Finished: The Whispers (Audrain) A good page-turner by the same author who wrote The Push, which was quite a thriller. It explores the lives of four neighborhood couples who live next to each other whose outer appearances in no way match their inner turmoils. One couple is childless and has been through several devastating miscarriages, having a profound impact on their relationship. One couple is married with one child with a stay-at-home mom who everyone else sees as perfect, but who sees herself as anything but. One couple is the "older" couple on the block who most of the younger couples just dash past on their way here or there. They have no idea that they once had a son who passed away at a young age, and the torment that mother goes through. One couple is married with three children, with a working-outside-the-home mother, who actually hates being a mother and loses her temper and patience with her kids quite often with words that greatly impact her ten year old son, Xavier. When Xavier falls from his upstairs bedroom window in the middle of the night and lies in what looks like an unrecoverable coma, all the actions and histories of the neighbors come to light, including an adulteress relationship among two of the friends. Was it an accident? Did he try to commit suicide? Did his mother lose her temper and push him? A really good lesson in that saying "you never know what someone is going through", even if things looks perfect and shiny on the outside. The very ending is satisfying, but not before the few likable characters go through horrendous heartbreak. 

 Finished: A Long Petal of the Sea (Allende) A very good book, but not a page-turner. Instead, it's a nice, slow read about two people, Roser and Victor, who, though they are not in love, are connected in an inseparable way. Together they must flee Spain in the 1930's when civil war erupts in their beloved homeland. The book uses the poetry of Chilean Noble laureate, Pablo Nerudo, at the beginning of each chapter to highlight the many experiences that Roser and Victor face through the years, as well as the social and political climate in Chile, the country they adopt as their new home after escaping. I'm thankful to my dear friend Nancy Shearer who gave me this book for my birthday! :-)  I'm including the Amazon summary below because I like it and it may give you more insight. 

"In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, Roser and Victor embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, the couple embraces exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, they face trial after trial, but they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they might go home. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers."