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.

Fifty Shades, by EL James

I considered not posting that I read this, but oh well. I did read them. All three. And I'll never get those hours of my life back.

44 Scotland Street, by Alexander McCall Smith

This was a light, fun little read. The plot was about nothing (something about a missing painting that may or may not have been famous), but the charaters and dialogue were quite funny... quite the farce (with things like missing underwear). I don't remember this book all that well at this point, but I remember some line about not being able to execute a proper risotto while discussing anthropology. Too true, don't you think?

Nonfiction

I read and/or attempted to read three nonfiction books during this period: Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. I only read a little Krakauer's book. Really boring. It was about life in the Mormon polygamist compounds in Colorado and Utah. The subject matter itself was fairly interesting, with pretty tough-to-take goings on, but the writing style was SUCH a snore that I couldn't take it. Unbroken was a very good book. It did have one aspect of nonfiction that I don't like - a very didactic, instructive style to the writing - but no one can deny that the plot is harrowing. What Zamparini went through as a soldier in WWII is almost unimaginable, and I'm glad this author told his story. Half the Sky is about the effects of global poverty on women and particularly focuses on sex trafficking. As a professional woman who is very in tune with discrimination issues, this book really hit me. While, of course, discrimination in the U.S. is real and a problem, my concerns in that regard surround professional advancement and pay. My concerns aren't lethal.

Stephen King, 11/22/63

You would think this was another genre departure for me, but no. This was genre departure for Mr. King. This is a clever, compelling book about using time travel to attempt to stop the Kennedy assassination, of course, invoking a butterfly effect. I haven't read much Stephen King, but, wow, he is a good writer, and funny too. His relationships felt real, and I completely bought into the plot despite its fantastical nature. It is well documented that I don't like nice, neat little bows at the end of my books, and this delivered on that, although I thought the ending was also quite sweet. I do not want to hear "I don't like/read Stephen King" as an excuse to not read this book. It's great.

The Passage, by Justin Cronin

Science, vampires, apocolypse... fantastic. Not exactly the review you would expect from me on a sci-fi novel. But this book was so exciting that I was completely forgiven of my genre departure. The backstories of both the "heros" and the vampire/zombie/whatevers were great - I'm excited to see how the somewhat sympathetic horrible monsters play out. Yes, this is a series. Book 2, The Twelve, comes out in October.

Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum

This is a very compelling story about a woman professor researching her German heritage. While the professor learns many stories from Germans in her community, we learn the story our main character does not know - her own mother's story from a small German village in WWII. The misconceptions and misunderstandings between mother and daughter were realistic and, then, exacerbated by the extenuating circumstances of the mother's painful history. I haven't often read a WWII story from the perspective of a German, and this was a very good one. Probably a read geared more toward women, but not total chick lit. Recommend.