I love the way Fiona Davis weaves her stories around historical buildings in NYC. This one is centered around the NY Public Library and a family that lives within the building.

This book was very difficult to get through. Wally Lamb is one of my favorite authors. This one is very well written and realistic, however it is extremely sad. Corby Ledbetter is the father of twins, , a boy and a girl. They are 2 years old. He is depressed because he has lost his job as an artist and can't seem to find another. His wife Emily is a teacher, and he stays home with the children. He is very depressed, and ends up drinking too much and taking to much of the medication the doctor has prescribed. One day while getting them in the car to go to his mom's house, something terrible happens. He forgets Niko, is not in his car seat but behind the car.

Sophie is celebrating her 16th birthday party at her father and step-mothers lavish but perhaps haunted home in the Texas Hill country. There is a large cast of characters that may initially seem unrelated, and many red herrings. I felt it was a bit slow in the beginning, but the stage had to be set. Slowly surprising secrets are revealed. Read for detail, but even so this one is so twisted I didn’t have a clue. Good guys and bad guys are not always obvious in this one. A good read.

This well-researched novel is based on the true story of how Vincent Van Gogh's paintings were brought into acceptance as worthy art. Vincent's brother, Theo Van Gogh, supported the artist, and was himself an art dealer. One year after Vincent’s death, Theo dies. His wife, Jo Van Gogh, struggles to fulfill Theo's dream of bringing Vincent Van Gogh's art to fame. The expected response to her husband's death was for Jo to return home to live with and be supported by her father. She fights this, and fights against societal norms by trying to instill herself into the all-male world of selling art. She is rebuffed by the men, who don’t believe a woman can possibly understand business. For the sake of her son’s future inheritance, Jo does all she can to promote Vincent’s work and gain an international following for his drawings and paintings.

I enjoyed this book very much. It was a quick and easy read. The book followed the journey of a woman throughout her marriage and the troubles they faced. It also had different perspectives chapter to chapter with the 2 sides being her point of view and her husband's. I will be looking for additional books to read by this author as I felt it was well written.

the book is about a young girl who marries and divorced her husband then goes back to live with her parents and the struggles she encounter's living with them. she works for her uncle who teaches her the marble business and the promise to take her to Italy until he suddenly dies. she pursues the trip to Italy against her parents wishes and what comes from the experience .

Songs of Summer by Jane L Rosen is another enjoyable "Summer Reads" (If you haven't read it, SPOILER ALERT STOP READING HERE. The central plot takes place of Fire Island. The story while a little predictable still kept me interested. I was impressed by the characters back story. I would have preferred a few more surprises. I liked the ending BUT, it was for me, cookie cutter - It is as if Ms. Rosen didn't try hard enough to be creative which is why a 4 and not a 5.

The glamorous , talented and beautiful Vanessa Chapman sequestered herself on n isolated Scottish tidal island called Eris. She did her art work and besides her philandering, mooch of a husband who vanished decades ago, also had a long-time association with retired doctor Grace Haswell. Although she had several stormy relationships she produced art work of note. Art historian James Becker who is obsessed with Vanessa is the curator of the Fairburn Foundation and after her death loaned some of her works to the Tate Modern. That's where a forensic anthropologist sees one of her sculptures made of objects one of which he believes is a human bone. It is up to Grace to figure out how to mislead these people.

Interesting and entertaining

I only picked this book because it met the challenge and the description sounded promising. I was wrong. The (biggest) twist was predictable from about the 5th chapter. When I first figured it out I was not sure if the author thought their readers were morons and would not see it, or if it was meant to be the biggest red herring ever (it wasn’t). Even for a mystery/thriller there was excessive and pointless death. If I could provide better advice, it would be to skip the epilogue. It was totally unnecessary and added plot lines at the bitter end that contribute nothing to the overall story, and actively takes away from it simultaneously. That is after seeing that the book was already 100 pages too long.