Best memoir of 2016, although I didn't get it read until 2017. Loved how she wrote about trees and how her science discoveries dovetailed with her personal insights. Also loved the relationship between her and her lab tech. Rare to read about a woman having a man friend without sexual tension. Didn't make her bipolar a focus. Accurate portrayal of academia and struggles for women in hard sciences. The writing is exquisite.

Read this in two sessions. The imagined life of Wyeth's muse, Christina Olson, is more than plausible and the emotional arc even more satisfying. Christina Baker Kline does historical fiction masterfully.

When this came out I resisted reading it as the reviews were simply too good and everyone said how sweet. When I finally read it a year ago Thanksgiving I had to admit the reviews were warranted. But what no one had mentioned is how grief is central to the plot. Better than I expected and enjoyed all the literary references. Sweet but not saccharine

These stories/novellas form a coherent whole and the ending comes full circle. Brown Dog is the main character and shares many of the curmudgeon qualities of Jim Harrison himself. His distinctive voice is one I will miss enormously. He draws portraits of characters I feel I've known all my life. The upper peninsula of Michigan and Midwestern sensibilities well represented in the back - handed discoveries of identity and purpose. A masterpiece.

In August I read this novel and found it extraordinary as an account of a boy who had transitioned to a girl. Starting at a new school in her new identity, the MC keeps a secret to herself. Friendships and first romances. I found myself relating to her and grasped what it must be like for Trans teens. Powerful story elicits compassion. Highly recommend.

my book club selected this one. Co-authoring this novel, Abby Frucht and Laurie A., have 2 different writing styles and each wrote different characters' POV. Plot is at times a stretch in plausibility but the ending comes back to tie things up. Abby came to our book club meeting and described challenges of a pantser and a plotter working together on a novel. A for effort.

Alternating POV and short chapters made this a page turner. Unanticipated plot twists. Young blind girl and orphaned albino boy as protagonists worked to weave a fascinating story about WWII. Book club selection led to great discussion. Still think about it a year later. Enjoy talking about it with oth eet rs who read it.

Loved it as much as the first novel with the Kopp sisters. Delight to read and didn't want it to end. Looking forward to more fiction from Amy Stewart.

Powerful story of love and loss - without the author, Elaine Mansfield, ending the story with a replacement husband. How she walks Vic to death's door and then steps into her new life offers inspiration to lose who embrace grief instead of running away from it. Favorite chapter is "Medicine Buddha" where hope and hopelessness sit side by side. Honest and authentic voice of caregiver and survivor.

Exquisite black and white photography of a culture time forgot. Set in south central Italy not from the Croatian border, the images capture the everyday details of village life in hill towns near Montemitro.

This biography brings to light the antics of the first celebrity travel writer, Richard Halliburton. Prince takes the reader along for his wild adventures in this fast-paced account of the rise and fall of Halliburton ' s fame between the wars. She also reveals a side of his personal life he kept separate from his professional persona. Compelling account of how he hid his homosexuality from his fans and family

The journey from claimant to historian offers lessons on how complicated and difficult it is to recover what was lost in the Holocaust. Rynecki tells a compelling story of an artist who created a visual ethnography of Jewish culture between the wars. Discovering the beautiful art of her great-grandfather's had survived the war and was all over the world is bittersweet. This is a must-read for anyone interested in art, history, and remembrance.

Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. That it was based on historical event pulled me in but then the character of Constance Kopp and her family story kept me turning the pages. Great premise but brilliant execution of unanticipated storyline. When I finished then I had to send my sister a copy. And put the release date of Lady Cop Makes Trouble on my calendar. Fantastic book.