The Woman Next Door

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso is a novel set in South Africa in a neighborhood where two older women, one black, one white, live next door to each other. They have both recently lost their husbands and circumstances bring them together even though they have always hated each other.

Omotoso's writing is so subtle you hardly realize you are unearthing the deep pains that reside in a country so long fractured by apartheid. Powerful, funny, incisive and honest. A great read.

Radio Girls

Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford is historical fiction about some of the first women in radio, specifically Hilda Matheson of the BBC. 1920's London, after WW1 when there were beginning to be fascist rumblings from Germany, Matheson was not only a director of the Talks programs at the BBC, but also a spy.

The BBC was one of the few places women could work, and Stratford does a wonderful job of exploring the early days of radio, and what life was like for women who wanted to work and not just get married. A great read.

Faithful

Faithful by Alice Hoffman is a novel about a 17 year old girl who gets in a car crash that leaves her best friend almost dead and in a coma. Shelby, the one who walks away, is devestated and can't forgive herself.

Hoffman is one of my favorite writers; in this book, we travel with Shelby through her breakdown, grief, self destruction and eventual path back towards life, love and happiness.

Beautifully written, a worthwhile read.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery is a beautiful book about a very intelligent 12 year old girl and a 54 year old concierge in an apartment building in France that no one notices, because she seems unremarkable, although in truth, she is also quite brilliant. The chapters switch between these two characters as they observe life in the building around them, until a new tenant one day brings them all together.

Beautifully written, full of observations about life and love, art and movies, music, books, cats, Japanese culture, and the inner workings of the mind and heart. Funny, sad, philosophical; I fell in love with this book and the characters and was sad to see it end.