One Step Too Far

 Fiction by Lisa Gardner

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

A group of five young men go camping for a bachelor party weekend, and something terrible happens. They say it's an animal attack of some kind, but the specifics are unclear. One of the guys never comes home, and five years later, the remaining four are still guiltily spending a week every summer searching for him.

Enter Frankie Elgin, a woman who travels around searching for --and often finding!-- missing persons. She is determined to join the search and find the truth, whatever it is...

Although I felt I was missing some background details, (it turns out this book is number two in a series) this was a good story with a surprise ending.

 

I also read recently by this author: The Perfect Husband

How Lucky

 Fiction by Will Leitch

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Daniel likes to sit in his porch in the mornings if the weather is nice in the Georgia college town where he lives, and from that porch one morning he sees a girl get into a car. A few days later the girl's face is all over town on posters labeled MISSING! Obviously Daniel has to report what he saw, but here's the trouble: Daniel uses a wheelchair, can barely move, and can't speak. 

This was an interesting premise and I really enjoyed this story.

The Plot

 Fiction by Jean Hanff Korelitz

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Before Jacob Finch-Bonner turned twenty-five he had written a promising first novel. Unfortunately, after failing to write anything else, a few years later he ends up stuck teaching creative writing at a second-tier college. That's when he encounters a student called Evan Parker. Evan is an arrogant entitled jerk who insists he has the best plot for a thriller novel ever. It HAS to be a best seller, Evan says. And once Jacob hears the plot idea, he actually agrees.

Will Evan write this fabulous thriller? Will Jacob steal the plot and write it himself? Will the reader EVER find out the specifics of this fabulous plot?

This was partly a thriller and partly a novel slogging through writer's angst. I mostly enjoyed it but I didn't particularly care for the character of  Mr. Finch-Bonner, poor tortured artist.

I also read by this author: You Should Have Known

I'm Glad My Mom Died

 Nonfiction by Jeanette McCurdy

https://www.audible.com

Jeanette McCurdy was a Nickelodeon child star, but she didn't want to be. This book explores her abusive childhood with her ultimate-stage-mom mother, as it played out both in the spotlight and hidden from view. 

This was a really good memoir, and I particularly enjoyed hearing it in the author's own voice.

The Island

 Fiction by Adrian McKinty

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Heather is visiting Australia with her husband Tom and two teenaged step-kids when a series of odd (but not impossible) events lands the family trapped on a remote island with some crazy people.

Really. Isn't that an amazing premise?

This was a great thriller!

Suburban Dicks

 Fiction by Fabian Nicienza

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

The title of this book is eye-catching, but also it looks like the kind of thing I don't want to be seen reading, as a respectable mom, so I'm not sure whether to label it "Great Title" or not...

This story was really good; there's a woman pregnant with her fifth child who solves a mystery with a disgraced reporter. I liked the book a lot.

The Ugly Cry

 Nonfiction by Danielle Henderson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

As kids, Danielle and her brother were left by their mom at their grandma's for the weekend... and never picked back up. So they were left to be raised by a grouchy, foul-mouthed old lady, while their mom went on to have new kids that she actually kept and took care of. Ouch.

This was a good-enough memoir; I didn't love the resolution at the end but I guess reality is what it is.