This was a touching book with a somewhat startling ending. Skyla Plinka is married to Thomas.  She has a daughter, Norah, who is in kindergarten.  Her life is somewhat humdrum and repressed and nothing much exciting ever happens.  Thomas's family is just like Thomas, repressed, quiet, straight and narrow.  Everything must have its place.  When Skyla gets new neighbors and gets a part time job, things begin to change.

Roxanne and Ted Bear and their 5 boys move in next door.  In contrast to Skyla's quiet and organized life, the Bears are disorganized, loud, and liberal in their lives and childrearing techiniques.  Skyla at first is apalled and then attracted to their lifestyle and she and Roxanne become friends.  Thomas's mother disapproves of Skyla's relationship with this disorganized bunch of strangers so much that one day, when she sees one of the kids on top of their van, she calls child protective services.  Skyla thinks Thomas has done this terrible deed and their relationship goes downhill from there.  Finally Audrey goes to apologize to Roxanne and ends up helping her straighten up her house, because she finds Roxanne sick in the bathroom.

JUst when things could not get any worse, Roxanne finds out that she is not pregnant as she had hoped, but that she has pancreatic cancer with a terminal diagnonsis.  Skyla is devistated, but helps Roxanne, as does Audrey, Thomas and Roxanne's family.  How all the friends, relatives and neighbors come together to make Roxanne's last days comfortable is very touching. 

Kim Edwards, a Kentucky author, is back with a new book named The Lake of Dreams.  This was in the works before Memory Keeper’s Daughter and Edwards took a two year leave from U of K to finish writing the book.

The novel opens with Lucy Jarrett coming home from Japan to her childhood home in Lake of Dreams, New York.  Lucy has avoided home because of her father’s unresolved death in a fishing accident.  Her brother Blake has gone into the family business and joined up with her uncle in a controversial project to develop the area’s wetlands.  Lucy takes care of her injured mother and reconnects with her first love Keegan Fall, a glass artist. Everything changes when Lucy discovers letters linked to the suffrage movement of the early 1900’s and an heirloom tapestry. The tapestry is bordered with interlocking spheres—an ancient symbol that appears in stained-glass windows crafted by a local artist almost a century ago.  Thus begins a quest that will force Lucy to rewrite her family’s history and her own.  Every element emerges as a carefully placed piece of a puzzle. 

This novel is not just about family history but love and redemption and should have a wide appeal for readers.

This was a very confusing book.  I never actually figured out the plot.   Maybe I should read it again. 

Basically, Celia and teen friends are walking home from school one afternoon.  Her best friend, Djuna, disappears on the walk.  Celia tells the police and the rest of her friends that Djuna got into or was forced into a car with strangers.  Her friends all agree that is the scenario.  But....Celia really knows that Djuna fell down a hole in the woods and that Celia lied about it.  Or did she?  I never really figured out if it was the car or the hole that swallowed up Djuna. 

This was a confusing plot.  When Celia tries, 20 years later, to tell what she now believes to be the truth, the other story is such an accepted fact, that no one will believe her and I am not sure she believes it her self.  Which story is true?  Who knows?

Not nearly as good as Bee Season by the same author. 

This was a good book, although it started out slow.  It is sort of a mystery that gets solved by perserverence.  In 1979, six toddlers were found alone in a luxury yacht tied to a dock in Puerto Rico.  No one knew where they came from, but they were well dressed, although they didn't look like wealthy children.  They were dirty and looked neglected.

Raised by separate families in the United States, the six wonder what their origins and nationality are.  When David, one of the adults, is diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor, they begin to search for their origins.  Thru DNA samples, research and pure luck, the group finds out their story.  What their orgins are is amazing, but to tell it would spill the beans.  Read this book to find out.