Stilettos in the Sun is the story of Roberto Davila, a young engineer-mathematician from Panama. As a boy, his parents send him to live with an uncle and his family in Philadelphia. He is full of trepidation, having never lived outside his hometown, Colon. He spends his days musing over happier times, writing poems and songs as a way to assuage his longing.

If his accent and his being handsome are not enough to make the boys dislike him, he is a diligent student and excels in his studies. He finds that while one can be as smart as he wants in the classroom, he still has the labyrinth of dangerous streets to negotiate.


The story soon moves to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Roberto is a college student. The story takes twists with the romances he has, one of which is with Euridice, a beautiful and bright Venezuelan woman. They study and live together, until graduation, when she returns to Venezuela with her parents, who discourage any further association with Roberto, as he is too dark, notwithstanding his achievements and ambition.


Roberto throws himself into his studies, continuing through to his PhD in mathematics. Another short-lived relationship, with Isabel, ends with her death. Back in Philadelphia for a visit, he once again meets Yolanda, with whom he has had an on-again, off-again relationship. They rekindle the romance.


But back in Baton Rouge, he falls for another woman. Then, on assignment in Kazakhstan, he meets a Turkish professor and is smitten by her in every way. They make arrangements to meet in Istanbul. In Kazakhstan, he meets several other women who bring to light the ambivalence he harbors: He cannot make up his mind. This confluence of females leaves him in a quandary. He travels to Istanbul, having decided on Sarah, the history professor. But once there he discovers that Sarah has promised to marry an Argentinean doctor.

I heard an interview with the author on NPR and I was intrigued by the plot.  Wang, a Beijing taxi driver, begins to get mysterious letters giving details about his previous lives and his deep and enduring connection to the author of the letters.  The letter writer exploits secrets Wang has kept hidden from the rest of the world and works to make Wang ever more paranoid.  When the letters make intimate references to Wang's family he feels he is being stalked and his family is in danger.  As his life spirals out of control Wang seeks to blame someone from his past for his current misery.  The threads of the story aren't brought together until the very end and the identity of the letter writer is a real shocker!  Imaginative and thought-provoking, The Incarnations has the reader guessing, like Wang, until the last page is turned.  

When a World War II plane is found during a building excavation, Ruth must determine the identity of the dead man found in the pilot's seat.  When he is linked to a local aristocratic family Ruth and Nelson must untangle the threads of his life and his death.  When other locals end up dead the mystery deepens.  When Frank Barker returns to Norfolk to film a story based on the discovery of the plane Ruth must decide between the two men in her life--Frank and Nelson.

It’s hard to believe Kate Bornstein was an “outlaw” when the book cover (different edition) shows her dressed as if a businesswoman. An icon different from the  Sylvia Rivera mold, the book reads like a psychology textbook and is beyond deep, raising questions on the meaning of gender, sex, sexual orientation and more. She can add “ed” to transgender without offending. Way back when she was a “revolutionary” her one woman shows packed them in. Although it’s a different world now, her book is still a classic.

For lack of another term, this is a horror novel, though nothing exactly scary happens. We see Jake Whyte living on a remote Australian island, feeding her sheep and trying to figure out what's killing them - a fox? a wolf? a bear? a monster? Along the way, she takes in a drunk who's been sleeping in her shed and avoids the locals at all costs. Though slowly, through fragmented flashbacks, we learn about her past of horrific abuse, the mistake she can never take back, and why she's hiding - so we start to understand what it is that's hunting her. 

For readers of cerebral fiction, David Mictchell is at the top of the pack. Fans of Cloud Atlas will find much to enjoy here: multiple interwoven storylines from varied narrators with wonderful, unique voices, a supernatural element within a realistic setting, dystopian visions. Yet, the Bone Clocks, because it centers on the life of a single character, feels a bit more human, more down-to-earth... and that's a good thing indeed. 

Is it too soon to pick my favorite novel of 2015? Maybe, but Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a strong contender. It's the story of Eva Thorvald, celebrity chef, visionary entrepreneur, preteen runaway, naive beauty, bullied student, and beloved daughter, born with a one-in-a-million palate, as told through her own eyes and by a varied cast of people who knew, her or would come to know her, in alternating chapters. This technique can feel like a gimmick when used by lesser writers, but Stradal uses it so well you're left feeling satisfied, believing that you couldn't know Eva any better if she told you her story in person. Funny, poignant, and real, this book is recommended for adults as well as teens who love literary fiction.

The Invention of Wings- is told in two voices. The first voice is that of ten year old Hetty, a child of slave parents who had been forced to separate. She has been warned of the harsh realities of slavery by her mother and others, but it really sinks in when she given as if a “gift” to the daughter of the property owner. </p>The second voice is that of eleven year old Sarah. She is given a ten year old female slave as a birthday gift. Sarah feels the injustice of their shared situation and tries to make a difference. Both women face a life of restrictions on freedom assigned based on their race or gender. These two women form a bond that bends under the pressures of custom but fails to break. Sarah makes her mark by joining the struggle for women’s rights. Hetty finds the courage to live through very difficult times.

</P> Reviewed by Gay Broday -Homebound Service Member

History remembers the sons of the Great Khan, Jochi, Jagatai, Ogedie, Sorghaghtani Beki and Tolui, but nearly nothing is said of his daughters. Weatherford restores to history the stolen pages of the Secret History of the Mongols which extols the high esteem and political power exercised by Mongol women in general and the Great Khan’s daughters in particular. A must read for anyone visiting the current Ghenghis Khan exhibit at the Franklin Institute.

They are the Breed. In the scramble to create super soldiers a race of powerful animal shifters was created. They could not be controlled. Targeted for extinction, the Breed broke free and established a community dedicated to safeguarding their kind and the humans who love them. These are their stories.

Phineas McKinney may have strayed down the wrong path in life, but in death he’s one of the few and the fierce. Turned (into a vampire) against his will, "Phin" an African American, finds salvation and family with McKay Security and Investigations. When all hell hits the fan he’s there for the fight and no one thinks twice about backing his play.

Just because vampires have lost their souls are they also incapable of love? Meena Harper wants to prove that they can, but will working for the Palatine Guard – a group of demon hunters – help her accomplish her goals?

Meena Harper knows one thing about every person she meets. It’s not what one think, not what one would want to hear, but something she has to tell them. Meena knows, in advance, when a person is going to die.  In the war between good and evil, her talent may become an asset or a curse.

The Last Town, the last book in the Wayward Pines series that my veterinarian, Dr. Berman, recommended, brings the series to a close.  Ethan Burke must now deal with the consequences of his revelation about the truth behind Wayward Pines.  Abbies swarm the town.  Ethan tries to get as many of the townspeople to safety as he can.  Then he must deal with David Pilcher, the man who is behind the creation of the town.  When Ethan learns that the future of the town is very uncertain he must decide how to keep the human race alive.

Abbess Helewise is visited by her son, Leofgar, his wife, Rohaise, and their young son, Timus.  Something is wrong in the family, but no one will talk about it.  When a man is murdered and Leofgar and his family vanish Josse d'Acquin must team up with the lawman from Tonbridge, Gervase de Gifford, to find Leofgar and clear him of suspicion of murder.  With the introduction of her son, bits and pieces of Helewise's life before she joined the Hawkenlye community are told through dreams and remembrances.  

Wayward is the second installment in the series recommended by my veterinarian, Jeff Berman.  Questions from the first book are answered and new questions arise.  Some of the mystery behind what is going on in Wayward Pines becomes clear as Ethan begins his new job as town sheriff.  Almost immediately, however, he begins to chafe at the lack of choice and the lack of privacy afforded the town residents.  It doesn't take long for him to have to choose between what he is supposed to do and what he feels is right.  What I liked more about this book than the first was that the pace is slower.  It's not just one non-stop race for survival.  It poses some interesting questions about what is important to human beings.

My veterinarian recommended this series as being very suspenseful and a quick read.  He was right.  Pines by Blake Crouch is nonstop action.  Ethan Burke has come to the town of Wayward Pines to look for two missing Secret Service agents.  After an accident renders him somewhat incapacitated, Ethan can't figure out why he can't get answers or help from the Wayward Pines law enforcement.  In fact the town sheriff, Arnold Pope, goes out of his way to make things more difficult for Ethan.  What is going on in Wayward Pines and why can't Ethan get any answers?  

What a beautiful, mysterious book.  I loved Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane.  Looking back the narrator (never named) relives a time when he was a young boy of seven and Lettie Hempstock used the ocean at the end of the lane to save his life and, in the process, lost her life.  Nothing is as it seems, however, and memories can fade or be altered.  What really happened back then?  And who are Lettie Hempstock, her mother, and her grandmother?  The seven-year-old boy doesn't know and  who he grows up to be doesn't know, but the reader has more of an idea than anyone.  Told in a beautiful, understated way, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a spectacular book with depth in so many areas.  

Set in England in 1141, The Siege Winter tells the story of Emma, a young girl who is brutally raped by mercenaries.  She is rescued by an archer named Gwil.   Not knowing the girl's name, Gwil calls her Penda and becomes like a father to her.  Penda has no memory of what happened to her or where she came from, but she knows she will be safer traveling as a boy.  Gwil teaches her archery.  When they end up at Kenniford and the castle is under siege by King Stephen's forces Penda proves her worth as an archer.  Set in the turbulent time of the war between Stephen and Maud, this book is brutally honest about the horrors of war.

Only one character, Glytha, from Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series is mentioned.  Glytha is Penda's sister and that is about all we learn.  I imagine Ms. Franklin had plans for other books to fill in the gaps between this book and her popular series.  

Mildly entertaining, but way too slow for me.  I gave up somewhere around page 175.  Set in 1933 when having a child out of wedlock was frowned upon, Alice is sent to Fiercombe Manor where her mother's friend, Mrs. Jelphs is housekeeper.  Alice is drawn to the lovely old manor house and its long history.  She is also drawn to the story of Lady Elizabeth Stanton who was wife to the estate's owner thirty years earlier.  What happened to Elizabeth Stanton?  I'll never know since I never finished the book.