Before We Were Yours is my book club pick for this month. It’s two stories. One is about the Tennessee Orphans Home, a place that stole babies from their homes and sold them to wealthy families. The other is about a senator’s daughter who comes home to help her parents and discovers mysteries about her family’s past (which of course intersect with the historical story). It was a good read and interesting (based in historical fact), but tied up much too neatly and quickly at the end. It could have been shorter on the front end and longer at the close. Nevertheless, it was a good read and well worth picking up.

Run out and grab Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach – it’s on sale for the Kindle for only $1.99. The story is a quick romp through the mania that gripped Holland in the 1630s. It’s also the tale of a clever deception. You get a glimpse into the artists of the time. I picked this one up on the suggestion of my former colleague who makes the great recommendations and I am glad I did. It was most enjoyable.

When Oprah chooses a book, it’s usually worth picking up. And, An American Marriage absolutely falls into this category. Celestial and Roy meet in college and get married after remeeting afterward. As they get used to the routines of being married, Roy is arrested and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. At first, in their letters, you know they will make it through, and then, things don’t work out as you might expect. When Roy’s conviction is overturned and he tries to return to his pre-jail life, everything’s confused. I really enjoyed this story and had a hard time putting it down. It’s fascinating and heartbreaking. I would definitely pick it up.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, I enjoyed Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Maybe in Another Life (reviewed here). She just released another book, which I also enjoyed. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is nothing deep. It’s a two-fold story of Monique who has just separated from her husband, and Evelyn Hugo, old-time Hollywood actress, who wants to tell her life story. Evelyn has chosen Monique to tell this story. Most of the book is Evelyn’s story, but we get enough of Monique’s story to eventually understand why Evelyn has chosen Monique. Again, this book is nothing amazing, but it was an entertaining way to spend an afternoon. Another good beach read to look forward to this summer.

I haven’t read anything by Dani Shapiro. Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage is a slim volume that takes about an hour to read. And, much like Ann Fadiman, it’s quick and enjoyable. It’s really vignettes of Shapiro’s marriage to “M” (which I hated – we can google who he is, so why not call him by name?). I highly recommend this piece.

I haven’t had a classic on my list in quite some time. I read on someone’s book list that I should add Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair to my TBR list. So I did. I very much enjoyed it. It’s much more beautifully written than books written today, and that alone made it a pleasure. And, it was a good story, though a little slow in the middle. Maurice’s affair with his friend’s wife, Sarah, began in London. But one day, Sarah breaks off the relationship with no warning. Two years later, Maurice hires a private detective to follow Sarah and find out what really happened. It’s a quick and satisfying read.

If you like Sliding Doors, you will like Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid. At twenty-nine, Hannah has no idea what to do next in her life. She has moved all over the country and doesn’t know what to do or how to move forward. So, she escapes to LA where her best friend lives and where she lived for her high school years. Soon after arriving, she and her friend head out to connect with high school friends and Hannah’s old love, Ethan. And, at the end of the night, her story breaks into two. In one story, she heads home at the end of the evening with her best friend, is hit by a car, and ends up in the hospital. In the alternate story, she goes home with Ethan and life carries on with interesting consequences. Each alternating chapter brings you to one or the other storyline. This story is nothing deep, but was a nice read at a time of year when I am looking for light and fluffy. It would make for a fabulous beach read.

Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton was a wonderful book that I very much enjoyed. Lilli has been left by her fiance in 1883 Philadelphia while he traveled to Pittsburgh for work. Unfortunately, Lilli is also pregnant, not a good condition to be in with a fiance and no way to reach him. She ends up at a home for unwed mothers, then as a wet nurse, and then homeless with no hope for employment, especially with a baby who she is unwilling to give up. Surprisingly entertaining and immensely readable, I found myself on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out how Lilli fared. I highly recommend grabbing this one for a fast-paced winter read.

All is not Forgotten by Wendy Walker was a fascinating psychological thriller about memory-erasing drugs used in cases of trauma and how they affected a young girl recovering from a violent rape. The story is told from the point of view of the psychiatrist who ends up treating the family and several others who end up tangled up in the story. And, the psychiatrist ends up protecting his son who might have been accused of the crime. It’s complicated and interesting, though hard to read at points.