Harper Lee “To Kill a Mockingbird”

A classic of modern American literature “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960, it was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize.
I'm so glad I finally picked up “To Kill a Mockingbird”, I heard so many wonderful things about this book. It’s really a wonderful piece of literature, great characters, plot and prose. Every character and every little side story added flavor, color and depth to this wonderful tale. This book seems so simple, but it's about several things at once - racism, injustice, social status, innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” has become a new all-time favorite book for me.
Lili

Boyle T.C. “World’s End”

World's End is a 1987 historical fiction novel by T. C. Boyle, the winner of the 1988 PEN/Faulkner Award for American Fiction. The novel tells the story of several generations of families in the Hudson River Valley from the late seventeenth century to the late 1960s with darkly humor, high seriousness, and beautiful prose. There are lots of characters, and lots of time shifts between chapters, but Boyle is able to tie it all together into a great story, involving wealthy Dutch landowners, Native Americans, poor farmers, and a rebellious youth in the 1970's. The novel is wisely readable, every character is placed with great care in the plot to do something. What I loved about the novel the most is its mix of historical fiction with family drama in the present, it never gets boring.
This book was hard to put down and well worth the read.
Olga.

Larry McMurtry “Lonesome Dove”

Lonesome Dove is a 1985 Pulitzer Prize–winning western novel written by Larry McMurtry. This novel goes down as one of the finest examples of Western literature of all time. The story focuses on the relationship of several retired Texas Rangers and their adventures driving a cattle herd from Texas to Montana. I think you really feel you are on the journey with them across the wide open spaces and going through their trials. The characters in this story are more real than in any other book I've read. I came to absolutely love Gus and Clara. Lonesome Dove
is a book to make me dream, laugh….
“If you read only one western novel in your life, read Lonesome Dove…” USA Today
Lena

Wally Lamb “She's Come Undone”

Wally Lamb presents the reader with a character who has lost all hope. I like Delores. She started out with a normal enough life. She was the only child in a normal family. Mother and father were together and happy, and Delores enjoyed spending time with them. But when her father decides to leave her and her mother, Dolores is not quite sure how to carry on.
The author has created an incredibly true and memorable young woman who has many of the same thoughts and feelings of your average female reader. I truly understood the feelings and thoughts of Dolores. It's amazing to me that a male author could write such engaging female character.

I think this story is a tragedy and a chance for the readers to think about the tragedies and sadness of our own lives.
Lena

Anita Shreve "The Last Time They Met"

What a great book!!! This was the first book that I read by Shreve. Anita Shreve knows exactly how to make you care for her characters as close friends and to gain a deeper understanding of the character’s lives. This book really touched me and I can not stop thinking about it. I thought the book was wonderfully written. Shreve created such a powerful and emotional love between Linda and Thomas The ending was so shocking, it still brings tears to my eye. I highly recommend this novel and will be reading it again and again in years to come…A gripping novel…
Irina

John Edgar Wideman “Sent for You Yesterday”

“Sent for You Yesterday” is a novel by the American writer John Edgar Wideman set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1970s. The novel tells the story of Albert Wilkes, who after seven years on the run, returns to Homewood, an African American neighborhood of the East End.
Wideman tells about ordinary lives are filled with hope and despair.
John Edgar Wideman is true great writer. I never knew there could be so many thoughts and ideas in two hundred pages.
An excellent novel.
Ann

Sebastian Faulks “Birdsong”

This is one of the best books about war, love, sorrow, loss, life that I have ever read.
The book is arranged into parts; one set in 1910, three set in the 1970s and the rest (the majority of the book) between 1916 and 1918. The parts set during the World War I are excellent. The battle scenes are so realistic, that as a reader I feel to be in the thick of the battle.
Birdsong begins as a love story. The young Englishman lives with a business partner's family in France and falls in love with his wife.
The novel also focuses on the life of Stephen's granddaughter, Elizabeth, and her attempts to find out more about her grandfather's experiences in World War I.

The story stays with you for a while after reading it. I could not put the book down.
I high recommend this book!
Lili

Alice McDermott “Charming Billy”

A very good book! Lots of feeling, character description, a good story... Billy Lynch, the central character, is an alcoholic who has just passed away as the novel begins. The story starts at Billy's funeral and then goes back and forth through time and we know of Billy's life from the time he returned from WWII until his death from alcoholism. This book is about the life, love, and relationships of Billy's family. The story is a tale of love found, love lost, and of the close ties of family.
I really liked all the characters, especially charming Billy.
An enjoyable read!
Olga.

Susan Isaacs “Long Time No See”

When a local housewife and a former investment broker is missing and then found dead in her covered swimming pool months later, the police as rule suspect the husband. His father wants to clear his son’s name. He asks Judith Springer who is now a widow and still a detective for her help in solving the crime. This brings Nelson Sharpe, now in Special Investigations, back into her life and her investigation.
I really enjoyed this book and kept on reading until I finished the book.
I highly recommend the book as a good summer reading mystery.
Lili.

Barbara Delinsky “The Woman Next Door”

Delinsky does a good job. The characters are wonderful and the plot definitely realistic. I love the way she writes about real people with real problems, real emotions, and real solutions. In this novel, we meet four women who live next door to each other. One of them is the rich, young, widow who is pregnant by an unknown lover. Naturally, all the other three women suspect their husband of being the father. Each marriage is under just enough stress. The reader will try to guess who is truly the father of this woman's child. At the end her child's father is revealed and is quite a surprise……

Once you start this book, you will not want to put it down.
Lena.