Huntington Public Library Adult Reading Challenge

This story centers around the life of a woman (Lara) who now lives on a cherry farm in Michigan with her husband Joe. When her three adult daughters return to the farm during the pandemic, they insist on their mom recounting the tale of a portion of her life when she was an actress, and later having a relationship with a famous actor, "Duke". The novel goes back and forth between the past, the tracking of Lara's acting career, the people she was involved with over the years, the various decisions she made, and the present and how she ended up on the farm, married to Joe and the mother of these three women. The character development was interesting and well done, and I liked how the pieces came together at the end of the book. I actually listened to it as an audio book, narrated by Meryl Streep, who did an excellent job! I did find it to be a little too long and drawn out.  

 Ivy and Jane are two white women from different sides of the tracks: Ivy- a poor, pregnant 15-year-old, and Jane: a 22-year-old, newly married social worker assigned to Ivy's family. When Jane discovers the North Carolina Welfare Department is sterilizing impoverished black or white medically or mentally defective people, she risks everything to fight the system.

 An amazing book and a must read. A story about migrants and migration to the United States, policy issues and humanitarian concerns, fellow human beings, and issues of morality!

  I could not put this book down! Lisa Wingate once again drives us through the historically accurate Tennessee Children's Home Society and the criminal adoptions led by Georgia Tann, between the years of 1920-1950. Although the family spoken about in the book is fictional, the reports and experiences of the characters were noted to have really happened throughout the 3 decades that Georgia Tann stole children from poorer families and sold them to wealthy families. This book was a fantastic eye opener to the sad and heart wrenching true history of the families affected by the Tennessee Children's Home Society's crimes via illegal adoption. The way the author weaves hope and love throughout the underlying theme of sadness makes for beautiful writing.

  Calling all Stephen King fans! Alex North writes with a style of his own but this book was very reminiscent of a King read. This was an intense multigenerational thriller with complex father/son relationships. A series of murders rocks a small British town and 20 years later (after the killer has been incarcerated) the abductions and killings begin again. Detective Pete Willis from the original Whisper Man case is in a race against time before another child is abducted and murdered. This will keep you reading through the night with twists and turns and the right amount of creepiness.

  Two men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who have both lost their daughters, unite to work for peace.