Mayre Recommends...

This is one of those don't leave your house, don't sleep, learn to make dinner and wash the dishes with one hand so you can finish reading, type of book. Unless is the book that I return to when I feel that the weight of the world is on my shoulders, when I find myself contemplating what I would write or say to whatever bureaucracy seems to be breathing down my neck, or just when I am trying to balance life as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, volunteer, and employee. Unless is the story of Reta Winters, a mother, a writer, and a "wife" whose life is turned upside down when her oldest daughter drops out of society, takes to living on the street with a placard that reads, "Goodness". Reta is smart and wry, desperate to help her daughter but also forced to take care of every other person and aspect of her own life. Beautifully written, twists and turns, different from anything I have ever read.

The first in this intelligent, captivating and page-turning series. I read this in a weekend and came back and bought the rest of the series - and finished them in a weekend. Great characters, twisting-turning plot, and they just keep getting better.

Did you love In the Woods ? Searching for more tightly woven, slightly off-reality, thoroughly all-absorbing goodness? Stop looking! This time, it's Cassie's turn.

Beautiful and poignant, Alice McDermott whispers a powerful story of life from past WWII through Vietnam. The quietness will grip you and stay with you long after the last page.