Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver

This book is titled Flight Behavior for good reason. It opens with a 27-year-old

Applachian woman, Dellarobia Turnbow, poised to take flight from her shotgun

marriage to a man she does not love and no longer respects and from the responsibility

of two young children, and her mundane life of near poverty. On her way to begin an

affair with a younger man, she runs up the mountain above her family's farm and

straight into an astounding phenomenon that changes everything for her.

She stumbles into the forest alight with millions of beautiful orange Monarch butterflies

covering nearly every inch of the ground, tree trunks and branches. Dellarobia is filled

with awe and wonderment and interprets the sight as a sign from God that she must go

back to her life and try to make her marriage work.

As word spreads about the butterflies, the local religious community, then the

international media, consider the sight miraculous. But when a Harvard-educated

scientist whose life work is studying butterflies arrives and sets up a lab on the Turnbow

farm, he is certain that the migratory patterns of these Monarch butterflies has been

disrupted by the effects of climate change. On their annual flight to the warmer climate

of Mexico, something caused them to land in the less-friendly climate of the Tennesee,

forest putting their survival at risk.

Dellarobia originally had planned to improve her life by attending

college. But an unplanned pregnancy had disrupted those plans and landed her - like

the butterflies— in a very different and uncomfortable environment. As she gets involved in the scientific study taking place in her own back yard, she begins to see that she and her children can attain a better and more meaningful life.

Kingsolver tells a fascinating, gripping story and tells it beautifully. But her book also

conveys an urgent social message about climate change.—by Gail Stilwill

An Invisible Thread, by Laura Schroff

In this true story, Laura Schroff befriends a homeless boy, Maurice, and he gradually becomes central to her life. We asked whether we would have had the courage to act as Laura did. We acknowledged that we would have considered the "what if"s and "why"s and "oh no"s of bringing such a boy—and his family— into our lives. Schroff did it with only minimal hesitation and with a wholehearted welcome, and she faced a stunning learning curve she shares with the reader. 

Maurice lives within feet of Laura's comfortable apartment in midtown Manhattan, but they might as well have been in different countries. Laura even has to teach Maurice how to blow his nose because he has never done it, and she ends up making him school lunches in a plain brown paper bag so he can fit in with the kids at school. 

Laura is honest about how her relationship with Maurice eventually foundered as she tried to build a life with a new husband, and her backstory helps explain why she might have taken the chances she did with Maurice and also defines her need to have a child of her own. 

The writing is a bit weak—Schroff wrote the book with friend and colleague Alex Tresniowski,  which may have reduced some of the immediacy and power of the memoir. It is an easy read, though.—Pat Prijatel

How The Light Gets In, by Louise Penny

The sleepy, scenic village of Three Pines, just hours from Montreal, seems

like an unlikely setting for murder and intrigue. But the tiny, secluded

village has seen its share of both.

The town square is ringed with older, well kept homes, a theater, and

combination library and cozy, welcoming bistro, which is a gathering place

for villagers. The book's unforgettable, main characters are friends and

frequent bistro visitors who come in from the cold Canadian winter to enjoy

hot coffee, or wine, excellent food and lively discussions around the large

stone fireplace.

Ruth is a grumpy, outspoken retired, award-winning poet whose constant

companion is a duck. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Montreal

Police Department and his wife recently joined the group since moving to

Three Pines. Myrna the bookstore owner, mothers quirky but sweet bistro

owners Gabriel and Olivier. She is worried about her missing friend,

Constance. The elderly Constance carefully guards the secret that she is

the last survivor of the famous Ouellette quintriplets, whose birth and early

life caused an international media frenzy for years. And no one has ever

seen the inside of Constance's home until the morning she is found

murdered and they discover that she has used the walls of her home as

canvases for her strange, beautiful paintings.

The Inspector begins discovering connections between Constance's

murder, the unexplained nearby murder of a young woman, and corruption

and evil-doing in his own police department. The secrets go deeper and

become more intertwined, threatening Inspector Gamache, the police

department and the village itself. Penny skillfully twists and turns her plot

and her characters, tugging the reader into the lives of the villagers and the

intrigue surrounding them.

How the Light Gets In is nine in a series of 10 Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny. All are set in the village of Three Pines.—by Gail Stilwill