LAST TIME I SAW YOU by Elizabeth Berg, 2010.

  This contemporary novel concerns a group of people who are attending their 40th (and final) high school class reunion. Her cast of characters pretty much includes all the usual stereotypes: jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, etc., each of whom have reasons for attending this last reunion. Divorced Dorothy wants a chance at the class heartthrob, Pete Decker, who is desperately trying to win back his estranged wife Nora; Mary Alice Mayhew, an independent sort usually ignored by her classmates at Whitley High, comes hoping to see a certain someone again; Lester Hessenpfeffer, a nerdy widowed veterinarian, who realizes the person he longed most to see was not who he actually wanted; Candy Armstrong, the blonde beauty who has a painful secret and needs a true friend. It's all about missed opportunities, paths not taken, choices made, and seeking to right wrongs done decades earlier. As these characters and others converge during the reunion weekend and as their old secrets and hidden motives and long simmering desires are revealed and new bonds forged, they learn things about each other and themselves in unexpected and at times surprising ways.
  Berg writes in the easy, breezy style she does so well, providing an entertaining story with characters who are at once familiar and recognizable and thus the reader can connect with them. In their late fifties, Berg's characters have issues with aging, marriage, love, death, a sense of belonging, of being connected with those from their past, and of being understood by those they shared their school experiences with. She has the dialogue down pat; she provides a fine reunion background, complete with decorations and drinks and bathroom chats and all the greetings and the "who is that?" and "whatever happened to...?" types of comments that are prevalent at such an event. Although there's not much depth involved, Berg does tell a good story and offers up some moments of true emotional insight between several of the characters.
   Does all come right in the end? Not necessarily, but for most of the people in this novel, changes do occur, and they are the better for them. An entertaining and at times thought-provoking story, I enjoyed it as a casual light read.

KINGS OF THE EARTH by Jon Clinch, 2010.

Clinch's novel is a stark narrative of life, death, and family in a remote agricultural area of New York State.
   In 1990, three aged brothers, Vernon, Audie, and Creed Proctor live on their family's crumbling dairy farm in the middle of nowhere. It is their family home, they and their sister were raised by their parents on the land, and they still work the farm in the ways their father, Lester, taught them back in the previous decades, but the place is a decaying wreck, the house and barn hardly fit for habitation. Vernon, the eldest, is in charge; Audie, the middle son, is somewhat simple, and Creed, having been to Korea, has his own ideas about things. Their sister, Donna, the youngest child and only girl, has managed to escape the farm by attending school and becoming a nurse, and then marrying a man who had escaped his own father's "muddy onion farm." Donna visits her brothers regularly and tries to help them out, but their pride keeps them in their current situation, milking their cows, raising turkeys in an old school bus, making do with old machinery. It is a bleak and unrewarding life, but they know no other; even Creed, who has seen something of the world during his military service is drawn back to the farm. Donna's son, Tom, bonds somewhat with his mother's brothers, but he ends up using them to further his own business plans in growing marijuana on their place. Tom's father, discovering the marijuana and recognizing a good business opportunity, jumps in to help his son, and unknowingly sets in motion events that lead to tragedy.
   When Vernon, the eldest brother, is found dead in the bed they all shared and the police suspect murder, attention becomes focused on the Proctors and their land. Preston and Margaret Hatch, the men's lifelong neighbors, are sympathetic and supportive of the brothers, even though they don't understand them. When Creed and Audie are actually brought up for questioning by the police, Preston tries to help them, and Donna and her family are drawn in as well. As the story moves back and forth in time, the reader gets a sense of how these three men were raised, how they matured,  why they became the people they are in the present, and the interconnected events that envelope all the characters.
   Overall, it's a story of family ties, and of the bonds that can exist between unrelated folk, told in spare and often harsh language, with stark scenes and realistic characters who have weathered hard times with very little love or emotional warmth. Clinch's descriptions are such that reader can feel the chilling air coming through the farmhouse's cracks in winter, hear the howling winds, and smell the wildflowers in the fields of the countryside. Clinch's uncluttered prose is unflinchingly honest, and provides the reader with a gritty look at a family that even though it suffers and tears at itself from within, the bond of blood between its members remains unbroken. While I can't say I really enjoyed this novel, it's definitely a thought-provoking and challenging story.

THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON by Sarah Addison Allen, 2010.

Picked this off a shelf knowing it would be a light summer read. Having read Allen's first two novels, I figured this would be similar: small town filled with quirky, odd characters, old secrets, food, long lost love, and a hint of magical realism. The main story revolves around two characters: Emily Benedict, who comes to Mullaby, NC to stay with her grandfather Vance Shelby(known as the "Giant of Mullaby" because of his extreme height), and Julia Winterson, who returned home over a year before to run her dead father's restaurant for a while with intent to sell it and move back to Baltimore, leaving behind all her memories of the place. Emily, who arrives with many questions about her mother's life in Mullaby and why she left, has strange experiences (including ethereal lights glowing in the woods) that create more mysteries and attract a local boy, Win Coffey, who has big secret of his own. Julia, who bakes cakes every day because of hunky blond Sawyer Alexander, and tries to resist re-igniting a long ago relationship with him. In the end, secrets are revealed, relationships change, and everyone's on the way to happiness. It's clever and fun and a nice read, a good break from heavier reading. Allen has found her little niche with these books and she doesn't disappoint. Good choice for the beach or backyard or a porch swing.

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Geraldine Brooks, 2008.

Brooks takes on the challenge of writing about a beautifully wrought book (a Jewish haggadah) that moves through various characters' hands over the years from 1480s Spain to war-torn Bosnia in 1996. Her major character, Hanna Heath, is a rare books conservator who develops a special connection with this manuscript, known for its exquisite workmanship and curious history. Hanna is called in to perform some conservation work on this book and in the process, discovers artifacts within the book's pages--a hair, a stain, grains of salt, part of an insect wing, etc. Brooks takes us on a journey, piecing together the book's history from these various items. The overarching story of the conservator is interwoven with tales of the book. Each of these tales answers the question of how each of the tiny artifacts came to be found within the book. One episode describes how a Muslim in Sarajevo during World War II risks his life to save the book; another is about the last golden days of 1890s Vienna; still another contains the horrors of the Inquisition, and the last of the book's stories is set in Seville and describes the life of the young artist living in a Moorish house who created the luminous and unusual drawings for the book. Hanna's own research and investigation into the mysteries of the book lead her to questions of forgery and betrayal and cause dramatic changes in her own life. Based on a true event, Brooks has done an excellent job with this one. I found it entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking reading.

MY HUSBAND'S SWEETHEARTS by Bridget Asher, 2008.

Silly but somewhat diverting piece of chick-lit that reads very quickly and is not that memorable. A woman discovers her husband Artie has cheated on her, leaves him, then finds out he is on his deathbed, returns to take care of him. She discovers his black book, and on a lark, calls all of his old girlfriends and tells them to come and take a turn at his deathbed. Somewhat shockingly, they do, and in the process of their visits, Lucy (the wife) becomes close to two of them, Eleanor and Elspa, as well as with Artie's long lost illegitimate son John (who has some secrets as well). Alliances are formed, secrets shared, there's forgiveness, blah, blah, blah. Some clever dialogue and witty remarks, but mostly it's kind of a drippy relationship story and not that convincing. Quick and forgettable.

NOAH'S COMPASS by Anne Tyler, 2009.

Never read an Anne Tyler novel until this one. Read several reviews and thought it might be a good novel to discuss in my book discussion groups.Tyler is a popular author, and now I see why. She has a winning writing style, it almost seems effortless, and she has a knack for writing about everyday things in a believable way. Liam Pennywell, the main character in this contemporary novel, lives in Baltimore and is forced to take early retirement at age 61 from his teaching job in a private school. Not particularly upset by it, he decides to shed most of his possessions and moves to a small apartment in a different part of the city. He goes to bed one night and wakes up the next day in the hospital, with no idea why he is there or how he got there. Disturbed by his difficulties in remembering what happened, he goes on a quest to find out and ends up making other discoveries about himself and others along the way that are quite unexpected.Tyler's characters are wonderfully drawn: Liam is likeable, memorable, so true to life and easy to relate to. All of Tyler's characters are interesting: Liam's ex-wife Barbara, his daughters Xanthe, Louise, and Kitty (who wants to live with him), his friend Bundy, Kitty's somewhat deadbeat boyfriend Damian, his young grandson Jonah, and Liam's sort of girlfriend, Eunice.They are flawed and human and funny--Tyler uses humor to great advantage. Her portrait of Liam is sympathetic and interesting and seems very true to life in terms of someone who is facing and attempting to cope with the final phase of his own life. Totally enjoyable.

THE SUGAR QUEEN by Sarah Addison Allen, 2008.

A nice, light piece by the author of Garden Spells, this story concerns three youngish women, living in a small North Carolina town, who are tied together by secrets and lies: Josey, who lives with her mother as basically an unpaid servant, keeps a hidden closet full of sugary junk food for herself and dreams of escape; Chloe, who owns and operates the best sandwich shop in town, is in the throes of a breakup and is hounded by books that appear whenever she needs them; and Della Lee, a tough talking waitress with a heart of gold who is fleeing an abusive relationship and hiding out in Josey's closet. Murder, abusive behavior, illicit affairs, forbidden love, and blooming romances all play a part in the plot, and these characters' lives intersect when secrets are slowly revealed and all comes to light in somewhat surprising ways. Full of small town quirkiness, recognizable and interesting characters, humor, and a little bit of magic, it's a pleasant and charming read.