China Dolls

Fiction by Lisa See.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

I really love Lisa See's books. This was the story of three Chinese girls who meet in San Francisco in the late thirties.

The story was good, but I didn't think it was as good as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

Still definitely worth reading.

I also read by this author: Dreams of Joy.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Fiction by Neil Gaiman.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Although this short novel was billed as a "modern fairy tale," good fantasy was not what I expected from the mundane beginning.

However, it was a lovely fantasy story. I recommend it.

The Arsonist

Fiction by Sue Miller.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is a story about a woman who leaves her job as an aid worker in Africa to live in the small vacation town her parents have retired to. The summer she arrives is marred by a rash of house fires and the volunteer fire department is overwhelmed. The state police are called in to find and arrest the arsonist.

This was a great character novel, although I didn't care for the ending.

I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You

Fiction by Courtney Maum.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is one of those books I chose based on its title. It has a great title.

Unfortunately I didn't like it. There wasn't anything really wrong with the book; mostly I think I just disliked the main character.

This guy has a perfect wife who has (mostly) forgiven him for cheating on her, a lovely young daughter, and a wonderful career as an artist in Paris who actually can sell his work and make money. But he's not happy. Oh no.

He wants to make art that no one likes and won't sell, but still have money to live on. He wants to keeps his lovely little family intact but still pines after his mistress who left him to marry someone else. He's a big whiner. I couldn't stand to keep reading about him.

Now, it's a testament to the skill of this writer that she can draw such an evocative portrait of this loser and make me believe in him enough to despise him. But still.

Agnes and the Hitman

Fiction by Jennifer Cruise and Bob Mayer.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a fun little story with a good plot and believable characters. There was a good mystery, plus romance and humor thrown in.

I've read several books buy Jennifer Cruise and they are always funny and have a good story. I enjoyed this one quite a bit!



I also recently read by this author: Maybe This Time. But apparently I forgot to write a blog post about it.

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes

Fiction by Denise Grover Swank.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a fun mystery/romance about a repressed girl who loses her inhibitions with alarming rapidity after her domineering mother is killed. Of course she is suspect number one in her mother's murder.

It was a cute book, but the plot suffered from a little from a fictional device that annoys me, which I call I-Can't-Tell-The-Truth-or-The-Story-Will-End-Here-Syndrome. This shows up in romances quite a bit, in which a main character withholds some vital piece of information form his/her love interest for flimsy reasons, making it obvious that the author is using the device to further complicate the plot and lengthen the story.

Still, this was a pretty good novel.

image from https://www.thriftbooks.com

Behemoth and Goliath

(Leviathan Series #2 and #3)
Fiction by Scott Westerfeld


http://www.barnesandnoble.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com

These are the sequels to Leviathan, which I read a little while ago. It's a sort of science-fiction/historical-fiction mixture, about World War One in an imagined alternate universe.

The story was definitely interesting, but you have to stretch your willing suspension of disbelief a bit in order to enjoy it. I don't have a problem with the wildly fantastical myself (as long as the author stays within the rules of his own fantasy), so I liked the books.