The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain

This was a quick read: a daughter searching through her family home after her father's death, unearthing devastating secrets.  Riley feels the heaviness of being the youngest daughter with a troubled older brother who doesn't remember their family background in the same way that she has.  The suicide death of their oldest sister adds to the pain.  As a school counselor, she feels the need to fix him, but even the uncovered lies do not help to bring their views any closer together.
I enjoyed this book throughout all the twists and turns.  One of my favorite lines was when the older brother, Danny, says to Riley: "It's not my mind that's sick, it's my soul."  What a statement!  So often in our society, the problems we face come down to soul sickness.  It seems that the combinations of temperament, home dynamics, and life experiences all intersect to vastly affect one family member in a very different way than another.  I think Augustine's prayer, " Our hearts are restless until they find rest in You" is the start to fixing soul sickness.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

I love historical fiction and Quinn delivers on this one.  For whatever reason, it seems that the World Wars are often the era that draws me in.  Young Charlie is looking for her cousin who disappeared during or after World War II while much older Eve is looking for her abuser & Nazi collaborator from her younger years during World War I, while she served as a British spy.  These two very unlikely characters begin a journey together through France and Belgium with individual goals....that somehow get intertwined by the end of the story.  Being a geography lover, it greatly pleased me to have the map that Quinn provided so I could trace the steps of these women, along with their trustworthy driver, Finn.


Of course the deeper part of the novel is the message that we are all broken, that we all carry wounds, that we all have negative voices in our heads; BUT when we experience the love of friends and family who accept us in spite of it all, healing begins.  Though there is not an overt Christian theme in the story, I clearly saw redemption reflected in Quinn's characters.