Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt was a good read. I thought it was an interesting take on the AIDS epidemic as seen through the eyes of a teen whose dear uncle dies from the disease. She befriends his surviving lover and learns so much more about her uncle as a person and an artist than she ever knew. I found it a little unrealistic in that she is able to keep this relationship secret from her family for a long time, but it's a tale well told. Definitely deserves an A for originality and its humanizing treatment of a sensitive topic.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is actually Young Adult fiction, but the book kept showing up in the blogs that I follow as a good read. The author basically found a number of old photos showing children and people in unusual circumstances, such as the levitating girl on the cover, and he weaves a very original story around the people in the photos. It's a quick read and while I don't think it's great literature, I was intrigued enough by the mystery to keep reading. Definitely deserves an A for originality!
I saved my favorite for last--I loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce! It's an original and sensitive story with very believable characters in a modern setting. Harold is a retired man who receives word that his former coworker is dying from cancer and he decides to walk across England to visit her, the pilgrimage of the title. There are several minor mysteries here--why is Harold's marriage so empty and can it be saved, what happened to Harold's son, and what is the nature of his relationship with his dying coworker? The people he meets along the way are just so real that's it a pleasure to read. For a first novel, I'm very impressed and look forward to reading more by this author. There's just such a sweetness to this story that I found very appealing--no irony, no judgments--the author is very sensitive to all the different characters and their quirks.
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