1.  Letters to Milena by Franz Kafka, 3/10/2023, 4 stars.  This is an emotional draining look at Kafka's last two years of life.  He had met Milena when she agreed to translate one of his books into the Chech language.  The many letters he wrote reflect the depth of their relationship.  She had asked that he destroy hers so he did so we have none of hers.  He died in a sanitoriam in 1924 of tuberculosis.  She died twenty years later in a Nazi concentration camp.  

2.  A Lost Lady (Vintage Classics) by Willa Cather, 3/12/2023, 4 stars.  A beautiful woman marries a wealthy older man who chooses to use his fortune for shareholders of a failing bank of which he is president.  It leaves them isolated in their home away from their wealthy friends.  Unaccustomed to the new life she abandons friends, choosing others of lesser means, becoming like them.  Can she live in this new role?

3.  Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, 3/17/2023, 4 stars.  This is a story about a young woman who moves from the country to Chicago where she first stays with her sister.  Naive and inexperienced she has trouble finding work.  When she encounters a man drawn by her beauty, she moves in with him.  She discovers an interest in theater through a chance opportunity to perform in an amateur production.  In addition, a friend of him falls in love with her, leaves his wife, family and fortune behind and tricks her into going away with him.  When this relationship falters she turns to the stage.  What happens to Carrie and the two men make for an interesting and well written tale.  Good read.

4.  The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam, Bk 2) by Margaret Atwoo9/16/2023, 4 stars.  This was a reread for me which seems particularly appropriate in this year when climate change has become all too real in our world.  Drought, flood, storms of epic proportions have plagued much of the planet.  In this book the flood was manmade.  So it is today.  This is a read that reminds us that each and everyone of us to do what we can to help.