One book that I have enjoyed lately is Body Surfing by Anita Shreve. This book is a good summer read. While not as heavy as some of Shreve's other novels, it moves along well and is easy to read. I was actually sorry when the book ended. http://www.anitashreve.com/The locale of the story is a beach house on the New Hampshire coast. The history of the house, the layout, the furniture, the architecture and the rose gardens weave through the evolving lives of the family in this book. I have believed for a long time that houses and homes and gardens and landscape shape the lives of the people who live there maybe just as much as other circumstances.
Forty-five years after reading A Tree Grown in Brooklyn, I can still envision 
Francie's apartment and how they lived.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tree_Grows_in_Brooklyn_(novel)
Francie's apartment and how they lived. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tree_Grows_in_Brooklyn_(novel)
Another novel with a similar theme to Body Surfing - that of rivalry between two brothers - is The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson.
This one has a little more substance than Body Surfing but
is still an easy read. The setting for the book is near New Liskeard, Ontario and moves between two generations using a local newspaper headlines, The Timiskaming Tribune, I believe, to move back and forth through history. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/oct/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview14
Just now I am reading Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden which starts out even further north in Moose Factory, Ontario. If ever proof is needed to show how landscape impacts lives, this is the book to use. I have a hard time puting this one down.
I like reading Canadian authors and or books with Canada as the locale.
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