fiction

It happens to all library users sooner or later. A book, for reasons unknown, appears on your hold shelf and you have no idea when or why you requested it. This time it was Flower Children by Maxine Swann, and while I have no recollection of requesting it, I’m glad I did. Told in short story format by the children of devout hippies, Flower Children offers a glimpse into a culture where children are raised without limits and adults show little restraint. Interestingly, the children know they have been exposed to things other children have not seen and it makes them uncomfortable, their coming

Warning: there is a dog on the cover of this book. There is a dog in the book. There is a dog living in Paul’s apartment, and she is a special dog. Don’t ask me if the dog dies. I already know you don’t want to read another book in which the dog dies. So don’t ask, because the book isn’t about the dog. The book is about Paul. Just as in Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain and Susan Wilson’s One Good Dog Nelson has pulled the old bait and switch. There is a dog (and I won’t tell you if he dies, so don’t ask), but the book isn’t about the dog.

Paul is just a regular guy leading a

Witness to the murder of Marshall and Sylvia Hotle, April needs to find a phone.

Joe Pickett needs to get back to Saddlestring, Wyoming and his family.

Sheridan, Joe’s daughter, needs to find April. But April is dead.

While Joe is working in exile as a game warden in remote Wyoming, Sheridan receives a text from someone claiming to be her step-sister April. As evidence mounts that the texts are coming from the locations of violent crimes Joe and Sheridan track April across Wyoming. Or are they tracking a killer?

Witness to the murder of Marshall and Sylvia Hotle, April needs to find a phone. Joe Pickett needs to get back to Saddlestring, Wyoming and his family. Sheridan, Joe’s daughter, needs to find April. But April is dead. While Joe is working in exile as a game warden in remote Wyoming, Sheridan receives a text from someone claiming to be her step-sister April. As evidence mounts that the texts are coming from the locations of violent crimes Joe and Sheridan track April across Wyoming. Or are they tracking a killer?

There are many things we practice for: a test, an interview, a sports event. In the early and middle part of last century women sometimes practiced being a mother. There were home economic programs at some colleges that offered female students the opportunity to learn about motherhood firsthand. Orphaned babies were loaned to the program for a year or two in order for the student, or practice, mothers to learn about taking care of a real baby. The effect of being raised by, and passed on to, more than one mother is explored in the book The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald. The story

Kansas author Moriarty follows The Center of Everything with a second thoughtful book, The Rest of Her Life. When high school senior Kara accidentally hits and kills a fellow high school student in her car she changes the course of not only her own life, but of family, friends and strangers alike. Moriarty examines the repercussions of the accident from many different perspectives without resorting to fabricated melodrama.

Fans of Jodi Picoult and Chris Bohjalian will appreciate this novel not only for the exploration of character, but the truthful way the story unfolds.

Along with the long-forgotten contents of the basement of the Panama Hotel, Henry Lee’s memories of 1940’s Seattle are unearthed.  When new hotel owners start to renovate the boarded up, old Japanese-designed building they discover the personal belongings of numerous Japanese families who were interned during WWII. As a resident of Seattle’s Chinatown, just the other side of the Panama Hotel from Japantown, Henry witnessed first-hand the removal of the Japanese. His friendship with a Japanese classmate leads him to hold a special interest in the dusty belongings of one family in particular

When Charlie Nancy’s estranged father passes away, family secrets come tumbling out at the funeral. Disbelieving that he could possibly be the son of a god, Charlie inadvertently calls the brother he didn’t know he had into his life. Havoc ensues and Charlie must find a way to extricate himself from his brother while learning what it means to be the son of Anansi, the African and Caribbean trickster god. Adult fans of Harry Potter will enjoy the sudden revelation of a secret life and Charlie’s ensuing transformation. Fans of mythology might enjoy the interweaving of the traditional Anansi

Books that don’t match their descriptions are extremely annoying, and this one especially so. The book jacket says, “It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.” And the beach scene really is exceedingly horrific. Unfortunately, the comic relief I was led to expect never followed. I failed to be even slightly amused by this story of Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, whose life becomes entangled with a vacationing English couple.

That isn’t to say this isn’t a good book. After Little Bee’s entire family is killed, her sister in an especially horrid way, Little Bee stows away

When Junior announces that he wants to attend the white school off the reservation he is not only ostracized, but tormented by his own people. As he dips one foot into the strange world of white people and keeps the other firmly planted on the reservation he feels torn between the better life he glimpses at his new school and the life he has always known.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is simultaneously hopeful and hopeless. Junior is one boy out of an entire reservation who is able to break the pattern that has so firmly gripped his family and friends. At the same time, the

According to Wikipedia, a “coming of age” story is one which details a young person's transition from adolescence to adulthood. This describes Every Last Cuckoo, except Sarah Lucas’ transition is one from a comfortable coupled existence as a mature woman to one in which she must make her own way. At seventy-five, Sarah’s husband of fifty years has died unexpectedly leaving Sarah and their two dogs alone in their rural Vermont home. After months of grieving and reminiscing about both good times and bad, Sarah is forced out of her depression when she takes in her troubled grand-daughter, Lottie

My reaction to Invisible Monsters is much the same as my great Aunt Kack’s to Northern Exposure back in the 80’s. She couldn’t believe what “they” were putting on TV, and I can’t believe what “they” are putting in print. And yet, just as my great Aunt Kack could be found in front of the boob tube every Monday night, for the past week or so, I could be found sprawled on my sofa reading Invisible Monsters.

When Shannon McFarland’s jawbone is shot off in a drive-by shooting, she winds up in a hospital for an extended stay. On her first venture outside a little boy calls her a monster. Enter

Tobias Wolff, who teaches creative writing at Stanford, has led an interesting life. His success comes despite a precarious childhood, from which he escaped through a combination of quick wit and good luck. So it’s no surprise that his novel Old School, which draws on his personal experience, is a fascinating exploration of the precarious nature of class and social status.

During his last year at an elite prep school, the nameless narrator in the novel is desperate to win one of three contests. The winner gains an exclusive audience with a visiting writer. The narrator fails to impress Robert