Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
It is 1972 and Ellen and James Grier are forced to move in with Ellen's rigid in-laws at 512 Vinegar Hill in Wisconsin. There is no place for Ellen in a house filled with routine, prayer rituals, and the bitterness of her in-law's loveless marriage, where her parents-in law, devout Catholics, profess faith in God but show no compassion to their son or his family. An honest look at the efforts of many women to balance the demands of Catholicism, motherhood, and individual freedoms in the 1970s.
Laurie Aitken, Islip Public Library
Open House by Elizabeth Berg
Samantha, the mother of an eleven-year-old, is abandoned by her husband, and has all the practical problems of money and child-rearing exacerbated by extreme emotional bereavement, although her husband has been showing signs of discontent for years. Sam's coping mechanisms come off as alternately humorous and pathetic, but she settles down enough tostart working as a "temp", takes in boarders, and even reluctantly goes out on a date or two. One date starts to turn ugly, but fortunately King, the fat but sweet underachiever who adores Sam is on the scene. A little too pat, but likeable and charming. A nice read.
Arlene Leventhal, Half Hollow Hills Library
Midwives: a Novel by Chris Bohjalian,
Set in Vermont, this is the story of Sibyl Danforth, a midwife,who performs a C-section on a woman she believes is dead in order to save the baby. Sibyl's assistant, Anne Austin, thinks that the woman may not have been dead at the time. Sibyl is accused of involuntary manslaughter and stands trial. Narrated by Sibyl's daughter Connie, as she recalls the events of that tragic day and ensuing trial, this compelling novel mesmerizes readers with its complicated plot, the conflicts between midwifery and the medical community, and the surprise conclusion.
Rosalie Toja, Brentwood Public Library
A Friend of the Earth by Thomas Coraghessan Boyle
Southern California, circa 2025: high winds, overwhelming heat, vast species extinction, and a dispirited populace. In chapters alternating between 2025 and the 1980's and 90's, Ty Tierwater recounts his roller coaster life, as a radical eco-terrorist, his runs from the law, his daughter Sierra, and his self-serving ex-wife. At age 75, an artificial kidney makes Ty one of the young old, facing a long slow decline, tending a private mini-zoo of ragged endangered animals for an eccentric pop star, and lamenting the collapse of his race. The humor is wry, the outlook hilariously dire, and the personalities brilliantly constructed. Only a champion storyteller could slap us silly and make us laugh at the same time.
Jane Moore, Half Hollow Hills, Melville Branch
Apologizing to Dogs by Joe Coomer
On Worth Row, a dead-end street of antique shops run by an odd array of entrepreneurs, Effie, a 72-year-old paranoid, spies on her neighbors, making minute-by-minute notations in her diary. Of course, there is much to gossip about. Mr. Haygood and Mazelle have been having an affair for 35 years, and in a most peculiar location. Carl is secretly building a boat inside his house to woo the woman of his dreams. Mose and Howard sun themselves in bathtubs out on the front lawn. Each character is more bizarre than the next. A bad storm brings forth many secrets, both funny and poignant. Hysterically funny.
Karen Baudouin, Half Hollow Hills Library
Evensong by Gail Godwin
In her tenth novel, Godwin continues the life of Margaret Bonner, first explored in Father Melancholy's Daughter. Margaret is now an ordained Episcopal priest in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains. Married to Adrian, headmaster and chaplain at a school for troubled boys, she will be confronted with personal choices that will affect her marriage and her ministry at High Balsam church. Set at the end of the millennium, the story is about the uncertainties that are part of life and the capacity of the human spirit for goodness.
Grace O'Connor, West Islip Public Library
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
The lives of eight people intertwine in this poignant story of life on the high plains of northeast Colorado. High school teacher Tom Guthrie and his two sons are living with a mentally ill mother. Victoria Roubideaux, a pregnant high school teacher, was thrown out of her home, and takes refuge with two elderly bachelor brothers, Harold and Raymond MacPheron. In addition, we learn about another teacher, Maggie Jones, and her senile Dad, and Russell Beckman, the town bad boy. Beautifully written, with a strong sense of place, this novel will appeal to readerswho enjoy good characterization and books with a regional flavor.
Karen Jaffe, Comsewogue Public Library
Sis Boom Bah by Jane Heller
Deborah Peltz swore that she would reconcile with her older sisterSharon only over her dead body, but it actually took someone else's. Whenthe two try to bury the hatchet to help their mother recover from a heartattack, they soon fell to squabbling again over her sexy cardiologist.But when the doctor turns up dead, and the police look suspiciously theirway, can they put aside their differences long enough to find the realmurder? Fast, funny, and furious.
Lesley Knieriem, South Huntington Public Library
The House at Old Vine by Norah Lofts
Six stories with backgrounds spanning the history of England from1496 to 1679, unified by the dwelling known as the House at Old Vine.Amid tragedy, uncertainty, and change, its walls remain solid and thecharacters it shelters are never dull. Don't look inside Old Vineexpecting all happy endings. The resolutions of the stories are as variedand as real as life itself. The harshness of English country life isgraphically exposed, as well as the limitations which women, even highbornwomen, must accept.
Carolyn Hasler, Huntington Public Library.
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
In northern Scotland in December, five emotionally injured people find themselves gathered together in an old Victorian estate house. The cold, dark, dreary time of year serves as a metaphor for the lives of the main characters. They manage to help one another to hope, and to begin the healing process. The comfort of cozy domesticity draws the reader into a warm and compassionate place where healing and renewal are entirely plausible.
Michelle Epstein, East Northport Library
After the Fire by Belva Plain
A portrait of the disintegration of a marriage. Hyacinth had the perfect marriage to a handsome doctor, a beautiful home, two wonderful children; and all is lost when she discovers her husband's infidelity.She gets a divorce, and her husband blackmails her to get full custody of their children. As she struggles to rebuild her life and lies to explain her circumstances, her horrible secret haunts her happiness. Will someone discover what happened that night?
Rosemarie Jerome, Half Hollow Hills Library
The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
A moving and haunting account of the life of Antoinette Cosway,the fictional character who becomes the madwoman in the attic in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Antoinette Cosway grows up in a lush and insecure world, the Caribbean after the liberation of the slaves. A white Creole,whose parents had been slaveholders, she belongs to neither class; and she becomes increasingly isolated in an atmosphere of fear, recrimination and bitter anger. Her growth from child to woman is defined in terms of the men who control and dominate her: her father, stepfather, brother, and husband. The book has a moody, sensuous, and dream-like atmosphere.
Fran Altemose, Sachem Public Library
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
When Michael Berg falls ill one day in pre-World War II Germany, a young woman brings him to her apartment and helps him to wash up. When he recovers from his illness months later, he goes back to the woman's apartment to thank her, setting in motion an incredible and tragic chain of events that will profoundly affect both of them for the rest of their lives. Stylistically restrained yet possessing great emotional depth, it is a work of literature that will stand as one of the great stories on the Holocaust and the toll it has taken on the human psyche.
Kenneth Miller
Off Keck Road by Mona Simpson
Set in 1950's Green Bay, Wisconsin, the story centers upon the life of Bea Maxwell, the daughter of one of the community's most notable families. Bea returns to Green Bay when her mother becomes ill, settles in, makes friends, and develops a very successful career in real estate. She never marries, however, a fact that becomes a major thread of her own personal story. Simple, beautifully crafted, and well written.
Suzanne McGuire, Commack Public Library
Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley
Horse lovers and fans of the racetrack alike will thrill as the action unfolds among both humans and equines. Tender, affectionate descriptions of horses, gripping moments at well-known tracks across America, and the alluring, scandalous, soap-opera lifestyles of the rich, famous, greedy, ambitious characters who are the horse owners, trainers,and jockeys will keep most readers pulsing with adrenaline as they gallop through the pages of this lengthy novel.
Christine Ranieri, Smithtown Public Library
