This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Excellent story that compassionately reveals the travails endured by young people interred in a boarding school for Native American Youth stolen from their parents to be indoctrinated in the "values" of the dominant White culture. A group of four children, three white orphans and one Native American escape the school and go on a journey. The time period is the early thirties and the horrific consequences of the Depression become a part of their story as they make their way South in a boat. The young narrator is an appealing character whose storytelling weaves its way into the heart of the reader, at least this reader. Recommended.

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

A middle-aged couple loses their home, and the husband is newly diagnosed with a terminal illness but their kids are launched so they decide to walk the South West Coast Path in Great Britain. Descriptions of nature are often lyrical even as the narrative also describes the difficulties of wild camping along the trail, surviving on a low budget barely adequate to cover the cost of food, and enduring cold and wind buffeting their tent. Infused with thoughtful reflection on their experience of life, and their enduring love for one another, this is a poignant travelogue.

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.

Lillian Boxfish takes a walk by Kathleen Rooney

 "The point of living in the world is just to stay interested" says Lillian Boxfish in this fictionalized journey through the life of a real woman who in the 1930s penetrated the world of advertising to become its most accomplished female voice at a time when clever, witty words had the power to manipulate consumers; and interested she remains over her long lifetime spent in a bustling, ever-changing New York City.  This delightful story works as a paean to both early feminism and the urban life of a remarkable city. Recommended.

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

Just finished this intense, depressing, and revealing narrative about Climate Change. Packed with information, data, and eye-opening descriptions of stakeholders in the battle between the toxic fossil fuel producers and the people concerned and struggling with the consequences of its horrific toxicity to our environment and all living creatures. The author also discusses Blockadia, the Environmental Movement newly blended with Social Justice issues. Blockadia spearheaded by Indigenous People who are fighting to protect their land and water from the Fossil Fuel Industry has grown into a powerful force as disparate groups like ranchers and Farmers have also joined their opposition to pipelines. Lots of food for thought!

Fastest Things On Wings by Terry Masear

"People feel so tightly bound to hummingbirds that the birds become miniature mirrors. In urban communities throughout Los Angeles, hummingbirds are the poster children for primal innocence, both theirs and ours. They symbolize the beauty of pristine nature before human civilization came tromping into paradise with its rough, heavy boots and mucked everything up. And despite our ongoing interference, these fearless spirits continue living alongside us, serving as a reminder of what once was, and what can be. This is why their deaths, as small and insignificant as they may seem, have the power to drive the hard truth of our own mortality straight home. Because in the end, as much as we work to deny it, our fundamental condition is not so different from theirs." The author with these words perhaps explains why so many people in LA choose to bring injured and orphaned hummingbirds to her for rehabilitation but her incredible descriptions and loving depictions of individual birds she has cared for, give her readers a wonderful appreciation for these tiny magical creatures. I have viewed these extraordinary creatures dart and hover in my front yard, and marveled at their lovely colors but never have I thought to exert the dedication, time and effort this author gives to her extraordinary patients, and her subsequent emotional strength then to release them back into the urban wild, never knowing what becomes of them. I admire her immensely but realize that I would not have the strength to undertake what she has for so many years. I read this book with awe and now hope that others will as well. Awesome book about awesome creatures, human and birds alike.