The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

I just read this wonderful book.  Wow! In verse, the narrator tells about his life playing on his high school basketball team along with his twin brother. Both star players, sons of a retired great player, they play different positions and are close buddies until one gets a girlfriend.  I am not a sports enthusiast but I was totally absorbed in this story so evocatively descriptive of a young boy excelling academically and in his chosen sport but struggling with his emotions.  Outstanding!

Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks

A lovely memoir of a young Australian girl growing up in a stable family environment but yearning to adventure into the larger World. She solicits penpals, and through her correspondence experiences some places far from home, and then grows up to become a foreign correspondent. The second part of this memoir takes up her life years later when she endeavors to find her penpals. Really enjoyed reading this book.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Major Pettigrew is a character of depth and interest and kept this reader absorbed for the entire story. Life in a small English village can be fraught with the gossip and judgment of neighbors but the Major is principled and handles actions and reactions with aplomb, and learns and adjusts when he on occasion stumbles. I really enjoyed this book.

The Wonder of Birds by Jim Robbins

A fascinating exploration of birds, their incredible diversity and their many wonderful and unique characteristics including demonstrable intelligence. Truly inspiring to learn about the many people studying and interacting with birds, and poignant to read about people whose psyches have been healed through their connection with birds. This is a paean to birds that excites the reader to care about birds and perhaps even work to ensure their future thriving in an increasingly human-dominated world. There was one little chapter that made me uncomfortable that described the author's pleasure in hunting pheasants, although my husband pointed out that often hunters are in the forefront of conservation of wild animals. Otherwise, I think this book is an important contribution to the literature about wildlife that is both accessible and informative.

The Fortunate Ones by Ellen Umansky

Wow. What a story! Children sent by their desperate parents to England to be raised by strangers all to escape Hitler's genocide. Two Austrian Jewish siblings reside with different families, separated from each other, their parents, their country of origin. Rose endures loneliness and loss over the many years of the war, and after the war upon learning that her parents died likely in a Concentration camp becomes absorbed with tracking down a painting her mother loved, and she remembers so well from their home.

The Last Days of Cafe Leila by Donia Bijan

A wonderful book, filled with characters I enjoyed meeting and getting to know. I want to enter the Cafe Leila, and share a meal with the many regulars who come seeking the conviviality and companionship of each other. This terrific book provides a heartfelt exploration of the human connections that make life meaningful.

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

A compelling story about three women who at the end of World War 2 share a previously luxurious castle home. trying to pick up the pieces of their lives in a devastated Germany. An interesting exploration of people who had to deal with what they knew about the horrific actions of the Hitler regime, their secrets, denials, acquiescences that enabled them to survive the horrors of the Holocaust and the war.

In The Great Green Room by Amy Gary

 An informative, interesting and quick read that focuses on this author's private life and relationships over the years she attended college and then developed into a children's author. It leaves me desirous to know more about her writing. I am familiar with only the most well known like Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. I do not want to be negative about this book but I find that I do need to express my regret that the book is so focused on this author's personal life. She was such a giant in writing children's books, and also in establishing children's books as a lucrative genre. I would love to know more about her impact on children's literature. It is sad to realize that she died so young. What other treasures might she have produced?

The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory

Fascinating historical fiction about Plantagenet Margaret Pole and her very precarious relationship to the Tudor family during the reigns of King Henry VII and then his son, King Henry VIII.  Married off to a kindly knight, she raises her family in rural obscurity hoping to avoid the horrible fate of her father and brother, both of whom were executed. She and her husband become foster parents for Arthur, the Prince of Wales, and then her life becomes gradually more intertwined in the Tudor Family travails as she develops a close relationship with Catherine of Aragon, and involved in caring for Princess Mary. Rich in detail and flavor, this book adds the perspective of an important player in the Tudor story.

Before We Visit The Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Absorbing narrative of three generations of Indian women. Well written novels about family trials, tribulations, and triumphs as well, provide a reader with much to contemplate, and a diversity of cultural experiences enriches our understanding of life.

Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner

Very difficult book to read/absorb about Cambodians who endured and survived the horrific Pol Pot regime.