THE TEN YEAR NAP (Meg Wolitzer)

Since the feminist revolution of the 1960's, it seems like mothers have had a choice between feeling guilty over working or feeling guilty over neglecting fulfilling careers to stay home and raise their children.  Meg Wolitzer's "Ten Year Nap" is about 4 New York based women who have made the choice to give up careers, some promising, others not, to devote their lives to their families. 

Amy is a Trusts & Estates lawyer and the daughter of an ardent feminist and an economics professor.  She and her husband, Leo, met and fell in love at the law firm where they both worked.  When their now 10-year-old son, Mason, was born they decided that Amy would give up work for a couple of years to raise their baby.  Two years stretched to ten and now Amy, believing that their finances are stable, is considering volunteer work. 

Amy's friend Roberta is a failed-artist-turned-puppeteer.  She and her husband, Nathaniel, also a puppeteer, live with their two children in a family owned apartment in the city.  Karen and Wilson Yip are MIT-educated mathematicians with twin sons.  This couple is successful and financially comfortable and Karen's choice to stay at home with her two boys is applauded by both of their traditional Chinese families.  Jill, whose doctoral thesis was rejected and whose mother committed suicide while Jill was in college, welcomes the opportunity to stay at home with her adopted daughter, Nadia, instead of trying to figure out how to live up to the promise of her Vivian Swope Award, honoring her as the student in her prep school class most likely to achieve success.  Jill and her husband have moved to the suberb of Holly Hills, NY, where she feels isolated from her friends and depressed by the fact that her daughter seems "different", perhaps intellectually slow.

Throughout this novel the reader is introduced to various characters from the past and present that have helped to form the fears and values of the four women.  Chapters featuring mothers, lovers, friends, colleagues, and even Margaret Thatcher, are interspersed throughout the book, giving us insight into where these women came from and where they might choose to go next.  This novel is a story about difficult choices and the balancing act that is everyday life for parents.  I would recommend it to anyone who has ever witnessed, considered, or lived through the process of raising child while dealing with the pressures of maintaining friendships and living up to societal expectations.  I think that the title is genius!

SUMMER ON BLOSSOM STREET (Debbie Macomber)

I keep wondering why I can't stay away from Macomber's Blossom Street knitting series!  Although I don't read "romance", I like books that include some romance.  I always considered Macomber's various series too "romancey" for me, though.  I guess what appeals to me about this series is the happy endings.  The stories are not unrealistic: people have problems, including serious illnesses, broken families, and deaths, but they manage to work through their problems and find happiness.  I feel inspired by Macomber's characters to pursue life and to live it.  I'm sorry if that sounds trite or fluffy.  Sometimes I enjoy thought-provoking philisophy, historical detail, or exciting action, but sometimes I just get tired of the gore and the angst and the depression of many modern novels.  Sometimes happy endings are just what you need, and Macomber has them!  I feel happy after reading this book.

THE LADIES OF GARRISON GARDENS (Louise Shaffer)

Shaffer's sequel to the irresistable "Three Miss Margarets" is a wonderful blend of past and present, mystery and romance, Southern charm and gritty realism.  One thing on which I have to comment, however, is the incredible disconnect between the cover of this novel and its contents!  The picture on the cover shows two women in 1950's casual garb tending to a garden full of sunflowers, while the "Garrison Gardens" of the story is part of an enormous legacy (including botanical gardens, a resort, and a huge "cottage", employer to 3000 local residents) left to Laurel Selene McReady by the late Peggy Garrison, one of the Miss Margarets.  Laurel, Charles Valley's former "wild child", was a surrogate daughter to Peggy and nursed her through her final illness.  When faced with the demands of unscrupulous lawyer Stuart Lawrence, another of Peggy's legacies, Laurel is forced to evaluate her confidence in her own abilities and her idealization of the resort's responsibilities towards its employees and the community.  Eventually her values and reality clash and Laurel is forced to come to grips with Miss Peggy's life and decisions and their profound effect on her own.

While Laurel is dealing with her modern-day dilemmas, we are also treated to the parallel story of Lily and Iva Claire Rain, two mediocre vaudevillians, a mother and daughter, who tour around during the early 1930's as the Sunshine Sisters.  Throughout the novel the readers wonders about the connection between the past and the present and Shaffer does not disappoint when she eventually merges the two stories with some interesting twists.

THE LITTLE STRANGER (Sarah Waters)

Dr. Faraday is called one day to Hundreds Hall to tend to the Ayres family maid, Betty, who has been complaining of stomach pains. Despite the fact that his colleague, Dr. David Graham, is the family's physician of record, this is NOT Faraday's first visit to the Hall. Nearly 30 years before, at age 10, Dr. Faraday had attended an Empire Day festival at the beautiful mansion, where his mother had previously served as a nursery maid. It is during this current emergency visit, however, that he becomes acquainted with the eccentric Ayres family: Mrs. Ayres, now widowed and still grieving for her first-born, Susan, who died of diptheria at the age of six; Caroline, the plain, practical, daughter who will become almost an obsession in Dr. Faraday's life; and son Roderick, maimed in WWII and struggling unsuccessfully to keep the estate running and solvent.

Faraday is both appalled and fascinated by changes at the Hall and soon becomes a close friend and confidante of the Ayreses. During a dinner party at Hundreds Hall to welcome new neighbors to the area, the amiable and loving family dog, Gyp, suddenly turns on the young daughter of the guests, disfiguring her face. This is the first in a series of many disturbing occurances that eventually drive the family and the estate to near destruction, and the first hint of the "little stranger" that will alter the lives of everyone closely connected with Hundreds Hall.

Waters is a gifted historical novelist. In "The Little Stranger' she creates a rich atmosphere of decaying opulance as the Ayres family tries unsuccessfully to maintain their traditional position in the community as their home literally falls down around them. The reader can almost feel the dampness and cold and smell the mildew and soot as Waters' story unfolds and her characters' lives and sanity seem to disintegrate bit by bit. The supernatural element is introduced seamlessly into the storyline and developed so subtley that the reader continually wonders whether the events of the story are real (in the fictional sense), manufactured by someone with malevolent intent towards one or more of the family, or product of an unstable mind. I do feel that this novel would have been much better if it had been about 300 pages instead of 463. I almost stopped reading about 200 pages into the book because the story began to drag unbearably, leaving me plodding through the pages. Once the story picked up later on and it was difficult to put the book down as the ending approached.

Speaking of the ending, nothing here is cut and dried.  Those of you who enjoy a neat, well tied up finale will be disappointed by the uncertainties that remain as this novel ends.  If you enjoy a novel that keeps you wondering, even long after you close the book, this may be a good choice for you.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES (Cecelia Ahern)

At the tender age of twenty-eight, Cecelia Ahern has been a best-selling novelist for five years.  Her first novel, P.S. I Love You, was made into a major Hollywood film, and she co-created the now canceled televsion series, Samantha Who?  What's left for her to accomplish, you might ask?  I guess we'll just need to keep reading her work to find out!

Ahern is considered a "romance" novelist in her home country of Ireland, where her father once served as prime minister, but her books are much more than boy-meets-girl-and-they-live-happily-ever-after.  This author creates real characters who charm the reader with their alternately fantastic (as in fantasy) and vulnerable personalities.  Thanks for the Memories begins on a sad note, as Joyce suffers a fall, loses her long-desired unborn child, and is the recipient of a blood transfusion.  These events have long-reaching effects on Joyce's life as her shaky marriage comes to an end and she finds herself inexplicably an expert on art, architecture, and languages.  Meanwhile, American art and architecture expert Justin Hutchinson has donated blood for the first time and inexplicably longs to know who received it.  I'm sure you can guess where this is going!  Booklist and Publishers' Weekly  both gave Ahern's latest novel mediocre reviews, describing some of the characters as "thin" and "annoying".  Personally, I disagree.  I found the concept interesting, the characters likable, and Joyce's relationships with her father and friends very appealing.  Joyce is strong and worldly and cares deeply, a trait often lacking in the protagonists of today's violent and graphic thrillers.  Take a weekend and enjoy this novel!

KNIT ONE, KILL TWO (Maggie Sefton)

Kelly Flynn is in Colorado to settle her Aunt Helen's estate, but something is amiss.  Helen, who was like a mother to Kelly, was murdered in the living room of her quaint cottage, supposedly by a vagrant caught running from the area after the crime.  There are several problems with the investigation, though:  The police have found no trace of Helen's latest knitting project, a purple sweater torn from the needles in Helen's hands during the murder, the $20,000 in cash that Helen borrowed just before the murder has disappeared without a trace, and, unbeknownst to the police, a family heirloom quilt is inexplicably missing from Helen's living room wall.  Kelly believes that the local cops are bungling the case and sets out to look for clues to the killer herself, with the help of her new group of friends at the House of Lambspun, the knitting shop located in Aunt Helen's former home across from the cottage. 

Sefton's first knitting mystery has all the elements of an excellent cozy/craft series: a likeable heroine, hints at a future love interest, long lost relatives, secret business deals gone bad, a kindly retired cop who now spins wool, supportive friends, a charming setting, and just the right amount of knitting to satisfy yarn lovers without turning off non-knitting readers.  I've already read the next couple of installments, and I highly recommend this series.