families

If you are looking for a fast-paced action read, then this debut novel by Helen Simonson is not for you. However, if you love all things British and are interested in a gentle, entertaining read, then Major Pettigrew's Last Stand  is a novel you should not miss!

Ret. Major Ernest Pettigrew has lived his entire life in the small community of Edgecombe St. Mary, but in recent years many changes have come about putting the Major quite off his routine. First, his wife passed away and now his only sibling, his younger brother, Bertie, has died. The passing of his brother causes the Major to re

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen, author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon and Garden Spells, takes us this time to Walls of Water, North Carolina, which is famous for its waterfalls and the fog that they bring to the town.  Walls of Water is a small town that caters to the tourists that come to hike the trails and see the waterfalls.  Many of the families have lived in Walls for several generations.  Willa Jackson is a decendent of one of these families.  The Jackson family once the "leading" family of Walls met with financial ruin when the logging industry had dried up.  Willa and her

“If I only I opposable thumbs,” says Enzo, the narrator of this metaphor of life. Full of snippets of wisdom and insight, this is also the endearing story of a family in crisis. Enzo, a terrier-lab mix, is the soul-mate of Denny, an aspiring race car driver. Enzo and Denny became a pair when Denny is a bachelor, then a husband and father, a widower and accused felon. Enzo is more than a devoted companion and friend, he is a philosopher, guide and Denny’s biggest fan. “Your car goes where your eyes go” is Enzo’s mantra. Enzo enjoys watching television and has seen a documentary maintaining that

Chloe Pinter loves helping families realize their dream of having children through her job at a private adoption agency. And she’s good at it. But as one family’s dreams come closer to fruition, another family’s dreams are shattered, and Chloe is left to pick up the pieces.

In Chosen, Hoffman examines the motives of a private adoption agency and its staff, adoptive families, and birth mothers unable to care for their children. In some cases the situations are heart-wrenching, in others…well, in others it’s heart-wrenching. Each family, whether it is the Novas in persistent pursuit of a

After an adult Halpern moves in with his parents, he starts tweeting things his Dad says. In short order so many people are following his tweets that the media contacts him for interviews and appearances. Those tweets are compiled and found in Sh*t My Dad Says.  While I found most of the things his father says hilarious, I appreciate that some people are disturbed, not only by the foul language he uses, but the manner in which he addresses his children. For me, what saves the book from condemnation is that when told in context, it is obvious that Halpern Sr. loves his children. This is not

Life As We Knew It is the first book in Last Survivor trilogy. In my opinion, it is also the best book in the series and it can definitely be read as a standalone book. Susan Beth Pfeffer did an excellent job creating a powerful and realistic story about surviving a natural disaster.  

This fast paced, thoughtful story is told in a diary format by the main character, sixteen-year-old Miranda. After an asteroid hits the Moon and pushes it closer to the Earth, the Earth’s climate alters. Inevitably, worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes and erupting volcanoes change “life as we knew it”.  Due to

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine is the 2010 National Book Award winner in the Young People’s Literature Category. It is one of the best books I have read for a long time. It tells the story of Kaitlin, an intelligent fifth grade girl with Asperger’s syndrome. Kaitlin and her father’s lives are turned upside down when Kaitlin’s brother Devon is shot in a school shooting. Kaitlin and Devon were very close and it was Devon who helped Kaitlin to “fit in”. Now Kaitlin is left with her widowed, grief-stricken father and she does not have any friends. Fortunately, Kaitlin has Mrs. Brook, an excellent

It happens to all library users sooner or later. A book, for reasons unknown, appears on your hold shelf and you have no idea when or why you requested it. This time it was Flower Children by Maxine Swann, and while I have no recollection of requesting it, I’m glad I did. Told in short story format by the children of devout hippies, Flower Children offers a glimpse into a culture where children are raised without limits and adults show little restraint. Interestingly, the children know they have been exposed to things other children have not seen and it makes them uncomfortable, their coming

Set in Ulster in the early 20th Century, this is the tale of the “Irish issue” from the perspective of the O’Neill family – Eileen in particular. Her father raised her to be a warrior, and she had to fight for her family, her homeland, her job and her love. During the many dark days she held onto her dream of reuniting her family in The Yellow House, her childhood home painted bright yellow by her father. Eileen and her family suffer multiple tragedies, but as a warrior she perseveres. This book should appeal to readers who enjoy Irish history, family dynamics and a little romance.

This memoir, that reads like a novel and should appeal to anyone who enjoys family drama, defies convention when it comes to predictability. Jeannette Walls grew up in a family of nomads. She and her three siblings were born in the west to a couple who were brilliant but ungrounded, to say the least. Her father, Rex, had the makings of a scientist but alcoholism and wanderlust kept him from settling in a job too long. Her mother, Rose Mary, was a college-educated teacher who hated teaching. She saw herself as an artist and free spirit. Jeannette was born in Phoenix, but the family lived

Grab your tissues, ‘cause this one’s a tear jerker. In place of his senior year of high school, Zach is in rehab. He doesn’t remember why he’s there, so we learn about his circumstances as he works through remembering in group sessions, talking with his roommates and his counselor. What makes this book so powerful is that Zach, despite his addiction, sadness, and loneliness still manages to be a neat kid. You really want to see him succeed.

Warning: there is a dog on the cover of this book. There is a dog in the book. There is a dog living in Paul’s apartment, and she is a special dog. Don’t ask me if the dog dies. I already know you don’t want to read another book in which the dog dies. So don’t ask, because the book isn’t about the dog. The book is about Paul. Just as in Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain and Susan Wilson’s One Good Dog Nelson has pulled the old bait and switch. There is a dog (and I won’t tell you if he dies, so don’t ask), but the book isn’t about the dog.

Paul is just a regular guy leading a

A “stunning tale about a suburban family facing the consequence of a few small, and seemingly mundane, acts” pretty well describes this story told by the mother of the family, Mary Beth Latham. Mary Beth leads a fairly ordinary life, but she is satisfied with it, even if she occasionally feels that “something is missing.” Quindlen once again plumbs the depths of human emotion and family dynamics in telling this tale of the complexities and tragedies of everyday life. Readers who enjoy reading stories with character development and the thoughts of the narrative should enjoy this latest

Book Review
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

This book is interesting and did keep my attention. I cannot say I really “liked” it. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened to the girls. Told by “Ruthie”, the narrative follows the life of Ruthie and Lucille, sisters who are abandoned by their mother when she takes them to their Grandmother’s house and then drives her car off a cliff into the lake. Years earlier, Grandfather had died in a train wreck when the bridge gave out and it plunged into the lake. The setting is Fingerbone, Idaho, a town in the far west. Before Grandma

Adriana Trigiani is an award winning author of popular romantic fiction. This book introduces us to the life of Italian-American Valentine Roncalli. Valentine is a beautiful single woman, who recently inherited a successful shoe business and fell in love with an Italian man. (Yes, it is a romance book, after all…..) The story takes us from Greenwich Village to Tuscany and Buenos Aires, as Valentine tries to expand her family business and keep up her long-distance relationship at the same time. The book has funny parts with several colorful characters, and some Italian phrases to practice your

There are many things we practice for: a test, an interview, a sports event. In the early and middle part of last century women sometimes practiced being a mother. There were home economic programs at some colleges that offered female students the opportunity to learn about motherhood firsthand. Orphaned babies were loaned to the program for a year or two in order for the student, or practice, mothers to learn about taking care of a real baby. The effect of being raised by, and passed on to, more than one mother is explored in the book The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald. The story

Charlaine Harris has become fairly well-known for her Sookie Stackhouse series. She has also written several other series, including the Harper Connelly series. The main character, Harper Connelly was struck by lightning when she was a teenager. This left her with the ability to sense dead people. As well, she can sense their last few moments of life, essentially giving her information about the cause of death. Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver, travel around the country to wherever someone hires them to find a dead body. While Harper's unusual ability qualifies this series as supernatural

While I'm Falling by Laura Moriarty is an easy read with a local Kansas flavor, specifically featuring Lawrence. In this coming of age story, Moriarty in her typical fashion explores relationships and how a major event such as divorce in this case, affects the parents, the children and their future decisions about life. Told from daughter Veronica's point of view through most of the story, this book draws you in quickly and keeps you turning the page. Veronica and her family deal with many issues including, divorce, homelessness, and abduction, not to mention personal value systems, self

Kansas author Moriarty follows The Center of Everything with a second thoughtful book, The Rest of Her Life. When high school senior Kara accidentally hits and kills a fellow high school student in her car she changes the course of not only her own life, but of family, friends and strangers alike. Moriarty examines the repercussions of the accident from many different perspectives without resorting to fabricated melodrama.

Fans of Jodi Picoult and Chris Bohjalian will appreciate this novel not only for the exploration of character, but the truthful way the story unfolds.

When David was eleven, a family friend noticed a bump in his neck. Three and a half years later he would finally have the lump removed. Despite being told he was fine, two surgeries left David with only one vocal chord and a huge scar down his throat and neck. It wasn’t until later that David would learn he had had cancer and had not been expected to live. Small, a well-deserved award winning illustrator possesses an almost creepy ability to convey complex emotions through his drawings. The story itself is remarkable and the illustrations serve to heighten the impact. A must read regardless of

Starting at a young age, Jack Acheson observes first-hand the development of Kings County, a fictionalized Johnson County, KS. Jack’s father, Alton Acheson, capitalized on the plans to build I-35 by buying property along the future highway, mostly through manipulation and by unscrupulous means. His father’s involvement with the principle players in Kansas City’s history positions Jack firmly in a circle of friends with influential parents. Alton is not above using unfortunate events to his advantage and is a driving force in the instigation of white-flight that turned Troost Avenue into a very

Along with the long-forgotten contents of the basement of the Panama Hotel, Henry Lee’s memories of 1940’s Seattle are unearthed.  When new hotel owners start to renovate the boarded up, old Japanese-designed building they discover the personal belongings of numerous Japanese families who were interned during WWII. As a resident of Seattle’s Chinatown, just the other side of the Panama Hotel from Japantown, Henry witnessed first-hand the removal of the Japanese. His friendship with a Japanese classmate leads him to hold a special interest in the dusty belongings of one family in particular

When Charlie Nancy’s estranged father passes away, family secrets come tumbling out at the funeral. Disbelieving that he could possibly be the son of a god, Charlie inadvertently calls the brother he didn’t know he had into his life. Havoc ensues and Charlie must find a way to extricate himself from his brother while learning what it means to be the son of Anansi, the African and Caribbean trickster god. Adult fans of Harry Potter will enjoy the sudden revelation of a secret life and Charlie’s ensuing transformation. Fans of mythology might enjoy the interweaving of the traditional Anansi

Senna’s narrative is very much in the vein of Walls’ The Glass Castle or Bragg’s All Over But the Shoutin. It surpasses both for its examination, not only of Senna’s parents relationship, but for its exploration of identity today, yesterday and tomorrow.

Carl Senna is a black man born in the south when Jim Crow was alive and well. Fanny Howe, on the other hand, was born of eminent Bostonians whose histories are traceable back to the Mayflower. Of her parents’ divorce Senna says “The divorce was so ugly because the marriage was so unequivocally beautiful. My parents’ marriage had been steeped

According to Wikipedia, a “coming of age” story is one which details a young person's transition from adolescence to adulthood. This describes Every Last Cuckoo, except Sarah Lucas’ transition is one from a comfortable coupled existence as a mature woman to one in which she must make her own way. At seventy-five, Sarah’s husband of fifty years has died unexpectedly leaving Sarah and their two dogs alone in their rural Vermont home. After months of grieving and reminiscing about both good times and bad, Sarah is forced out of her depression when she takes in her troubled grand-daughter, Lottie

Alford’s exploration of what constitutes wisdom and where it comes from read a little more lightly than I would have expected. While Alford has done his research and shares many of the gems he has gleaned from his reading, I didn’t feel enlightened. His experiences during his mother’s divorce and his interviews with the elderly are entertaining, but they impart no wisdom in the end. I would be more impressed with How to Live had I not recently read The Geography of Bliss, in which Eric Weiner visits places deemed happiest by the Institute of World Happiness. The research provided a consistent

David Sheff shares the heart-breaking story of his son Nic’s tenuous life on drugs. Interwoven in the story are the results of research and studies about kids from shared custody homes, the affects of drugs (especially Methamphetamine) on the human body and psyche, and advice from a variety of sources for friends and families of addicts. Beautiful Boy especially resonates with me, as Sheff searches for answers as to how this could have happened to his son and in what ways he might be responsible. As a single mom, I was able to identify sobering parallels between his family situation and my own

My reaction to Invisible Monsters is much the same as my great Aunt Kack’s to Northern Exposure back in the 80’s. She couldn’t believe what “they” were putting on TV, and I can’t believe what “they” are putting in print. And yet, just as my great Aunt Kack could be found in front of the boob tube every Monday night, for the past week or so, I could be found sprawled on my sofa reading Invisible Monsters.

When Shannon McFarland’s jawbone is shot off in a drive-by shooting, she winds up in a hospital for an extended stay. On her first venture outside a little boy calls her a monster. Enter