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.