When their mother is diagnosed with cancer all three Andreas sisters come home to roost and heal from their personal flaws and shortcomings. Rose is finally in the relationship she's always wanted, but is too much of a homebody to let go of home. Bean has fled her job in NY and is now broke with many debts to pay. And Cordy, the youngest, is pregnant and realizes at 27 it's about time she became an adult. Well written with Shakespearean underpinnings and a very real cast of characters.

Newcomer Megan Mayhew Bergman has brought about a big-hearted collection of short stories. Focusing on the undeniable biological pull in each of us and the wild places we find comfort in. Her writing is clever, her characters fresh and palpable, and the stories are brief yet substantial.

Have you ever been stuck and without momentum? Book reviewer Meg Carpenter is broke, struggling to write a novel that’s years overdue, and her unemployed boyfriend’s sour attitude does not help her situation- or lack thereof. So, when a philosophical, new-age book about immortality appears on her desk, she reviews it as planned and that’s what sets everything else into motion. Meg’s lifestyle starts to pick up speed as she realizes that she can in fact change her life for the better. Thomas is known for writing semi-philosophical stories with big ideas and this one just that; a great story that picks you up, without realizing you ever even moved.

Pierre marry for love against the wishes of their parents, a decision that will bind the two families together through both world wars. It’s a story of family and the growth of life despite the war. Once again, Némirovsky posthumously, gives us another heartfelt depiction of life on the fringes of wartime and the art of keeping families together.

Sabine has been the magician’s assistant to her soulmate, Parsifal, for twenty years and is thrown by his sudden death. How can the assistant exist when the magician is dead? She soon finds out that her life is fuller than she thought when she uncovers a secret identity and family he hid from her and everyone else over the years. She soon finds consolation in the growing attachment of Parsifal’s forgotten, cast away family as she begins to redefine who she thought she was.

“It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.” Narrated by Death, this is the best and most interestingly written stories I’ve read surrounding the Holocaust. Liesel, taken into a German foster home after the death of her remaining family, develops a love for reading banned and stolen books. During her uncertain and disheveled childhood she strives for normalcy where she can find it, giving us her personal, unique view of the war.

An interesting story about immortality and the toll it can take on the mind. Dr. Luke Findley is content with the boredom of life in Maine, until a mysterious woman shows up during his midnight shift. Lanore is twenty, unmarried, and pregnant when she finds her entire life has changed and is now never-ending. Beginning in rural Maine and ending in Pairs, spanning over 150 years, Lanore recounts her lengthy existence and the desperate decisions made for the man she loved. Those who enjoyed the Gargoyle (Andrew Davidson) will be pleased with the similar plotline, yet completely different narrative.

An Irish Catholic family with deep roots has many secrets and reasons to hide from one another, but when three generations of strong willed woman are stuck their once loved beach house, anything can happen. Anyone from the North Shore or Boston will find these complicated characters to be very believable and will be flooded with memories surrounding their own time spent on family vacations in New England.