Noah's Compass, by Anne Tyler (2009)

Are we who we are because we can remember our past, or are we who we are despite our recollections? Liam Pennywell, 61, and facing retirement from his school teacher career, is about to deal with the question.

When Liam loses memory of moving into his new apartment, his life is thrown for a turn. In trying to recover his memories, he finds his life, which has been quite solitary from estranged children and wives, is now filling up again as his family reaches out to him. When he meets a professional memory collector, Liam believes he's found a simple way to regain his past. Instead, his life is about to get very complicated!

Very well-written, this slice-of-life story of the singular Liam Pennywell is an easy read with some interesting themes and surprises.

Mr Wroe's Virgins, by Jane Rogers [1991]

Sometimes the plot of a story is enough to carry a reader along, and sometimes the excellence of the writing style is the strong point in a novel. In Jane Roger's book, we are graced with both attributes.

This is one of the most unique and well-written novels I have read in a while. Set in Great Britain in the 1830s, and based in part of the true life of the religious leader, Prophet Wroe, Roger's book begins with Mr Wroe's latest dream prophecy. Mr Wroe, a Christian Israelite, dreams that God has directed him to choose seven virgins from his flock who will come and live with him.

The seven women come from very different backgrounds and circumstances. Each chapter gives us more insight into the wives' earlier lives, their current circumstances and their hopes, if any, for the future. As the inner motivations of religion, sex, and power direct the outward lives of the women, each tries to find some meaning for their new role as one of the great prophet's wives.

Jane Rogers provides a wonderful peak at a time when the communal dreams of the Owen movement were on the rise, the labour movement was starting to organize weavers and spinners, and the world seemed poised on the brink of a new era, or as Prophet Wroe was claiming, the end of the World!