Gail Paris Female, Married. Paris, France

Lena and Charlie, are on their way to having "it all" - he is a successufl doctor newly converted to the dot.com world, she is a former radio producer now mom with a project in africa she loves. But life throws Lena some blows, bith of twins where one dies, the other ill and a husband who is miles away literally and figuratively. Then the financial crisis hits and old famiy stories get mixed in the pot. An excellent story with live full characters. Sometimes the author takes a few short cuts to make things a little "nicer" than they should be. Fun to read about our times - with the hope around obama, the crisis etc.

Gail Caldwell, the author, and Caroline Knapp were both athletes, writers, former alcoholics and single by choice/circumstance. They built the kind of friendship that became an anchor for both of them. And then Caroline got sick and died at 42. In a similar vein to Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" about the loss of her husband and Ann Patchett's "Truth and Beauty" about the loss of her best friend to drugs and the recent "Just Friends" by Patti Smith. Sad but beautifully written. Favorite quote: "Death is a divorce nobody asked for; to live through it is to find a way to disengage from what you couldn't stand to loose."

how do you describe a book about an illegal African teen in England that begins with a description of how much better life would be if she was an English pound coin? Beautifully written, you'll speed through it but stop to reflect on the effects on the population of finding oil in Africa, sacrifice and love. Wish there were more of these

In Red Hook, there are the locals, and then the "from aways". When John marries Becca two families become intertwined. But not in the way they expected. Just an hour later after a terrible car accident, the two families have to go on without John and Becca. A beautiful book about love and loss and going on...I hesitated reading this one - Waldman is the loud wife of Michel CHabon better known for her essays on being a "bad mother" but she actually writes well, captures detail of characters - especially the over bearing mother - wonder who was the model???

Oscar was a painter and womanizer. After he dies, 2 biographers contact his extended family - his widow, his longterm mistress (and mother of his twins), his mistress' best friend and his sister. All the main characters are over 70 - and low and behold their desires and fears are still alive and cooking. A funny book about Jewish polygamy (this is polygamy reading month for me), sexuality and seniors, the art world and compromise.

A subject that most people never think about or try to forget: what it must have been like to be a black maid in Mississippi in the 60s. And another subject: the love/hate relationship between the poor employees and the employer. This book takes it personal - what if the maids were allowed to tell their story? A bitter sweet story about the good and bad of women working and living together on two sides of a road that was about to get very fuzzy. A wonderful first novel.