The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
The story is told from the point of view of a teenager who has just been kicked out of school – for about the third time. The events take place over the course of a couple of days, and we hear the young man’s point of view on a number of subjects. I can see why this book made such a sensation when it was first published.

Push (Sapphire)
The books tells the story of Precious Jones who has been abused by both her mother and her father all of her life. She has two children, the result of abuse by her father. Her mother treats her like her personal slave. It only takes one teacher to recommend a school for Precious, and this makes all the difference to her life and self-esteem.

The Perfect Elizabeth (Libby Schmais)
I picked this book based on the cover – I often do that and am seldom disappointed. This story is about two sisters. Bette, the graduate student, seems to have it together but as her thesis is about the role of toast in the English novel you expect she may come off the rails. Liza is a would-be poet who has a job she hates but she needs to pay the bills. The two sisters are close and I enjoyed the way their relationship and lives evolved.

The Almost Moon (Alice Sebold)
Her first novel was slightly ghoulish, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. This novel is also a bit on the morbid side – if you think killing your mother and hiding the fact for as long as possible is morbid. Obviously this family has issues – all three generations of it

The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
If heaven is what is portrayed in this novel, I think I would like it. The story is told from the point of view of a young girl who has been brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor on her way home from school. She watches over her family as they try to come to terms with her death. She also follows the detective assigned to her case, as well as her murderer.

Peony in Love (Lisa See)
Peony is a young Chinese girl who is approaching her 16th birthday. In honor of her birthday her father mounts a performance of her favorite play, The Peony Pavilion. Although it is strictly forbidden Peony meets secretly with a young poet, Ren, who is also an admirer of the play. Peony and Ren fall in love, but both are betrothed in arranged marriages. Most of the story takes place after Peony has died of "lovesickness". Peony is left roaming in the afterlife because her death was not accompanied by all of the required rituals. The Peony Pavilion and The Three Wives Commentary, which figure prominently in the story, are historical documents. I was fascinated with the way the author wove these manuscripts into her story.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)
During the 2nd World War the Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans. This book tells the story of an unlikely group of characters in Guernsey who meet regularly, and occasionally discuss books. The story is told through letters written back and forth between the islanders, a London journalist and her publisher.

Please Look After Mom (Kyung-Sook Shin)
The novel revolves around an elderly couple from the country that travels to Seoul to spend time with their children. While catching the subway, the husband and wife become separated, and the mother remains missing. The story is told from the point of view of the eldest daughter, the eldest son, the husband, and the mother herself.

Fortune’s Rocks (Anita Shreve)
Set in the late 1800’s, this is a story about a well-to-do family who are spending the summer at the Eastern seaside. The daughter, only 15, becomes caught up in a secret love affair with a married doctor working in the area. At a party celebrating her 16th birthday the love affair is discovered and Olympia and her family go home in disgrace. When Olympia realizes she is pregnant she feels she has no choice but to allow her father “to make arrangements”. Olympia is sent to a school on the West Coast and her family home at the seaside is left abandoned. Olympia eventually finds her son, and tells about the court battle as she fights to regain custody. Her experience leads her to create a safe-haven for other girls who find themselves as unmarried mothers.

Rescue (Anita Shreve)
I’ve read a couple of books by this author, so didn’t hesitate to pick this book up when I saw it at a yard sale. The main character in the story, Webster, is an emergency medical technician raising his seventeen-year-old daughter, Rowan, on his own. We are very quickly drawn into the background story of how the two of them got to this point in their life. Although I was hoping for a twist, the end is predictable.

Swimming Naked (Stacy Sims)
This is another dysfunctional family story. A successful young woman returns to her mother’s home to assist her through her terminal illness. One clear image the young woman has of her sad childhood is an almost perfect night skinny-dipping with her mother.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
In 1951 Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which took her life only a short time later. Prior to her death, and without her consent, tissue samples were taken from her tumors. Up to this time it had been impossible to “grow” cells in a lab for more than a few weeks. Henrietta’s cells not only out-lived all other cell samples, but they are still growing and used across the world in medical research (the HeLa cells). The book tells us about some of the research Henrietta’s cells have been a part of – among other things they were used to test the Salk polio vaccine, they traveled to space, and they aided in the first genetic research – and explores the ethics around patient consent and privacy. Years after her death, Henrietta’s family learn of the use of her cells and the book gives us a glimpse into their lives as they learn of her “immortality”.

Burnt Bones (Michael Slade)
This author was on the SFU Symposium panel discussing mysteries. I read this book prior to the discussion and was convinced that I would not enjoy the author. The book is quite dark – a good story with a supernatural twist. The author is a local lawyer and all his books are co-written and published under a pseudonym. He had delightful stories to tell and I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation.

J.D. Salinger: A Life (Kenneth Slawenski)
I’m not sure how this book got on my list, but I was expecting more from it. It seems to be less of a biography and more of a Coles Notes on everything that Salinger wrote. The descriptions of the battles he saw during his stint in the army were interesting, and there is some insight into the events that turned him into the recluse that he became.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
I had read this book as a child and when I picked it from my parents’ collection of books it was a “Christmas” book choice. The story, originally published in 1943 is the delightful tale of the Nolan family struggling to make ends meet in Brooklyn. Although it focuses on Francie there are three generations involved in the story and all the characters are delightful.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark)
This was a Real Simple Book Club choice. I saw the movie many years ago (with Maggie Smith) and it seemed like one of those books I should read. The story revolves around Miss Jean Brodie, a woman in the prime of her life, who teaches at a school for girls. For her time, Miss Brodie didn’t fit the mold of a spinster teacher and the education she gave “her girls” was certainly not restricted to what was on the curriculum. The story is told over the course of several years, as the Brodie set move on to higher grades but continue their friendship with their former teacher.

Dear John (Nicholas Sparks)
Nicolas Sparks’ books are always an easy read, and usually quite predictable. This is on exception.

The Sun is My Undoing (Marguerite Steen)
This is another of my “Christmas” books – originally published in 1941 – and picked from my parents’ collection. It is a thick book (which I love) and mainly tells the story of two characters who fall in love but the circumstances of the time keep them apart. There is a lot of information involving the slave trade in England. I have since learned that this is the first book in a trilogy, but the subsequent books weren’t as popular.

The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
Miss Skeeter is a young woman who has earned a college degree and is back in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi just waiting until she become a writer. She soon starts writing a weekly column about cleaning in the local newspaper, but she needs the advice of the maid to one of her friends. It isn’t long until Miss Skeeter begins to question the limited rights of the help and sets out to write, in secret, their stories. Due to the emerging civil rights movement, this is a very dangerous act for both Miss Skeeter and the dozen maids who tell her their stories.

The Pact (Jennifer Sturman)
This is the story of a group of women who first met in college and made a pact that they would never let one another get involved with an unsuitable man. As the group gathers for the wedding of one of their group, they realize that the groom is entirely unsuitable. When he winds up dead before the wedding the search is on for the killer.

Cane River (Lalita Tademy)
This was an Oprah Book Club selection and you can never go wrong with one of those. The story follows four generations on the author’s mother’s side of the family, born into slavery and eventually finding freedom.  I love a book that covers several generations of remarkably strong women.

Red River (Lalita Tademy)
I heard this author, a former VP for Microsoft, in a CBC interview with Michael Enright. I was intrigued and immediately ordered this second book from the library. The story follows the life of four generations from the author’s father’s family. The story begins with the 1873 riot in Colfax, Louisiana but as her side of the story unfolds, the event appears to be more of a massacre. The story is part fiction, but based in fact.

The Pearl Diver (Jeff Talarigo)
A young Japanese woman who makes her living diving for pearls in the Seto Island Sea has contracted leprosy. She is able to hide her illness for a short while, but is eventually exiled to a leprosarium. Cut off from her family (except for one uncle who gives her an exceptional gift each birthday) and the life she has known, she takes on the role of caregiver to many of the other residents in her new community.

The Bonesetter’s Daughter (Amy Tan)
As many of Amy Tan’s novels, this story is set in both the present and the past. The present is the story of Ruth, a Chinese self-help author who seems incapable of dealing with her relationship with her partner and his daughters, or with the increasingly erratic behavior of her aging mother. The glimpses into the past are provided through the translation of the mother’s diaries.

Saving Fish from Drowning (Amy Tan)
The story is told from the perspective of a Chinese woman socialite, from beyond the grave. Prior to her death she had arranged a tour of the Burma Road for a group of friends. Unsure of the protocols involved, they group carry on with the tour and, understandably, run into road blocks throughout the trip. On Christmas morning all but one of the group disappear, and are held hostage by a refugee tribe who believe one of the touring group is a reincarnation of an ancient god. This is the first Amy Tam book that I haven’t loved, and I hardly even liked it.

Bright Morning (Nicola Thorne)
I have no idea where this book came from, but it was on my shelf and I picked it up. It is the third book in a series of five, but not having read any of the others didn’t really make any difference. The story follows members of the Askham family over several generations. This particular part of the saga is set during the 2nd World War.

The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas)
I had high hopes for this book - “At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own …”. Although it won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in 2009, I don’t think the book lived up to its cover. Set in Australia, the story is a chapter-by-chapter chronicle of the intersecting lives of most of the people who attended the barbeque where the slap occurred. I wouldn’t recommend the book, but if you want to read it I’d suggest you borrow it from your library.

The Space Between Us (Thrity Umrigar)
This book looks at the lives of a middle-class Indian woman and her servant. The difficulties they face in their lives are very different, but the women seem linked by a real friendship. A situation near the end of the book threatens that friendship and we get a glimpse of how status can threaten friendship.

The Moon of Letting Go (Richard Van Camp)
I’m not someone who particularly likes short stories but, as the book was a gift from Richard, I wanted to read it. I didn’t relate to many of the stories, but almost every one brought back an image or memory of the time I spent in Fort Smith and Yellowknife. I that I would have enjoyed the stories more if I were listening to Richard tell them.

Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese)
This was such a good, but a very relaxing read. The story progresses very slowly and you get to know each of the characters. While it was easy enough to put down (no pressure late at night to read just one more chapter) the story was engaging. The book is written from the point of view of one twin, and follows the life of his extended family over several years. The book is a beautiful as the cover.

The Plot (Irving Wallace)
This sat on my shelf for years. The story is set after the Kennedy assassination and uses several real-life events to tie up a good story.

Half Broke Horses (Jeannette Walls)
The author says the book is based on stories she was told about her grandmother but, since some of the details were hazy and filled-in through her imagination, she considers the book to be a novel rather than a memoir. There is no question Lily Casey Smith was a woman ahead of her time. She was one of the first Arizona women to drive a car and learn to fly. Her skill with horses led to her meeting her second husband (her first husband was a “crumb bum”). She was an excellent poker player, an almost perfect shot, and she once resorted to bootlegging to make ends meet.

The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)
This memoir is an astounding account of children who grew up in very difficult conditions. The author had a strong sense of pride and, although she recognized her parents’ faults and limitations, she laid no blame. I was horrified at times with the story, and I wonder how they fell through so many cracks.

Best Friends Forever (Jennifer Weiner)
I love the name and the cover of this book, but I didn’t enjoy the story. Val and Addie have been best friends since they were nine years old when Val and her mother moved in across the street from Addie and her family. Val was popular in high school but Addie had some personal and family issues and they lost touch with each other when they graduated. A class reunion brings the two back together. I wavered between annoyance and ambivalence towards the characters. I was glad when I finished the book so I could move on.

Crazy Ladies (Michael Lee West)
Who wouldn’t like a story that starts out with a burial in the backyard? Three generations of whacky women make this a fantastic read.

Mad Girls in Love (Michael Lee West)
I had read and loved a previous book by this author, but I didn’t realize this was a continuation of that first book. The story revolves around Bitsy, one of many true GRITS (Girl Raised in the South) in her family. Bitsy has just whacked her rich husband on the side of the head with some frozen ribs she had been thawing for their dinner, and that action will haunt her for the remainder of the book. Bitsy belongs to a close-knit family. Her aunt and cousin live in the house next door to her mother, who is serving time in an asylum and writing letters to the First Ladies as they pass through the White House.

Night (Elie Wiesel)
This was another of Oprah’s picks, but I didn’t realize that it was the first book in a trilogy dealing with the author’s experiences before, during and after his time in concentration camps during the Second World War.

Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery (Helen Waldstein Wilkes)
Pat took some writing classes with Helen and I heard about her book from him. When the author was a young child her parents narrowly escaped to Canada from Czechoslovakia before Hitler took control. The majority of the book is made up of letters sent to her mother and father from relatives left behind. These letters are interspersed with Helen’s thoughts on how the letters affected her parents, the difficulties she encountered growing up, and her search to find out what happened to her relations.

Before Green Gables (Budge Wilson)
I had heard there was a prequel to the Anne books, but after reading the sequel to Gone with the Wind I wasn’t even interested. The book arrived as a gift and it took no time at all before I was fully involved in the story. I haven’t read any of the Anne books for a while, but this seems to be a perfect fit.

Happiness Sold Separately (Lolly Winston)
I remember the book cover, and I know I liked the book but even after reading the reviews on-line nothing comes back to me about the story.