What happens when the world view you have always known inexorably shifts? Do you embrace the change as forward-thinking or fight it for all you're worth? If you simply deny that the change is real, will those words be enough to bring back the good old days? That is the fascinating premise of this remarkable novel by Barbara Kingsolver that is, more than anything else, a philosophical statement about the sociopolitical times in which we live now.

A beleaguered house in Vineland, New Jersey is the backdrop of this book that alternates between two families who have the great misfortune to live on that site. Thatcher Greenfield lives there with his family in 1874-1875. He is newly hired as the high school science teacher, but when he professes the new theories of evolution as espoused by Charles Darwin, his world is shattered when virtually everyone around him objects, insisting the Bible is the only valid reference for scientific thought. Fast forward to 2015-2016 when Willa Knox and Iano Tavoularis, both recently laid off, move into the home she inherited from her aunts. Their family's life is awash in tragedy and troubles, while they watch horrified as a man only identified as "the Bullhorn" appears destined for the presidency and global warming shifts from scientists' dire warning to real-life consequences.

The book is a fascinating exposition on the power of cultural change—change that feels uncertain and threatening, but is so deep-seated and long-lasting that it is called a paradigm shift—and how we as a society adapt to it or not.

Because Kingsolver is a creative genius, the chapters on Thatcher are written in the style of a Victorian novel, while the chapters on Willa are written in a modern-day tone. And here is fun tidbit that took me several chapters to notice: The last words of each chapter are the title of the next chapter.

Bonus: Iano Tavoularis very creatively swears in Greek, and translations are helpfully provided. Some of this is hilarious! (Beware, in case you are offended by such language in books.)

This is a deeply affecting and heart-wrenching book about forgiveness. And it's about the most difficult form of forgiveness: Forgiving oneself.

Violet Rue is the youngest of seven children in the Irish Catholic, blue collar Kerrigan family of South Niagara, New York. While there is not a lot of happiness in the Kerrigan family, there is security. But all that is rent asunder when Violet's two oldest brothers commit a heinous crime—and only Violet knows they did it. Terrified, confused and desperately unsure of herself, the 12-year-old blurts out what her brothers did when she is in the nurse's office at her school. Violet is branded a "rat" from that day on and sent far away to live with an aunt and uncle she barely knows. She is sent away for her own protection, but also because her family despises her and wants nothing to do with her. And so begins a life where she is always looking behind her, always worried, and desperately seeking something that seems so elusive: love.

Written with remarkable insight and raw candor, this emotionally-searing book by Joyce Carol Oates will stay with me for some time to come.

This book is deeply disturbing. And that is exactly why you should read it.

Written by Alexandra Robbins, the book follows four juniors, three seniors and one graduate of Walt Whitman High School in tony Bethesda, Maryland for a little more than a year during 2004-2005. As the title would indicate, these teenagers have it all and do it all. They are highly intelligent and deeply motivated. They not only excel at their schoolwork—be it AP English or AP physics—but also excel at athletics, art, and music. They participate in a dizzyingly high number of extracurricular activities. The only thing they don't do is sleep.

This is what it feels like to be an overachiever:
• Getting a B is like getting an F.
• Cheating is perfectly OK if it means getting the A.
• Sabotaging other students' work is a legitimate way to compete.
• It's perfectly OK to take unprescribed ADD drugs for better focus.
• If you're going to play a sport, you absolutely must be a superstar. Or don't play.

While many of the students profiled in the book are highly self-motivated, some of them are pushed—relentlessly and (in one case) cruelly—by their parents. The students and parents truly believe that if the kids don't go to an Ivy League university or an Ivy-wannabe, all the effort, time and lack of sleep in high school was worthless. It's Harvard-Yale-Princeton or nothing. And that is a lot of pressure!

This book is nonfiction, but Robbins is so talented that it reads more like a novel. It was hard to put down because I wanted to know what happened next to Julie, Taylor, Sam, C.J., Ryland and the rest of the crowd.

I have only one quibble with this extraordinary book: Except for one student, those who are profiled all come from wealthy families. The cost of college is not a concern. So while the parents and students stress over an A- or a "low" SAT score of 1410 (out of 1600), at no point is there any discussion—much less worry or stress—about the outrageously high cost of these top-tier colleges to which they all aspire. There are overachievers at every high school in this country, but it is truly rare when parents can easily write checks to cover $65,000 a year. Most overachievers also have to lose what precious sleep they do get wondering how they will pay for it all.

Oh, what a huge disappointment! The publisher's plot summary is spectacular, and based on that this could have been a wonderful, compelling ChickLit book. But it wasn't. Why? The writing is stilted, the dialogue is strained and unrealistic, and the characters' actions are straight out of a mediocre soap opera.

Written by Lucinda Riley, the book is really two related stories, both of which focuses on Wharton Park, a large (think Downtown Abbey) ancestral home in rural Norfolk, England with side trips to Bangkok, Thailand. Taking place in modern times, the first story focuses primarily on Julia, the granddaughter of one of Wharton Park's gardeners who raised orchids in the hothouses, and Kit (Lord Christopher Crawford), who is being forced to sell his ancestral home as it pretty much falls down around itself. The second story takes place just before and after World War II, focusing on a family scandal and long-held secrets with generation-spanning ramifications.

The first story is weak, pitiful, and boring—when it's not totally preposterous. The second story, while far more interesting, is strangled by the second-rate writing. At one point near the end of the book, I actually said out loud, "Oh, come on! You HAVE to be kidding me!" (If you read this book, you will easily figure out exactly when I said this.)

What this book is: A fascinating, extraordinarily well-written historical novel on a young Abraham Lincoln, whose future wife, Mary Todd, was making eyes at him across the well-to-do parlors of Springfield, Illinois in the early 1840s, while at the same time the future president was sleeping in the same bed with a man named Joshua Speed, his closest friend and confidante.

What this book is not: "A page-turning novel" as the publisher describes it. Because of this description, I expected far more action and perhaps even a bit of suspense—something to keep me turning those pages and reading past my bedtime. Methinks, the publisher is overreaching in an attempt to sell more books. And that's a shame, because while the book is not "a page-turning novel," it is really good and this falsity does it and readers a real disservice.

Written by Louis Bayard much in the style of a 19th century novel, this is the tale of two people—Mary Todd and Joshua Speed—who were both essentially courting Mr. Lincoln. Lincoln and Speed lived together, ate their meals together and slept in the same bed. (Apparently, this was not uncommon for men to do in this time period and did not necessarily mean there was a sexual relationship.) Meanwhile, the beautiful Mary Todd, who could have had her pick of men, fell for the lumbering, somewhat uncouth, manners-challenged, disheveled, and penny-pinching poor Abraham Lincoln. But they shared one passion above all else: politics.

The No. 1 reason this is not "a page-turning novel" is the format of the book. Sections, each with multiple chapters, are written first from Mary's point of view with many of the same events being replayed in the following section from Joshua's point of view. It's an interesting and effective way to tell the story, but it's hardly filled with page-turning suspense.

I admit it! I bought this book for the title. For me, wasting a single hour, much less an entire day, is an anathema, so I was fascinated about an entire book on the topic.

As it turns out, the book is not exactly an instruction manual for being a lazy bum.

Instead, it's a combination memoir/travelogue/scholarly essay on how author Patricia Hampl, an admitted workaholic, became enchanted with the innate and often underestimated benefits of daydreaming, retiring from the pressures of society, traveling (often alone) for self-discovery, and embracing the joys of solitude. She accomplishes this by exploring how men and women—some of whom lived almost 500 years ago—achieved this feat. And it is indeed a feat for those of us who believe in filling every hour with productive activity.

This is a thought-provoking volume, which was no doubt Hampl's intent. While parts of it are absolutely riveting, quite a bit of it is rather erudite and dotted with obscure literary references, which the author (for the most part) fully explains. That said, it is charming to contemplate "wasting time" from such a serious and academic vantage. In case you need it, this book gives you "permission" to take a walk and smell the roses.

This is the rarest of books. It is a story of loss and separation—the kind that is foisted upon us by death and the kind that is inflicted upon us by estrangement—but it is also a story about the abiding power of love and friendship. It is a riveting, can't-put-it-down novel. And while the book is heartbreaking, it is also deeply affecting.

Written by Rebecca Makkai, the book is essentially two separate stories, told in different times and places. The first story takes place in Chicago from 1985 to 1992 in a tight-knit gay community as the carnage caused by the new and mysterious disease called AIDS is just becoming known. Men are dying and men are terrified—and men are trying against the odds to keep on living their lives. The second story is set in 2015 in Paris as the sister of one of those first AIDS victims in that '80s Chicago crowd, is desperately searching for her estranged, grown-up daughter who has seemingly disappeared. There are several unexpected story twists that are truly masterful because they are subtle—but oh so piercing.

How these two stories merge is part of the author's genius and the book's brilliance—and the last page gave me goosebumps. Yes, the book is laced with tragedy and deep sadness, but the two stories are so compelling that I still wanted to immerse myself in them. I highly recommend this book!

There is always another side of the story.

Author Laila Lalami has taken this adage to heart in this searing and ingenious tale about the death of Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in the small town of Mojave, California with this wife, Maryam. The couple have two grown daughters, Salma, a dentist who is married with two children, and Nora, a talented composer and musician. Driss, a Muslim who fully embraces the American dream despite the resentment and hatred so many have felt for him since 9/11, owns a modestly successful diner. One night after staying late at the restaurant he is run over and killed in a hit-and-run crash. Was it an accident…or murder?

The book is composed of dozens of short chapters, each told in the first person by someone connected to the case, including Maryam, Salma, and Nora, as well the African-American police detective, a white high school friend of Nora's who has recently returned from fighting in the war in Iraq and has fallen in love with Nora, the elderly white man who owns the bowling alley next door to Driss's diner, the bowling alley owner's grown son, and an illegal and terrified Latino immigrant who witnessed the hit-and-run.

This is the genius of the book: Even with so many diverse characters, each one is easy to remember and fully embrace, making the narrative arc—as told through so many varying points of view—riveting and absolutely brilliant.

This is so much more than a whodunit story. This is a story about people—be it people who are Muslim, Catholic, white, black, rich, or poor and the things they do to one another out of fear and distrust for "the other." This is a story about people—and the secrets they keep and the secrets that destroy. This is a story about people—be it people who are grieving, angry, happy, hopeful, resentful, or hurting with emotions that are often raw and always real.

This is a story about humanity. It is not about "the others" but rather about all of us.

After all, there is always another side of the story.

Many us have wondered in recent years if our democracy is under a very real threat. If you are one of these people, this dystopian novel by Joyce Carol Oates may give you nightmares because what should be a horrific fantasy limited to the pages of a book may feel more like a horrific possibility.

What if the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were suspended, libraries destroyed, and students persuaded—under threat of "exile" or "deletion"—to never fulfill their academic potential? What if someone was always watching us and our speech constantly monitored? Adriane Strohl, a smart, outspoken 17-year-old girl in the not-too-distant future, is punished for her "treasonous" high school valedictorian speech by being exiled for four years. Thanks to the wonders of teletransporting, she is sent away from her homeland, called NAS-23 (the new name for the USA), back to 1959 on a beautiful, rural Wisconsin college campus.

Separated from all the people she loves and the life she knows, Adriane is given the new name Mary Ellen Enright and enrolls as a scholarship student at Wainscotia State University. If she ever wants to return to her home, she must follow "The Instructions," which includes no romance, no procreation, and never revealing who she is. Following the many stringent rules proves difficult…if not impossible.

A fascinating twist that is so Oates-like: Mary Ellen takes psychology 101 and learns about the then-in-vogue behaviorism theories B.F. Skinner just as she herself is responding to her surroundings and fear of the NAS-23 spies she believes are watching her—all the while acting very much like one of Skinner's experimental subjects.

And while this cautionary tale had the potential be nothing but a thinly-veiled political diatribe, in the hands of the uber-talented Oates, it is much more than that. It is a surprisingly touching coming-of-age love story. Still, I was disappointed simply because this IS an Oates book. I expected more, although bonus points for a creative ending. I'm sorry to say that this is not one of her best books.

Crescendo. That is the best word to describe this book.

From page one, the story slowly builds to a crescendo that is searing, heartbreaking, tragic, and absolutely frustrating—because at so many points along the way, the sinking of the famed passenger ship Lusitania by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915 eleven miles off the southern coast of Ireland could have been prevented.

Even though we all know the ending, author Eric Larson is a masterful storyteller using a novelist's favorite tool in this nonfiction tome: Each chapter tells the tale from a different point of view, including the Lusitania's Captain William Thomas Turner, various passengers on ship who are both famous and ordinary, the German U-boat's Captain Walther Schwieger and his crew, the cipher decoders in Britain's top secret Room 40, and President Woodrow Wilson, who was grief-stricken over the death of his wife but soon fell in love (as in head over heels) with another woman. In addition to the specific story of the sinking of the Lusitania, the book is a fascinating treasure trove of early 20th century culture, fashion, and mores as World War I was ramping up.

Bonus: The findings—both immediately after the sinking and decades later—of why this tragedy happened are truly shocking.

Because of Larson's prodigious research and ability to weave a good story, readers are treated to the best kind of nonfiction book: a fact-filled page-turner.

The best way to describe this succinct, haunting book by R.O. Kwon is powerfully intense, somewhat perplexing, and quite disturbing.

You may think that because it is a little more than 200 pages long, this will be shorty, breezy read. Think again. Every word counts. And sometimes to fully understand those words, I had to reread passages. Several times. My point is that you must be prepared to spend quality, focused time with this book. A beach book it is not. It is work.

This is the story of three people, two of whom are college students at the prestigious (and fictitious) Edwards University (think Yale).
• Sophomores Phoebe and Will are friends, confidants, and passionate lovers. She is South Korean, a virtuoso pianist who has given up the instrument because she isn't THE very best in the world, and is searching for meaning in her life while trying to bury a dark, painful secret. In that quest, Phoebe makes reckless choices in everything from her alcohol consumption to men she takes in her bed.

• Will, a born-again Christian who has lost his faith, is a poor, scholarship student who is trying to hide his poverty from his new, rich friends—all the while secretly working a job and sending most of his money to his mother. He falls hopelessly in love with Phoebe.

• John Leal, a former Edwards student, who claims he was once captured by the North Koreans and spent five months in a gulag there, is a charismatic man on a mission. He ensnares the vulnerable Phoebe in his lurid Christian-based cult he has named Jejah and essentially brainwashes his troubled disciples to commit devious plans of homegrown terrorism.

What makes this book special: Quite simply, the language. The writing. Each sentence is perfect and nearly poetic. I was truly astounded—over and over again—reading such sentences. Such incredible beauty!

What makes this book difficult: While I do view it as great literature, it is real work to read this book. It might even qualify as hard work! Not only is too much packed into too few pages, but also parts of it are totally baffling. A real puzzle! And I don't think creating this kind of confusion is poetic license on the part of the author. Befuddling readers should be the No. 1 item on any author's "do not do" list. It's for this reason that I gave this otherwise excellent literary work of art four stars instead of five.

This is the perfect beach book—even if you can't make it to the sand and waves this year. It's sassy and fun with colorful characters, lots of romance, and a plot that is so gripping you won't want to stop reading. It is nearly perfect ChickLit!

Taking place in 1931-32 and the summer of 1938, the book tells the story of Smith College senior Lily Dane, who with help from her best friend (more like frenemy) Budgie Byrne, she meets the love of her life, Dartmouth senior Nick Greenwald. Lily and Nick are not only thwarted in so many heartbreaking ways from being together, but also betrayed by themselves and others. The chapters alternate between the two aforementioned time periods, focusing on Lily and Nick's early relationship in 1931-32 and an unexpected reunion in the summer of 1938 at Seaview, Rhode Island where Lily's family has "summered" for generations. The late September hurricane swirling in the Atlantic rivals the hurricane brewing in the hearts of these characters.

Beautifully written by Beatriz Williams, this book is both tender and passionate with a gripping storyline that just won't let go.

I will succinctly describe this book in one word: raw. And while it is also powerful, daring, shocking, confusing, and bold, above all else it is raw.

Written by Susan Choi, this is the story of a group of talented high school students in an unnamed Southern town who are chosen to attend a special school for the arts. But a literary version of the old TV show "Fame" this is not. This book has only three chapters, each told from a different point of view…each an entirely different story (in a way). On the surface, it is a coming-of-age story, of a passionate teenage romance that ends up broken and angry. But that is such a surface description. It is so much more! Yet, to describe what happens—even a brief plot summary, which I almost always include in my reviews—would be too much of a spoiler. Because what happens in the first chapter gets turned on its head, if not actually inside out, in the second chapter. And the third chapter is enlightening…and heartbreaking.

This is a multilayered book—with so many mindboggling layers I wonder if anyone is able to sort through and even identify them all. Is the book one big trick as some of the loftier professional reviews have maintained? Possibly. But probably not. That said, the author does use tricks. One of the more disconcerting (because it took a while for me to figure it out) is in the second chapter, which is told in the first person by a character named Karen. Multiple times—and always quite suddenly, often in the middle of a paragraph—the voice shifts to the third person, which I eventually surmised is the author's voice interjecting herself into the story.

I will say this about "Trust Exercise": It is a puzzling, strange novel. It is unlike anything I have ever read before. But most of all, and this is what bothers me the most, there is so much about this book that I know I didn't fully understand.

I am giving this book five stars not because I loved it so much that I hope everyone else reads it, too (which is typically why I give a book five stars), but rather because I am in awe of Susan Choi's imaginative narrative and poetry-like writing.

If you are looking for a truly intelligent literary work of fiction, read this. (And good luck understanding it!)

Zing! Each of these 10 original short stories by Curtis Sittenfeld has something special in it, something that gives it a zing, a pop, a punch. Sometimes it's a truly unexpected plot twist, sometimes it's just a brilliant observation, and sometimes it's something so totally bizarre that it will leave your mind reeling.

As I devoured this book, I realized that each story I read was the "best one." That is, even though the first story is sensitive, riveting, and delightful, the stories successively get stronger and more engaging. While the characters are, for the most part, either women in their 30s or women in their 30s remembering their younger selves, I—as a 60-something baby boomer—totally related to all the characters. That is a testament to the exceptional writing and masterful storytelling. Age is irrelevant. These stories are about the power of intimacy and friendship, betrayal and psychological wounds.

To put it another way: This collection is simply wonderful!

Question: When you're reading a book you don't particularly like, do you stop—as in, too many books, too little time—or do keep going so that if it gets better, you won't miss out on something amazing? I fall into the latter category. (I always keep going…no matter what.) And I'm so happy I kept trudging through the first half of this book because the second half is exceptional.

Written by Roxana Robinson, this is the true story of her ancestors beginning with one Francis Warrington Dawson, who in 1862 at age 21 left his home country of England and sailed to the United States so he could fight for the confederacy. Dawson was a bit confused about the point of the Civil War, thinking it was only about state's rights and not realizing the true reason: the scourge of slavery in the South. Still, he fought and he stayed, settling in Charleston, South Carolina where he owned and edited a newspaper—one that was so liberal and so divergent from common Southern sentiment at the time that he struggled to keep the paper in print.

The first half of this book felt like a bait-and-switch to me. It is billed as a novel, a work of fiction. But when I started reading, it felt like nonfiction—so much so, that I checked to verify it was a novel! The author was blessed to have access to numerous primary sources, including diaries, copious family papers, and the content of Dawson's newspapers. Instead of using those resources to better tell a fictional tale, she uses those resources as the bones of the book. The "story" is secondary. Diary entries, some of which are very long, and (bizarre, but fascinating) newspaper stories dominate the first half of the book.

And then suddenly—and it really is quite suddenly—the narrative totally changes tone and becomes what I thought the book would be when I bought it: a fascinating, extraordinarily well-written historical novel with fully-developed characters and a compelling, enthralling plot that will keep you reading. I understand that the first half of the book, which was a bit of a slog to read, set the stage for the main story by delineating the background facts; I just wish an editor had encouraged the author to rewrite it—and still give all the facts—so it better fit the mold of a novel.

All this said, the underlying message of the book—how we treat "the other"—is so vitally important. In this case, the focus is on the former Southern slaves, who after emancipation suffered extraordinary poverty, high mortality rates, and a generally miserable existence. In the South in the decades following the Civil War it often felt as if white society followed the rule of violence instead of the rule of law. The book's historical message still resonates quite loudly for today's politics.

Some books we read for entertainment. Some books we read for information. And some books, such as this one by Lisa See, provide both. Actually, there is so much factual information in this book that it is almost a novel masquerading as nonfiction.

Spanning 70 years from 1938 to 2008, this book takes place on Jeju Island, South Korea, home of the haenyeo, who are women who dive deep into the sea to harvest by hand everything from abalone to octopus—without oxygen tanks. On Jeju, it was the women who worked every day in the sea—no matter the season or the temperature—while the men stayed home to care for the children and cook the family meals.

The story follows two young girls who become best friends, Young-sook and Mi-ja, as they learn to become "baby divers" in the time-honored tradition of the haenyeo. They grow up, marry and have children—and then an event that is so incredibly tragic and absolutely horrific tears them apart. Can Young-sook ever forgive Mi-ja for what she did? But just as important as the story of the women's friendship is the factual story of Jeju Island as its longstanding traditions and culture are threatened first by World War II and the Japanese occupation of the island and later by the Korean war, culminating in the bloody, terror-filled Jeju uprising beginning in April 1948 when thousands upon thousands were tortured and killed.

Caution: The descriptions of the violence, torture, death and destruction that took place during the Jeju uprising are explicit and graphic. While this is quite difficult and disturbing to read, it is a vitally important part of both the story arc and the history of the island. In fact, information about this "incident," as it is called, was suppressed for decades. People who survived and witnessed the gruesome bloody brutality of April 3, 1948 on Jeju Island were forbidden from ever discussing it, and those who did could face beatings, torture, prison, and even death.

Rich in historical detail and filled with vivid descriptions, this book will supercharge your imagination as it transports you to an unfamiliar place, time, and culture.

The best way to describe this can't-put-it-down novel by Kate Morton is: multilayered. No, wait. Multi-multi-multi-layered. There is SO much going on here! And every bit of it is a literary delight.

At its very core—deep, deep down—this is a mystery. But because it's so much more than that, the mystery can sometimes get lost. This is really two stories all interwoven into one. The setting is a summer house mansion by a lake in Cornwall, England. The book opens on a hot June day and evening in 1933, where the Edevane family is hosting the traditional and very lavish Midsummer party for 300 guests. But when they wake up the next morning, 11-month-old Theo, their fourth child and only son, is missing. The parents, Anthony and Eleanor, are understandably distraught. Daughter Deborah, age 18, is still reeling from discovering a shocking secret about her mother. Alice, age 16 and a budding writer, appears to know more than she tells the police. Clementine, age 12, who is accustomed to taking her baby brother on long walks around the beautiful rural property, is very jumpy. Who kidnapped—or killed!—baby Theo? Interspersed with this is the 2003 story of Sadie Sparrow, a London police detective with a long personal history of her own who has been disgraced by how she handled a tough case and has been forced on a vacation. (And that tough case is its own mystery—a mystery within a mystery!) Sadie retreats to her beloved grandfather's cottage in Cornwall where she learns about the 70-year-old cold case of Theo Edevane's mysterious disappearance.

Yes, the mystery is riveting and Kate Morton is an expert at dropping clues along the way so only the most astute readers will be able to solve it before the end. But even better than the page-turning suspense of the whodunit, are the vividly-drawn characters with backstories so deep and so multifaceted that you will be totally drawn into this captivating tale. With sophisticated storytelling that is rich in historical detail, this magnificent book is one of those special novels I will want to recommend to everyone!

This is the elegiac story of people living in and somehow surviving the perilous crisis, conflict, and calamity in the days, weeks, and years following the end of the American Civil War. But what makes this particular tale unique is that it is told through the eyes of one woman: Varina Howell Davis, the wife of Jefferson Davis, who served from 1861 to 1865 as the only president of the Confederate States of America. Varina's life was filled with tragedy, including the death of several of her children, a conflicted marriage fraught with extreme challenges, years of homelessness, and financial ruin.

Ingeniously plotted, this book by Charles Frazier is divided into seven chapters with each one beginning on a Sunday in 1906 in Saratoga Springs, New York as Varina, or V as she is known, meets in a hotel lobby with a black man named Jimmie Limber. Jimmie, who was an orphan of mixed raced parentage, was a very young child when V found him being beaten on a street by a black woman. She grabbed him and took him home where she raised him with her own children. Varina and Jimmie haven't seen each other in decades, and the narrative is organized around these Sunday meetings in which V tells Jimmie what happened during and immediately after the Civil War. The gist of it is that V fled Richmond as it burned, heading for Havana, but a horse-drawn wagon laden with children and a few accompanying men for protection is a slow and dangerous way to get to Cuba. The refugees, who felt more like fugitives, traveled through the Southern states that were still reeling from General Sherman's fiery march. Rumor had it they were carrying massive amounts of gold and silver, which made them vulnerable targets by desperate people.

The writing is beautiful, nearly lyrical, and the story really is fascinating. But reading this book can be challenging: The plot bounces around in time so much that sometimes it can be difficult to follow. This is one of those books where I had to pay full attention at all times, and even then I frequently reread sections for a full or better understanding.

This is a novel that will haunt you. It is not only deeply disturbing, but also an ominous warning about the powerful authority and absolute control some men exert over women — both their minds and their bodies.

Taking place in a tightly-knit and isolated Mennonite community, virtually the entire book is the minutes of several secret meetings a group of women is holding in a hayloft. They are discussing their future. All of them, along with almost every other woman and girl in the colony, were repeatedly raped over five years by eight men in the community, who stole into their bedrooms in the middle of the night, knocking them out with an animal anesthetic, and then having their way with them. The women and girls would awake in the morning groggy and confused and covered in blood, feces, and semen. Even a three-year-old girl was violated in the same way. The women were told that Satan had visited them to punish them for their sins.

But that is not the story of this book.

The story is what happens after the women finally figure out what is going on. Because one woman attempted to kill one of the men with a scythe, the police were called to take the men to jail in the nearby city — for their own safety. And now the women are trying to discern what they will do to protect themselves in the future, including possibly leaving the community — a bold and intimidating step, since they have no idea where they are geographically. However unlikely it is, the narrator of the story is a man. The women trust him, and since they are illiterate, they want him to write what happens at the meetings.

There are many ways, some of which could have been quite salacious, that author Miriam Toews could have written this story, which is (shockingly) based on true events in a Mennonite community. What she did was to zero in on how women everywhere solve their problems: by talking about it. These hayloft discussions, filled with anger and deep-seated psychological pain, are heated with diverse opinions, sometimes unfocused, but always fruitful. Above all, the discussions are philosophical reflections on the meaning of their lives.

And at the root of it all is the question the women must eventually answer: Can they forgive the rapists, who are, after all, their husbands, brothers, uncles, and nephews, for the evil deeds they did? Is forgiveness even possible? And if not, how can the women remain in community with the men?

Because it is so emotionally charged, this is not an easy book to read. But it is an important one…a vitally important one.

This touching, insightful, and haunting book of short stories by Jennifer Haigh continues the story of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a fictional coal-mining town, that she introduced in "Baker Towers: A Novel" and continues after "News From Heaven" in "Heat and Light: A Novel."

These are big stories about small town life, especially the secrets families keep and the secrets that are exposed.

Bakerton has fallen on hard times as the coal mines that employed the vast majority of the men have closed. In these stories we find out how some of the people have reinvented themselves when the only way of life they ever knew has ended. Some of the stories are heartbreaking, some are hopeful, and all are true to life. While each story focuses on a different family or individual, all of them explore themes common to all of us when change is forced upon us. A thin thread connects all 10 stories, making this book read more like a novel than a disparate collection of stories.

With finely-wrought characters and sophisticated storytelling, Haigh brilliantly captures a place, time, and people that are a crucial part of our very recent past.