Good Reads - Fiction

Family Ties: Part Two

FICTION/BLOCK
Block, Brett Ellen - The Grave of God’s Daughter - 2004, 289 p.
In 1941, Hyde Bend is a small town along a sharp turn in the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania, whose inhabitants are poor Polish Catholic immigrants. A young girl tries to shield her younger brother from the bitter fighting of their parents and looks for ways to win the approval of her distant mother. While secretly working as a delivery boy for the town’s butcher, the girl discovers a dark secret that changes her life. This is an evocative insight into the life of the unnamed 12-year-old narrator, the daughter of a mill worker and a cleaning lady.

FICTION/DALLAS
Dallas, Sandra - Tallgrass - 2007, 305 p.
Life in the small town of Ellis, Colorado is changed when a Japanese internment camp opens in their town during World War II. Thirteen-year-old Rennie Stroud sees how the rights of these Japanese Americans have been violated, having been forced from their homes on the West Coast. When a young handicapped girl from Ellis is murdered, the internees become prime suspects. The Stroud family is one of the few families to show any compassion towards the Japanese Americans when Rennie’s father hires workers from the camp to help with his sugar beet harvest. Dallas’s characters ring true to life, and her depiction of a small town facing large issues during World War II is compelling. 

FICTION/DELINSKY
Delinsky, Barbara - Family Tree - 2006, 358 p.
The Clarke family, from a wealthy New England seaside community, can trace their roots back to the Mayflower, and they are anxious for the birth of a new grandchild. Parents Hugh and Dana give birth to a beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, but are shocked to see the baby’s definite African American traits. Hugh’s family just assumes that the characteristics are from Dana’s family, or even more disturbing, that Dana has been unfaithful. What should be a happy time for Hugh and Dana instead makes them question their relationship as well as their ideas on family, race, and identity.

FICTION/GOLDSTEIN
Goldstein, Jan - All That Matters - 2004, 198 p.
After her mother is killed in a car accident, Jennifer Stempler, at 23, feels that all the people who have been important to her have abandoned her. After Jennifer’s unsuccessful suicide attempt, her grandmother, Gabby Zuckerman, convinces Jennifer and her Hollywood producer father that coming to New York City will be better than being committed to a hospital in California. Gabby is a Holocaust survivor and will not let her granddaughter give up on herself. Though she is reluctant at first to listen to her grandmother, Jennifer learns that it wasn’t her mother’s choice to leave her and that she must appreciate life.

FICTION/JOHNS
Johns, Rebecca - Icebergs - 2006, 297 p.
The lives of two families become intertwined when a plane carrying Canadian servicemen Walt Dunmore and Alister Clark is shot down over Newfoundland during World War II. Both men survive the crash, but only Walt lives long enough to return home to his wife, while Alister’s widow must raise their baby daughter alone. Years later, both families relocate to Chicago, further strengthening their bonds of friendship and family. The author weaves a narrative of linked lives taking different paths, yet navigating their lives around similar “icebergs.”

FICTION/LEAVITT
Leavitt, Caroline - Girls in Trouble - 2003, 355 p.
Sixteen-year-old Sara Rothman has a promising future until she finds out that she is pregnant and her once-devoted boyfriend Danny has disappeared. Wanting to maintain a relationship with her baby, Sara decides on an “open” adoption that will let her choose the adoptive parents. Eva and George are desperate to adopt, and they welcome Sara into their hearts and home before the baby is born. After she gives birth, Sara turns Anne over to Eva and George and begins to feel less comfortable with the adoptive parents. The novel spans 18 years during which Leavitt reveals the interactions between Sara, her parents, the adoptive parents, Anne, and Danny who is unaware of Anne’s birth.

FICTION/MCDERMOTT
McDermott, Alice - After This - 2006, 279 p.
The private moments in the life of Mary and John Keane, an Irish Catholic family of Long Island, are depicted in vignette-like chapters starting when the couple first meets in the 1940s and continuing on through the 70s. McDermott creates a clear picture of the couple and their neighbors as they raise two sons and two daughters, dealing with such issues as the Vietnam War, sex, drugs, and abortion while at the same time staying true to their Irish heritage and Catholic faith. As the children grow older, they find ways to interpret their strong faith and heritage appropriate to their own generation and values.

FICTION/MARTIN
Martin, Lee - The Bright Forever - 2005, 269 p.
When nine-year-old Katie Mackey leaves on her bike to return library books and does not come home that night, no one in her small Indiana town is prepared for the tragedy that unfolds. Thirty years after the event, Katie’s death is still unsolved, but the narrator, teacher Henry Dees, knows what happened and is prepared to tell the reader the story. Beginning on the day of Katie’s death, for the next four days the story is told from different points of view by those involved, including members of Katie’s family. Piece by piece the puzzle is put together in an emotionally gripping way. People who liked The Lovely Bones will enjoy this novel.

FICTION/MEDLICOTT
Medlicott, Joan - The Three Mrs. Parkers - 2005, 290 p.
Three generations of Parker women come together when they all find a need to understand, forgive, and love one another. Snobbish seventy-five-year old Winifred Parker never accepted Zoe, the woman her son Steven married, and cut off all ties. Zoe must now swallow her pride and ask Winifred for help when she finds herself about to lose her South Carolina home. Katie returns to South Carolina to live with her mother and grandmother, devastated by the death of her handicapped daughter, and she becomes the catalyst to the women’s reconciliation. 

FICTION/MILLER
Miller, Sue - Lost in the Forest - 2005, 247 p.
When her second husband dies suddenly, Eva’s calm life is thrown into a swirl of emotions. To help the family cope with the tragedy, Eva’s first husband Mark becomes more involved with his two adolescent daughters and tries to befriend Eva’s young son Theo. The younger daughter, Daisy, was especially close to her stepfather and instead of looking for comfort from Mark, begins an inappropriate affair with a married man. Miller dissects the family members’ relationships and slowly allows them to heal and grow in this insightfully written novel.

FICTION/MORIARTY
Moriarty, Laura - The Rest of Her Life - 2007, 303 p.
High school senior and model student Kara Churchill is the driver in an accident that kills a fellow student and dramatically changes Kara’s life. Told from Kara’s mother, Leigh’s, point of view, her relationship with her daughter is now even more strained than before the accident. Leigh finds she feels jealous and left out when Kara looks to her father Gary for comfort and support. Leigh tries to shield Kara from the public outcry of the community while at the same time she feels sympathetic towards the family whose daughter died in the accident.

FICTION/PICOULT
Picoult, Jodi - My Sister’s Keeper - 2004, 423 p.
To what lengths would a parent go to save the life of a child? Sara and Brian Fitzgerald conceive Anna with the help of genetic engineering in order to have a donor for their elder daughter Kate who has a rare and deadly form of leukemia. After enduring many medical procedures for the sole purpose of helping Kate, at age thirteen Anna seeks the help of a lawyer to stop her parents from forcing her to donate a kidney when Kate is in renal failure. Told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of several characters, this thought-provoking portrayal of a family in crisis is a page turner that will tug on your heart long after the book is closed.

FICTION/QUINDLEN
Quindlen, Anna - Rise and Shine - 2006, 269 p.
Bridget Fitzmaurice, social worker for a women’s shelter in the Bronx, has spent most of her life in the shadow of her older sister Meghan. As the host of “Rise and Shine,” a morning talk show, Meghan is probably one of the most famous women in America until she is fired for accidentally using profanity on camera. Meghan’s outburst occurred just after her husband of 21 years decided to leave her. Not able to deal with her problems or the media frenzy, Meghan escapes to a remote island, leaving Bridget to pick up the pieces including telling college-age Leo that his parents have split up. For the first time in her adult life, Bridget comes to realize her strength and helps her sister through this difficult time.

FICTION/SHAPIRO
Shapiro, Dani - Family History - 2003, 269 p.
Narrator Rachel Jensen, the mother of teenager Kate and toddler Joshua, gives a poignant look into the life of a family in peril. A devastated Rachel lies in her darkened bedroom watching old home movies of her once happy family. The problems seem to have started with Kate’s extreme emotional and behavioral changes as she became a teenager. Rachel and her husband Ned at first think the changes are Kate’s reaction to the birth of her brother. In flashbacks, the author gives insight into what the family was like in the past, parallels what they are going through in the present, and shows hope for their future.

FICTION/STRAYED
Strayed, Cheryl - Torch - 2005, 322 p.
First time novelist Strayed writes an engrossing story of a family experiencing loss. Teresa Rae Wood, at the age of 38, is diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and dies within months. Neither Bruce, (her common-law husband) nor her children, Claire (a college senior) and Josh (a high school senior), can face Teresa’s dying and death. Each family member, caught up in grief, can’t help one another, and instead let their grief pull them apart. The children feel even further betrayed when Bruce marries a neighbor shortly after Teresa’s death. Even though the subject is sad, the author adds humor and characters that are real and loveable. Readers of Sue Miller or Jodi Picoult will enjoy this book.

FICTION/TROLLOPE
Trollope, Joanna - Second Honeymoon - 2006, 323 p.
Edie Boyd is distraught when the last of her three children move out. Her husband, Russell, tries to console Edie with the idea that the empty house will give them more time for each other, and for Edie to devote to her acting career which was often put on hold while she raised a family. By the time Edie and Russell become more accustomed to their new living situation, all three kids have moved back home due to unforeseen financial circumstances. Trollope writes an intuitive portrayal of a caring, loving and eccentric family who finds things don’t always work out as expected when you go back home again.

FICTION/WRIGHT
Wright, Vinita Hampton - Dwelling Places - 2006, 342 p.
Set in a rural farm community in Iowa, Dwelling Places is the story of a family struggling to hold together even though circumstances and personal crises are tearing them apart. Mack Barnes returns home after being hospitalized for severe depression, unsure how his family will treat him and uncertain of his future since the family has lost the farm that has been in their family for generations. His mother, Rita, is a deeply religious woman who spends her time caring for other senior citizens who need her help, yet she is unsure what to do to help those closest to her. Jodie, Mack’s wife, is still overwhelmed by the extra burdens placed on her shoulders while Mack was away. Wright doesn’t sugarcoat the reality of this family’s problems, but tells a realistic story with just enough humor thrown in.

Prepared by Marianne Trautvetter, May 2009