1) Mad Honey by Jennifer Boylan and Jodi Piccoult: this was a long book with over 430 pages. It was a good read. It is about new beginnings, young love, a mother's love, and, in the end, a good murder mystery that surprised me.
Years ago, following a bitter divorce, Olivia had moved back to her hometown with her young son, Asher. Asher grew up there with his best friend, Maya. In Asher's senior year, a new girl moved to town named Lily. Maya befriended her and Asher fell hard for Lily. The three of them became rather inseparable. But Lily had moved to the town for good reason. She had a secret that she was running away from. She and Asher became a couple, and one day, Olivia got the news that Lily was dead and Asher had been arrested for the murder. She was certain that her son could not have done it, but she also was afraid that perhaps he had violent tendencies like his father. The book goes through the trial and the aftermath.
2) Next I read The Winners by Fredrik Backman: this book is the third book of a trilogy. The first book was Beartown, which I loved. The second book was Us Against Them, which I didn't care that much for. So I was anxious to see how The Winners would be. It certainly did not disappoint!
In The Winners, two years had passed since all that had happened in Beartown. Much had changed in the two years. When the owner of the much-loved tavern died, Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich returned home for the funeral. Maya was attending college out of town, and Benji had gone to try to make sense of all that had happened two years ago. And while home, tensions between the rivaling towns of Beartown and Hed began to resurface and bad things began happening.
"Because of course that's all she is, all everyone she grew up with in Beartown is; hopelessly simple but horribly complicated. Ordinary, unusual people. Unusually ordinary people. We try to just live our lives, live with each other, live with ourselves. Accepting joy when we find it, bearing grief when it finds us, and being amazed at our children's happiness without falling apart when we think that we can never really protect them."
"This hurts too much to touch wtih words."
Such beautiful writing. I absolutely loved this book!
3) Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng: This was an interesting story that I felt touched very close to issues happening (or could happen) right now.
Ten years earlier, the country had declared laws to preserve "American culture" and the authorities were allowed to relocate children of any dissidents, mainly if there were Asian. Twelve-year-old Bird lived with his father, growing up learning not to draw attention to himself. He and his father lost their home and were living in an old dormitory on the campus where his linguist father now worked stacking books in the university library. Bird's mother had been gone for three years and he did not know what had happened. His mother was a Chinese-American poet, but Bird did not know that nor know her work.
One day, Bird received a note in the mail that was just a cryptic drawing. He realized that it contained some clues about his mother and he took off to New York City on his own to find her.
This book is really well-written and touching. I liked it a lot!
