Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende

Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende

Maya is on the run for reasons we don’t understand until well into the book.  Her grandmother sends the young American woman off to Chiloe, the most remote part of Chile to disappear.  Maya’s notebooks tell the story of her present, living on an island in southern Chile with an old man named Manuel who was a good friend of her grandmother’s.  These journals also tell the story of her past starting with her life as a small child being raised by her grandparents through the bad turns her life had taken.  Both stories meet up in the present at the very end and all becomes clear.

I was intrigued by the way the storylines progressed and met as they did at the end.  The author really keeps you guessing how things will be resolved.  While some of the twists are hard to believe the decent of this smart, sweet teenager into alcoholism and drug addiction was all too real and frightening.  Fans of realistic fiction who like to read about unknown places will enjoy this tale.  At the hands of the author Chiloe really comes to life as a vibrant and desolate community and the edge of the earth and Las Vegas shows it’s underbelly as the dark and dangerous place we knew it could be.

This was a well done audiobook.  The youthfulness of the reader’s voice makes you hope that things will turn out for the best for her.

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Kirby is the one that got away.  She managed to live through a vicious attack by a man she did not know.  She can’t put the incident behind her.  She wants to find the man and make him pay for what he did.  She starts to hunt the hunter. 

Harper enters a house during the Depression in Chicago and finds more than a place to stay.  He finds his mission in life and a doorway into other times.  He starts to stalk the shining girls, visiting them in childhood and introducing himself to them only to return when they are vibrant young adults and taking their lives.  Harper always leaves something meaningful behind.

I was fine with the idea of the time traveling but I was disappointed that more wasn’t revealed about this strange house that opened up onto the same Chicago street at different times between the 1930s and 1990s.  The book was a page turner and I wanted to see the killer stopped, especially by a woman who was his only living victim, but I must admit I am still fuzzy as to why he even started.

The Covenant of Genesis by Andy McDermott

The Covenant of Genesis by Andy McDermott

Nina Wilde, famed archaeologist and discoverer of Atlantis and Excalibur, and her fiancé Eddie Chase, ex-SAS now protector of Nina and heavy-lifter, are back!  This time they have found evidence of stone crafted buildings, with writing on them, under the ocean off Indonesia.  Calculating sea levels over time they estimate the settlement to be over 35,000 years old – this discovery would totally re-write human history!  Before they can bring the evidence to the surface they are attacked and all evidence is destroyed.  Who would do such a thing?  Who are the Covenant of Genesis and what are they protecting?

This is a typical Wilde/Chase adventure.  Like Indiana Jones and other adventurers, to solve the mystery and find the artifact/truth they need to journey to a number of locations.  In this case the duo goes to Australia, Antarctica and even Africa!  This is one of my favorite series because I really enjoy how the author takes legends and conspiracies and crafts a gripping story with lots of action and travel.  This is a quick and fun read available in paperback.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

A man returns to the site of a house his family once lived in and the memories start to flood back.  He remembers things that clearly couldn’t have happened, but he is sure they did.  It all comes back to his neighbors: three women, three generations, three sets of powers.  All of the women are definitely otherworldly and deal with beings and realms outside of our understanding.  What our narrator knows as the duck pond, they call an ocean, and an ocean it truly is.

The storytelling is fantastic and pure Gaiman.  However, I was a little disappointed.  Usually I fly through his books, but it took me a long time to get through the 180 pages.  It was a bit slower paced than what I expect from him.  It is a great diversion though and a way to escape reality for a while.

The Healer by Antti Tuomainen

The Healer by Antti Tuomainen

It is the future and the future is not good.  The changes in the Earth’s climate have wreaked havoc on the planet.  The equatorial zones are so hot and stormy to be uninhabitable and diseases the likes we have never seen, or haven’t seen in centuries, are spreading like wildfire.  Finland is now the place to be but even the southern capital of Helsinki is no longer very desirable; everyone is pushing north to the Arctic.

During all this upheaval a serial killer calling himself the Healer is at work.  He kills the entire families of the individuals he feels contributed to the state of the planet.  The police have a lead, but no resources.  Johanna, a reporter, decides to investigate herself.  Two days before Christmas she disappears.  This is the story of Tapani’s search for his wife which becomes the search for a dangerous killer.

I found the Finnish names really difficult to keep track of (and to try to say!) but thankfully there are few characters and the places are all in a short distance of each other so street names and city zones don’t need to be remembered.  The simplistic yet lyrical prose really brings out the urgency of the situation.  The main character is a poet and that spare style shows in his words and inner dialogue.  An interesting and fast paced mystery.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Victoria McQueen is the one that got away.  Charles Manx, the convicted serial killer, never got her into his Rolls Royce Wraith with the license plate NOS4A2.  Both Victoria and Manx have the ability to travel to a world like and unlike our own.  Victoria uses her bicycle to travel to faraway places to recover lost objects.  Manx uses his car to bring children to Christmasland – an amusement park where childhood innocence is preserved forever.  But true innocence isn’t as wonderful as it would seem.  Now, years later, Manx is back and threatening revenge on Victoria.  He plans on driving once again to Christmasland.

Obviously you need to suspend disbelief to read this one.  It’s definitely horror, but not too terribly graphic.  Hill creates a great paranormal idea and his villain is really interesting.  Strange, and weirdly adhering to his perverse morals, but interesting.  I wouldn’t ever want to meet him though! 

I read the afterword and everyone should thank his famous writer mother (Tabitha King) for the great ending.  Not to give anything away, but he doesn’t end the book like his famous writer father (Stephen King) would.  You may actually smile at the end of this one!

The library has this one available as an eBook – a great way to read those good and long (and therefore heavy) books on vacation!

Born to Die by Lisa Jackson

Born to Die by Lisa Jackson

Pick up a paperback for summer!  Lisa Jackson is always a great go to for suspense with a touch of romance. 

Kacey Lambert is a doctor in the small town of Grizzly Falls, Montana.  She returned to the area of her childhood after her divorce.  Kacey is pleased with the turn her life has taken, but she’s starting to feel uneasy.  A B-List Hollywood actress is found dead from a probable suicide and everyone in the office comments on how much she looked like Kacey.  Then, a woman suffering from a horrible fall is in the ICU at the local hospital and the staff thought it could have been Kacey because they look that much alike.  Why are all these women who look like Kacey dying?

This is an entry in the Alvarez/Pescoli series.  (They are the detectives.)  While this book stands alone fine, if you do decide to read the others you MUST read book one before book two.

The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning by Helgason Hallgrimur

The Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning by Helgason Hallgrimur

Tomislav just killed his 66^th hit.  It was a clean hit.  It was the right guy.  All went perfect.  Except the guy he was hired to kill turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.  Now his boss is mad, the FBI is mad and Tomislav is on the run.  While trying to return to his native Croatia he notices a lot of interested FBI-looking men looking his way at JFK Airport.  So he goes to the restroom, kills a man using the toilet and takes his identity, plane ticket…and clerical collar?  Now Father Friendly, Tomislav finds himself going to a very strange land.  Iceland.

Dark, crass, crude and completely different this is an amusing diversion.  Sex, violence, religion and absurdity abound, but the book (strangely enough) has heart.  You find out why the killer became a killer and you kind of feel for him.  Tomislav finds himself in the only country where he can’t possibly purchase a gun (even the regular police don’t carry weapons) which is probably the best thing to ever happen to him.

Fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Matt Ruff could find something to like in this one.

The Never List by Zan Koethi

The Never List by Zan Koethi

This book is on the Entertainment Weekly summer must read list and I had a pre-publication copy so I brought it with me on vacation.  Warning: not a beach read!  This is an addictive read (you need to keep reading to find out what’s going on!) but it is quite creepy. 

A man is up for parole and the women he imprisoned in his basement are being contacted by the FBI in hopes that they will come to the hearing and help keep him incarcerated.  Sarah, one of the women who become agoraphobic as a result of her psychological trauma is trying to overcome her fears and find out what her former captor is up to.  It seems that he’s still controlling people from prison and that his release may actually happen.  She will do anything to prevent that and feels the best way to do that is to finally find the body of the fourth woman who was in the basement, her best friend Jennifer, the one who didn’t live.

After the horrible incident in Cleveland this book’s release has very eerie timing.  It comes out on July 16^th – place your holds now!

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

Bean and her older sister Liz trek from California to Virginia to visit (read: move in with) their Uncle Tinsley when their mother takes off to find herself since they are unsure when she’ll ever come back.  So begins the first period of stability in Bean and Liz’s lives, as well as the most challenging. 

To Kill a Mockingbird is read by Bean in her new school and the parallels between that classic and this book are many: an unfair trial, inequality (in this instance economic), and the unfairness of life.  Yet Walls doesn’t simply copy the classic, she just gives a nod to a formula that works and adds her own touches.

I am not a fan of memoir, but I really enjoyed The Glass Castle for the way Walls told her story matter of factly from a child’s perspective.  There was nothing whiny in her tone then, and there isn’t now.  These are two girls growing up in unusual circumstances, but they are growing up and learning about life, just as we all did at that time in our lives – just in this instance there are legal battles and the occasional emu.

The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness

The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness

Gardar Holm is Iceland’s biggest celebrity.  He has brought Icelandic music to the world and travels to exotic locales to sing to crowds.  The odd thing is no one in Iceland has ever heard him sing…  Alfgrimur is a talented young man who sings at small funerals and has an excellent voice.  He doesn’t dream of singing to the world, he just wants to be a fisherman.  An odd friendship between Gardar and Alfgrimur forms over Gardar’s many visits to his mother and both puzzle out their futures in this land and beyond.

Typically I skip over the introductions of books.  But this one was written by Jane Smiley so I decided to read it.  I’m glad I did.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have understood the style the writer was going for: the story of a place through a period of time.  Yes, the characters matter, but only what they are doing when they are in this small section of a small city in Iceland.  It imitates the style of medieval chronicles except with dark humor.

Not for everyone; the writing is very good but you have to appreciate the absurd to truly enjoy it.

The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson

The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson

John Wells was a company man (read: CIA operative) for many years in the Middle East.  His commitment to his job caused a very strained relationship with his son.  So when his son calls for a favor, the first phone call between the two in a very long time, John gets on a plane to Kenya.  Four aid workers in Kenya were on their way to a resort island off the coast when they disappeared.  No ransom has yet been demanded, but authorities are convinced they were kidnapped by Islamic extremists in Somalia.  Why is John getting involved?  Because his son seems to be dating the sister of one of the missing aid workers.

This book is different from most covert ops books because John is flying under the radar and doesn’t really have ground support.  (Air support is a TOTALLY different story…)  He is completely unfamiliar with Africa but the skills he has developed over his lifetime more than make up for his regional ignorance.  I always find the contrasts between the haves and have-nots in Africa, as well as the blatant corruption, very striking and it is not ignored in this book.  I’m glad I listened to this book, because the Swahili that is interspersed sounds very musical as the reader relates the story.