Recommended Reads: Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Recommended Reads: Every Last One by Anna Quindlen (FIC QUI)

Note: This review contains spoilers.

Throughout the first half of the book, we are intimately acquainted with the Latham family - a wholesome family with three young teenagers living in a peaceful and friendly neighborhood. There’s confident, popular and artsy Ruby; outgoing and athletic Alex who lives for sports; and his broody and intense twin, Max. The author weaves a disturbing undercurrent into this family dynamic with Ruby’s high school sweetheart Kieran, who refuses to acknowledge the reality that Ruby has broken up with him. A violent climax destroys the family, and Anna Quindlen leaves the reader picking up the pieces along with the survivors.

Recommended Reads: House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Recommended Reads: House Rules by Jodi Picoult (FIC PIC)

This is the story of a family of two brothers and a single mother, and the daily challenges they face due to the older brother’s Aspergers (an Autism Spectrum Disorder). We get a glimpse of what it is like to live with someone who has Aspergers - the highly rigid schedules, the lack of social interaction, the strict adherence to "food color days" such as all-blue Tuesday, etc. This challenge becomes exacerbated when Jacob, a high-schooler, is accused of murdering his social skills tutor. The chapters alternate between the point of view of the various characters, and Jodi Picoult is a master at leaving the reader wondering until the very end about whether Jacob is innocent or guilty.

Recommend Reads: A Friend of the Family

Recommended Reads: A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein

A Friend of the Family traces the disintegration of a wealthy New Jersey suburban family. This suspenseful novel is narrated by Pete Dizinoff, a successful family doctor with a wife, a son, and close friends. Jumping back and forth in time between the idyllic past, where Pete and his wife built a life with their beloved son Alec, and the present day, where Pete is estranged from his family and being sued for malpractice, this dark family story traces how a perfect suburban life can so easily shatter. Pete is incensed to learn that his treasured only child is dating Laura, the daughter of his best friends Joe and Iris, who is not only older than Alec but has a criminal past. Pete's efforts to end Alec and Laura's relationship will turn out to have tragic consequences. Grodstein does a brilliant job of getting inside the mind of a middle-aged Jewish doctor and evoking the suburban New Jersey milieu. A sense of dread consumes the story and you'll read on wanting to find out what horrible incident occurs to estrange Pete from his family and friends.