Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman, 324 pages

This is a psychological thriller that would be perfect for a vacation read.  It's a quick read, but as the tension builds it would be nice to finish it in one fell swoop instead of having to put it down and come back to it.

This is Catherine Steadman's first novel, and while her characters aren't totally lovable, it is a good story.  Somewhere beyond the midpoint in the book I began getting tired of it, but it redeemed itself in the end with a twist I wasn't expecting.  That is always a bonus for me.

I would definitely put this on the "not too deep but fun" recommendation list.

Shell Game by Sara Paretsky, 304 pages

Shell Game is #19 in Sara Paretsky's  V.I. Warshawski series.  Victoria, VI Warshwaski, is a no nonsense private investigator based in Chicago.

In this story she is back in Chicago and trying to find a missing niece, Reno, she didn't even know was in Chicago, along with trying to keep Felix, the great nephew of a dear friend out of jail.

Sara Paretsky comes through once again with a smart, fast paced, and gritty mystery.  I enjoyed every minute of it.

Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen, 304 pages

The novel is set in a tight-knit, upper class neighborhood in modern day New York City.  The neighborhood has beautiful old houses and coveted parking.  The people living in the houses are all white, while the people working in the houses are not. 

From the outside it is an idyllic neighborhood.  However, when a handyman is brutally attacked, cracks begin to appear.  So much so, that a seemingly perfectly happy middle-aged couple, Nora and Charlie Nolan, might end up losing their marriage. 

Not my favorite Anna Quindlen book, perhaps because it is very much a love story to New York City, a place I've only visited a few times.  However, any Anna Quindlen book is worth reading, in my opinion.

Hardcore Twenty-four by Janet Evanovich, 320 page

I think I've read everything Janet Evanovich has published since the first Stephanie Plum book "One for the Money."

We're now on book 24 in the series and not much has changed in Stephanie's life.  Since about book eight, I typically read and then complain that it wasn't that good.  Guess what?  I liked this one.

The same formula and all the regular zany characters are here but I enjoyed this one more than most.  Thanks Janet.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, 260 pages

When the story begins, A.J. Fikry is a 39-year old curmudgeonly widower and book store owner.  This book is one of my nerdy librarian subgenre favorites: books about books.  It also has hope and likeable characters.

Double Bonus:  I listened to this book and it was read by one of my favorite readers, Scott Brick.  (sigh of satisfaction.)

To sum up, here is a longish quote from the book: "Why is any one book different from any other books? . . . We have to look inside many. . . We agree to be disappointed sometimes so that we can be exhilarated every now and again."  Thank you, Ms. Zevin for the exhilaration.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, 224 pages

This little book doesn't advocate not caring about anything.  It advocates that we should pick and choose what we care about instead of being emotionally invested in every darned thing.

There's much more in the book - not all of us are special, happiness is hard work, etc.  It was a nice rah rah book.  I think if I was in my 30s and not my 50s it would have been more life changing.  Mostly, I said "yep" as I listened.  Definitely worth the time it took to listen to it.

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman, 324 pages

Britt-Marie first turned up in another Fredrik Backman book "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry."  She was the fussy neighbor who never had anything nice to say and was not very likeable.

Fredrik Backman specializes in writing about curmudgeonly people with a heart of gold.  These folks might not have family that consists of relatives, but by the end of the book, they have family that consists of people who love and appreciate them. 

Britt-Marie had to leave home to find her place and that family, but she does so with satisfying results.  Verdict: heartwarming, sweet and uplifting; another winner from Swedish author Fredrik Backman. 

The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy, 295 pages

This is one of those books that has a story happening now (2007 in the United States) and then (1945 in Germany.)  Then details the life of Elsie Schmidt, who is 17, working in her family bakery in the middle of Nazi Germany.  Now mostly focuses on Reba, a reporter who meets Elsie and her daughter Jane.  Reba comes to Elsie's German Bakery to get a feel-good Christmas story about Christmas in Germany.

Most World War II related books I read tell the story of the Holocaust or life in England during the war.  This told the story from the perspective of Germans and their lives under Nazi propaganda and rule.  It also had a nice juxtaposition dealing with modern life and illegal immigration in America.  When do we get passes for how we treat people?  This is a book club book for the library this year and I am looking forward to our discussion.

A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen, 50 pages

This is a little gem of a book that reminds readers to enjoy family, nature, ourselves . . .life.  It includes lovely pictures too.

I picked this up at the library's book sale last fall and finally took the time to read it.  Note to self: maybe a clue that I really needed it!  There is a post-it in the front from a previous reader or giver of the book that says "deserves to be read as a weekly reminder of what life should be."  Yep, couldn't have said it better myself.

Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni 109 pages

A beautiful, funny, witty, sad, hopeful, inspiring book of poems by the poet Nikki Giovanni.

Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa, 312 pages

This is a well written and devastating fictional account about the protests at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.

There is Victor, the 19 year-old runaway who has returned home to Seattle to protest and perhaps, see his step-father the Chief of Police.  There is John Henry, the proponent of non-violent protest and his girlfriend, King, who struggles with rage.  We meet two police officers, Julie and Park, who battle in the protests.  Finally, we meet Dr. Charles Wickramsingne, who is a delegate from Sri Lanka and has a must-get-to meeting with President Clinton to ensure Sri Lanka's entry in the WTO.

This is a fast and unsettling book about one violent day and event.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler, 237 pages

"Vinegar Girl" is a fun retelling of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew."

Kate Battista is an acerbic, put-upon 29 year old who works at a daycare, basically raises her 15 year-old sister and takes care of the household for her scientist father.

Her father asks even more of her when he requests that she marry his lab assistant, Pyotr Shcherbakov, to keep the young man from being deported.

This is a short and fun book that I recommend to fellow readers of chick lit.

The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty by Amanda Filipacchi, 332 pages

My sister, who often tells me what to read, highly recommended this book.  She found it funny and quirky.

I did find it quirky, but not very funny.  The main characters are a group of creative friends, one of whom is extremely beautiful and another extremely ugly.  Barb, the beautiful one, works hard to hide her beauty.  Lily, the ugly one, tries to transform herself into beautiful.

I typically like books with a little magic, and this book has that, but it just wasn't for me.  I read it, I finished it, but I didn't think it was funny, instead it made me sad.  Funny how two people can read the same book and have a different experience.  Sounds a little like life!

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, 460 pages

This is the second time I've had the pleasure of reading this book.  Two of the library's book clubs are reading it this year so I read it again for the Downtown Library book club.

"Big Little Lies" revolves around three women, all of whom have kindergartners at Pirriwee Public School.   Jane is new in town and is a 26 year old single mother.  Madeline just turned 40 and is happily married to her second husband.  She has three children and a huge grudge against her first husband, who deserted her when her now 14 year old daughter was 3 weeks old.  Celeste is also near 40, has identical twin boys and seemingly has the perfect marriage and life.

A quite large calamity happens at the school's trivia night and the novel reveals the build up to that night and what happened afterwards.  Ohhh, this was fun and serious and suspenseful and wonderful.  Three words: Perfect Summer Read.

The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson, 380 pages

Bill Bryson is getting grumpy.  I totally enjoyed his classic "A Walk in the Woods" about America's Appalachian Trail.  I enjoyed this one too, but not as much.

It's great when he describes the English countryside, points of interest, villages,shops, museums and pubs he visited.  It is not so great when he repeatedly calls people idiots and fantasizes about hitting or killing those who irritate him.  Hellooo, Mr. or Ms. Editor . . . where were you?

So, read at your own risk.  For me, the enjoyable parts outweighed the sheesh! parts, but just.

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian, 336 pages

This is a heart wrenching novel about the consequences of human trafficking and the sex trade.  Richard is a happily married father of a 9-year old daughter.  He is also happily employed as an investment banker at a swanky bank.  He hosts a bachelor party at his house for his younger brother and things turn out not-so-happy after the two young "strippers" kill their handlers. It turns out the strippers were likely sex slaves.

At the time of the party, Alexandra has been in the United States about 3 weeks.  She was kidnapped from Armenia and forced into the sex trade in Russia when she was 15 years old and is now 19.

The story alternates from Richard's perspective and story to Alexandra's.  It follows the aftermath of the party with Alexandra on the run and Richard trying to put his life back together after the fall out from the very public sex party at his house.  It is a gripping thriller.

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell, 310 pages

It takes me forever to actually read as opposed to listen to a book as I seem to have the attention span of a gnat.  I read this book in two evenings. 

Set in Glasgow, Scotland, Marnie and Nelly are two sisters with a problem.  Their parents are dead and if anyone finds out they will be tossed into the foster care system.  Marnie is 15 and Nelly is 12.  They have a kind neighbor, Lennie, who figures out something is wrong and strives to help the girls.

This is a darkly comedic novel of growing up too hard and too fast.  It is told from the three perspectives of Marnie, Nelly and Lennie.  What shines through is the goodness of just enough people to make it possible for these two girls to survive in this hard world.  This is a book club book and I am looking forward to the discussion - my only worry is that some of the language is caustic enough that it might stop some people from reading it.

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, 289 pages

The Downtown Library's book club read "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict" this year, Laurie Viera Rigler's first Jane Austen Addict book.  This is book #2 and one of the book club members recommended reading it too.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to someone who hadn't read book #1, but it was a delight to read soon after I finished that first book.

This book is the story of Jane Mansfield, who is an upper class young woman from England in 1813.  She wakes up after a fall to find herself in the life of Courtney Stone, a woman in Los Angeles in 2009.  The modern world is overwhelming, but Jane finds herself enjoying many aspects, including showers, electricity, more Jane Austen stories (and even televised!) and freedom from her mother.  However, Courtney's life is a mess and Jane uses her Regency Period sensibilities to try to straighten it out.  Ahh, summer escapist fiction.

YES PLEASE by Amy Poehler, 352 pages

YES PLEASE is Amy Poehler's first, and maybe last book.  I listened to the book, that she read with the help of Carol Burnett, Seth Meyers, Kathleen Turner, Patrick Stewart, Mike Schur, along with her parents Eileen and William Poehler.

Amy made no bones about the fact that a book is hard to write, hence it might be her last.  However, I hope it's not because it was darned good. The book is part memoir and part her philosophy of life.

If you have to choose between reading and listening on this one - I am going to recommend that you listen.  Patrick Stewart reading funny haiku poetry?  Loved it.

Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace by Anne Lamott, 304 pages

I listened to this book, read by the author, Anne Lamott.  It is a collection of essays on life, faith, friends, family and community.

Anne Lamott is self-deprecating, a christian and a liberal.  Her interpretation of this crazy world makes perfect sense to me.  It was a lovely little book to listen to as the holiday and Christmas season ramp up to their normal frenzy of activity.