Huntington Public Library Adult Reading Challenge

  This is a story of an Irish family in Ireland making plans for the younger daughter to make a life in the States. With the help of her older sister and a priest, the plans are set for her to ship off to Brooklyn. Once in Brooklyn, she soon meets the young man with whom she falls in love. We see and learn the differences being raised in families of different nationalities.

 Number 7 in the sweet Hannah Swensen series. Recipes to die for and a whodunit all backed into one witty read.

 I liked this more than I thought I would as it is written in the third person. The main character drove me crazy a little bit as she is so undecisive. Quick beach read and hard to put down.

This book started off very promising, but I don't know that it really went anywhere plot-wise. I felt that the aim of portraying the distant relationships between members of this family was harmed by switching narrators. I can appreciate the conflicts proposed in this novel, but I don't know that I felt much was resolved by the end.  

  From the first page, the reader is transported to the world of 1800's England. Basically, the main plot concerns the life and times of a young man who knows from a very young age what he wants to become. The strong cast of supporting characters and their plots are interwoven with the main one for an engaging and entertaining read. You will not be disappointed.

 What a struggle reading this book!! The author was a Pulitzer Prize winner for this book, which is what prompted me to slog through this book. While beautifully written, almost poetically descriptive, the story line dragged; what a waste of my time!!

  This book is a multiple thread story about several couples and how their individual stories, as well as how they fit together into a bigger storylines about life in San Fransisco during the 1980’s and the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Very readable and with lighthearted to downright laugh out loud funny, the author is able to tackle weighty topics and show remarkable insight into what it means to be gay, straight, male, female and the communities that arise from these natural conditions. Also there is the community of people who are from different walks of life but are together from living in an actual geographic community. Although he often shows how these people who are together from certain reasons are similar, he also shows how people from different communities who are thrown together by chance are much the same, for example the daring rescue of a politically conservative older man by a tough talking lesbian who become friends through mutual political stances and whisky. A...

  The second of this trilogy picks up where Plain Song left off. Touching portrait of the people of Holt, Colorado, with a focus on two aging rancher brothers.

  In this short novella, a young woman looks back to when her mother brought home a crane who dressed like a man. Kelly Barnhill gives her twist on the story of the Crane Wife, exploring the lives of the children of a woman obsessed. Great story, only 120 pages long.

  A beautiful contemporary Scottish novel that evokes a strong sense of nature and seasons. It’s a touching story, written in gorgeous prose.

  A story that begins in 1912 ends in 2195. It centers around a happening in a forest in Canada. A violin heard playing inside an airship terminal. This is science fiction, time travel. I'm not much of a sci-fi reader but I do like this author very much. She has never let me down. It's a quick read. Give it a try

  Moiraine Damodred arrives in Emond’s Field on a quest to find the one prophesized to stand against The Dark One, a malicious entity sowing the seeds of chaos and destruction. When a vicious band of half-men, half beasts invade the village seeking their master’s enemy, Moiraine persuades Rand al’Thor and his friends to leave their home and enter a larger unimaginable world filled with dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light. Book was a little slow in getting started. Many characters with unusual names and a lot of world building. Things picked up after the first few chapters. Very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. Good character development and good description of the characters epic journeys.

  I highly recommend this novel, written as the memoir of a dying minister to his young son. Set in the fictional town of Gilead Iowa in the mid 1950ies, it is written in stream of consciousness, also going back in time to stories about the narrator's father and grandfather both of them also ministers. Not only are there the great themes of grief, guilt, covetousness (covetise), vision, but also a deep sense of US history.