Farishta by Patricia McArdle

When this novel opens, Angela Morgan is still recovering from a huge loss suffered 20 years earlier. Now, with her diplomatic career languishing, she is assigned a year in Northern Afghanistan working along side British troops.  Often the only woman, she forges a niche in this world of male dominated and tribal mores. She befriends a young interpreter as well as a young woman law student who are both from Afghanistan. She finds a meaningful project helping the Afghan provide simple solar ovens for families to cook their food. And she finally learns to deal with her long time PTSD.

This book is about a woman who finally heals and finds her passion. The best part of this book is the sense of place. I loved seeing Northern Afghanistan through this American woman's eyes.  She speaks the language fluently, is respectful of the customs, yet wants women to thrive and the country of Afghanistan to find its way.

A Small Hotel by Robert Olen Butler

A Small Hotel by Robert Olen Butler is a small novel that takes place in present time over a 12 hour period but goes back over a twenty year marriage. The day the divorce is to be finalized, Kelly Hays skips the trip to the courthouse and drives instead to New Orleans to the special place she and her estranged husband, Micheal, shared. The author moves back and forth in time weaving the story of this marriage in which two people struggle to find ways and the words to express love.

The novel has a wonderful sense of place. I felt taken to New Orleans and the sites and sounds of the French Quarter.  I could smell, hear and taste the distinct qualitites that makes New Orleans such a rare place. I could feel the Olivier House Hotel and intimacy this place gives travelers even in the midst of Mardi Gras.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

A delightful teen novel about two high school kids who live in different Chicago area suburbs. They meet in the flurry of great personal upset one night.  The meeting changes both their lives. One Will Grayson is best friends since childhood with Tiny Cooper, a gay line backer who has an autobiographical musical he is striving to produce at their high school.   Other Will Grayson is gay and is cooresponding with a boy online who he is hoping to meet soon.  As their stories intersect, they find valuable information about themselves, love, friendship, and how not to be a jerk. Laugh out loud funny and more than enough to feel a few tears from; I loved this book!  I think every adult should read it to see what the teens in your life are going through or remember what your teen years were like and to let go of that huge, long ago trauma (well it was for me).