This month, I'd like to share Dolen Perkins-Valdez's Take My Hand which is set in Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children—just 11 and 13 years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.

Our client Nancy suggests The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivy.  Set in 1920's remote Alaska, it is the story of a childless couple who have given up their dream of being parents. Then a young girl mysteriously shows up at their door. Who is she, where did she come from...questions that should be simple but are not! She didn't want to say more as she didn't want to give away the plot! She says that one of the highlights of the story is the author's description of the Alaskan landscape.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus follows Elizabeth Zott: a one-of-a-kind scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.Elizabeth has dealt with it all. Plenty of misogyny and people doubting her skills. All she wants to do is work on her scientific research but the patriarchy keeps standing in her way. Everything changes for Elizabeth when the most unlikely event happens—she falls in love with a fellow scientist, Calvin. But as life is unpredictable, Elizabeth eventually finds herself as a single mother and without a job. Through an extraordinary set of events, she ends up becoming the host of a TV cooking show. And while she takes cooking very seriously, she also embarks plenty of lessons to her mostly female audience. I found this book quirky and heartwarming!

Our client Karen recommends The Measure by Nikki Erlick. Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge? The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.  

My pic is a long one this month, with almost 900 pages. Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati takes us to late eighteenth-century America, where Elizabeth Middleton arrives from England to fulfill her dream of creating a schoolhouse, serving all the children of a remote New York mountain village, regardless of sex or skin color. But her father has other plans for her. He has a scheme to give Elizabeth substantial property—if she agrees to marry Richard Todd, a man to whom he owes substantial debts. Elizabeth has always treasured her independence, valuing her freedom and integrity above all else. The only man who seems to speak the truth to her is Nathaniel Bonner, a fiery outsider known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Soon Elizabeth realizes that Nathaniel is the only match for her. A saga of adventurous new beginnings, Into the Wilderness is a breathtaking journey through the heart and soul of one couple’s epic fate—and the destiny of a young nation.

Our client Nancy L. recommends The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian This psychological thriller is set in present-day Vermont, it follows a college student named Laurel Estabrook who is assaulted while on a bike ride. Traumatized from the incident, the formerly extroverted Estabrook becomes timid and private, shifting her focus to photography and working at a homeless shelter. At the shelter, she meets a man named Bobbie Crocker, and becomes entwined in an investigation into his dark family history. The novel heavily relies on narrative doubt and the suspension of evidence to call into question Estabrook’s tenuous grip on reality, including the memory of her own assault. The novel is resonant with recent discourse in America on the sexual assault of women, and society’s tendency to privilege men’s judgments, allegations, and memories over theirs.

This month's pick is from Yola! Yola shares Bill Geists' Lake of the Ozarks. She says she loved it and it was a quick read. Before there was "tourism" and souvenir ashtrays became "kitsch," the Lake of the Ozarks was a Shangri-La for middle-class Midwestern families on vacation, complete with man-made beaches, Hillbilly Mini Golf, and feathered rubber tomahawks. It was there that author Bill Geist spent summers in the Sixties during his school and college years working at Arrowhead Lodge -- a small resort owned by his bombastic uncle -- in all areas of the operation, from cesspool attendant to bellhop. What may have seemed just a summer job became, upon reflection, a transformative era where a cast of eccentric, small-town characters and experiences shaped (some might suggest "slightly twisted") Bill into the man he is today. He realized it was this time in his life that had a direct influence on his sensibilities, his humor, his writing, and ultimately a career searching the world for other such untamed creatures for the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, and CBS News. In Lake of the Ozarks, Bill Geist reflects on his coming of age in the American Heartland and traces his evolution as a man and a writer. He shares laugh-out-loud anecdotes and tongue-in-cheek observations guaranteed to evoke a strong sense of nostalgia for "the good ol' days." Written with Geistian wit and warmth, Lake of the Ozarks takes readers back to a bygone era, and demonstrates how you can find inspiration in the most unexpected places.

 This month's client pick is from Carol, who recommends Mr. Emerson's Wife by Amy Belding Brown. In this novel about Ralph Waldo Emerson's wife, Lidian, Amy Belding Brown examines the emotional landscape of love and marriage. Living in the shadow of one of the most famous men of her time, Lidian becomes deeply disappointed by marriage, but consigned to public silence by social conventions and concern for her children and her husband's reputation. Drawn to the erotic energy and intellect of close family friend Henry David Thoreau, she struggles to negotiate the confusing territory between love and friendship while maintaining her moral authority and inner strength. In the course of the book, she deals with overwhelming social demands, faces devastating personal loss, and discovers the deepest meaning of love. Lidian eventually discovers the truth of her own character and learns that even our faults can lead us to independence.

I have to share Katherine Center's Things You Save in a Fire. Who doesn't enjoy a feel good, well written book once in a while? Cassie Hanwell was born for emergencies. As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, she's seen her fair share of them, and she's excellent at dealing with other people's tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to uproot her life and move to Boston, it's an emergency of a kind Cassie never anticipated. I have also read her Happiness for Beginners and recommend that as well.

Our client Ron picked Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri. While this slim book reads more like a first person memoir, it is a work of fiction that follows the life of the narrator (a middle-aged woman who is both a literature professor and a writer) for about a year as she makes her way around an unnamed town/city in Italy where she lives. As the title suggests this is a story about a place, both geographical and emotional, and Lahiri's writing is so well crafted. The inner monologue of the narrator reveals much about her character, yet the events of the narrative are everyday, prosaic. Another interesting point of the book is the fact that for the last decade or more, Lahiri has lived in Italy.  Concurrently, her published writing is only in Italian (this work was then translated to English by Lahiri herself).  

For this month I chose American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. American Dirt is a social issues thriller. It tells the story of a mother and son, Lydia and Luca, fleeing their home in Acapulco, Mexico, for the US after the rest of their family is murdered by a drug cartel. It was hard to read at some points, but that's also why the book was so good. My heart went out to Lydia and the unimaginable circumstances she had to deal with during her journey. 

Our client Kate chose The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin. The story was inspired by the events that occurred during the blitz in 1939.  Grace Bennett had always dreamed of living in the city, but what she found when she finally arrived was not what she expected. The story follows Grace as she initially set out to work in the bookshop for six months to get her letter of recommendation for a better position as a shop girl.  She has never been a reader, but quickly discovers her love of books and how books can bring a community together during some of the most horrific times in our history.

This month I chose an author, Jennifer McMahon. I have recently read three of her paranormal fiction books, The Night Sister, The Invited and The Winter People. Jennifer is a noteworthy author who was born in Hartford but now resides in Montpelier, VT. If ghost stories are to your liking, then give her books a try!

For our client's pick, we have Karen's choice of The Engineer's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood. It's a powerful and poignant story of Emily Warren Roebling, the compelling woman who played an instrumental role in the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. This is necessary fiction for our time-paying tribute to women's overlooked contributions and reminding us of the true foundations of American history

For August I have chosen The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly.  But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family. I found it difficult to read at times, but overall it was fascinating.

Our client Ann recommends The Last Flight, a thriller by Julie White. Some people disappear every day, but very few of us actually understand how difficult it is to truly vanish. After a chance meeting at an airport, Claire and Eva are just desperate enough to take that risk. They switch tickets, leaving their troubled lives behind. But what happens if their new identity proves more deadly than their old one? This book is full of surprise twists and a great summer read!

For this month, I chose a book I just finished, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. This month's pick is a fictionalized biographical account of the Grimke sisters as they become trailblazers in the abolition movement and early leaders in the fight for women's rights. The story takes place in the pre Civil War era and begins on a plantation in Charleston. The story alternates being told by Sarah Grimke and Handful, the slave given to her on her 11th birthday. Kidd writes so beautifully about the relationship between Sarah and her family, Handful and her mother and how they are all interwoven. 

For our client's pick this month, Jess recommends The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. It's a psychological thriller that tells the story of three women and how their lives intersect. Jess said it was a great book and she couldn't put it down!

I have to share Robert Dugoni's The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell  for July. Sam Hell is an inspiring tale about a boy born with ocular albinism, which makes his eyes appear red. His mother enrolls him in a Catholic school, where he quickly earns the nickname "Devil Boy." Sam faces bullies of all sizes and ages, and stands up to them with remarkable strength throughout his adult life. It's a spectacular book! I have also read The World Played Chess by Dugoni and really enjoyed that coming of age tale as well. 

Our client Carol suggests a great beach read by Karen White, The Attic on Queen Street. This is book #7 of the Tradd Street series and I look forward to giving this series a try! A malevolent ghost seems determined to stop Melanie from investigating the decades-old murder of a friend's sister, and this spirit will stop at nothing to protect its secrets—even from beyond the grave. Carol says it's pure escapism! 

Again, I had a lot of books to choose from this month! I decided to share Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. It is a historical novel set in nineteenth-century China. An 80-year-old woman named Lily narrates the novel. From her present time in 1903, she recounts the story of her life. Lily’s story centers on her profound, but ultimately tragic relationship with a woman named Snow Flower. The two met as girls, when they were arranged as a laotong pair, which refers to a strong, sisterly bond meant to provide long-term emotional and spiritual fulfillment outside of marriage. Both women experienced a reverse of fortune over the course of their lives. Against a turbulent backdrop of personal suffering and historical violence, the women’s bond unravels. I found it to be an excellent read!

For our client recommendation, Palma suggested Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley which is young adult fiction.  The book is about a young indigenous woman who is part of the Ojibwe community in Michgan's Upper Penisula. The author is a member of the Chippewa tribe that reside in that area. The book centers around the life of an eighteen-year-old young woman who is trying to fit into the indigenous and non-indigenous world around her. There is mystery, relationships, crime solving, and a big glimpse into modern life for the Indian peoples both on and off the reservation. 

I had lots of books to choose from this month! I thoroughly enjoyed my first book by William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace. It's a of coming-of-age novel about a boy set in a small town in Minnesota during the summer of 1961. This book holds a mystery when one of the five deaths is a murder, but it also speaks of wisdom, secrets, forgiveness, the love of family, faith and miracles. I was really touched by this book and loved the simplicity of the 1960's. I also just finished reading This Tender Land  by the same author, which is a great story as well. He is such a wonderful storyteller!

Our client picks this month is from Elaine, who recommended so many books, one of which is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. It's about a young woman named Kya, who's left to raise herself in the marshes of North Carolina when her family abandons her at a young age. There is so much to her story: romance, mystery, and a murder… and it takes place in the breathtaking backdrop of the South. I too have read this book and really loved it!

I picked a thriller this month by Mary Kubica called Local Woman Missing.  It was the first book I have read by Kubica and I really enjoyed all the twist and turns.  A woman disappears and then another woman and her six-year-old daughter vanish in the same community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold. Now, 11 years later, the young girl shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find..

For our client pick this month, Nancy recommends A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Nancy says it takes place in post Revolutionary Russia and centers on a former aristocrat who has been tried and found guilty of being on the side of the aristocracy. He is sentenced to life confined in a high class hotel in Moscow. Nancy found it to be very well written. 

My first recommendation for 2022 is a book I read last month, small great things and my first by Jodi Picoult. So impressed with her writing and I've since read The Storyteller and I'm almost done with Leaving Time!

small great things is a superb story of an African American labor and delivery nurse who cares for the newborn of a white supremacist couple. I really admired the main character Ruth's strength and I was surprised how Picoult portrayed Turk the white supremacist. 

For our client's choice of the month, I randomly picked Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill. Terri says, "Her writing style is a little wordy and it takes a while to get into it but when you do it is fascinating." This book is a tribute to the wife of Winston Churchill who was his closest confidant and shrewdest advisor.