The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter by Hazel Gaynor

Enjoyable historical fiction about a young woman who helped her father and brother keep an island lighthouse operational in the 1830s. One stormy night, she and her father go out in a small boat to try to rescue survivors of a sinking ship, and as a result, she becomes famous much to her dismay. This interesting story also introduces a fictional relative of one of the survivors who more than 100 years later ends up at a lighthouse in Newport, Rhode Island. Their stories in separate chapters offer a satisfying look at the largely unrecognized existence of women lighthouse keepers.

That Good Night by Sunita Puri

This is an important book to read. We all face death at some point. I know what I fear most is enduring pain. I do not want to suffer. This author, a doctor who has specialized in the care of patients who are facing the end of life issues of extraordinary care vs palliative care addresses this important life stage in a poignant and informative narrative that invites thought and discussion

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

This is a fascinating book about a search for identity after a 54-year woman discovers that her biological father was not the man who raised her but instead a sperm donor. Looking into a mirror in a self-described obsessive manner while growing up, she sensed she was different from the others in her family. She knew that the face that stared back at her did not resemble anyone else in her family. Then a DNA test reveals that she is not related to her half-sister, therefore the father she loved deeply was not her father. Now her driving force becomes, "Who am I?" And further, this narrative also devels into the industry and ethics of anonymous sperm donations wherein millions of children never know their fathers or perhaps even their true origins. In an interview, a purveyor of sperm remarks unfeelingly to her, " Why is it traumatic? You're here, aren't you?" WOW! This is a book that many who have an anonymous parent, or a known parent who never had anything to do with them may find difficult to read because it addresses reality and pain we experience all our life. Perhaps it may also open up an awareness of a poignant "circumstance" that millions experience.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana DeRosnay

Yet another poignant story that illuminates the horrific conditions that Jewish people faced during the Hitler era. July 16. 1942 in France is a date that will live in infamy. French Jews were seized by French police from their homes and sent in waves, men first then women than their children to Auschwitz to be exterminated. In this fiction, a young girl escapes the physical extermination but suffers instead a unique internal anguish precipitated by the round-up. This story centers around a Journalist who gradually unravels the details of this fictional but eminently believable event.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

Fascinating historical fiction. Considerable information interspersed amidst the fictional story and characters. This book describes a culture on a Korean Island Jeju in which women dive in cold water without oxygen and earn a difficult and sometimes deadly living harvesting fish and shellfish while their husbands stay at home and tend the children and cook meals for their family. In the aftermath of WW2 and the division of Korea into North and South, this story unfolds amid the horrific consequences of the resulting murderous discord. In concentric circles expanding outward, this is a story of two girls who develop a touching but problematic friendship which is subsequently torn asunder as a result of a heinous historical massacre of many of the residents of the island. Then their stories and that of their various family members continue to unfold over decades.

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Really enjoyed this story. The main character, Kya was so poignantly alive to me. Nature, her environment was also wonderfully characterized. The description of the life of the marshlands of the Carolina coast enabled me to feel like a visitor to this unique habitat. A story of a young child who survives abandonment and endures loneliness, the few important people in her life, and always the incredible presence of an environment both harsh and also beautiful and nurturing. I loved this book.