Diana's Picks
Diana is the store manager. While the locals seem to think that Diana is always at Forever Books, she can also often be found biking the roads of southwest Michigan. She enjoys reading anything of substance (no chick-lit, please), cookbooks, and she has a private book collection rivaling the store. She has three daughters who have inherited her love of books.
When 19-year old Paul, home from college, is paired with 48-year-old Susan at the tennis club, there is an attraction. The attraction leads to an affair, and eventually, they are living together, much to their family’s dismay. Paul is now past his prime, Susan has died, and he tells his dysfunctional story of love, still attempting to make some sense of it. A compelling tale!
White Houses is a beautiful, fictional romance of the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok, “Hick”. We follow Hick from her humble beginnings to becoming a respected prominent reporter. In 1932 she is assigned to cover Eleanor during FDR’s first presidential run. Offered a job in the Roosevelt’s administration, she is given a room in the White House, and dubbed “first friend”. This is the beginning of a life-long, fascinating relationship.
Booker Prize winner John Banville has bravely written a sequel to Henry James’ A Portrait of a Lady, with wonderful results. We find Isabel fleeing Florence to be at her dying cousin’s bedside, who leaves all his riches to her in hopes she will leave her oppressive husband and make a life for herself. A great standalone read with a powerful climactic ending! -Diana
Booker Prize winner John Banville has bravely written a sequel to Henry James’ A Portrait of a Lady, with wonderful results. We find Isabel fleeing Florence to be at her dying cousin’s bedside, who leaves all his riches to her in hopes she will leave her oppressive husband and make a life for herself. A great standalone read with a powerful climactic ending! -Diana
A wonderful adventure full of humor and many surprises, told through the eyes of two totally different narrators. Expert driver Irene Bobs is pulled into the 1950s car race, the Redex Trial, by her fast-talking, mesmerizing husband. Their shy, intelligent neighbor is convinced to be their navigator, as automobiles circle around the entire continent, with more emphasis on endurance then speed.
Bear Bavinsky is a famous painter with multiple wives and an abundance of estranged children. The exception is his favorite, Pinch. Pinch has aspirations of also being a painter until his father tramps them down; he settles into life as a language teacher and the protector of his father’s legacy. This enchanting novel deals with the turmoil between famous parents and their children, and the struggle of creating a life for themselves. Loved it!
Daphne, not quite 30, suffers from a real-life debilitating condition which leaves her partially paralyzed when she is moved by any emotion. This forces her to live a regimented life until she meets the free-spirited Ollie, who encourages her to experience the world with him. She must decide to stay safe in her self-made isolation, or risk all for love. Loosely based on the Myth of Apollo, Daphne is a wonderful modern fable.
Maggie O’Farrell has written the most astonishing memoir - - the telling of her life through 17 brushes with death: a childhood illness that left her vulnerable to mishaps; a couple of close calls in the water; a scary occurrence on a remote path; and the horrendous birth of her first child. O’Farrell captures the thin thread between life and death, and the realization, that life is a delicate, precious gift.
Lydia, a clerk at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, is in shock when she discovers a young man who has hung himself on the store’s third floor. More shocking, sticking out of his pocket is a picture of her ten-year-old self. Lydia’s life becomes unhinged, as she must now solve a present day mystery, which is connected to her past. A very satisfying mystery, with plenty of twists, and turns.
At the age of 46, Christina Olsen meets 22 year-old painter Andrew Wyeth and they see in each other kindred spirits, which moves him to paint his famous masterpiece, Christina’s World. Kline has written a gripping, beautiful novel of a brave woman with a progressive bone disease, who against numerous obstacles refuses to give up on her day to day life, struggling to keep up her work on the family farm.
Ava Antipova flees to Paris, escaping her alcoholic family’s failing vineyard in upstate New York. Upon receiving her mother’s email that her twin Zelda has died, allegedly by passing out with a lit cigarette, causing the fatal barn fire. Ava is skeptical of the official explanation. Finding a cell phone Zelda left behind, Ava starts to receive messages from Zelda and the games begin. A compulsive, suspenseful read!
Three men find themselves enthralled with the same woman: her husband, an industrialist who commissions a life-sized nude paining of her; the artist hired to do the painting; and a lawyer hired by the artist to regain certain rights over his work of art. Eventually the young woman and the painting disappear. Years later, the painting reappears, and all the men involved come together for a final confrontation. Spellbinding!
In an unnamed city in the East, we meet a young couple in love, Nadia, an independent, unreligious young woman; and the kind religious Saeed. When their city is systematically taken by invading insurgents, food and freedoms quickly fade. The couple decides to join the mass exodus to the West. Survival binds the couple, as they make their way towards an uncertain future. Masterful storytelling!
For those who truly love Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and longed for the back story of the dark and brooding Mr. Rochester, the wait is over. Shoemaker has written an enthralling tale of a sensitive, lonely young boy sent away by a cold-hearted father and older brother, who go on to betray him into adulthood. When he inherits his beloved Thornfield Hall, he returns to England, and meets his true love, Jane.
(PB releasese March 27) In this incredible new novel, Elizabeth Strout, revisits Lucy Barton and her small home town of Amgash Illinois. The townspeople are having a difficult time reconciling the famous author she has become with her history as the child of a poor, widely-despised family. Each chapter is told by a different person, reflecting on the past and present. Strout, as always, is able to capture the essence of human kinship.
(PB releases May 15) Gettleman, is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the New York Times, who has reported from some of the most dangerous places in the world for the past 20 years. In the 90s, he took a year off of school to travel to Africa, where he fell in love with everything African. Upon returning to his studies, he falls in love with a young women, and he is torn between his two passions. Love, Africa is a truly remarkable memoir filled with love, war, and survival.
(PB releases May 29) In her first work of fiction, Alexandra Fuller has written a lyrical tale of two cousins born weeks apart and raised by their Grandmother: the quiet, reclusive Rick Overlooking Horse, scarred by his time in Vietnam, and the angry You Choose Watson, a half breed rabble-rouser who eventually lands in prison. A great homage to Native American life and a quite enjoyable tale.
(PB releases April 3) On New Year’s Eve 1984, 85-year-old Lillian Box decides to take walk, revisiting all the changes the city and she have endured since her arrival in the late 1920’s and of her once glamorous life as the highest paid women in advertising for Macy’s. Based on an actual person.
I loved Lillian!
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The Poisoned City:Flint's Water and
by Anna Clark
THE GREAT AMERICAN READ is an eight-part series on PBS that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels (as chosen in a national survey). It investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what these 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience. There will be a nationwide vote to choose America's most beloved book. Find the 100 book selections here and read and place your vote by clicking on image to the left!