37. Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk

Set over a rainy Friday in the London suburb of Arlington Park, Cusk’s novel explores the lives of a group of privileged mothers. Juliet, a teacher who delights in leading her school’s literary club, has a breakdown and cuts off her waist length hair. Amanda, obsessed with keeping her house immaculate, has to deal with children writing in red marker on her white couch. Maisie wonders why her family left London in the first place, and feels smothered in the suburban area. Christine struggles to throw a dinner party for the group of neighbors, but ends up drunk and mad at her husband. Almost all of the characters show up for Christine’s dinner party to end the dreary evening, where they are left wondering about the way they are living their lives.

Each main woman has her own chapter of this novel, yet characters flow into each other’s lives throughout the long day. This is an honest depiction of suburban life, including being frustrated with your children, partner, and how life turns out. Most of these women think that having a large home and money will make them happy, but they soon find out that these things bring the opposite. For readers who enjoy the novels of Julie Myerson and Maggie O’Farrell.

36. In the Woods by Tana French

Twenty years ago, in a heavily wooded area of Knocknaree, Ireland, two children went missing while playing on a summer afternoon. The third child, Adam Ryan, was found at the base of a tree trunk, his sneakers filled with blood, but unable to talk or remember what happened to him or his friends. Adam, now known as Rob to escape media attention, is a police officer who has hidden his past to everyone except his police partner, Cassie Maddox. When a twelve year old girl, Katy Devlin, goes missing and is later found dead in those same woods, Ryan and Maddox get the biggest case of their careers.

This debut from Irish author French is part psychological drama, part mystery. The characters of Ryan and Maddox are expertly developed, and the flashbacks Ryan encounters lend a chilling subplot to the story. Readers will soon desperately want Ryan to remember what happens that day twenty years ago. The novel also explores the role of memory in our lives, family histories, and modern day Ireland. For readers who enjoyed Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend.

35. Consequences by Penelope Lively

Three generations of women are followed over seventy years in Lively’s newest novel. Lorna meets Matt in London’s St. James Park in the 1930’s. While she is from a cold, upper class family, he is a wood engraver who falls in love that day with Lorna. The two eventually marry, and move to an isolated English cottage where Matt does wood cuttings and Lorna raises their daughter, Molly. Their idyllic lives are destroyed when Matt loses his life fighting in the Battle of Crete during World War II. Unable to stay alone with Molly, Lorna moves to London and eventually marries Matt’s business partner and friend, Lucas. After Lorna’s death, the story then follows the now grown up Molly and her relationship with a wealthy man which eventually results in a daughter, Ruth. As Molly ages in the novel, the focus then turns to modern day Ruth, a journalist with two children of her own, who decides to visit the scene of her grandfather’s death, and the cottage her grandparents lived in.

Full of well-developed characters, historical details, beautiful language and writing, and a story line that comes full circle, this is a wonderful novel to read. For library lovers, the character Molly works in a library in London in the sixties, and ends up having to leave her job because she challenges the library’s stance on a “radical” book. For readers of Roasmunde Pilcher, Joy Fielding, and Joanna Trollope.

34. The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook

Mental illness runs in the Sears family. David and Diana Sears were raised by their schizophrenic father (known as the “Old Man” in the novel) and were happy to have escaped his disease. When Diana, who was always studious thanks to their father, marries a biochemist and has a son, Jason, David starts to relax about his sister’s mental health well-being. Things begin to change when Jason is observed unable to interact with other people and a diagnosis of schizophrenia is given to the young boy. Jason soon drowns in a pond behind the family’s home, and Diana refuses to believe that his death was accidental. She soon becomes obsessed with her son’s death, and starts investigating ancient crimes, while her family around her slowly feels the family’s history of mental illness has finally reached Diana.

While some readers might find this a mystery book, others will be drawn into the family history of the Sears and the role of mental illness in their lives. Told in a unique way of one chapter being an interrogation of David Sears for an unnamed crime, and the next chapter made up of David’s flashbacks of his family’s unraveling, readers are hooked into the slow telling of his story. Cook’s trademark twists at the end are present again in his latest novel. If readers haven’t read Cook yet, try The Chatham School Affair or Breakheart Hill, two of his best books.

33. This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes

Richard Novak leads a very lonely life at the beginning of this novel by Homes. A day trader who has made a large sum of money, Richard likes to stay at home, alone, with his noise cancelling headphones on all day. When he thinks he is having a heart attack, and realizes he has no one to turn to in his isolation, he decides to change his life and finally start living life to the fullest. His new journey leads him to a new Malibu beach house (when his L.A. home is disrupted by a sink hole), to meditation retreats, and to a host of new friends – a donut maker, a movie star neighbor who helps Richard save a horse, a housewife he befriends when she emotionally breaks down in the produce aisle, and a reclusive Malibu writer. Most important, Richard finally starts being a father to his teenage son, Ben.

This novel offers readers an accurate depiction of life in L.A. these days. It is also very humorous, with some laugh out loud moments. Richard starts out as a not very likeable character, but slowly develops into a man who readers will be rooting for. A novel of redemption and about changing your life for the better, this was one of the most enjoyable books I have read so far this year.

32. The Last Girl by Penelope Evans

When Ruth Rendell gives a glowing endorsement, psychological suspense readers know they have a new author to enjoy. Larry Mann, 72, has been a tenant in a run-down English boarding house for over forty years. Used to quiet Indian girls renting out a room near him, he is delighted when upper class Mandy rents the new room. Lonely, especially since his wife Doreen left him twelve years ago, he immediately starts taking over Mandy’s equally lonely life. Larry’s behavior goes from encouraging nightly visits to his flat, to buying Mandy excessive gifts and snooping through her rooms and slowly threatening her. When Mandy starts bringing home a boyfriend, Larry chillingly spirals out of control, leading to a frightening ending.

The Last Girl is a great debut that is extremely claustrophobic and has tension that builds chapter after chapter. This thriller reminded me in many ways of Ruth Rendell’s early works. Even though readers can sense what will happen in the end, Evans builds the suspense so well that if doesn’t matter. Try A Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell and The Collector by John Fowles for similar psychological reads featuring lonely men trying to relate to women.

31. Later, at the Bar by Rebecca Barry

Set in upstate New York, Lucy’s Tavern seems to attract a wide assortment of characters. There are the crazy brothers, Harlin and Cyrus Wilder, who seem to always love women at the wrong time in their lives, Harlin’s wife, Grace, who keeps entering and exiting his life, Linda Hartley, who while writing an advice column, is unlucky in love in her own life, and Elizabeth Teeter, who has her husband leave her for a man. All of the characters connect with each other, sometimes only in passing, and sometimes being more committed to each other, but all frequent Lucy’s Tavern on an almost religious basis.

The novel is made up of ten interconnected short stories. My favorites included “How to Save a Wounded Bird”, which focuses on Elizabeth’s cat hunting baby birds while Elizabeth’s life unravels when her husband leaves her, and “Not Much is New Here” which features the wonderful character Linda Hartley, reminiscing on past loves while she watches her Polish neighbor become a new bride. Local readers will get enjoyment of the obvious Ithaca area setting and even a mention of the Royal Court. If you like short stories with connected characters and humor, try the excellent short stories of Ellen Gilchrist - especially her Rhoda Manning stories.

30. The Blood Spilt by Asa Larsson

Stockholm tax attorney Rebecka Martinsson, last seen in Larsson’s first novel, Sun Storm, is back for more adventures in Kiruna, Sweden. Still recovering from having to kill three men trying to attack her, Rebecka just returned to her law office to find that her law firm is using her newfound celebrity status to their advantage to drum up new clients. When a female priest, Mildred Nilsson, is found murdered in her church, Rebecka welcomes the chance to go back to her native Kiruna to help investigate. The only problem is that Mildred, a staunch feminist, had caused many people in the community to dislike her and finding out who could have killed her and why is harder than Rebecka thought – especially when most people in the area stop being helpful to Rebecka and police.

Larsson not only develops a great character such as Rebecka, but also has created a wonderful policewoman, Anna-Maria Mella, who is also in the first mystery. Very realistic, with real worries, such as just having had a child and having enough time to clean her house as well as solve crimes, Anna-Maria also has great interactions with Rebecka and helps tie in Rebecka’s involvement with the police force. Once again, the wonderful midsummer setting in northern Sweden, with its never-ending daylight, is the perfect setting for this story. For other mysteries with a midsummer setting, try reading Unseen by Mari Jungstedt (see review at http://www.tcpl.org/sarah/2007/01/test.html), Never End by Ake Edwardson (see review at http://www.tcpl.org/sarah/2007/03/13-never-end-by-ake-edwardson.html), or Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman.