Read These Books, Too

When I posted my reading list last week, I forgot to include my favorite adult fiction book of the year, so I'm giving it some blog time here.

Belong to Me: Maria de los Santos: Adult Fiction
Being childless is just one of many things that alienates Cornelia from her neighbors when she and her husband Teo move from the city to the suburbs. Piper Truitt, the reigning neighborhood socialite, confirms all of Cornelia’s fears about suburbia, criticizing Cornelia’s lifestyle, appearance, and conversation. It's only after Cornelia meets Lake, another new member of the community with a precocious teenage son, that Cornelia begins to feel welcome in her new town. Everyone has a secret, though, and relationships change and develop, demonstrating the multitude of ways in which the neighbors belong to one another. In both this book and the author's first novel, Love Walked In, I underestimated what I was going to read and was pleasantly surprised to discover wonderful characterizations of complicated individuals and relationships.

And, actually, this one that I finished last week is also a new favorite.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows: Adult Fiction
Following WWII, Juliet Ashton, a 30-something author, falls into correspondence (and into love) with the quirky members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, who have suffered through the German occupation of their island. The title is unfortunate and the epistolary style takes a little getting used to, but the story is excellent, full of heart without being sentimental and saved from too much sweetness by Juliet's clever remarks and an occasional heartbreaking turn of events. One of my favorite moments from the book is this passage. The speaker is a man from the Society talking about Shakespeare.

Do you know what sentence of his I admire the most? It is "the bright day is done and we are for the the dark."

I wished I known those words on the day I watched those German troops land, plane-load after plane-load of them--and come off ships down in the harbor! All I could think of was damn them, damn them, over and over. If I could have thought the words "the bright day is done and we are for the night," I'd have been consoled somehow and ready to go out and contend with circumstance--instead of my heart sinking to my shoes.

I also forgot to ask for your recommendations. What did you read this year that you liked?