Defending Jacob by William Landay

What a ride!  This is one of those rare books that grabs you right from the start and doesn't let go.  It's the story of a murder and a DA who is investigating it.  Soon into the book, we learn that the DA's son may have committed this awful crime.  The book then shifts to the family and how they are coping with this situation and the trial that takes place.  There are several surprises along the way that make it impossible to put down.  Truly, this is every parent's nightmare, and you live it as you read it.  We all love our children, but how much can you take as a parent.  Highly recommend.  -June

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

It's not unusual for authors to take a classic story and redo it.  There must be hundreds of updated versions of Romeo and Juliet, for instance.  Some of them work, and well, other just don't.  Margot Livesey updated Jane Eyre in Gemma Hardy.  It makes me wonder if redoing a story that someone else created is cheating or acceptable in the world of authors.  I picture her writing Gemma with the story outline of Jane Eyre in front of her.  Yes, there are differences.  Gemma takes place in the 1950's through the 1970's.  The characters' names are changed and some of the storylines are different too.  But I knew from the start that she would fall in love with Mr. Sinclair, that their romance would have a break due to lies, and that that they would end up together.  No surprises there.  (And really, what woman continues to call her fiance "Mr." right up to their proposed wedding date??)  If Jane Eyre didn't exist, I might have liked the book, but even then, I think I would have found it to be stuffy - like it really was written by Charlotte Bronte and not in today's world. - June

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash

A little undiscovered gem.  I can't even remember where I heard about this book.  Maybe it was on another blog or maybe Amazon pushed it out to me and said, "Here!  You need to read this!"  Whatever happened, I'm glad it did.  The book takes place in the 80's in a small town in North Carolina.  We hear the story of how a young boy died through the eyes of three people: his 9-year-old brother, the town sheriff, and an elderly woman in his church.  As the book changes from one narrator to the next, we learn about the young boys family and what happened to him the night he attended church with his mother. The author really captures the feelings and the emotions of each narrator but I especially liked Jess, the boy's brother. I confess when I first picked it up, I thought it might not be something I'd like, but I was hooked within 20 pages.  -June

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

A book about reading books.  Perfect!  This book is a tribute to a woman who died from pancreatic cancer, and it's written by her son.  As she was going through cancer treatments and slowly dying, the mother and son formed a book club, and they read and discussed the books.  The mother, Mary Anne, is not just a sweet, old, seventy-something woman.  She's lead a pretty remarkable life not only having a successful career but also fundraising and volunteering to help refugees.  Her son, Will, recognizes these achievements and while it's hard to find fault with anything she did, the book does get to be a bit tedious when he continues to sing her praises.  However, I loved hearing about the books they chose to read and the conversations they had regarding them.  I confess I skimmed some of the book to get to these highlights.  -June

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

I love reading when I'm on vacation.  That's when I do some serious reading.  I don't mean I read serious books.  But I can spend more time reading in large blocks of time which really gets me seriously involved in the book.  I've been saving Wild for vacation because the subject matter appealed so much to me.

Cheryl Strayed hiked most of the PCT from the Mohave Desert to the Oregon/Washington border.  Her reasons for doing this are many but primarily she was in a rough time in her life and was needing to "find herself".  Through flashbacks in her story, we learn about her family and her relationships with her mother and her siblings.  She's brutally honest and seems to hold nothing back about her life.  And her story about hiking the trail left me torn between thinking it would be amazing to try something like that and at the same time thinking she was crazy to attempt it.  Absolutely loved this book, and I look forward to more books by Cheryl.  -June