Boy am I glad I picked up The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson. I read half of it last night and the other half this morning. It was great. Kitty, a single woman living on her own as a bookstore owner, begins to have vivid dreams about how her life would have been if she had married Lars, the man who stood her up after he answered her “lonely hearts” ad in the newspaper. She loses more and more of her days as Kitty as she enjoys living the dream life as Katharyn. I loved the back and forth between her two lives, one as a single woman and one as a mother of triplets and the choices she made in both lives. This is a terrific beach read!

I read about Small Mercies by Eddie Joyce in several locations including this review on Gayle Weiswasser’s great blog Everyday I Write the Book. I didn’t read her whole review until I had read Small Mercies myself. I didn’t like the book as much as she did. While I enjoyed the beginning and middle, I got bogged down at the end and was ready for the story to end. So, overall, I found it disappointing, as I was expecting more. Small Mercies, however, had an intriguing premise – a week in the life of a Staten Island family who continue to cope with one of their members’ death on 9/11, ten years earlier. I felt that Joyce accurately captured what I imagine Staten Island to be like and I liked the characters. But, it just didn’t do it for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Bullet by Mary Louise Kelly. The storyline – woman has wrist pain, goes in for an MRI, and they discover a bullet buried in her neck – was gripping and the twists and turns were excellent. A few small inconsistencies were irritating, but only a little. Add to the interesting plotline the setting partially in DC, and you had the makings of a great summer read. This was not earth-shattering, nor particularly well-written, but it had my interest.

Life Drawing by Robin Black was another quick read, but not one of particular interest to me. Augusta (Gus) and Owen are coping with Gus’ affair and then Gus’ friendship with their new next-door neighbor and the neighbor’s daughter. It’s a quiet read with a surprise twist at the end, but one where I was glad to reach the ending. I would skip this one.

Girl in the Dark by Anna Lyndsey was a fascinating and quick memoir about Lyndsey, who suffers from a light sensitivity disorder. She is frequently confined to a dark room of her home, devoid of any light. I kept thinking, as I was reading, that she was going to be healed at the end. Sadly, while she has periods of partial remission, the disorder has no cure and she continues to suffer. What I found most interesting was learning how she and her husband (fiance for most of the story) cope during the worst of her pain. I liked this one.

I waited for Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian from the library for a long time. Fortunately, it is much easier to get books in NC than at home. So, it was waiting for me when we arrived for vacation this year. While I read it quickly and liked it, it wasn’t worth the long wait. I was left just sort of blah about it. Too bad, as it had such promise.

Little did I know when I requested A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara from the library, that the novel was 720 pages. It was a brick. The heft reminded me of my time with the-most-hated-of-all-books, The Goldfinch (reviewed by me here – and I just re-read my review which makes me realize I didn’t hate it as much as I remember hating it – but I digress). So, I read A Little Life for what felt like a really long time, and, while it was clearly much too long, it was a remarkable book and well worth reading. You can hardly take your eyes away from the train-wreck that is Jude, but with every passing page, you fall deeper and deeper into despair alongside him. I am honestly glad I read this book and highly recommend it.

It is no surprise that Inside the O’Briens is a sad and beautiful story. Lisa Genova has written several heart-breaking works about devastating illnesses. I found myself tearing up about 50 pages into this one. Inside the O’Briens is an incredible story and a must-read. I even loved the ending. Sad, but hopeful. I’ll be following Genova’s request to go to her website, learn more about Huntington’s, and donate.

Looking for a quick summer read that will keep you on your toes? The Ice Twins by S. K. Tremayne is it. The premise of the book is that one identical twin in a family has died in an accident, but the parents are unclear which one. The family moves to a remote island in Scotland to reinvent themselves and things just get worse. While the story is tragic and bizarre, it is a very good read and I enjoyed it.