Great Books I’ve Been Reading Lately

I’m sitting here in front of the fireplace with Charlie. I don’t think I’ll go out at all today. It’s cold and I’d rather stay home and enjoy the Christmas tree lights.

I’ve been reading some great books lately. I just finished “All The Forgivenesses” by Elizabeth Hardinger.

Before that I read “Confessions On The 7:45” by Lisa Unger.

Now I’m reading “When We Believed In Mermaids” by Barbara O’Neal.

Below are their summaries.

All The Forgivenesses:

Fifteen-year-old Albertina “Bertie” Winslow has learned a lot from her mama, Polly. She knows how to lance a boil, make a pie crust, butcher a pig, and tend to every chore that needs doing.

When Polly succumbs to a long illness, Bertie takes on responsibility for her four younger siblings and their unreliable daddy. Yet no matter how hard she tries to hold the family together, the task is overwhelming.

Bertie makes the only choice she can. She agrees to break up the family for its own survival. She keeps the girls with her, sending the twin boys off to live with their grown brother and his wife.

Ever pragmatic, Bertie marries young, grateful to find a husband willing to take on the care of her sisters.

When We Believed In Mermaids:

Last night I began to read “When We Believed In Mermaids” by Barbara O’Neal.

Her sister has been dead for fifteen years when she sees her on the TV news.

Josie Bianci was killed years ago on a train during a terrorist attack. Gone forever. It’s what her sister, Kit, an ER doctor in Santa Cruz, has always believed. Yet all it takes is a few heart-wrenching seconds to upend Kit’s world.

Live coverage of a club fire in Auckland has captured the image of a woman stumbling through the smoke and debris. Her resemblance to Josie is unbelievable. And unmistakable.

After arriving in New Zealand to search for her sister, Kit begins her journey with the memories of the past: of days spent on the beach with Josie. Of a lost teenage boy who’d become part of their family. And of a trauma that has haunted Kit and Josie their entire lives.

Confessions On The 7:45:

Before that I read “Confessions On The 7:45” by Lisa Unger.

Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job in the city when the train stalls out on the tracks. She strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat, and their connection is fast and easy.

The woman introduces herself as Martha and confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny.

When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.

But days later, Selena’s nanny disappears.

Soon Selena finds her once-perfect life upended. As she is pulled into the mystery of the missing nanny, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover.

Have you been reading any good books lately?