You may recognize some authors I’ve enjoyed before in this list, and please know the photo is just a sample of books I had nearby. A couple of this quarter’s favorites were Sisters Under the Rising Sun, The Hours, and Hold My Girl. So let’s start:

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

This one was harder, more heartbreaking than I expected. A murder mystery affects everyone in town and sets the stage for story of 13-year-old Duchess and her younger brother, Robin, whose mother was the victim. Through it all, police Chief Walker has his own demons to resolve. While much of the book is outlandish, it kept me reading til the end.

Payback by Mary Gordon

An unusual novel, this is a reflection on the words we say and their impact on others, for good and for bad. While the hook is about an unlikeable girl inadvertently hurt by a teacher and her quest for payback, the novel details intervening years in both of their lives and how that one interaction affects their choices and trajectories. It certainly speaks to the power of love over hate.

A Cold Trail by Robert Dugoni

This is #7 in the Detective Tracy Crosswhite series. If you’ve followed my reading regularly, you know I love this author’s work and this series. This one returns to Tracy’s hometown and a murder that may have been swept up with the murder of Tracy’s sister. Small town politics and misdeeds abound. I’m hooked. And you really should read them in order.

Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris

From mystery to heartbreak is how I roll. This one’s a bit different from Morris’s Holocaust historical fiction, with a story about a group of Australian nurses and foreign families in Singapore who are captured by the Japanese army during World War II. The novel shares the challenges, losses, ingenuity, and even joys that bond the women through their nearly four-year ordeal. Key to my love for this author’s books is that she bases them on real people and extensive research. Another keeper.

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms

Time for a fun, lighter novel, and what could be more fun than a librarian mom running away for a week? Or a summer. Of course, the running away is because the husband who left 3 years earlier has returned to get to know the children he also left. It’s a sweet story of good friends, self-care and awareness, a little romance, and of course, books. She is a librarian, after all.

Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt, PhD

Stanford professor Dr. Eberhardt shares information compiled from years of study into implicit bias, in a readable-by-non-academics way. She is a sociologist and a storyteller, combining scientific studies with real-life incidents. These include police shootings, racially charged events such as the Charlottesville/UVA protests, discrimination in AirBnB bookings, and bias-training at Starbucks. Dr. Eberhardt also shares personal and family experiences that provide context and emotion. Highly recommend for fellow communications professionals.

The Beauty of Living Twice by Sharon Stone

I can’t say I was ever a big Sharon Stone, the actress, fan, but I was drawn to this memoir of her life after surviving a massive stroke. The book is brutally raw, as Stone learned that to live her fullest life, she had to deal with the abuse and incest she (and others in her family) had suffered. While the writing itself tends to jump around in timeframes and context, it does speak powerfully to attaining true happiness.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

I’ll admit I was not familiar with this author, but The Hours won a Pulitzer in 1998, so it was worth a try. Now I’m a fan. Cunningham tells the stories of 3 women facing completely different challenges and turning points in their lives. The prose is beautiful, and the tie among the stories does become clear. I need to get his 2023 novel now.

The Hundred Year House by Rebecca Makkai

The house of the title is the estate of a wealthy couple, passed through generations. The novel starts with the current owners/occupants and a search into the estate’s former glory as an art colony. From there, the novel moves backward in telling the story and uncovering some secrets from those days. It’s a unique twist, with many characters and relationships to keep track of, as you tie them to the present day. Not my favorite of hers, but not bad.

Kamala’s Way: An American Life by Dan Morain

When VP Kamala Harris has just become a presidential nominee, and you find this like-new hardback for $4, you have to read it. It didn’t hurt that I read it during the week of the DNC. Anyway… this is a journalist’s novel about Kamala’s life and career, up to her campaign for VP with Joe Biden. It’s well-documented and interesting. It necessarily jumps around in time, with people who recur in various campaigns or explaining the impact of prior acts/statements on later campaigns.

In Her Tracks by Robert Dugoni

Another fast-paced, character driven police investigation with Detective Tracy Crosswhite and friends. Tracy finds herself working cold cases following her maternity leave, but she jumps in to help her partner Kins on an active case of a missing young woman when the A team is short-handed. Of course, case threads cross over during the investigations. This was number 8 for me, and I am glad there are a few more ahead.

Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr

I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. The discovery of an egg switch in an in-vitro fertilization sets things in motion; the 1-year-old of a bi-racial couple is the biological child of a divorced woman who suffered a tragic miscarriage. So many angles to consider. The author does an amazing job of presenting them all. I could barely put this one down. And sidenote, the author shares in her notes that she has been down the infertility path, so her empathy is pure.

These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf

I could hardly put this one down. At its core, it’s about estranged sisters and broken families and lives shattered. But those hidden stories don’t always remain hidden. One secret leads to another, and I just kept turning the pages.

Monogamy by Sue Miller

This one gets a so-so from me. I picked it for the family dynamics and death in the family, but I found it hard to feel much for any of the characters. My favorites (Frieda and Sarah) were important but minor in the narrative. I also felt a bit of a double standard with the monogamy theme. I finished it, but it’s not a keeper for me.

The Mother’s Promise by Sally Hepworth

I’ve become a big fan of Australian novelist Sally Hepworth’s books. All have been compelling but completely different. This one is about a single mom of a teen with social anxiety disorder. When mom Alice is diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer, a nurse and a social worker provide much-needed support for Alice and daughter Zoe. But there’s much more about the unidentified father, the marriages of the nurse and social worker, and Zoe’s school challenges. An excellent, moving read for fans of family relationship dramas.

What She Found by Robert Dugoni

This is #9 in Tracy Crosswhite mystery series. A good, but complicated mystery, this one really tests Tracy in several ways. It’s a good dive into her perspective, as a detective, as a wife and mother, and as a daughter who lost her family much too early. Again, this is a series to read in order to fully appreciate the characters.

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

Though published in 2011, this book intrigued me with a storyline about a librarian, “inappropriate” books for kids, and religious zealotry. I discovered the Russian immigrants and spy partway in. Did the author know what was coming in 2024? Whether or not she did, the novel is an imaginative story about young people finding themselves on a cross country “escape.” At heart, it’s a non-romantic love story.