Correction: This article misspelled Mr. Spadafora’s first name. We regret the error.

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Years ago, if I liked one book by a particular author, I would read everything they wrote. This fall while on a trip to Maine, I stopped in a bookstore and purchased Leeway Cottage, a novel by Beth Gutcheon. I liked it so much that I downloaded the sequel Good-bye and Amen: (P.S.), which follows the descendants of the first book’s main characters. I’ve since read three other Gutcheon novels: More Than You Know, Saying Grace, and Five Fortunes, which I finished only last week. I confess some of her books are better than others, but I enjoyed Five Fortunes, which follows the lives and interactions of five women who meet at the Cloisters, a posh spa in Arizona.

David Spadafora, president of the Newberry Library, goes ape for: