By Martin Page

How I Became Stupid is a wonderfully sarcastic story about a college age kid in France who is sick of his own morality.  He decides to make himself normal, or stupid, as he calls it, in order to stop over-thinking the moral implications of his own actions.  The way he goes about this and his own “degeneration” is so ridiculous and constantly pokes fun at all levels of society in the most subtle and clear ways.  Reviewed by Ty Sobczak

Loving Frank  By Nancy Horan  (Now in Paperback)

I loved this book, as it is rich and layered.  Experiencing Mamah's struggle and choices was very emotional and thought provoking.  Women of today are still struggling with all the same issues.  Do we have a career, or do we have children?  Or do we have both?  Do we stay in a loveless marriage for the sake of the children, or do we divorce?  How do we balance our lives?  I found the feminist history in this story most interesting.  I knew going into this book that Frank Lloyd Wright was a great American architect--that was the extent of my knowledge.  I didn't know about the scandal or the tragedy, so I was terribly shocked by the ending.  It was hard to read the last few chapters through my tears.  If you know Wright's history going into the book you won't suffer such a huge shock.      Reviewed by Ann Reierson

By Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult has a knack for taking socially-relevant topics and helping us understand their import by giving faces to the issues. Change of Heart is no exception. The moral implications of organ donation and capital punishment have met head on in this book, raising questions such as: Does a death row inmate have the right to be benevolent in his death by donating his heart to someone he has hurt grievously? Is it right for a parent to deny her child a life prolonged by an organ donation if she abhors the benefactor? With each chapter told from a different perspective - a priest, the killer, his ACLU attorney, his fellow inmates and the patient's mother, Picoult pulls the rug out from under our impersonal opinions on these issues and raises questions about the nature of love and atonement and their place in our legal system. I have been moved by the characters and their plight. This will go on my staff-pick shelf for March.   Reviewed by Susan Richmond

by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound is a first novel for this author, the winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction.  As I read, I could almost feel the humidity and tension in the air of Mississippi in the 40’s.  The story of Laura McAllan struggling with family and farm on the Delta interweaves issues of race, marital faithfulness and hardship and it wrenched my heart with every page of compelling writing.  As good as The Secret Life of Bees, in my opinion, with a glowing recommendation from Barbara Kingsolver, this story will be one that book groups would ponder for a long time.