Just finished this yesterday: SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy, 2009.

Conroy is not a writer whose books I necessarily seek out. In fact, the only book of his I had read before this one was Prince of Tides, and that was many years ago... I was drawn to this one mainly because it's set in Charleston, South Carolina, an historic city I've visited several times over the years and am very fond of.

Most of South of Broad's action takes place in Charleston, and Conroy does an excellent job in his descriptions of the city, his use of real place names, etc. I could feel myself walking down Meeting Street, stepping into St. Michael's Church, and strolling along the Battery. The story involves a group of teens who meet the summer before their senior year in 1969 and who become lifelong friends, and continues 20 years later, in 1989, when they are adults and following their various paths. The two time periods/stories move back and forth through the book. Leo King, isolated and lonely, struggling to heal himself, is the heart of this group, which includes the glamorous just-come-to-town Sheba Poe and her brother Trevor; the damaged orphans Niles and Starla Whitehead; Ike Jefferson, Leo's football training partner and son of the new black coach; Betty Roberts, a sassy black orphan; the old Charleston money kids Molly Huger and Chad Rutledge and his sister Fraser. These kids become a close-knit group, whose lives remain intertwined as their circle widens. They survive issues of integration, loyalty, love, parental authority, prejudice, depression, alcoholism, acceptance, and multiple tragedies, some becoming stronger and some ruining their lives. These kids are troubled as teens, and they become more messed up as adults. Conroy piles on plenty of old secrets and scandals, supplies chilling horror when the Poes' insane father shows up, and uses Hurricane Hugo to set some things right in their world. While at times Conroy's characters seem a little too old and wise (especially as teenagers), they are interesting and well defined, full of emotion and energy. His writing is just wonderful, with plenty of wit and humor, as well as solemness and elegance and grace. Full of enthusiasm, beauty, wildness, cruelty, social graces and customs, emotional turbulence and the power of love and redemption, this novel really is thought provoking and moving. It was a very worthwhile read for me.

SONGS FOR THE MISSING by Stewart O'Nan, 2008.

Reviews for this book were good, so when I saw it the other day and decided I needed to read a contemporary story, I went with this. It's set in a small town in Ohio near Lake Erie. Kim Larsen, a teenage girl who, the summer before she is leaving for college, simply vanishes between the time she left her friends at the river and the time she's due for work. Disappears into thin air. The people closest to her do everything to find her: search parties are formed, TV appearances made, fund raisers held, and private investigations unearth secrets, and everyone struggles to keep hope alive. But as time passes and her disappearance becomes old news, the story then becomes a portrait of how those left behind cope with the unexplained loss of a child. Kim's parents and sister each call on hidden strengths to survive the tragedy and move forward, and her best friends and boyfriend follow different paths to come to their own conclusions about their own parts in the awful drama and how to live with it. A heartwrenching, suspenseful, and believably written book.