'AUGUST GONE' DEPICTS MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP

"August Gone" by Martha Tod Dudman is the true story of a daughter out of control and of a mother's struggles, mental and physical, to help her. Augusta loves to be in the driver's seat of the car, but cannot be persuaded even to watch the road and seems to be interested only in changing radio stations.

Martha has been screamed at, berated, and cursed by her daughter, who has, in addition, run away repeatedly. Martha remembers herself at that age; she too was a rebel. Now her son begins to get into trouble too. Martha cannot bear the company of her own friends. Their trouble, if they have any, is too small. Most of their kids are successes, with scholarships and study abroad. Dudman, who is a single parent, holds nothing back from her readers. We go with her through the bruising sessions with her daughter, the frustration of seeing what she thought was help was really no help at all, and her fear that Augusta might be insane. Then the almost unbelievable happens; you will want to stay with Martha to the surprise ending.

"Girl With a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier is a novel based on the creation of one of Vermeer's famous paintings. Griet and her family have been comfortable financially, since her father was a master tile painter in the city of Delft. Then a kiln exploded, costing him his sight. As was customary in the mid-1600s, everyone felt very sorry for him, but aside from a little money from his guild, there is no help. Griet must go to work and the situation open to her is that of a maid in the house of Johannes Vermeer and his wife, Caterina. It is a strange household, with Caterina's mother seeming to be the real power. Griet is increasingly aware of hostility toward her, making her formidable workload even more difficult. She must help with the cooking, scrub floors, carry water from the canal to do mountains of laundry, and run errands to the Meat Hall and the fishmonger. Griet is soon given another task, one that she loves, grinding the colors for Vermeer's paints. This must be done in secret since Caterina would resent bitterly Griet's being allowed into the studio, as she is not. Then Vermeer makes the decision that will change Griet's life again; he will paint her. All would have been well even so, had he not insisted that she wear his wife's earrings. A fascinating portrayal of long-ago Dutch life, this is also an insightful study of people and personalities.

The deeper readers go into "Scarlet Feather" by Maeve Binchy, the more absorbing they will find her latest book. Set in a more modern and prosperous Ireland than most of her previous writings, it presents her usual array of complicated plots involving many characters. Scarlet Feather is a catering business being started by Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, who became friends in cooking school. Cathy is married to Neil Mitchell, a civil rights lawyer, and Tom is desperately in love with Marcella, who is as ambitious as she is gorgeous. Neil's bratty twin cousins enter the picture, along with their sneaky, thieving older brother, with disastrous results. We meet many members of all families and find ourselves caring very much about the outcome of their various problems. This is a big book, but one that the reader will be sorry to have end.