“Go As A River: A Novel” by Shelley Read

Sometimes the elements of a book are simple –graceful, descriptive phrasing that tells a good story with characters you care about, and this book has just that, as it tells the tale of Victoria Nash, a young girl living with her father and brother on a peach farm near the small town of Iola, Colorado from the1940s to the 1970s. As Victoria comes of age, she becomes involved with a Native American boy passing through town, an encounter that gives her a chance to experience love, but also brings her face to face with injustice, prejudice, and hate crimes, and leaves her with decisions that will radically change the entire course her life. 4 Stars

“The Berry Pickers: A Novel” by Amanda Peters

In this beautifully rendered tale, a loving, hard-working Mi’kmaw family annually travels from Nova Scotia to Maine in the 1960s to pick berries, but when a family member suddenly goes missing, the tragedy creates lifetime trauma and loss for each person in the family. Written in alternating chapters, with two narrators, the story is by turns poignant, suspenseful, and heartwarming, while strongly describing the prejudice that was experienced by indigenous people and migrant workers. 5 Stars

“The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride

In a heartwarming, poignantly sad, and yet hopeful tale, with characterizations that are rich with details and eye-opening in their perspective, the author tells the story of both Black and Jewish residents of “Chicken Hill”, (a dilapidated part of Pottstown, Pennsylvania) who are marginalized victims of discrimination, and centers on the story of Moshe Ludlow, who runs a dance hall catering to the Black community, Moshe’s Black employee Nate, a man with a questionable past, and Moshe’s wife Chona. Chona insists on running a less than profitable grocery store as a needed resource for the area, and makes sure her family continues to live on Chicken Hill long after many Jewish families moved to more affluent areas, and although she has seen much tragedy, she is a light in the community, but when she takes a young, black, deaf boy into her home, prejudice and vindictiveness erupt from white Pottstown residents, and the whole Chicken Hill community is affected. 5 Stars

“I Must Betray You” by Ruta Sepetys

Before reading this book, I knew next to nothing about 1980s Romania, part of the Communist Bloc, and had never considered what it would be like to live in never-ending fear and suspicion, with total invasive surveillance by a government under the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, living in poverty in stark concrete buildings, trying to hear the truth from Radio Free Europe, robbed of any kind of freedom, and more importantly living in  the kind of fear that crushes all hope and dreams. In this gut-wrenching historical fiction set in 1989, just as other Communist regimes are falling apart, Cristian, a young teenage boy, longs to give voice to his nation’s plight, is manipulated into spying on others against his will, and eventually must overcome danger, persecution, and deep betrayal to find the freedom and life he knows is out there.  4 1/2 Stars

“The Jane Austen Society: A Novel” by Natalie Jenner

In this gentle, moving book, the author creates a group of people in post-war England who have all suffered various trauma, and who have a common love of Jane Austen’s writings, along with a deep desire to keep her legacy alive in the small village of Chawton, Hampshire, where Austen lived at the end of her life.  When they gradually come together to form a society to preserve artifacts and attempt to buy Jane Austen’s old cottage for a museum, they not only open themselves to find like-minded friends, but also find purpose and healing, both in the relationships with each other, and in the curative power of literature. 5 Stars

“Fairy Tale” by Stephen King

I don’t usually read Stephen King books since horror is not my genre, but “Fairy Tale” is more fantasy than horror, and the first half of the book is an intriguing story about Charley, a teenager dealing with tragedy, who begins to change when he starts taking care of Radar, a dog belonging to an elderly neighbor who fell off a ladder. In the second half of the book, Charley discovers that the old man has visited a magical, secret world, and when Charley takes Radar on a quest to that world, he experiences the powerful presence of evil, becomes friends with people disfigured by the evil, gets captured by the palace guard, and eventually leads a quest to depose the traitorous leader who sold his soul in order to become king. 4 Stars

The Mystery Guest: A Maid Novel #2″ by Nita Prose

In the second book of this series, Molly the maid is now proudly the “Head Maid” at the Regency Grand Hotel, and her attention to detail, obsession for cleaning, and the sense of fair play she learned from her Gran, combine to give her all she needs to solve the mystery that once again plagues the hotel, when a well-known writer collapses just as he is about to make a startling announcement. With a cast of clever characters, lots of twists and turns, and many flashbacks to give insight into Molly’s character and decisions, the warmth and charm of this cozy mystery is sure to delight. 4 Stars

“A Song of Comfortable Chairs” Book 22 in the #1 Ladies Detective Series by Alexander McCall Smith

This twenty-second book in the series is every bit as delightful and thought-provoking as the others and is filled with little tidbits of common sense from Mma. Ramotswe like this quote: “We should love one another, she thought, not only because it was the right thing to do, but also because it was far easier than hating one another. People who hated often had to work quite hard at keeping their hatred warm.” If you liked the other books in this series, you will love this one too, as Mma. Ramotswe devises plans to help Mma. Makutsi’s husband, Phuti Radiphuti, whose furniture business is being threatened, and also help a friend whose son is threatening his mother’s chance at happiness. 4 Stars

“Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen” by Susan Gregg Gilmore

This southern story was a predictably nice way to pass the time, as it was filled with unusual small-town characters, had a bit of humor, and was basically retelling the familiar “coming of age” story of a girl who always wanted to leave town to follow her dream, only to find it was in her own backyard. Although Catherine Grace lost her mother, she had a good life growing up with her sister and their single father, a loving, respected minister in small-town 1970s Georgia, but Catherine Grace has always wanted bigger things, and on her18th birthday she leaves home to start living her dream, only to have events occur that suddenly bring her back home. 3 Stars

“The Roaring Days of Zora Lily” by Noelle Salazar

I did enjoy this fascinating story which captured the flavor of the nineteen-twenties, describing the club scene during prohibition, the changes in fashions, and the shift in women’s attitudes and opportunities during that time period, but the story actually starts with a modern day museum employee who discovers a 1920s dress by an unknown designer, and I wish more of that modern-day story had been interspersed with the life story of Zora, a girl living in poverty who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Zora’s story seemed to drag at times with a lot of repetition in describing her early life, dating, love affair, tragedies, disappointments, low self-esteem, and the setbacks of pursuing her dream, and although most of the characters in the book were believable, the choices Zora made late in the story, in regard to Harley, the love of her life, did not always ring true. 4 Stars (Still in all a good read).