ON OUR BOOKSHELF
THE PAGES WE’VE DEVOURED THIS MONTH... AND YOU SHOULD TOO.
THE GOOD LIAR On the surface, they’re the faces of a famous tragedy: three women whose lives were forever changed by a building explosion in Chicago that left over 500 dead. Cecily was meant to be in the building but was running late and stood outside watching, knowing her husband was inside; Franny lost the birth mother she’d long searched for; and Kate ran off to Montreal to forget about the disaster and start over. But underneath, they’re all hiding something, and these secrets will have you questioning who to believe right up until the very end.
BELLEWETHER Is there anything better than a forbidden-love story? See Susanna Kearsley’s latest page-turner, set in colonial Long Island, about Lydia Wilde and French-Canadian lieutenant Jean-Philippe de Sabran, whose thwarted romance becomes the stuff of local legend—and a ghost story or two—over the decades. Some 250 years later, the local museum’s curator, Charley Van Hoek (who has her own tempestuous ties to the region), discovers that all is not what it seems with Lydia and Jean-Philippe’s story—or her own romantic life. EVERY NOTE PLAYED Imagine your greatest passion in life being gradually taken away by a debilitating physical condition. That’s what happens to Richard, a renowned concert pianist who develops ALS, in the latest sniffler from Lisa Genova. Faced with his mortality, he looks at failings in his personal life and sets about fixing neglected relationships. Genova (who also wrote Still Alice, about a woman living with Alzheimer’s, which was made into a film starring Julianne Moore) is a neuroscientist by day, so her prose is grounded in true-to-life realness. But the levity and humour she brings make this story more than just a tear-jerker.
THEN SHE WAS GONE We all had lovely manicures until we chewed off our nails reading this thriller. At the centre of the story is haunted mom Laurel, who has been living in limbo since her teen daughter, Ellie, disappeared a decade ago. A budding romance with ultra-charismatic author Floyd Dunn is a welcome distraction for Laurel, until she meets Floyd’s nine-year-old daughter...who looks just like Ellie did at the same age. Switching between past and present, this book is so juicy, you should probably avoid making any plans once you start reading. n