The Cider House Rules, by John Irving

Read, reviewed, and released in April, 2015

A very powerful and dark drama of an orphanage, its founder/director, and a boy who grew to manhood there. Dr. Wilbur Larch was a young medical intern who did not believe in abortion. In the 1920s, when this novel begins, most of the country did not either. A series of events (one in particular) changed his opinion. The plight of many unwanted and ill-cared-for children led him to found an orphanage in an abandoned logging town. He soon combined obstetric, abortion,and orphanage services into one entity, St. Cloud's Orphanage and Hospital. Desperate women found their way to St. Cloud's to deliver their babies that they would leave at the orphanage, or to have abortions. The boy was Homer Wells. He had been placed in four different adoptive homes at different times in his life, but non of them worked out. He always returned to St. Cloud's. Finally Dr. Larch accepted the inevitable and agreed that Homer could stay as long as he was "of use." As he grew, his responsibilities grew, from errand boy and message taker to Dr. Larch's assistant in the operating room.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel, by Rebecca Wells

Read and reviewed in November, 2014. Released later

Wow, what a wild ride! A mother's life, especially her adolesence, as seen through the eyes of her eldest daughter, Siddalee, with frequent flashbacks as remembered by the mother, Vivi. Herself the daughter of an alcoholic, abusive father and an overly pious, strictly religious mother, Vivi was the ringleader of a group of four girls who remained best friends from childhood to late middle age. They had some wild escapades in their youth, including a skinny-dipping party in the town's water tower! Vivi was beaten by her father, chastised by her mother, and sent to a strict Catholic girls' boarding school. No wonder that she became an alcoholic, and that her own four young children were overwhelming for her. The surprising thing is that her daughter Sidda turned out to be as normal as she was.

One Mississippi: A Novel, by Mark Childress

Read and reviewed in February, 2014. Released later

What a wild ride this was! From beginning to end, full of drama and violence: explosions, catastrophes, interracial romance, homophobia, riot, and mass murder - all in the context of a teenage boy and his family and his best friend in a new community.

Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns

Read, reviewed, and released in June, 2012

I'm glad I did get it at the thrift shop! I enjoyed it very much. It's a sort of coming-of-age narrative about a teenage boy coming to terms with himself and his unusual family and straight-laced community. Interesting tale of acceptance, forgiveness, grief, and the meaning of life and love told in a Southern country dialect. (Easy for me, I live in Alabama!)

The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough

Book image courtesy of Amazon. com

Read and reviewed in January, 2012, given to a relative

A wonderful book! I don't know why I waited so long to start it! Much more than just an illicit affair with a priest, a dramatic saga featuring four strong women in four generations*, and the trials and tribulations of managing an Australian outback station.

*Mary Carson, Fiona "Fee" Armstrong Cleary, Meghann "Meggie" Cleary O'Neil, and Justine O'Neil

Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls

Book image courtesy of Amazon.com

Read and reviewed in November, 2010. It is no longer in my possession.

A very well-written coming-of-age story about a young boy and his hunting hounds, his adventures coon hunting in the Ozark backwoods, and the bond between him and his dogs.

A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster

Read and reviewed in May, 2011. It is no longer in my possession.

Even though it is small, it is well written, and the characters are vividly drawn. Lucy Honeychurch, a free-spirited young woman, is surrounded by those who would stifle her independence. It is a coming-of-age story, and a love story.

A Painted House, by John Grisham

Read and reviewed in April, 2004; no longer in my possession

This book was wonderful - I couldn't put it down! I was so interested in the characters and their lives, and I still wonder how some of them turned out.
Unlike most of Grisham's novels, this is a "coming-of-age" type story about a boy in rural Arkansas in the early 1950's - the trials and tribulations of farming,
and the people who populate the town and their own farm during harvesting season.
It involves detailed descriptions of violent scenes, so it is not for the squeamish.