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Of Western locales, Breckenridge, Colorado, does not instantly summon the literary genius loci. Yet Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of the novel-turned-Hollywood hit, “The Descendants,” makes that tourist town a worthy setting for a family tragedy that is also a romance. “The Possibilities” tells how one young man’s death in an avalanche re-shapes relationships between parents and children, lovers and ex-lovers, grandparents and great-grandparents, the self and its discontents. Over three days, the reader travels with Sarah, mother of the dead Cully, from Breckenridge to the Broadmoor Hotel for a memorial service in Colorado Springs, and back again, accompanied by Cully’s father, grandfather, and a female friend of the deceased brand new to the bereaved family. Not much happens, yet everything changes. Hemmings is a writer of humor and nuance, charting the internal trajectories of grief as they manifest in her characters. “A surprise spring of tears floods my vision. … None of this makes sense. Part of me wants to jump off the balcony. Part of me wants to sing from it. I love and hate this life.” Gazing at Pikes Peak after yet another surprise revelation from her son’s history, Sarah tries to reconcile opposing realities while constructing a new identify for herself which no longer includes motherhood. A native of Breckenridge, descendant of settlers, Sarah turns a wry eye on the ritzy ski-town residents of the former miners’ hamlet. Tidbits from Breckenridge history sprinkle the domestic drama, like the story of the minister who deliberately rang his morning bells early to awaken the hungover residents. “One day some of the townspeople used dynamite mining caps to blow up his church steeple.” Parts of the text elicit laughter, others the deepest sorrow. For readers who prefer to experience the whole human range between ecstasy and despair, “The Possibilities,” like a sturdy chairlift, will transport them from the bottom to the summit. “I live in a beautiful place. The surrounding pines, so impossibly tall, sparkle with snow. I tilt my face and inhale, willing my surroundings to enter me somehow and to remind me how small I am.”

Engaging, informative, tragic, rich, this history of the Great Migration, part of American history's lesser explored moments, will whet your appetite for more African-American stories. Wilkerson, a Washington Post reporter, follows five different Southern Blacks, from early to mid-20th century, of various classes, backgrounds, ambitions, as they migrate North and West. If you want to learn about a major, often forgotten development of American demographics, read THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS.

Fascinating, extensively researched story of the Great Migration, viewed through the lives of five quite disparate Southern Blacks, of different generations (starting with WWI), male, female, working class, white collar, their successes and struggles. The best book on one of American history's most important 20th century phenomena. The reader comes to know and love these five individuals and their families: an equitable, empathic treatment of how the American Dream does and does not apply to all.

Brilliant, informative, fascinating. Should be on every American History reading list.

Brilliant, informative, fabulously interesting. Should be on every American history reading list.

Listening to this book read by the actor was a kind of spiritual epiphany. I hiked with my dogs and the headphones in my ears, transfixed by the voice and, more importantly, the content of Robinson's mind, as conveyed by her elderly male narrator. It seemed the answers to living a life of integrity were contained in this narrative. A year later, I had to listen again, as the answers had faded. Now I begin my third round of this annual prayer.

Gilead informs a swath of American history in the 19th and 20th centuries through the stories of two families, continued in the follow-up novel, HOME. Robinson creates a beautiful character and voice who tells us the story of the small town of Gilead, Iowa, with its history in the Underground Railroad, the narrator's father's attempt to contribute to the anti-slavery fight in Kansas, all while a subtle love story goes on, or rather, multiple stories. The narrator's love for his 7-year-old son, to whom he speaks, as he anticipates his death; the love he shows his young wife, who appears brashly unexpected in his old age; the love he has for his neighbor and fellow minister, another declining man of the spirit, also facing his last days; and, perhaps most importantly, the love he manifests for each day of his waning life. Twice I have listened to GILEAD on CD, and will do so again, as if listening to a long meditation, a prayer.