Hildy Good is someone you will want to know. The outspoken narrator of Ann Leary’s 2012 novel “The Good House” takes you into her confidence right away, or so it seems. Leary’s 60-something character is a top-notch realtor in the…
Reader’s Choice
“The Chaperone”
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By Laura Moriarty I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to get a social history lesson on the 1920s than reading Laura Moriarty’s 2012 novel, “The Chaperone.” Moriarty brings alive that decade while telling a story that is impossible to…
‘The Burgess Boys’
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Written by Elizabeth Strout Athought crept into my mind as I read Elizabeth Strout’s newest novel, “The Burgess Boys” (2013) — “Do they ever award a Pulitzer Prize to someone twice?” This is Strout’s first novel since winning the esteemed…
‘Flora’ Written by Gail Godwin
by Betty Hafner • • Comments Off
Prize-winning author Gail Godwin has returned to her southern roots to weave a tight little tale in her newest novel, “Flora” (2013). Her narrator, writer Helen Anstruther, recounts a story set in the summer of 1945 when she is 10…
‘The Interestings’ Written by Meg Wolitzer
by Betty Hafner • • Comments Off
“The Interestings” (2013) is a big book in every sense of the word. The dense, almost 500-page novel follows a group of six teenagers who label themselves “The Interestings,” from their meeting in 1974 at Spirit-in-the-Woods camp for artistic teens…
‘The View from Penthouse B’ Written by Elinor Lipman
by Betty Hafner • • Comments Off
Elinor Lipman has delivered another sparkling, big-hearted and wise novel — her 10th — with “The View from Penthouse B” (2013). You don’t read Lipman’s fiction to do a deep dive into world issues or to challenge yourself to unravel…
‘Benediction’ Written by Kent Haruf
by Betty Hafner • • Comments Off
“Solemn.” That is the word I would use to describe the way I felt reading “Benediction” (2013), Kent Haruf’s newest novel. “Respectful,” I would call myself, of the close look he allows into the private lives of ordinary people. In…
‘The Sense of an Ending’ Written by Julian Barnes
by Betty Hafner • • Comments Off
When Julian Barnes’ elegantly crafted novel, “The Sense of an Ending,” won England’s 2011 Man Booker Prize, I vowed to read it immediately. Yet that little book with its puzzling title by an author I’d not yet read simply remained…
“Gone Girl” Written by Gillian Flynn
by Betty Hafner • • Comments Off
Hundreds of thousands of people have already read Gillian Flynn’s breakout suspense novel “Gone Girl” (2012), the story of a husband who becomes suspect when his beautiful, brilliant but high-strung wife disappears. Though I normally don’t go for thrillers, I…
‘The Light Between Oceans’ Written by M. L. Stedman
by Betty Hafner • • Comments Off
The achingly beautiful debut novel of Australian-born M. L. (Margot) Stedman deserves all the attention it is getting from critics and readers. The idea for the story, Stedman tells interviewers, began with a picture she had in her mind of…