The Book Club: “Dream State,” by Eric Puchner, is an Oprah pick

Editor s note The opinions of the smart well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables So we demanded them and all Denver Post readers to share their mini-reviews with you Have any to offer Email bellis denverpost com Dream State by Eric Puchner Doubleday Set in contemporary Montana this is a multi-generational tale of friendship betrayal commitment taking a leap of faith and living with no regrets Although particular of the characters prefer to assign blame there are no heroes or villains here just folks trying to do their best as they define it An Oprah s Book Club pick stars out of Kathleen Lance Denver Horse by Geraldine Brooks Viking Horse by Geraldine Brooks Viking Geraldine Brooks name on a book cover would entice me to read a plumbing manual so I feel fortunate this superlative novel is about horses my earliest love Lexington a thoroughbred stallion of the s was the greatest racer ever Brooks uses the horse s history to illuminate the Black grooms and trainers who laid the track for thoroughbred racing in America Into this racing story Brooks adds that of a painted masterpiece and a modern romance that melds the stories into cohesion This gem from the Pulitzer Prize winner won numerous literary prizes in stars out of Neva Gronert Parker Elegy Southwest by Madeleine Watts Simon Schuster On the surface this is a road trip novel one in endorsement of the narrator s wife s research on the impact of weather change in the southwestern U S but it s really about the unraveling of a marriage The weakening bond cannot be separated from the spiraling behaviors of the husband even though the narrator s wife does everything she can to hold on to the threads of that marriage Parts read like a narrative other parts sound like a letter to the husband sometimes explanatory sometimes apologetic sometimes pining This elegy is for both the marriage and the Southwest both casualties of the unstoppable forces of change stars out of Kathleen Lance Denver Time of the Child by Niall Williams Bloomsbury This novel the best book I read in returns us to Faha Ireland the setting for Williams previous book This is Happiness in December Jack Troy is the much-respected town physician He and his adult daughter Ronnie are somewhat outside the currents of the village yet as events unfold they become central to an event their neighbors will never forget This is a Christmas story to be cherished whenever it is read Williams characters are vivid human and portrayed with humor and empathy He is such a master of using detail to propel a story that under his pen a lock of hair on a young boy s forehead becomes a character of its own Williams writes books for the soul stars out of Neva Gronert Parker Scholars of Mayhem by Daniel Guiet and Timothy Smith Penguin Press Will we ever get tired of tales about World War II Supposedly not if they re as riveting as this one Author Daniel Guiet is the son of Jean Claude Guiet a French native living in the U S when the war unfolded Jean Claude became an embedded agent dropped in occupied France living with three non-Americans as a secret British operations executive He spent most of of the war as a radio operator in the ground war with the Nazis One compatriot Violette didn t survive Indeed limited undercover agents did a lasting reminder of the reality of armed combat Daniel discovered papers relating to the assignment in an old bread box where his father had secreted them including proof of the army of French Resistance fighters that his father and his fellows had led This is a book to make us proud Winner of a Colorado Book Award in History stars out of Bonnie McCune Denver bonniemccune com School for Love by Olivia Manning New York Review of Books School for Love by Olivia Manning New York Review of Books Originally published in this little gem takes place in Jerusalem in and follows Felix a teenager whose expansion was arrested by the war and the deaths of both parents Nearly penniless and far behind in his studies he has arrived in Jerusalem to live at a boarding house run by Miss Bohun The author s pitch-perfect use of detail and dialogue animates these characters Miss Bohun pinches pennies by turning the heat down in the winter and feeding her lodgers bean mash The house s inhabitants include a servant who is even more bitter and contemptuous than Miss Bohun an old man who lives in the attic and only comes down for dinner and a young widow who moves in a sparse weeks after Felix He must manage these different personalities and decide who might be able to guide him and widen his understanding of life Toward the end I was glued to the page as Felix s perceptions change and unveiled myself praying he would do the right thing even though I wasn t exactly sure what the right thing would be stars out of Michelle Nelson Littleton