Fiction

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.  “A love triangle among three Brown graduates, set in the early 1980s. Eugenides really gets the pompous pseudo-intellectual talk of Ivy League grads, and also treats mental illness in a very compassionate and interesting way.”

Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln by Janis Cooke Newman. From Amazon: "Mary is a novel written in the first person, comprised of notes composed by Mary Todd Lincoln when she was an inmate of a lunatic asylum. She takes up her pen to block out the screams and moans of the other inmates and to save her own sanity. According to these notes, although she held séances in the White House and drove her family deeply into debt because of compulsive shopping, she was perfectly sane. She makes a good case for herself, despite occasional manic behavior and often uncontrollable grief." From an Amazon reviewer: "It is a cracking good read; rich in detail, engrossing, and an interesting take on an historical figure who continues to be controversial. Like Margaret George's "Autobiography of Henry VIII"--another great example of looking at familiar events through the eyes of its often-maligned main character--Newman allows Mary Todd Lincoln writes her own story, this time from the asylum where her son Robert has committed her."

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes. “Matterhorn is an incredible, realistic story that made me feel like I was just pushed off a chopper and into a landing zone of jungle madness fought by kids barely old enough to vote but not old enough to rent a car. Powerful, eye opening, worthwhile and surprisingly entertaining but probably not for everyone.”

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid. "A big tragedy happens just as a woman is making a decision. Alternating chapters tell the story of both paths she could’ve taken." After living in six different cities and holding a number of meaningless jobs, twenty-nine year old Hannah Martin still doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. She decides to move back to her hometown of LA and live with her best friend Gabby. During a night out with Gabby, Hannah reunites with her old high-school boyfriend, Ethan. Just after midnight, Hannah is faced with a decision to leave the party with her friend Gabby, or to stay with Ethan and get a ride with him later. In two parallel storylines, we see how each scenario plays out into totally different stories, with large-scale consequences for Hannah's life.

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes—“This is one of those books that really makes you sad to finish. Charming characters and good twists. Heartbreaking and also happy if that is possible.” …  “love love the subtle romance and touching "sigh" resolution. Nice to read a story about a bright 20 something in search of finding her importance too.” …  “the perfect beach book if you don't mind your tears falling into the surf. It's the stereotypical love story between people who have no business falling in love - but it's gorgeously written and makes a real statement about what's important in life. On a scale of 1 to 10, this one is an 11." 

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd.  This 2005 novel followed on the heels of Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, and while it wasn't as big a hit as Bees, it was well reviewed and many contributors enjoyed it.  From Amazon: "Inside the church of a Benedictine monastery on Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.  When Jessie Sullivan is summoned home to the island to cope with her eccentric mother’s seemingly inexplicable behavior, she is living a conventional life with her husband, Hugh, a life “molded to the smallest space possible.” Jessie loves Hugh, but once on the island, she finds herself drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk about to take his final vows. Amid a rich community of unforgettable island women and the exotic beauty of marshlands, tidal creeks, and majestic egrets, Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, with a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right and the immutable force of home and marriage."

Messy by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan.“Follows their YA debut last year (Spoiled) and carries forth a new storyline from most of the characters in the original book.  Clever writing, sharp pop culture bits.  Love it."

Metropolis by Elizabeth Gaffney: "Historical fiction set in NYC during building of Brooklyn Bridge."  From Amazon: "On a freezing night in the middle of winter, Gaffney’s nameless hero is suddenly awakened by a fire in P. T. Barnum’s stable, where he works and sleeps, and soon finds himself at the center of a citywide arson investigation.  Determined to clear his name and realize the dreams that inspired his hazardous voyage across the Atlantic, he will change his identity many times, find himself mixed up with one of the city’s toughest and most enterprising gangs, and fall in love with a smart, headstrong, and beautiful young woman. Buffeted by the forces of fate, hate, luck, and passion, our hero struggles to build a life–just to stay alive–in a country that at first held so much promise for him." 

Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French.  Based on a true crime story (this book is of the "creative non-fiction" genre).  The book is about the murder of a young Englishwoman and its effect on the last days of colonial Peking and "Old China." French explores the question around the unsolved murder.  Was the victim an innocent schoolgirl, or was she a young rebel enjoying Peking at its most exciting?  The author follows the investigations by the Chinese police and the British legation, then an independent investigation funded by the victim's father, then forms his own theory.

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. "I liked this BEFORE Oprah picked it, thank you very much.  It's a riveting courtroom drama about a midwife in Vermont and a birth that went wrong. It is narrated by the midwife's 14-year-old daughter." Skeletons at the Feast and The Double Bind (also reviewed) are also good page-turners.