Home, by Marilynne Robinson

A exquisitely paced book that showcases the trauma of an alcoholic son and an abandoned spinster sister. Brought together in the family home, they try to find ways to cope with their own failed lives and the fading life of their father, a retired minister.

This novel illustrates the strength of home as a touchstone in a family's life, a place filled, if not with people, than with the ties of memory and duty.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

What a great book! I had never heard of the Guernsey Island before and now I will never forget it. The scene for the book is set just after World War II, when a small group from the Guernsey Islands become involved in an exchange of letters with British author Juliet Ashton. The Islanders are a wonderful cast of characters who were drawn together during the German occupation of their island. The stories they share and the friendship that ensues with Juliet draws the readers in and keeps them engrossed.

Fault Lines, by Nancy Huston (2006)

Winner of the The Prix Femina, Nancy Huston has created a well-crafted plot told from the unusual perspective of four six-year-old children. Sequencing their stories to travel back in time and space, the story spans six decades and four countries. Huston book unfolds a family history that contains many secrets, linking back to Heinrich Himmler's Lebensborn movement of World War II.

This is one of the few books I wanted to start reading again after finishing the first time, to recapture the threads of the story that are woven throughout the book, providing clues to the childhood secrets of the woman we first meet in the book as the eccentric world-famous singer Erra.

The Bronze Horseman, by Paulina Simons

If you're looking for a great historical romantic fictional read, this is it.

Set in Leningrad just prior to the German blockade of 1941, the book captures one family's odyssey of the war between Russia and Germany. Since the author herself was raised in Leningrad, the description of the city and it's culture is accurate and engaging.

Two sisters in the family draw the focus of the reader throughout the book as they have the unfortunate fate to fall in love with the same soldier. And not just any soldier, but one with a secret identity that could make him an enemy of his own country if discovered.

You can read an excerpt of the book and even see photos of the actual apartment the author describes by linking to her website below.

http://www.paullinasimons.com/bronze.htm