I recommended the books below in my book review/presentation at Gorton Community Center in January 2002.  Hope you enjoy!

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AFTERIMAGE – by Helen Humphreys – An exquisite work of fiction inspired by the life of late Victorian period photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Annie Phelan is a new maid at Middle Road Farm, the sprawling English country home of Isabel and Eldon Dashell. Annie’s mistress, Isabel, struggles with her desire to create art, and she begins to use Annie in her photographs, posing her in costumed portraits that are provocative and unusual. Eldon has created an elaborate imaginary world where he is a great world traveler and mapmaker. He tempts Annie by offering her books from his vast library. An intimate literary look at Victorian repression, awakening feminism, and class differences.

THE GARDENS OF KYOTO – by Kate Walbert – This first novel received high praise from reviewers for its elegant prose and compelling storytelling. Ellen is telling the story of her life in flashback, going back to when she was a young girl in wartime Philadelphia, the youngest of three sisters. Her closest relationship was to her cousin Randall, whom we know from the first sentence of the book, is doomed to die in WW II. The author weaves a tapestry of stories about her own family and Randall’s family, revealing family secrets as she goes. The reader is kept uncertain about how the stories will end, indeed if they are even true, as we rely only on Ellen’s memories. Themes of loss, the damages war inflicts on men, and the secrets that are kept in families.

WILD LIFE – by Molly Gloss – A historical novel set in the Oregon wilderness just after the turn of the century. The protagonist is Charlotte Bridger Drummond, single mother to five boys, science enthusiast, and writer of popular adventure stories for women. With a true frontierswomen personality, Charlotte becomes embroiled in a version of one of her own adventure stories when she joins a search party to look for the missing granddaughter of her housekeeper. Here the story (largely written as fictional diaries) takes a turn to the metaphysical – Charlotte herself becomes lost in the wilderness and is saved (or is she?) by a mythical tribe of bear-like creatures called the Sasquatch.

VOYAGE – by Philip Caputo – Caputo is best known for his work as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, and for his powerful book A Rumor of War. In this richly woven seafaring saga, he creates a tale of adventure that grips you from the start. The novel opens in June, 1901 with gruff seaman Cyrus Braithwaite packing his three young sons off on a 46 foot schooner, and telling them not to return until September. The boys are shocked at their father’s command, and as they set out from Maine and travel south toward the Florida Keys, they encounter adventures that test their courage and their family bonds. Eloquent writing, unforgettable characters, a gripping plot, an air of mystery, and family secrets revealed – all add up to a great read

A PERFECT ARRANGEMENT – by Suzanne Berne – Mirella and Howard are the perfect modern couple – Mirella has a thriving law practice, Howard has his architectural firm set up at home, they have two young children, and a lovely colonial home in a historic New England village. They hire a young nanny to help out with the children, and from the start, Randi Gill seems almost too good to be true. She cleans, cooks special dinners, does crafts with the children, and is overly solicitous toward all in her care. So what is wrong with this picture? Berne keeps the reader guessing as the Cook-Goldman’s marriage unravels, and Randi’s past catches up with her in this masterful novel that presents a modern-day dilemma in stark reality – who should watch the children?

LETTERS FROM YELLOWSTONE – by Diane Smith – Howard Merriam is a mild mannered scientist from Montana who is leading an expedition into Yellowstone in the late 1800s to study botany and other natural sciences. He receives a letter from A. E. Bartram, a young scientist from Cornell who wishes to join the field study. When Bartram arrives, and is found to be a young woman, the expedition is thrown into a quandary. They need the scientific help, but having a woman along is not what they had in mind. Alexandria proves herself to be independent, resourceful, curious, and passionate about her work. Alexandria’s qualities, played out against the stunning backdrop of Yellowstone before it became corrupted by tourism, change the lives of all involved with her and her spirit.

ON THE NIGHT PLAIN – by J. Robert Lennon – Author of another wonderful novel The Light of Falling Stars, Lennon writes once again of the harsh realities of landscape, and the even harsher realities of family and the human heart. Grant Person is one of six boys born to a family of sheep ranchers on the Great Plains. It is a hard life, made more difficult by the devastating deaths of four of the sons by various tragic circumstances. Grant leaves the ranch to find solace in another place, doesn’t find it, and returns home to find his mother has died, his father has left, and his only other brother leaves him and the ranch in total disarray. When that brother, Max returns with Sofia, a triangle forms which further tests the bounds of family love and loyalty. Beautifully and effortlessly written.

WINTER RANGE – by Claire Davis – The harsh realities of landscape once again become a metaphor for the difficulties in life in this suspenseful first novel by set in Montana. Sheriff Ike Parsons is a Wisconsin native who came to Montana to marry Pattiann the headstrong daughter of a rancher. He becomes caught up in a case of another rancher, Chas Stubblefield, a Montana native on hard times who is having a breakdown of sorts, and letting his livestock die of starvation. When Ike tries to force Chas to take care of his animals, issues of property and individual rights come up against humanity and morality, and Pattiann’s past with Chas comes into play as the drama is played out.

THE WORLD BELOW – by Sue Miller – Perhaps Sue Miller’s books should not be seen as "beyond the bestsellers", as she is a very popular author. But she is not a mega-seller; she is more of a literary novelist who might get overlooked unless you are a savvy reader. This novel follows typical Miller themes – the balances required in domestic life, family secrets, loss and longing, and women searching for meaning in midlife, often alone. There are two parallel stories woven here – one of Catherine Hubbard, twice divorced and floundering in her resolve to be a strong, independent woman, and the story of Georgia Rice, Catherine’s grandmother, whose found diaries illuminate a secret life of a woman in a different time.

BEL CANTO – by Ann Patchett – In an unnamed South American country, a band of terrorists invade a birthday party being held for wealthy Japanese businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Their plans of taking as hostage the country’s president are dashed, however (he has stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera), and the terrorists must now decide what to do with their eighty or so hostages, including international opera sensation Roxanne Coss. The interplay between the hostages and their captors, and among the hostages themselves as alliances are formed, and even love develops, is a fascinating study of human nature. The novel is also as lyrically written as its name suggests.

ALMOST – by Elizabeth Benedict – Sophy Chase is a ghostwriter of celebrity biographies, almost divorced, and floundering emotionally in a convenient relationship with NYC art dealer with four adopted Vietnamese children, whose wife is in a coma. She receives a call that her soon-to-be ex husband has just died, and she returns to Swansea, the island off the coast of Massachusetts where they lived together. There she is faced with the unusual circumstances of his death, the appearance of his two grown daughters and their mother, her attachment to the four children of her lover, and re-connecting with the various oddball year-rounders who live on the island of Swansea. A woman in a state of limbo, trying not to look back, but unable to avoid it.

THE SALT LETTERS – by Christine Balint – A young Australian writer debuts with a historical novel that takes place on an immigrant ship bound from England to Australia in 1854. Young Sarah Garnett of Shropshire is forced by circumstance to board a ship where the plight of a single woman traveling alone in reduced circumstances is comparable to the living conditions of the livestock aboard. As Sarah struggles to survive the unbearable living quarters of the ship, she tries to write her mother in Shropshire several times. As each letter opens though, Sarah is only able to write a few sentences before she veers off into her own ruminations on how she ended up where she is. A parallel story of Sarah’s eccentric sea-loving grandmother and her repressed mother run along Sarah’s own story, providing clues as to how family roles transition over generations.

HATESHIP, FRIENDSHIP, LOVESHIP, MARRIAGE – by Alice Munro – Many of the stories in the latest collection of Canadian writer Munro’s short stories first appeared in the New Yorker. Munro has always had incredible reviews and has won major literary prizes, but is not a writer with the name recognition of more mainstream writers. I consider her to be the best of the short story writers today. Her stories offer piercingly intimate glimpses into ordinary lives that are transformed by acts of love, infidelity, death, and betrayal.

LEAVING A TRACE (The Art of Transforming a Life Into Stories) – by Alexandra Johnson – I discovered this insightful, thoughtful writer with her previous book The Hidden Writer, which was also wonderful and won a PEN award for creative non-fiction. Johnson offers up gentle suggestions on how to use a journal for introspection, observation, and for use as a basis for later more creative work. Rather than recording a "joyless collection of grievances," a diary should be a true narrative of introspection and growth. Famous diarists are cited throughout adding to the appeal of the book.

WITHOUT RESERVATIONS: THE TRAVELS OF AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN – by Alice Steinbach – Steinbach was a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper journalist when in mid-life she decided to take a sabbatical from her job and life. Her two sons had recently finished college and she felt a need to challenge herself in some way. In this charming travel memoir, she takes the reader along on her journey – her love affair that begins in France, chumming around with some middle-aged matrons at Oxford, a young friend she meets in Milan. All the while Steinbach sends herself postcards, and peppers her narrative with insightful comments about what it means to be a woman traveling on her own.

HOLD ME CLOSE, LET ME GO – by Adair Lara – Subtitled, "A Mother, A Daughter, and an Adolescence Survived." Adair Lara, a popular columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle has written a perceptive and compelling true account of her teenage daughter’s maddening rebellion from the age of 13 to 18. A story of a family besieged by an unrepentant child who tries everything – drinking, drugs, lying, cheating in school, sex. The memoir balances that story with that of the author’s own difficult childhood – a father who abandoned his family of seven children, but now keeps reappearing, as difficult a person you could ever be related to and yet still love somehow. It sounds like it would be a downer, but Lara actually presents an honest, reflective look at dysfunction in families, and what it means to love and hold on.

MOTHERLAND – by Fern Schumer Chapman – A compelling, poignant, and sometimes funny memoir of a mother and daughter facing the mother’s past together in order to heal the present and future. When Edith Westerfield was twelve, she was sent from her small hometown in Germany to the U. S. to escape the Nazis. Five decades later she returns to the town with her now grown daughter, and struggles to reclaim her history. With truly memorable characters, and a graceful narrative, the story moves forward in a masterful way that keeps you thinking about the story long after you have read it.

THE MARRIAGE SABBATICAL (The Journey That Brings You Home) – by Cheryl Jarvis – A refreshing and candid look at long-term marriages today, and how time spent away from a marriage in the form of a sabbatical can nourish a woman’s soul and contribute to the health of a marriage. The author doesn’t just advocate a weekend in Palm Springs at a spa – she offers up the possibility that women who shelve their own professional and intellectual goals until after childrearing often benefit greatly from pursuing those dreams in the form of time spent away from the family in concentrated effort. Jarvis interviewed over fifty women, and also cites many therapists and psychologists, and addresses the question of when Mom wants to leave home how does she do it? The book is a very thoughtful analysis of the balance of power in marriages, as well as a cultural look at women and their difficulty in leaving home.

AUGUSTA GONE – by Martha Tod Dudman – Another true tale of adolescent rebellion with the theme of a mother and teenage daughter at the core. Even if you don’t have a teenage daughter, both books on this topic make you think about the delicate balance all families must live with. The author hopes that she has managed to give her son and daughter a good foundation in their lives. She has been divorced, but has managed to make a life for her family, has a very good job, and is a very conscientious mother. When her daughter starts a downward spiral of lying, drinking, and drugs, punctuated by running away and a suicide attempt, Dudman questions her parenting, and shares the torment of her love for her daughter.

DUTY FIRST – by Ed Ruggero – With the U. S. military in the foreground of the news today, this story of how the United States Military Academy at West Point shapes our military leaders, is both topical and thought provoking. Ed Ruggero was a West Point cadet, an infantry officer in the army, and an English professor at West Point. As he follows cadets through their training, he offers a leadership model that reverberates beyond the military. The personal stories of the young men and women at West Point give the reader an inside look at the elite training institution, but also lets us in on the stories of the people who prepare there.