Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves

Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves is the sixth in the series of British crime novels with Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope. Her protégé, Detective Joe Ashford discovers that a woman has been stabbed on a crowded Metro train just days before Christmas. The victim, Margaret Krukowski is an elderly woman that Vera learns has many secrets. A few days later a prostitute that Margaret was trying to help is also found murdered. The clues lead to the residents of Harbour Street who are trying to keep their own secrets safe. Through this is the sixth in a series, it stands alone with its vivid characters and suspenseful conclusion. The Netflix series, Vera, is based on the compelling and flawed characters from these books. What a moody and atmospheric story that keeps its readers guessing until the end.

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

It first resembles some sort of reality television show: 7 people living in a house on a beautiful 

island off the coast of Spain for two weeks. But it turns out that we're really being invited along on a family vacation of sorts. Seven very different people come together for a chance to relax, swim, and eat glorious food and we soon realize that each has their own hopes, fears, and issues.

Jim: father of the Post family is "a cool 60" years old and finds himself faced with the void of retirement forced upon him once it came to light that he had an affair with a 23-year-old intern (sorry, editorial assistant) at work.

Franny: matriarch, freelance food writer and woman coming to terms with herself due to the shock of her husband's infidelity this trip also marks their 35th wedding anniversary.

Sylvia: their 18-year-old daughter who has just graduated high school and is hoping to lose her virginity before learning for Brown in the fall.

Bobby: the Post's oldest child. Struggling Miami real estate agent and ambivalent gym rat.

Carmen: Bobby's long-time athletic trainer girlfriend who Franny and Jim have always felt was "too old" for their son.

Charles: Franny's best friend for almost 40 years and artist.

Lawrence: Charles' husband and accountant for movie productions. Wants more than anything to adopt a baby and become a father with Charles.

Throw all of these people and their separate and shared histories together and you've got...an interesting two weeks ahead. Break-ups, blowups, possible adoptions--all bubbling under the surface of this seemingly ideal vacation. Straub's characters are fully formed and the reader gobbles up page after page trying to see what will happen next. Will Bobby dump Carmen? Will Franny just divorce Jim already? This seemingly light-hearted beach novel packs a realistic punch for readers. Be sure to check out a copy of The Vacationers today.

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian

Richard Chapman has always done what he's supposed to. He has a college degree, a great job in banking and finance, the perfect house in a suburb just outside of New York City, and has an adoring wife and daughter. This time doing what he's supposed to includes hosting his younger, often quite immature, brother's bachelor party. He expects the typical shenanigans of drinking and female exotic dancers at the party, but things go horribly wrong when the two exotic dancers, Alexandra and Sonja, turn out to be prostitutes. As if that's not bad enough, Alexandra and Sonja, in a desperate attempt to set themselves free, wind up killing their Russian bodyguards before they disappear.

Alexandra is a young nineteen year old Russian girl, who only dreamed of being a ballerina. After her mother's death, Alexandra is abducted and forced into sexual exploitation. Making her way to New York with two other girls in the same position as her, Alexandra is willing to do almost anything to break the shackles of prostitution. But is she capable of murder?

The Guest Room tells the story of Richard and Alexandra in tandem. Bohjalian has done a great job of shedding the light on the sexual objectification of women and human trafficking. Gripping your attention after a short time, this is bound to be a page turner.

Educating Milwaukee: How One City's History of Segregation and Suffering Shaped Its Schools by James K. Nelson

Between public schools, parochial schools, private schools, charter schools, choice schools, and online learning, today’s students in the city of Milwaukee have more choices in education than any other city in America. This amount of choice evolves from Milwaukee’s struggle to desegregate schools in the 1970s. Most are familiar with the ruling of Brown vs. the Board of Education which ended de jure segregation or segregation by law, and thoughts of desegregation tend to conjure up images of the Little Rock Nine as a group of nine African American students walk into their newly desegregated high school for the first time amid protest.

But what happens when segregation isn't the law, but neighborhood lines and housing patterns make it that way? Nelson traces the root of Milwaukee's segregation problems (including neighborhood segregation today) to discriminatory housing practices of the early 1900s which limited regions in which African Americans could purchase property. This caused clear racial lines in the city, which in turn made the neighborhood school segregated. Educating Milwaukee traces the evolution of programs in Milwaukee Public Schools, which were aimed at desegregation, from magnet schools, busing finally developing into the schools Milwaukee has today. This book provides wonderful background into many issues that plague and politicize our schools today and can appeal to the local history buff in us all. 

Meternity by Meghann Foye

Liz Buckley is a thirtysomething, single young woman, living in New York City, working as an editor at the it baby magazine Paddy Cakes. She's spent years pulling long nights and covering for her co-workers with children, so one day when her boss sees Liz nauseated in the morning, the rumor begins to float around that Liz is pregnant...which couldn't be farther from the truth. Impulsively Liz fakes a pregnancy, baby bump and all, and is looking forward to her "meternity" leave or the me time she'll have when she "gives birth" to figure out her life--work, dating and relationships, and the like. But just how long can Liz pull off this charade without getting caught?

Foye, who doesn't have children, has recently received criticism for her articles about mothers and maternity leave. While much of Meternity is centered around Liz and her often ridiculous, fabricated pregnancy, Foye does not shy away from addressing real issues, such as infertility, IVF, and surrogacy, that many women face.

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

As a teenager, TifAni FaNelli is a student at the prestigious, private Bradley School. Desperate to be friends with the popular crowd, TifAni will do just about anything to fit in. She begs her mom to buy her clothes from Banana Republic, gets her hair done, and is even a bit ashamed that she doesn't come from the money that her fellow private school classmates do. All of her pretending works, and suddenly TifAni fits in. That's until she's sexually assaulted and raped by a group of the school's most popular boys.

Desperate to escape the humiliation that happened in high school, Ani FaNelli has reinvented herself. She's an editor at a top magazine, living in New York, dressed in the most expensive wardrobe, and has landed herself a wealthy fiancé from a good family. Ani is a new person, who has buried the traumatic experience of high school, until she's asked to be part of a documentary about her time at Bradley School.

With all of those memories resurfacing, Ani begins to take down the walls that she put up so long ago. But will everything she's worked for crumble with walls as Ani begins to let her guard down? Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl Alive is an interesting look at what life is like for teenage girls as they grow into young women, and are destined to want it all.

The Green Road by Anne Enright

Enright's The Green Road features Rosaleen Madigan is an Irish wife and mother who attempts to control her family, husband and four children, with histrionics and melodrama. So in 1980, when oldest son Dan announces his intention to study for the priesthood, his mother starts to cry during Sunday dinner and, after dinner, takes to her bed for days. The family carries on, the burden of running the household falling on the oldest daughter, Constance. Eventually Rosaleen emerges from her bedroom and ordinary life resumes.

Decades later, Rosaleen is a widow and her children have left home. Dan, who did not become a priest, lives in North America and is involved in the art world and the gay community. His brother Evan has gone in an entirely different direction, providing medical care to poor people in Africa. Youngest daughter Hanna has gone into acting and only Constance remains near the family home, following the traditional Irish path of wife and mother. Feeling lonely, neglected and incapable of maintaining her property, Rosaleen decides she will sell her old house and live in something more modern. She summons her children home for Christmas and they dutifully obey. But the Christmas conversation devolves into arguments and injured feelings. Once again Rosaleen responds melodramatically, disappearing into the Irish countryside on a cold winter night. It is a pattern which will repeat itself again. Rosaleen may not get what she wants but she will be the center of attention.