Great Summer Reading Suggestions for Adults!

The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent (2008) 
In 1692 the Salem witch trials took place, showing the world the destructive power of ignorance.  Told from the point of view of Sarah Carrier, a child living a few towns away, this novel explores how people who hold different beliefs, like Sarah’s family, are feared and hated.  When the witch trials begin, the entire area is caught up in the furor.  Sarah’s mother is imprisoned, but she refuses to admit to practicing witchcraft.  Sarah and her siblings are also imprisoned, and they are forced to testify against their mother.  The emotional power of this book is amazing.   ~ Recommended by Jennifer

There Was An Old Woman by Hallie Ephron (2013)
Mina Yetner is an old woman living in a run-down Bronx New York City neighborhood. Museum curator Evie Ferrante is a former next door neighbor who revisits her childhood home after her mother enters the hospital. Strange things begin to happen to Evie in her mother's neglected home. Also, elderly residents of the neighborhood are dying and their houses demolished. Mina, too, is experiencing disturbing events causing her to question her own mind and capabilities of living on her own. Others are not sympathetic to the ramblings and unexplained events of an old woman. Evie begins to piece together the sinister plot engulfing her, her mother, and the neighborhood. Mina and Evie are linked together, suspense builds, and the reader sees the two women confronting the terror alone.  ~ Recommended by Connie

A Rural Affair by Catherine Alliott (2012)
A typical English "romp" with a recently widowed Poppy Schilling, long unhappy with her marriage, faced now with dealing with her two young children, well-meaning friends, and discovering her decreased husband was cheating on her for 4 years.  Lots of British terms U.S. readers might not know (I didn't).   English romance books are not my "cup of tea" but it was a nice enough read.   ~ Recommended by Michele

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (2010)
Its 1790 and Lavinia’s parents die aboard the ship on which they traveled to America.  She is made an indentured servant of the ship’s captain and put to work in the kitchen house of his Virginia plantation. The black slaves become the family of this innocent young girl and she just could not understand why certain things had to happen the way they did.  I could just hear the dum-dum-dum of impending doom in this story.   In spite of what we know would happen, the story is a great one with wonderful descriptions of plantation life, warm family relations, and tragedies that were all too common in history.  ~ Recommended by Sue