Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

This is the best thing I've read in a long time. I couldn't make up my mind whether to race on to see how the story unfolded, or pause every few pages to prolong the pleasure of being in Crow Lake. Mary Lawson (a Canadian writer, and, according to the Wikipedia, a distant relative of LM Montgomery) has created a masterpiece of balance between the past and the present, between the mystery and the microscopic mindfulness, between beautiful writing and simplicity.

What is the book about? Family, love, destiny, happiness, living in a small community in Northern Ontario.

The Secrets We Kept

"The Secrets We Kept" by Lara Prescott is a fantastic read: engaging, thought-provoking, moving. I used to think I didn't care for spy thrillers - now I know I didn't care for male-centric spy thrillers. Women spies - bring them on!

The book follows women who work for the CIA during the Cold War. Over in Russia, the plot revolves around the woman who was the inspiration for "Doctor Zhivago", a book that the CIA is hoping to turn into an anti-Soviet weapon.

As you fall in love with the characters, you get a glimpse of what life was like in the 1950s on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Pretty Guilty Women by Gina LaManna

"Pretty Guilty Women by Gina LaManna" is an extremely readable book that digs into deep issues such as what success looks like versus what it actually is, domestic violence, motherhood in all its shapes and forms.

I liked that the characters were women of all ages, from twenty to seventy: the breadth provided a variety of perspectives and voices and points of view.

A fast moving plot twisted and turned to a satisfying conclusion.

Blurb:

Why would four women admit to committing the same murder?

Four different women offer four very different confessions to the death of a man found in the midst of a rehearsal dinner at an luxurious resort, each insisting they acted alone. Their stories are contradicting and confusing, posing a conundrum for the detective who must untangle their secrets.

Truth and friendship surface in surprising ways, but who is the guiltiest of them all and what really happened on that rooftop?

How hard can it be?

"How hard can it be?" by Allison Pearson is a sequel to the superb "I wonder how she does it". It's about middle-life marriage, mothering teenagers, and getting the job market to understand that 49 is not over the hill.

A must read.

Blurb:

Kate Reddy is counting down the days until she is fifty, but not in a good way. Fifty, in Kate’s mind, equals invisibility. And with hormones that have her in shackles, teenage children who need her there but won’t talk to her and ailing parents who aren’t coping, Kate is in the middle of a sandwich that she isn’t even allowed to eat because of the calories.

She’s back at work after a big break at home, because somebody has to bring home the bacon now that her husband Rich has dropped out of the rat race to master the art of mindfulness. But just as Kate is finding a few tricks to get by in her new workplace, her old client and flame Jack reappears – complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.

How Hard Can It Be? is a coming of age story for turning fifty. It’s about so much more than a balancing act; it’s about finding out who you are and what you need to feel alive when you’ve got used to being your own last priority. And every page will leave you feeling that there’s a bit of Kate Reddy in all of us.