Blue Nude by Elizabeth Rosner

     The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Elizabeth Rosner of Berkeley wrote her first novel about the secrets such trauma engenders in a family, particularly the temptation to bury the past. The two principal characters in Rosner's novel Blue Nude are descended from Nazi and Jew, and both have been trying without success to forget their pasts when fate brings them together.

     Merav grew up on a kibbutz in Israel with a mother who had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Germans. After Merav's lover was killed in a bus bombing, she emigrated to America, trying to escape the violence. She has found herself in San Francisco, working as an artist's model, a trade for which she has a real talent. Merav has had boyfriends and a brief marriage but has been unable to build a lasting relationship with anyone.

REVIEW BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER, CANADA

Dry. A memoir. by Augusten Burroughs



What a poweful memoir!  As Augusten must come to terms with his alcholism, and concurrently his abusive childhood, his ex-lover's deeath from AIDS, the job he dislikes, and rehab and AA meetings, he uses humour and sharp description to allow the reader an inside view of his struggle. I recommend this.

The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier

Ella Turner (Tournier) and her husband, Rick, travel to France for a work assignment of Rick's. Peculiar dreams connect Ella to ancestors from the 1500's. This sets her on a journey of self-discovery which takes the reader to the story of the Tourniers at the time of the Catholic persecution of the Calvinists and Huguenots. Ella meets 'family' in Switzerland, giving her a respite from her problems with her husband.  She is falling in love with a local librarian, at the same time as she has become pregnant.  A variety of characters in the present and the past generate the colour of their lives. Ella must make serious decisions and put to rest the Virgin blue that invades her mind.

This Body of Death by Elizabeth George

While DI Thomas Lynley is still on compassionate leave after the murder of his wife, Isabelle Ardery is brought into the Met as his temporary replacement. The discovery of a body in a Stoke Newington cemetery offers Isabelle the chance to make her mark with a high profile murder investigation. Persuading Lynley back to work seems the best way to guarantee a result: Lynley's team is fiercely loyal to him and Isabelle needs them - and especially Barbara Havers - on side. The Met is twitchy: a series of PR disasters has undermined its confidence. Isabelle knows that she'll be operating under the unforgiving scrutiny of the media, so is quick -- perhaps too quick - to pin the murder on a convenient suspect. The murder trail leads Lynley and Havers to the New Forest, and the eventual resolution of the case. Its roots are in a long-ago act of violence that has poisoned subsequent generations and its outcome is both tragic and shocking. Review by GoodReads.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

This novel does not disappoint.  I've always enjoyed the history of the 'Biblical' times.  Whether I'm reading The Red Tent or Testament, I remained glued to the pages.  The Dovekeepers is a complicated story of four women who each tell their story of how they came to be at the Jerusalem fortress, trying to withstand the Roman assault.  There are potions, spells, prayers, incantations, hard work, hunger,  and doomed love affairs.  Alice Hoffman does an excellent job of revealing the day-to-day life of the times.  Weaving, cooking, childbirth, and love all reveal a world of honour, harness, homelessness, This is not a story of action.  The lives of the women are chronicled with patience, as are the lives of women.  The women in the novel learn to share, support, and love one another as the shared adversity of women is recognized in a way that binds them and their children together.

Don't Cry Now by Joy Fielding

The prolific Joy Fieding has added another mystery to her credit.  A young mother and local school teacher has been accused of the murder of her husband's ex-wife.  At the same time, she is trying to care for his two teenage children, as well as her own daughter. Twists and turns keep the reader guessing until the end.  A real who-dunit!

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Somehow the heroine, Marina Singh (with an "h") lacked emotional depth for me. In spite of all the childhood memories and dedication to her pharmaceutical company, 'Vogel', the author did not make her seem real.  Marina did whatever she was told.  When her boss and lover, Mr. Fox, dispatched her to the Amazon she went willingly, telling herself she was doing it for the Alders.  She needed to have closure on Annick Alder's death.Yet, it was Fox who should have gone.

       There are too many unanswered questions in this novel.  Why did Dr. Swenson not reveal her knowledge of Marina as a former student and the botched C-section?  How was it that Alders was still alive?  Why did Swenson write that he was dead?  Swenson seemed to be a law unto herself. Who was the father of Dr. Swenson's unborn child? Why did Marina allow herself to be drawn into the tribe's lifestyle - wearing their clothes, having her hair braided, and participating in the women's fertility rituals? Though the novel was interesting in its description of the jungle and events medical, my opinion is less enthusiastic than many of the reviews I have read to try and understand the story.  And what was with the deaf child and the young couple who occupied Dr. Swenson's house in the city? 

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

     
  By the author of Little Children, this novel is a story which shows the divide between the Christian evangelical movement and the liberal middle class.  A teacher, Ruth, was assigned a sex ed course in her local high school which would not present birth control other than abstinence.  Her views and opinions for a more open and realistic curriculum put her in conflict with her school and community. She became romantically involved with her daughter's soccer coach who belonged to a fundamental Christian 'tabranacle', causing another divide for Ruth.  

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

What a fun sequel! Meena just can't seem to get her love life and her work life in line. It's not every day that someone employed by the Vatican to roust vampires falls in love with the prince of darkness. Her ability to predict death, an unemployed brother, and well-meaning colleagues all figure into this plot which has twists and turns unexpected. Will Meena ever find true love?  Will Lucien become human? Will Alaric get his girl?  Will a diabolical Vatican plot be exposed? Meg Cabot takes you on a romp through the underworld - no, I mean the waters which flow beneath New York City.  The author of the Princess Diaries again stakes her claim as an author of novels for young women (and old ones like me).