The Children Act by Ian McEwan ****

This short book- only 213 pages- has many different layers: a disintegrating marriage, a judge who has some difficult moral issues to deal with in her court, the fine line between professional life and daily sorrows, a musician( also the judge) preparing for a concert and the epiphany she has during that concert. 

But as I finished this, I couldn't get it out of my mind, so I went back and re-read the last two chapters. Lots of questions in my mind! Is the title a legal label or is it a sentence ( article, noun, verb)? Why did the author spend so much time re-telling the case of the lawyer who shares the concert with Fiona?

Was Adam Henry in love with Fiona or was he obsessed by her decision? What is the role of music in this story?

Might be a good choice for Book Club. Probably not the best or most engrossing novel, but certainly ideal for discussion purposes. We haven't had a book like this before. 

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr *****

What a beautiful story this is, set before, during and after World War II. Marie- Laure lives with her father, who is the locksmith at The Museum of Natural History. Werner Pfennig is a young German orphan who lives with his sister  in an orphanage. Marie- Laure is blind, Werner is a genius with radios and transmitters who finds himself in Hitler's Army Youth because of his expertise, Marie's father is a genius with keys. But mostly this is a story of war and its effects on everyone, and the author juxtaposes the hopelessness of war with the beauty of the natural world so effectively.

Much of the story takes place in Saint Malo during  the German occupation- the town to which Marie and her father flee to escape the Germans in Paris.The  other important character is the German sergeant- major who attempts to track down a valuable jewel which seems to be in athe,locksmith's possession. These three threads all come together in Saint Malo in August, 1944.

This book was hard to put down. The chapters were all very short, so you never lost track of a character. Despite being a war story, this was an uplifting novel, showing the basic goodness of so many people. Ken Follett's trilogy of war can't even begin to match this, both for the powerful story, strong characters, and excellent, excellent writing. 

Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss ****

It's taken me four months to read this book.The first section on sugar convinced me to cut down substantially on added sugar. After a month or so, I read "fat" and learned such words as "mouthfeel" and learned that labs exist in the food manufacturers to measure what happens to the brain when we eat fat in processed foods. Two months pass, and it's nearly time for Book Club, so I start on "salt" where I learn how awful some foods taste( like potato chips) without salt. 

I love all three, like everyone else, but after reading this book, subtitled "How The Food Giants Hooked Us", I have already cut down substantially on all three items, so much so that when I eat sugar, my mouth literally rushes towards the substance. And it is true that all three make us crave more.

Bliss point, mouthfeel, emulsion labs, brain imaging, marketing strategies, lawsuits, advertising- it's all here, and all these companies have only one aim- to get us to eat more of those items,

The author states in the epilogue what I've long adhered to - it's all up to us. We may not be able to resist these three things, but we can make a decision as to how much of them we'll succumb to.

It's a life- changer is what it is!

Sweetland by Michael Crummey ****

The setting is a remote island off Newfoundland's south coast,and the inhabitants of the island have been offered a compensation package to leave the island for good. The residents slowly accept the inevitable, all but Moses Sweetland, and the town of Sweetland's residents are upset with him, because if one person refuses the package, there is no deal for any of them.

Moses finds a way to stay on the island, and the majority of the novel is his story of solitude amidst the storms of both sea and sky, a struggle to survive on the island that has shaped him.

This is Crummey's third novel and he just keeps on getting better. Four stars for this one!

Schroeder by Amity Gaige ***

A father- daughter story, wth Eric Kennedy ( whose real name is Schroder and who has hidden his past for all of his life in America after fleeing East Germany in the 80s) and his daughter Meadow, who is visiting her father after a bitter divorce and custody battle. Eric was the chief caregiver before the divorce, and his heat is broken over his inability to see his daughter when he wants to. 

My reasons for reading this book are obvious, but it wasn't really any more enlightening than what we lived through four years ago. 

Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates ****

Another excellent novel by Oates, this one was published in 2013. This is the story of Cressida Mayfield, who vanishes in a forest preserve in upstate New York, Corporal Brett Kincaid, the wounded and damaged veteran of the war in Iraq, who confesses to having attacked and murdered Cressida, who is the sister of his fiancée, Juliet Mayfield, as well as the parents of Juliet and Cressida.

There are some riveting scenes in this book, especially the tour of Death Row in a Texas prison, and some very LONG sentences! I often re-read them just to figure out their construction, and even their meaning. However, Oates' novels are not difficult to read, she is an excellent writer and uses

 intricate details effectively. They are pretty well all dystopian in theme and content, but nonetheless, interesting and illuminating.

The other novels by Oates that I've read are: We Were The Mulvaneys, The Falls, Blonde, and The Grave- Digger's Daughter.

Piano Girl: A Memoir by Robin Meloy Goldsby

I read this book back in July, but forgot to post it. I enjoy memoirs, and this one about a bar-room pianist ( as Michael Barnes wanted me to be!) captured my interest. Robin started out as a bar pianist to pay her way through college, but it ended up being her career. The foreword is probably the most interesting part of the book, as she sums up her career, although she's had some interesting experiences, travelled the world, and met all kinds of people.