The Middlesteins, by Jami Attenberg.
Edie is eating (doesn’t that alliteration sound sweet?) herself to death and, in their various ways, her entire family tries to intervene to stop her.
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, by Jonathan Evison.
While they are under his care, Ben Benjamin’s own children die in a freak accident. His marriage falls apart and he is nearly out of money until he takes a position caretaking a young man with MD.
Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women’s Literary Society, by Amy Hill Hearth.
(Isn’t that a great last name for a woman who writes about a literary society?) And isn’t this a long title for a book! The title’s almost longer than any discussion about books among the society members. This is more about what the (stereotypically) diverse members learn about themselves and the (southern) world of 1963 than what…
Finding Casey, by Jo-Ann Mapson.
I’ve been a fan of Jo-Ann Mapson throughout her career so it wasn’t a stretch for me to “find” this book. Upon reading it, I found it as good as all her others. This one involves a fostered-adopted girl whose sister was snatched as a youth and whose family subsequently falls apart.
Care of Wooden Floors, by Will Wiles.
His old friend agrees to flat-sit for Oskar while Oskar travels to the US to finalize his divorce. Oskar leaves OCD-like notes scattered surprisingly where his friend stumbles upon them. Even with the detailed instructions, he still cannot care for the floors as Oskar thought he could.
Familiar, by J. Robert Lennon.
On the way back from her annual pilgrimage to visit her dead son’s grave, several states away from her (her husband, and her remaining son’s) new home, Elisa glances at a crack in the windshield and suddenly finds herself driving a different car, dressed in different clothing, and returning from a different mission.
Accelerated, by Bronwen Hruska.
I hope this isn’t true but I’m afraid it is, this story of an elite Manhattan elementary school where drugs are prescribed to manage kids (more than is actually warranted).
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Queenie Hennessy is dying. Harold Fry decides to walk the 600+ mile journey from Kingsbridge to Berwick-upon-Tweed to see her because he believes that Queenie will live to see him arrive. But the trip is much more than a goodbye to a dying friend; it’s a introspective journey and perhaps a chance to make amends…
Ancient Light, by John Banville.
Who wouldn’t be tempted by a novel that begins with this line, “Billy Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with his mother.”?