Three groups, one list: Patricia Lavins is from Aiken, South Carolina.

As one who has been addicted to reading since I was a child, I am now spending my retirement years traveling through adventures in books. I belong to three book groups and want to share the best of what I have recently read.

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READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN

A Memoir in Books

By Azar Nafisi

This is a love story about women who fight an oppressive regime in order to read and discuss Western literature. (EXCELLENT July/Aug 2003)

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ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN'

By Rick Bragg

This memoir is a loving tribute by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose mother allowed him to "climb up the backbone" and find his way out of a hardscrabble life in the pine woods of Alabama.

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THOSE WHO SAVE US

By Jenna Blum

A love story about the Holocaust, this novel highlights what a mother will endure for the love of her child.

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THE POET

By Michael Connelly

A murder mystery with an ending worthy of Alfred Hitchcock, The Poet tells the story of a serial killer who leaves the police clues in the form of excerpts from poems by Edgar Allan Poe.

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THE FOREST LOVER

By Susan Vreeland

This work of historical fiction skillfully portrays the trials and tribulations of Canadian artist Emily Carr, who struggled against turn-of-the century Victorian codes that dictated how both women and art should be viewed.

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THE GLASS CASTLE

A Memoir

By Jeannette Walls

With great compassion, Walls recalls her eccentric childhood that transformed a turbulent life into a glorious adventure. (EXCELLENT July/Aug 2005)

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FLASH HOUSE

By Aimee Liu

This is a tale of a refugee house for girls trafficked into Delhi's red-light district in the post-World War II era.

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THE REALM OF SECONDHAND SOULS

By Sandra Shea

This lyrical novel features an orphan who retreats into the boisterous clamor of her imagination.

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TUXEDO PARK

A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

By Jennet Conant

This is a true story of Wall Street tycoon Alfred Loomis, who altered the path of World War II by funding crucial developments that ultimately produced the atomic bomb.

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THE FALL OF A SPARROW

By Robert Hellenga

When a father attends the trial of a terrorist responsible for the death of his daughter, it marks the beginning of new life for him.

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