Q Road

Written by: Bonnie Jo Campbell

First line: At the eastern edge of Kalamazoo County, autumn woolly bear caterpillars hump across Queer Road to get to the fields and windbreaks of George Harland's rich river valley land.

Why you should read this book: Everything is about to change in Kalamazoo one fateful autumn day when echoes of the past ripple through the present to reorient the future, and the people living around the oldest barn in the county find their relationships sundered, strengthened, reordered, and reexplained. Rachel, the foul-mouthed, gun-toting teenage bride of middle-aged farmer George Harland loves nothing the way she loves the brown earth of Harland's farm, except maybe young David Retakker, who loves George Harland's quiet, masculine strength as much as he hates his own perceived weakness. Meanwhile, the suburbs encroach on their prospects and their neighbors either want the farm gone or suffer through their own jealousy for everything George Harland represents.

Why you shouldn't read this book: OK, so this is the author's first novel, which takes place fifteen years after her second novel, and focuses on the daughter of the protagonist from the second book, who hasn't been born yet in the novel that could be considered the prequel to the first book, except it was written years later. Got it? No? Go read Once upon a River and then come back.