single mothers

Little Fires Everywhere is a spectacular title for Celeste Ng’s latest novel, as she carries that imagery throughout the story. Set mostly in Shaker Heights, Ohio, an affluent suburb of Cleveland during the mid-1990s, we meet the Richardson family (mother Elena and children Lexie, Trip, Moody, and Izzy) and the Warrens (Mia and her daughter Pearl). Artist Mia and Pearl have always lived a transient existence and have kept mostly to themselves. But when they settle in to Shaker Heights to stay, their lives intersect with the Richardsons' lives in unexpected and irreversible ways. I loved how

Evelyn Bucknow is at the center of everything. From her vantage point, the ten year old narrator of local author Laura Moriatry’s richly nuanced novel, The Center of Everything, sees all sides. She lives smack in the center of the United States with her single mother and disabled brother in a cheap apartment outside small-town Kerrville, Kansas. As she grows into a college-bound young adult, Evelyn witnesses the battle between her compassionately rebellious but immature mother and her loyal and stable but judgmental grandmother.

Escorting her mother to sign up for food stamps, Evelyn worries