The Last Time I Saw You, by Elizabeth Berg [2010]

There's nothing quite as satfisfying as heading home for the weekend with the newest book by one of my favourite authors, Elizabeth Berg.

I was completely swept away into the narrative the author weaves amongst men and women who are about to embark on that dreaded ritual: The 40th high school reunion.

As always, Elizabeth's characters come alive through her storytelling. As we bear witness to a slice of their lives, we can relish the change to peek into each classmate's psyche as they reconnect to their past selves and the roles they each played back in high school. It is a time to reflect and measure one's life against the expectations of the past. Who has come out ahead, and what does "being a winner" mean anyway 40 years after the fact.

The Very Thought of You, by Rosie Alison

Rosie Alison's first novel (published by Alma Books, 2009) is amazingly mature read for a debut effort.

As part of mass emigration of London's children in 1939, we follow the life of eight-year-old Anna Sands who is sent off to the countryside to be safe from the impending bombing of the city. She arrives at an adhoc school hastily converted from a large private estate in Yorkshire. The patrons of the estate, Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, provide a safe haven for the children who must cope with the loss of home and family. Anna quickly forms a special bond with Thomas Ashton and is drawn into the his life and the emotional turmoil of his marriage.

Alison's book captures the double-edge sword of lives turned upside down by World War II. For Anna's mother, her sincere heartbreak at sending her daughter away is offset by a new found freedom to be a single women in the heightened emotional times of a city under siege. For Thomas Ashton, the children arriving at his estate bring meaning and hope to a life left unfulfilled by the paralysis to his legs caused by an adult bout of Polio. How will these characters survive the war and who will emerge from the maelstrom and chaos? I strongly recommend this book for telling the story of evacuee children and for bringing her characters to life so vividly.