family dynamics

Life As We Knew It is the first book in Last Survivor trilogy. In my opinion, it is also the best book in the series and it can definitely be read as a standalone book. Susan Beth Pfeffer did an excellent job creating a powerful and realistic story about surviving a natural disaster.  

This fast paced, thoughtful story is told in a diary format by the main character, sixteen-year-old Miranda. After an asteroid hits the Moon and pushes it closer to the Earth, the Earth’s climate alters. Inevitably, worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes and erupting volcanoes change “life as we knew it”.  Due to

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine is the 2010 National Book Award winner in the Young People’s Literature Category. It is one of the best books I have read for a long time. It tells the story of Kaitlin, an intelligent fifth grade girl with Asperger’s syndrome. Kaitlin and her father’s lives are turned upside down when Kaitlin’s brother Devon is shot in a school shooting. Kaitlin and Devon were very close and it was Devon who helped Kaitlin to “fit in”. Now Kaitlin is left with her widowed, grief-stricken father and she does not have any friends. Fortunately, Kaitlin has Mrs. Brook, an excellent

Matched is the first book in a young adult dystopian trilogy. The main character is seventeen-year-old Cassia who lives in a Society where all choices are made for you. You do not have to worry what you will eat, what your profession will be or even when you die.  Everything is scientifically selected for you.

Cassia’s story opens at her Matching ceremony where she is to her surprise and delight matched to her best friend Xander. According to the Society, Xander is her ideal mate. He is destined to become her husband and father of her children. At the ceremony, all the Matchees are given a

A baby chewing on a human rib bone leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a housing construction site. Which leads Erlendur Sveinsson, Detective Inspector with the Reyjavik Iceland Police to wonder why there are red currant bushes planted in a row close by. Further inquiries and questionings uncover an old crime, complicated by the installation of the US Army during WWII, and a long-dead romance. The murky atmosphere of Indriđason’s narrative is enlivened by his nuanced descriptions of the characters encountered during the investigation, and his uncomfortable if not tragic relationship

I love reading Anita Shreve—she can tell a story with grace, intelligence, and a mastery of the language, with intricate but clear plotlines, without resorting to hyperbole or far-fetched situations.  Shreve  is a delight to read and provides absorbing storylines, that seem to vary rather widely—South Africa,  Massachusetts in the early twentieth century, and now a setting in the present in Vermont, with characters from our own time.  But plot lines are only one attraction—it is Shreve’s nuanced handling of the emotions  and fragility at the root of our human structure is the reason I read

Best friends since the age of 3, Sam (Samantha) and Jesse now in high school are experiencing many changes, some good and some not so good.  The good:  after years of being best friends Sam and Jesse are falling in love and their bond is stronger than ever.  The bad:  Jesse has been diagnosed with a rare treatment resistant form of cancer.  Jesse is dying.

A unique look at dealing with terminal illness, the power of young love and the importance of family when dealing with a terminal illness.  Don't miss The Girl Next Door by Selene Castrovilla.

City of Bones tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl, Clary, trying to make sense of her world when it is turned upside down. First she becomes involved with three "people" that no one else sees and what she sees is impossible. Then, her mother disappears setting off a chain of events that leads Clary into the world of demons and demon hunters, the shadowhunters. Everything Clary thought she knew about herself, her parents and her past seems to be a lie. She struggles to find her place among these newly discovered supernatural beings (is she one of them?) as she searches for her mother and

When your first novel sells about fifteen million copies across the world, has been the number one bestseller in about 20 countries, has been translated into 36 languages, and gets made into a movie, starring, produced and directed by Robert Redford, is there a point to trying again? Seriously, if you were Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer would you really think you could do it again?

Luckily for readers everywhere, Evans did try again. In each subsequent novel Evans succeeds in creating characters and stories that, while very different from Grace, her family, Pilgrim, and Tom

In Allen's debut novel we meet the Waverly sisters Claire and Sydney in their hometown of Bascom, NC. The Waverly family has lived in Bascom for generations and their unusual garden is the stuff of legends in the area. The Waverlys and their garden have somewhat of a curious reputation due to their garden and its plants that have special powers.

Claire Waverly has turned her unique and magical garden into a successful catering business. Sydney who left Bascom as soon as she graduated from high school has just returned to Waverly with her 5 year old daughter and a secret.

Claire and Sydney

Home by Marilynne Robinson

Author of prize-winning Gilead continues with some of the characters from that story. The setting is once again, Gilead, IA, and focuses on the sister, Glory, her brother, Jack and their aging father, who was a minister at their family “home”. Glory has come back to care for her father, after a failed relationship. She has nowhere else to go and he needs care. Brother Jack shows up after a 20 year absence. His father has prayed for his return all this time, but there has been no word from him until now. Jack has struggle with being different than the rest of the

Before heading straight to the self-help books when you come to the library looking for psychological insight, be aware that reading fiction can also have strong therapeutic benefits. One example to check out is Laura Moriarty’s The Rest of Her Life. Moriarty received a degree in social work from KU, which is excellent training for the themes she explores in her novel: social status and crime, parent/child relationships, and cyclical family dynamics. Moriarty’s prose is not clinical or didactic but flows as well as any good storyteller’s. Protagonist Leigh Churchill is a junior high English

The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton

I chose to read this book after seeing the KC Star review last fall. Jane Smiley includes it in her “Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel”. The setting in rural Missouri had appeal since I grew up in rural Missouri and the time setting would make the four daughters in the story living at the same time as my mother’s generation, including the author. I thought it would give me insight into her life experience and was just interested in how their lives would be portrayed.

Ms. Carleton’s novel opens in the early 1950s with a chapter that presents life as