This novel has recently been made into a TV series. The preview for the show looked interesting, so I wanted to read it. 

The story begins with a 1965 wedding on a Caribbean island. (I think it's Jamaica, but the author never actually says so. She literally just says The Island.) The bride is missing, but her dress is found on the beach smeared with the eponymous black cake. It moves around in time from the present to various points in the past to unlock the story. 

I really liked the characters and the plot; I could see how the story would make great TV. The book, however, told the story in such a strange way. Maybe it was because I've had a lot going on recently and I had to keep putting it down and picking it back up, but it was a little hard to follow. I think the TV show will be better. Still, it was a good book.

Pineapple Street

 Fiction by Jenny Jackson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story is about the Stocktons, a super-rich family in New York City. There are Mr. and Mrs. Stockton, Senior, plus two daughters and a son, along with two grandchildren, and they are consumed with the types of problems rich people have: Who is a good-enough suitor for youngest daughter Georgianna? Should older daughter Darley have given up her career to raise her two children? And what about son Cord and his lower- (than us) -class wife Sasha; why can't she just leave everything the way it always has been in the family home?

This is a good story with some really funny bits, but the characters really make the book. I enjoyed it a lot.

Hello Beautiful

 Fiction by Ann Napolitano.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book begins with William Waters, a boy born to damaged parents who cannot seem to connect with him. He grows up tall and latches onto basketball like a lifeline; later it's observed that basketball was the first thing that ever loved him back. 

But really the story is about the four Padavano sisters. Julia Padavano meets William on his first day of college and almost immediately absorbs him into her loving and chaotic family. Julia is a girl with big plans --her father Charlie calls her his rocket-- and she has the future mapped out for herself, William, and all of her sisters. But life doesn't always conform to Julia's plans.

This was a really good story. I enjoyed the characters a lot!

I also read by this author: Dear Edward

Empire Falls

 Fiction by Richard Russo

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Empire Falls is a town built around a mill that is controlled by one rich and powerful family, the Whitings. But, like many other mill towns around America, by the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is almost dead. The mill has long since been closed, the work outsourced to a factory in Mexico, and most of the businesses are shuttered and abandoned.

But the last Mrs. Whiting is still in control. She owns almost every piece of real estate in town and likes to believe she owns all the people too. In particular, she owns the Empire Grill restaurant, and its cook and manager Miles Roby stays at her beck and call, bound by a mixture of guilt and habit to a job he hates and a town he no longer loves.  

Will Miles break free? Or will he stay, and maybe marry Mrs. Whiting's only daughter? This is a really good story!

I also read by this author: Elsewhere

Early Warning

Fiction by Jane Smiley.


http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the sequel to the book Some Luck, which I read recently. Apparently it is the centerpiece to a trilogy about this family, so there should be a third book forthcoming.

Early Warning covers the family during the time period from the fifties through the seventies. It was less engaging to me that the first book, maybe because I like the Depression period better than the Swinging Sixties. (Which is weird of me, I know.) It could also be because it was covering many more characters as the family grew and branched out. This meant that when the author hopped back and forth between characters (which didn't bother me in the first book), I started getting lost and wondering whom we were talking about. Another factor here was that I started to truly dislike some of the people, and so was annoyed whenever the story moved to those individuals.

In any case, I found it much more difficult to read than the earlier novel, and a bit of a chore to slog through the 476 pages. Not a thumbs-up...

A Spool of Blue Thread

Fiction by Anne Tyler.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Oh my goodness.

WHAT a fabulous family story. I just love Anne Tyler.

Read this! PLEASE!!

....so I can talk to you about the characters.

I also read by this author recently: The Beginner's Goodbye.

Some Luck

Fiction by Jane Smiley

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This novel follows an Iowa farming family through the years 1920-1953. It's a great set of  portraits of several diverse characters, even including some convincing bits from the points of view of babies and children, which is unusual.

It's a really good "family-saga" type of book.