March 2015
Carol's Latest Picks
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 The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant In 1915 Addie Blum is a young naive Russian Jewish girl living in Boston and wanting to escape the strict confines of her immigrant parents. Growing up in a multicultural neighborhood in the city's North End, Addie is intelligent and curious about the world her parents were unprepared for; that curiosity that draws her toward new opportunities for women. From a one-room tenement apartment in which she lived with her parents and two sisters, Addie recalls her life adventures during the next seventy years sharing the story with her twenty-two-year-old granddaughter who asks her, "How did you get to be the woman you are today?" Diamant brings the reader a wonderful novel telling the story of a young girl caught between Old World values and the desire to become a "new woman" as she reveals to her granddaughter a reality: there will always be those who try to tell you who you should be, but there are the true friends who help you find out for yourself. Highly recommended. Book clubs, put this on your list. (Scribner, $26.00). Reviewed by Carol
Deb adds: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, especially with its Boston setting. |
 Gray Mountainby John Grisham
Samantha Kofer is a young lawyer with a huge Wall Street law firm whose career is on the fast track when the 2008 recession hits causing the firm to down-size and Samantha is furloughed. She is offered the opportunity to work at a legal-aid clinic for a year without pay and with the chance to get her old job back. She moves to small-town Brady, Virginia in the heart of Appalachia and finds work at the town's legal-aid clinic as Mattie Wyatt teaches her to "help real people with real problems". In the heart of coal country large companies are strip-mining and making millions while destroying the land and lives of its population and Samantha becomes involved in cases where locals are fighting laws often broken and rules and regulations ignored by the company owners. She soon finds herself engulfed in litigation that turns deadly. Can she cut the ties she has made in Brady, leaving families she has fought legal battles for and the colleague friends she has bonded with? Job offers are beckoning her back to Manhattan, enticing her with earning big bucks, the likes she will never see if she stays in Brady. Grisham's latest novel is full of surprises in a gripping thriller full of twists and turns. (Doubleday, $28.95). Reviewed by Carol
Deb adds: the audio was absorbing and you will not think of the coal industry in the same way again. (Random House, unabridged $45.00, abridged $32.00).
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 The Lewis Man by Peter May The author describes his novel's setting as "the narrow neck of the world" in this second book in The Lewis Trilogy which takes place on the Outer Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. May proves himself to be a master storyteller as the plot moves between past and present passions, jealousies, suspicions and regrets, holding the emotional secrets of a black island that is buried even deeper than its peat bogs. Fin Macleod, an Edinburgh detective first introduced in The Blackhouse, returns intent on mending past relationships and restoring his parents' derelict small farm on Lewis Island. But Fin again finds himself chasing the past when a corpse is discovered and there is a familial match to a childhood sweetheart. Looking for a new suspense author? Introduce yourself to Peter May. His novels are gripping, full of twists and turns, and his depiction of the island and its history is as impressive as the suspense action he weaves into his plots. (Quercus, $26.99). Reviewed by Carol
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 The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman have been married less than a year and relocated from Australia to New York City. Rosie now tells Don they have "something to celebrate" which has Don facing a bigger challenge than the one he previously had in finding a partner with his earlier project. Rosie drops a bombshell: "We are pregnant", which sends Don seeking advice from friends, a therapist, and even the Internet in order to prepare for the fatherhood he hadn't yet anticipated. When the advice he seeks results in danger of prosecution, deportation, and bringing him close to professional disgrace, Don approaches his impending parenthood like the logical and methodical scientist he is. But will he risk losing Rosie? Continuing from the screwball comedy the author brought readers in his bestselling The Rosie Project, he returns with this sequel in a smart love story that again left me laughing out loud. Funny, wise and wholly heartwarming. Highly recommended. (Simon & Schuster, $25.00). Reviewed by Carol
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Madame Picasso 
by Anne Girard
The author brings to life the untold story of Eva Gouel , the woman who steals the heart of Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest artists of our time. Brilliant and eccentric, Picasso had many lovers, but early in his life Eva captures his attention as a young seamstress who comes to Paris and finds work as a costumer at the famous Moulin Rouge. What starts as a torrid affair soon becomes the first love of Picasso's life. Madame Picasso brings the reader a strong and courageous heroine in a sweeping and beautiful love story that will take you on a journey from the glamorous Moulin Rouge to the legendary salon of Gertrude Stein and inside the studio of one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century. Highly recommended for book clubs. (Harlequin Mira, $14.95) Reviewed by Carol.
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