I decided to pick this book up after it as shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. From the early pages, the writing totally delighted me. But it's only now (I finished the book today) that I can truly speak to the book's incredible scope. The last third of the book was some of the most vivid prose I've read in a long time. I won't spoil by sharing more here, but if you like to get captured into an atmospheric story that is full or surprises, this one is for you.

An eccentric and creative woman marries an apple farmer on a whim. Neither family thinks it will last. Clouds gather and Gothic overtones play menacingly in the background, but the couple seems to fall more deeply in love. Weir writes suspense books, but she says in the afterward that this is the story she truly longed to share: a story of an unlikely marriage that shaped her and gave her children she continues to treasure.

Close's debut novel offers a portrait a group of friends going through the travails of their twenties. Marriage may be on the horizon (or not) and a meaningful career may be on the horizon (or not). Regardless of what’s to come, this is a group that is more than ready for something to happen. Parts of the book had me snorting with laughter and recognition. I came to really care about these characters, and appreciated the deft way Close handled them. I look forward to what she writes next.

A book that truly won’t let you go from the first page, The Widower’s Tale is a delicious multi-layered story that centers around a totally delightful character, the seventy-year old set-in-his-ways curmudgeon Percival Darling. Percival’s sardonic, biting perspective on the world around him (which, dare I say, looks a bit like Norwich and Hanover rolled together) is highly amusing in itself. But it is the way that Percival’s world—a world of “privileged complacency,” as the back cover reads—changes throughout the course of the novel that makes the book so un-put-down-able. Told from the perspectives of four men who are part of the same community but see it through very different eyes, The Widower’s Tale is great company for a summer evening.

I loved this novel from its zany beginnings to its heartwarming conclusions. Set in the suburbs of Texas, The Gap Year tells the story of Cam and her daughter Aubrey. Aubrey is (at last!) graduating from high school and heading off (Cam hopes) to a wonderful liberal arts program in the Pacific northwest. But as graduation draws nearer, Cam realizes that her daughter might have other plans. Might not even want to go to college at all. As Cam vacillates between despair and wanting to strong-arm her daughter, she slowly considers that perhaps her daughter's plans are more important than her own. A wonderful story about family transitions, The Gap Year is at once hilarious and deeply satisfying. It made me want to dial up my Mom to offer up some belated gratitude.

I read this book over Easter weekend and could not put it down! It's a wonderfully personal memoir in which author Wendy McClure attempts to figure out why she liked the Laura Ingalls Wilder books so much. She creates a long list of real places to visit, and tries to crawl back into what she calls "Laura World" along the way. I read another review that called her quest "sweetly obsessive" and I thought that was spot on. If you're a lover of memoirs, children's books, or just a funny read, this is highly recommended.