Still Life, by Louise Penny

A good little mystery novel, about a Canadian Chief Inspector named Gamache. He was instantly a likeable character. There were a couple of moments in this book that I found astounding. The initial description of a bow and arrow and what the different types of arrow tips can do was vivid and evocative. There was a very small passage involving the second-in-command inspector about his wanting to call his wife after a draining day in the investigation that I thought was very emotional, and I am going to include it here to keep it in my memory: "Beauvoir left their home wanting to call his wife and tell her how much he loved her, and then tell her what he believed in, and his fears and hopes and disappointments. To talk about something real and meaningful. He dialed his cell phone and got her. But the words got caught somewhere south of his throat. Instead he told her the weather had cleared, and she told him about the movie she'd rented. Then they both hung up." Plot-wise, this book was very simple and I knew who the killer was (although I had the motive wrong) way too early. But I still really liked it and recommend it for the good characters and writing. I will read more in this series.

Gods in Alabama, by Joshilyn Jackson

This was a pretty good book, but definitely chick lit, which I tend to shy away from. The plot and characters are interesting and the dialogue well-written; it was easy to read very quickly. The chapters alternate back and forth between present-day Arlene, who lives in Chicago and is resisting returning to her home in Alabama with black boyfriend in tow, and high school Arlene, whose story explains present-day Arlene's resistence. I'm pretty upset with myself for not predicting the plot twist, because, in retrospect, it was very predictable. I think I just was not reading that deeply. This is another good one to read in a day by the pool, but it's not memorable.

Jack 1939, by Francine Mathews

I really liked this book at first. It's an interesting premise - a fictional, spy thriller novel, with a 22-year-old JFK as the protaganist. It quickly, however, turns into a Jason Bourne book in which it doesn't make much of a difference that Bourne is now JFK, complete with escapes in dumbwaiters. I didn't think much of it, and it got very good reviews.

The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson

This is a funny little book about a dysfunctional family in which the parents have raised the children forcing them to do pretty off-the-wall performance art. The plot isn't much, but this book will be appealing to people who like Wes Anderson movies because of the strange characters.

The Devil All the Time, by Donald Ray Pollock

Gruesome. Gory. Scary. Well written and vividly descriptive. I won't recommend this because you'll think I'm sick and twisted if I do. It's about a lot of really sick people in Ohio in the 1950s and 60s - some serial killers, bad cops, abusive priests... just a lot of people who do really bad things.

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

LOVED this book. It was really well written with a great, fast-paced plot. It was a mystery/thriller style book, but it also really hit on some points about relationships and marriage that were spot-on... although most marriage issues (hopefully) do not get quite to the extreme as Nick and Amy's did in this book. I thought for a while that the author was trying to pull some trite allusion to Great Gatsby, with Nick as the potentially unreliable narrator, but she proved me wrong. The book took all the right twists and turns, except at the end. I can think of a couple of better endings, but my lack of complete satisfaction with this ending in no way destroyed by absolute enjoyment of this book. Take it on vacation; you'll read it in a day or two.

Imaginary Jesus, by Matt Mikalatos

This was a light, silly book about pretty heavy theology - a man on a personal quest to find the real Jesus, with a bunch of pretty hilarious fake Jesuses (Jesi?) in tow.