Euphoria is one of them. I’ve read it three times, and I think it haunts me more every time. Maybe I wish the words would magically rearrange themselves so the ending would be different. But then I probably wouldn’t be thinking about it long after reading it. Euphoria is loosely based on the life of anthropologist Margaret Mead. The author, Lily King, created a fictional account of what happens with three young anthropologists in Papau, New Guinea in the 1930s, when anthropology was a new discipline. The story involves Nell Stone, already the author of a best-selling book about natives of the Solomon Islands, her husband, Fen, who is jealous of Nell’s success and is desperate for his own, and Andrew Bankson, who has just failed a suicide attempt. Bankson, eager for companionship, convinces the Stones, who are about to leave New Guinea to return to Australia, that they should stay and that he will find them a new tribe to study. The novel is about their relationships, their work, their beliefs about the study of other cultures, and how all

Full disclosure: I’m not that big of a fan of Ernest Hemingway’s writing, but I find him a fascinating person. Everyone Behaves Badly is an intriguing and well written book about Hemingway in Paris in the 1920’s, and the lead-up to the writing and publication of The Sun Also Rises, his first novel. It’s a look into how ambitious Hemingway was in his desire to become a successful published author and how his style – spare, lean, direct, and the opposite of what was being published at the time – took the literary world by storm.

I’ve read other books about Hemingway, including The Paris Wife, which I also enjoyed, so I had an idea of what the Paris years were like. Everyone Behaves Badly filled in more of the details, especially about the friends and mentors (and other men’s wives, of course) Hemingway used in order to become successful. In addition to betraying his first wife (Hadley), by having a relationship with the woman who would become his second wife (Pauline), Hemingway betrayed his closest friends. He used their personalities and backgrounds

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” So begins Daphne duMaurier’s classic novel of romantic suspense, Rebecca. I’ve read the book three times now – once as a teenager, once about twenty years ago, and again just recently. My daughter, who is nineteen, was sick and asked me to come into her room while she tried to go to sleep. I asked if she wanted me to read to her and she said yes. It’s a thrill to be able to read to a grown girl. She doesn’t ask for that often. I found Rebecca on her bookshelf. I knew she hadn’t read it, so I opened the book and began. She fell asleep within five pages, but I took the book back into my bedroom and continued reading by flashlight, so I wouldn’t wake my husband.

Rebecca takes place in England, where duMaurier was from. Her command of language is exquisite, and her descriptions of Manderley, the country mansion on the Cornish coast where the

I saw this Land Rover with the surfboards on the roof at the grocery story and I loved the way it looked. There’s something so alluring about the idea of traveling around the world, looking for great waves (or traveling anywhere looking for great waves). I would never do it. I’m not even a very good swimmer. And all I really know about surfing is that it involves boards and the ocean. But the whole concept is intriguing. In fact, I recently read the memoir Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan and I loved it. It took me into the middle of a world I knew nothing about and let me live and breathe it for a few days. That’s probably as close to surfing as I’ll ever get, but at least I got that far.

I loved this memoir about the relationship between the author, Sheila Kohler, and her older sister, Maxine. It’s so beautifully written, with such soul and intensity, it was impossible for me to put it down even though I knew tragedy was lodged in its heart.

The tragedy comes from what took place thirty-eight years ago, when Maxine was thirty-nine, and her husband, Carl, drove them off of a deserted road in Johannesburg, injuring himself and killing Maxine. Kohler, who knew of the abuse her sister had experienced atCarl’s hands, is convinced her sister’s death was not an accident. This book is Kohler’s tribute to Maxine and her way of setting the record straight about her sister’s life and death.

Kohler describes the relationship between herself and her sister beautifully and meticulously, alternating between their childhood and their adult years, describing their largely absent father and impulsive mother. Also beautifully described are the places where the two women lived,

I had never read anything by Karen Joy Fowler before reading We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and I’m not even sure how I came across it, but I ended up downloading it onto my iPad and I’m so glad I did. (By the way, I’m about half and half when it comes to paper books and e-books. I like e-books for travel and prefer them for night reading, but I still really love the good old feel of paper.) Anyway, I loved this book. I think Fowler is an amazing writer. I was hooked from the beginning – the characters (dysfunctional family, but with reason), the plot, the writing style, which is beautiful, and the way the book made me take a different view of the world around me. There’s a big reveal fairly early on – a moment when I uttered an audible, “Oh!” And from that point on, I couldn’t help asking myself (every few pages), how did she do this? It’s a Pen/Faulkner Award winner. No surprise to me.

I loved this novel by Delia Ephron. It’s a page-turner about two couples (and the child of one of the couples) on vacation together in Italy and Sicily, Siracusa being a town in Siciliy. It’s about deceit, betrayal, past and current relationships, and how life can come undone quickly. Ephron tells the story by alternating narrators among the four adults and it’s fascinating to see how each one views the events that take place. For the most part, these are characters you love to hate, making the tale even more delicious. You’ll remember it long after you read the last page.