This is my first Turgenev, and what a glorious one at that! Vivid, impressive, and complex, ‘First Love’ is about 16-year-old Vladimir’s conviction that he has found the girl of his dreams in 21-year-old Zinaida. He first espies her in a garden surrounded by a gaggle of besotted young men all waiting to do her bidding, and...

I enjoy stories set in WWII and particularly those that are based on real events. Pam Jenoff’s “The Orphan’s Tale” immediately tempted me for the same reasons when Lisa offered it to me for a book review. There was friendship, romance, history. It couldn’t go that wrong, I thought. The story revolves around Noa and...