Something About You by Julie James

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde just wanted a little pampering when she checked into a luxury hotel to wait for her floors to be refinished. Instead she ended up witnessing a murder. And to make matters better, she finds that her nemesis, FBI agent Jack Pallas, has been assigned to the case. Now they have to work together to solve the murder before the killer finds out she is a witness.

This romance is such a treat and a refreshing example of a novel that creates believable smart characters who behave in logical straightforward ways. When Cameron witnesses a murder, she does not argue that she can take care of herself but instead gratefully accepts the protection of the FBI. In spite of a misunderstanding from their past, they are professional and work together without petty bickering. When there is a chance to clear up the misunderstanding, the characters take it. They build a relationship built on communication, trust and respect which is what makes this contemporary romantic suspense novel a winner.

There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey To Rescue Africa's Children by Melissa Fay Greene

This is the book that is causing me to rethink my life and try to decide if I am living a meaningful life. Am I doing enough good or should I sell my possessions, move to Africa or India and dedicate my life to something more useful than having a socially conscious job and owning a home.

Haregewoin Teferra was a middle class woman in Ethiopia, a professional woman with an husband who was a teacher and two beautiful and beloved daughters. After her husband passes away she raises her daughters to adulthood. After one of her daughters contracts AIDS and dies, Haregewoin goes into mourning, believing her life is over. Her priest comes to her with a baby that has been orphaned by AIDS and starts her on a journey that transforms her life. She now runs an orphanage that is inundated with the children of the AIDS epidemic.

This is a appalling story of the utter waste of human life that the world has let continue long after successful treatments had been discovered to slow the disease and even reverse it in infants. It is also heartbreaking how painful death is for the millions of adults and children that have contracted the disease. The numbers of dead or dying are almost incomprehensible but threaded through it all is the reality that one person can make a difference.

This is a compelling story where facts are interspersed with personal stories of children that are alive, well and even in some cases, thriving because someone dared to ignore the stigma of AIDS to give these children a home and a chance. Better yet, it is also well researched and well written.

Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna

This would be an excellent book to use for a women's book discussion group. Set in Sierra Leone, it follows the lives of four sisters, born of different wives (co-wives) of a coffee plantation owner. Each of the women takes a very different path as they navigate the increasingly turbulent social and political landscape of their native county. Ironically, in the end they all end up back in their small village, living in the family compound as they tell their European born niece the stories of their lives.

By A Slow River by Phillipe Claudel

By A Slow River is a French mystery. I have found that the French literary style is not a particular favorite of mine. I have a difficult time with novels that do not have one sympathetic character (or at least one that isn't too awful). The French authors I have read tend to have a writing style that creates an emotional distance from its characters. Oddly enough, I find this interesting and compelling in French movies. Can't explain why but I will give it some thought.

Anyway, because the murders take place during WWII which creates lots of interesting opportunities for plot twists and turns and I found the mystery a bit unusual, which given the number of mysteries I have read, is saying something. Ultimately though I did not find this compelling or interesting enough to keep me riveted.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors. His postmodern work alternates between full length novels and short story collections and they are always wildly innovative and thought provoking. Often compared to Kafka and Camus, his work has unexplained mystical events, mysteries that are solve with intuition rather than solid clues and unexpectedly funny moments. These stories are epiphanies in which the characters wander through surreal or magical experiences and end up with a new understanding of the world and their role in it.

Every short story collection has a story that speaks to the reader in a particular way and for me it was "Tony Takitani," a jolting story in which the main character's life begins and ends in loneliness. This work resonated with me. In the story, certain painful memories, in this case represented by ghosts, haunt Tony. When he finally exorcises those ghosts he is completely alone in the world and it is left to the reader to decide if he is better off or somehow worse when he has emptied himself of these memories? Has he attained perfection by freeing himself from worldly attachments and becoming completely alone?

At the beginning of this collection the author talks about his love of the short story form and that joy is apparent in each story in the collection.