Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

I would love to turn this book into a stage play. I spent one whole night dreaming up exactly how I would stage certain scenes, with a revolving set that transforms from the past cabin to the present-day cabin.

Aaaah. Fuller's Swimming Lessons has left an indelible print on my heart. It centers on the relationship between Gil and his wife, Ingrid, who disappeared 12 years ago. The book begins with Gil thinking he has seen his lost-missing wife outside his bookstore and chasing her outside. In this process he becomes ill and his adult daughter, Flora, comes to stay with him for time. She is a woman who still longs for her absent mother and thinks this visit might finally provide her with answers to past.

Flora's present-day chapters are broken up by letters Ingrid wrote to her husband before tucking them into books, where her husband may or may not ever find and read them. Together, these letters give a picture of how she and Gil met, fell in love and what led to her disappearance.  As Flora cares for her father, she learns some of what happened in the past and must make hard choices about what they mean for her future.

I loved this character-driven story filled with mystery, regret, sorrow and love.

Did I mention I want to make it into a stage play?

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore brings together a couple of my favorite story ideas: setting is a bookstore + mystery.

A death in the bookstore where Lydia works sets off memories of an old, unsolved murder she witnessed as a child. As she tries to work through this new death in her life, ghosts from her past begin to emerge and puzzles - both new and old - reveal clues that begin to offer answers to questions she has held onto for years.

Sullivan creates an interesting cast of characters to surround Lydia including my favorite, a fellow bookseller named Plath (loved her literary nod name).

While this is certainly an adult book based on thematic material, I did feel comfortable handing it off to my teenage son to read when I was done. It's a nicely twisty story that mystery fans will come away from feeling satisfied.

The Good Widow by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

There is a surge of relationship-gone-bad thrillers in the market right now thanks to the success of Gone Girl. The Good Widow would certainly fit into this genre.  While it held my attention, it didn't leave me gasping in the same way Gone Girl did.  There was an urgency to and connection I felt with the two main characters in Gone Girl that I just never got here.

Without giving away too many details, this story begins with Jacks (short for Jacqueline) learning that her husband, James, was killed in a car accident while in Hawaii. Trouble is, Jacks thought he was on a business trip in Kansas. Not only that, she learns he was with another woman.

Jacks and Nick, the fiancee of the woman her husband was with when he died, decide to travel together to Hawaii to retrace the last days of their loved ones in the hopes of understanding what happened and to bring closure to their loss. They discover a lot about themselves and their lovers that they did not know.

I appreciated the past - present structure of the book, allowing me to see the progression of the various relationships. But, overall, I found parts to be more annoying than believable and I hurried through the end simply to find out what would happen. I would not recommend this over other books with this same tone, but if you like a quick-read thriller, this one fits the bill.

Kindred by Octavia Butler

A few weeks ago a bookseller email-blasted a "100 Books You Should Read" list. Usually I scan through them and find the same old-school titles paired with the usual modern day suspects. However this list had all sorts of titles on it that I have read and loved and that I usually don't find on such lists. Clearly, this list had been created by a like-minded soul.  I started writing down the titles of everything I had never read to look up and possibly read.

Kindred was one of those books. I've read some of Butler's short stories but never one of her novels. At first I was worried it would be like The Time-Traveler's Wife (which I loved). I worried enough to think that Niffenegger had maybe stolen Butler's idea from this 1979 book.....but no.

Butler tells the tale of Dana, a black woman married to a white man,  who finds herself transported back in time to a slave-holding plantation. She is yanked out of her present life into the past in order to save the life of a white boy  - the son of a cruel slave-owner. She soon finds herself trying to use her modern-day knowledge to protect and save the people around her. But the past only sees her skin color and she is pulled into the only role she can play: slave.

What Dana must endure, must watch, must learn about her people's past is told with grace and blood; How she must finally save herself is the reason to read until the end.

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed

Gather the Daughters is a tour-de-force of gut-wrenching creepiness. I like dystopian futures crafted by writers whose visions of what could be is just off-kilter enough to exact change in the real world. But this.....Melamed clearly has drawn from her experiences working with abused children. She tells the tale of a disturbing culture ruled by men, as told through the eyes of multiple female children.

All the girls in the community grow up hearing about the wasteland...a burning, inhospitable place for people. Years ago the ancestors came to this island and made a life for themselves, each family contributing to their closed society. Children are free in the summers to play and wander. But come the year of fruition, girls become women, and women have one role to play in their society.

Kudos to Melamed for portraying all of her characters with their necessary levels of creepiness and fear, without having to be grossly explicit in all of the details. I loved being pulled along in the story wondering "what's going to happen next" as each new detail about the isolated community is revealed and we are ushered into the secrets of what it means to be a good daughter.

Problems by Jade Sharma

So.....I thought I had problems. But compared to Maya and her myriad issues, I really shouldn't complain anymore. Sheesh.

This book exposes a world of addiction and compulsion and strips out all the pretty, hopeful moments.  I would never recommend this to anyone who can't handle explicit content in any form because Sharma goes there.

However, I would recommend it to people who are comfortable with the ugliness of life and need to know they are not alone. There was something oddly repulsive, yet comforting in Maya's decision-making processes. I found myself saying, "Yep. That's exactly how it goes" multiple times throughout this book.  Sharma has perfectly captured our human messiness and that's what made me finish this short book.

When the English Fall by David Williams

There was something compelling about the basic premise of this story: what would a peaceful people do when apocalyptic events push them to their limits? Told in the form of an Amish man's journal entries, we get a glimpse into the events as they unfold around their community.

Admittedly, I felt it was a little too safe but reconciled this with the fact that it is an Amish man who is telling the story. It made sense that he would couch everything in terms of thankfulness and hope. As a general rule I stay away from books like that; I'm not a pessimist, but a realist. A reality where everything is tied up neatly in the end annoys me because that's not how life is. I suppose in that way this book did not disappoint. I closed it in the end feeling OK with how Williams chose to resolve the Amish decision, but unsettled enough to not hate it.

The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel

Yann Martel is best known for his novel Life of Pi. It was such a delight it was even made into a movie. Should it be made into a film, The High Mountains of Portugal would make viewers crazy. That, or offer a director amazing artistic opportunity. I feel like something about this book rang the same sort of bells the movie Holy Motors did for me. If you haven't yet seen this film, strap on your crazy boots before you do - and hold on for the ride.

I digress....

There are three distinct stories in The High Mountains of Portugal with each having a similar themes of beauty, finding meaning and identity. It took me awhile to get into the story since it is told in a simple, stark way. But once I adapted to the rhythm, I was hooked into seeing what Yann wanted me to see. Without spoilers, I loved the religious overtones found in everyday experiences and the depth of insight into the human condition.

This is not a light read. This is not fluff to quickly eat before moving on to another course. It is, however, very much a love story.

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

In Roth's Carve the Mark, everyone is born with a currentgift. Akos and his brother are captured by a dangerous people who want what their currentgifts will offer them. Among those dangerous people lives Cyra,  a girl who must channel her own currentgift to serve her tyrannical brother in ways she despises. When the two are brought together, unexpected things happen that will change both of their lives and perceptions deeply.

Fans of Roth's Divergent series will expect this to be another action-packed dystopian sort of thing.  My son wasn't as drawn into this story, maybe because the pace is slower and the world takes some explanation at the start that might leave younger readers bored and confused.

But...for those of us who stuck it out, it becomes a character study of Cyra and Akos, revealing within them the struggle to remain true to who they are and a willingness to be changed. For those of you who'd like to see it, the story may also be a reminder to those of us currently sharing a planet with people who hate us for reasons we can't understand.

City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

City of Saints & Thieves drew my interest initially because it was set in Africa. Not in the lush, wildlife-infested portion that I usually am drawn to (The Poisonwood Bible anyone?) but in a modern, urban city where crime and passion exist hand-in-hand.

The book features gangs, thievery, mystery and revenge. I found myself rooting for Tina - spunky, resourceful, loyal and determined - to discover who murdered her mother years ago. Her sole purpose among the gangs in Sangui City was to equip herself for revenge. But what happens when it is time to finally get it leads to a series of unexpected events and revelations. I found her experiences both incredible and eye-opening. They very well could be the experiences of an urban, African teen struggling to live in a dangerous time and place.

Not only did I love Tina, but some of her cohorts and enemies made me laugh or burn with rage - which is the mark of a good character writer. When I'm feeling invested, something has gone very, very right.

Genius: The Game and Genius: The Con by Leopoldo Gout

I originally picked these up for ME. But my 12-year old son swiped the first book, Genius: The Game, for himself before I was able to read it. After one night he had it finished and eagerly assured me it would love it.

First impression: loved the artwork featured on nearly every page in graffiti-like borders and the typographical choices of random bolding, underlining and font face changes. All together it makes for a very modern, urban feel.

Young boys will especially love the science and engineering behind the plot, but girls will dig that (IMHO) the coolest character is a Chinese badass girl.  There is mystery, coding, machine battles, world-travel and danger around every corner. You don't know who to trust, what's REALLY going on or who is going to win in the end. Sound enticing? Good.

The fun continues in the second book, Genius: The Con. Same feel, same adventure is continued.  Some secrets are revealed, which is satisfying. Some things are not yet revealed, which is frustrating (and means a third book). Ah well.

As Painted Wolf would say, "Bring it on, Leopoldo Gout."