Harmony

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst is a novel about a family with two daughters, one autistic, and a family searching for help understanding how to deal with it. The mother meets an educator who is starting a camp out in the woods in New Hampshire, free of modern technology where families can come with their special needs kids and live in a healthy, technology free, communal way.

There are big red flags and it is clear from the start that something is going to go tragically wrong; I didn't like the ending of the book. However, Parkhurst writes with such compassion and insight about a family dealing with an autistic child that I couldn't put it down. A beautifully written, brilliant novel.

Pekoe Most Poison

Pekoe Most Poison, A Tea Shop Mystery, by Laura Childs takes us back to the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston with another murder for proprietor and amateur sleuth Theodosia Browning to investigate. This time one of the town's wealthy elite drops dead at a fancy tea party in front of fifty or so guests, any one of which could be the murderer.

Nothing heady here, just a bit of fun to read with a good cup of tea, and loads of great tea and tea-time recipes in the book are sure to please tea lovers.

The Garden of Small Beginnings

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman is a sweet, if a bit predictable, novel about a woman who lost her husband three years ago and with the help of her sister is raising her two young daughters. She gets a job illustrating a book about vegetables, so work pays for her to take a gardening class where she meets various interesting people and maybe even the man of her dreams.

There were some laugh out loud moments, make you cry moments and surprisingly tender moments. Overall I enjoyed the book. Sweet, harmless, enjoyable, just not knock your socks off great, which I was hoping for.

Barren Cove

Barren Cove by Ariel S.Winter is a futuristic sci-fi novel about a world in which robots rule and very few humans are left alive. One older human built robot retreats to Barren Cove where a sick aging human is said to live. There he meets other robots and ponders the meaning of his existence.

There were moments when this book was quite thoughtful and interesting, and other moments when it seemed silly and depressing. Although I enjoyed it while reading it, by the end I was left feeling melancholy, the whole story was rather sad and pointless.

Circling the Sun

Circling the Sun by Paula McClain is my favorite kind of book. Historical fiction about a fascinating woman ahead of her time, in this case Beryl Markham, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Beryl is English born, then brought to Kenya as a young child. Her mother returns to England after only two years and when she is five she is left alone with her father who raises racehorses and owns a farm. It is a wild and free life.

If you liked Out of Africa, you will love this book. Beryl becomes fast friends with Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen who are the center of Isak Dinesen's novel, and appear here as well. A great read, full of romance and adventure.

The Guineveres

The Guineveres by Sarah Domet is a novel about four teenage girls named Guinevere each left by their family at a Convent. Intermixed with the chapters about the girls are stories of female saints who all suffered brutally.

I kept waiting for something interesting to happen the whole book, and when it finally did I was unsure if it was more ridiculous or disturbing. Either way, a sad, depressing, highly disappointing read. This is one to skip.

All The Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a masterpiece. I put off reading this book for some time as I had to take a break from reading books set during WWII. Although it is truly sad and tragic in many ways, its also one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.

The story follows Werner, a young German orphan living in a mining town with few prospects, until he is noticed for his ability to build radios and fix things; and Marie-Laure, a blind French girl living with her father in Paris. The characters, the story, the writing are all brilliant, this is one not to be missed. I just wish it had been a little less heartbreaking.

Pond

Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett is a rambling little stream of consciousness book of connected stories of daily life by an unnamed female narrator living in an unnamed coastal village in an unnamed European country. She spends a lot of time eating porridge and taking out the compost.

Some reviewers found this book brilliant and highly original. I found it interminable.