Keys to the Kingdom and the Life You Want by Stephen Hawley Martin

Stephen Hawley Martin lays out his spiritual history and philosophy in a book that is worth reading whether you agree with his thinking or not. Sometimes he is too anthropomorphic for my taste, and he's also a little dualistic in how he presents God and mankind. This runs counter to my core belief in the creator and the created as one entity. He gets pretty specific about "morphic fields" and how karma and reincarnation work; I tend to question anything that's very descriptive of life after death, because I think it's unknowable. However, there is lots of good guidance on spiritual practices and his description of the four stages of spiritual life is interesting. Stage I = life that is chaotic, self-serving, and manipulative; Stage II = a religious life that is bound up in ritual and dogma; Stage III = a questioning and doubting life; Stage IV = a more mystical life that recognizes the universe as connected, a single organism. He also throws in a Stage V for emeritus mystics like Buddha and Jesus.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room is being read by many book clubs including my own and I'm looking forward to discussing it. The story is that of a mother's relationship with her five-year-old son in both a state of captivity and in adjusting to the greater world. It is told through the eyes of the boy who is very sophisticated in his understanding of language and arithmetic, but entirely naive about how to live in a world beyond the boundaries of his captivity in the Room. The first part of the book made me somewhat squeamish; the second part was a page turner; and the third dealt sensibly with real life issues. A book of some depth and a great read.

Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Maloy

A 75-year-old woman named Sarah adjusts to life as a widow in this novel which I felt to be a little on the sappy side. She lives n a big old farmhouse with barn and cabin in the woods. With no company but her two dogs, she agrees to take in three teenagers who are having a hard time getting along at home; and then she is called upon to help two other young women with children whose circumstances have made them temporarily homeless. Finally an elderly gentleman writer takes up residence in the cabin adding potentional romance to this work of aging gracefully and recovering from grief. Not a bad read but I found it a little too schmaltzy.

Uncommon Arrangements by Katie Roiphe

Ms. Roiphe has a degree in English from Princeton University and is a marvelous writer. Her topic in Uncommon Arrangements is the complex living arrangements certain famous married couples had during the period between the two world wars. They include H.G. Wells and Katherine Mansfield and other writers of the era. Most of the subjects kept diaries and engaged in voluminous correspondence that provides remarkable insight into their characters and love lives. Some were able to reconcile spouse and lover and to live (and or socialize) as a threesome. Some kept a heterosexual spouse and a homosexual lover. They all start as free-thinkers determined to live in their own ways, but from time to time an underlying Victorianism breaks through. Human arrangements are always human and therefore imperfect.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

I read this light mystery story just to see what all the Evanovich fans were talking about. It introduces the character Stephanie Plum who appears in a series of novels that follow. She is a young woman who becomes a bounty hunter and learns from mentors as well as stumbling through apprehensions in her own way. A fun read but a little too light for my taste.

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

The "Free Food" mentioned in the title is made available for traders and executives in an investment firm. As a homeless and semi-starved Korean American, our heroine looked upon the bounty provided at her new job with a sense of irony. Casey was spending her twenties trying to find what she wanted to do in life. She'd graduated from a prestigious college and was thrown out of her parents' home for not displaying enough obeisance to her father. Thus the period of homelessness and hunger followed by a period of comfortable employment. Her relations with her friends, lovers, and family form the nub of this well-written and compelling novel.

Testimony by Anita Shreve

In a private Vermont prep school three boys and a girl are videotaped having consensual sex. Of course the tape finds its way onto the Internet and eventually into the hands of the headmaster. The girl is only fourteen years old so the police regard the act as statuary rape. The fallout from this incident harms the school, the community, and the lives of those involved; its repercussions are enormous. The story is told in short chapters that switch the narrative point of view from character to character, and because there are so many characters, this causes some confusion. Aside from that Testimony is a good read.