“Trust” by Hernan Diaz

I was poised to dislike this novel with its dense and confusing beginning, but as I continued, I was intrigued and later enthralled with the four completely unique sections that fleshed out the story and illustrated the inherent power of wealth, the distress of imposed roles and gender inequities, and the ways in which truth seems to vary within the perception and purposes of the participants. The writing style in each part of the book significantly varies, starting with a fictional 3rd-person narrative detailing the life of 1920s financier Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen, and continuing in the next section as the unfinished draft of an autobiography by Wall Street tycoon Andrew Bevel, which is followed by the memoir of Ida Partenza, ghostwriter for Bevel’s autobiography, whose work leads her to the last section, a group of diary entries written in the months before her death by Andrew Bevel’s wife, Mildred. 5 Stars

“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