December Books

 Fragile by Lisa Unger -- When a local girl goes missing, folks wonder if Char has merely gone to New York City to escape small-time life. Maggie isn't convinced - and her son, Char's boyfriend, agrees. Pretty good story. It's funny reading this book which is about 15 years old and seeing teenagers post on Facebook. At one point Ricky urges his mom to get on Facebook to reconnect with her old friends, and tells her about "status bar updates" which is where they look for clues about Char after her disappearance. 

Beneath the Surface by Kaira Rouda -- Richard is a ruthless business leader and father. He invites his children and their spouses for a weekend on his huge yacht. Paige is frightened of being out on the water, but goes along because she feels it's hers and Ted's chance to get in good and become the head of the company. John and Rachel have similar plans. Pretty good. 

Count My Lies by Sophie Stava -- As soon as Sloane introduces herself as a nurse named Caitlin to the handsome dad at the park whose daughter is stung by a bee, she continues the lies. But she admits that's what she does. After she meets Violet, mom to Harper the girl stung by the bee, she finds a true friend - and she seeks to dress and look more like her new BFF. Meanwhile Violet takes it all in stride, with kindness and helpfulness even. But is Violet lying as well?  Pretty cool! 

The Women of Oak Ridge by Michelle Shocklee -- An interesting story about a "secret city" within the US during World War II. The workers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, didn't know they were helping enrich uranium that led to the atom bomb being dropped in Japan. This follows the story of Maebelle as she left her coal mining community in Kentucky to get one of these better-paying government jobs. Thirty years later her niece Laurel returns to Oak Ridge to interview folks in the community about their experiences and thoughts on what happened. 

Dating After the End of the World by Jeneva Rose -- I've liked the other three books from this author so I gave this a try despite it having zombies in it. Uhhhh, thankfully it was a pretty-fast read, and I skipped over a few paragraphs because zombies aren't my thing. Not sure I'll read a book two of this type. 

A Mother Always Knows by Sarah Strohmeyer -- Stella was ten years old when she left a cult. Her mother was murdered, and Stella was unsure who killed her. Years later her family's story is back in the news and Stella is looking for answers. 

The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce -- Four siblings - Netta, Susan, Goose (short for Gustav), and Iris - gather with their 70-something father in a noodle bar where he tells them he's getting married to Bella-Mae, an artist who is younger than the four of them. (She's 27.) Later the siblings travel to their family's villa on an Italian island where they discover more about Bella-Mae, each other, and themselves. 

The Unveiling by Quan Barry -- I heard this author interviewed on an NPR program so when I saw her book in the library, I decided to read it.  I enjoyed the trivia about Antartica, but I didn't really love the main character Striker who is scouting film locations. She's the only Black person among several white folks...except for Hector who is brown. Maybe I just didn't understand the book all that well. It wasn't terrible, but not one I enjoyed.

The Bachelorette Party Camilla Sten -- Tessa doesn't want to attend the bachelorette party for a childhood best friend, but when she hears it will be in a place where four friends went missing ten years ago, the possibility of solving a mystery ... well, suddenly she's OK with going to this event. She's always been a true-crimes fan, and now she needs to redeem herself so maybe she can figure out what happened to Matilda and her friends ten years ago. 

In the Time of Five Pumpkins by Alexander McCall Smith -- another story featuring Precious and Grace and other loveable characters from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. 

The Fault Between Us by Stephanie Landsem -- This was an interesting way to learn about living near and working at Yellowstone National Park in the 1950s and the Hebgen Lake Earthquake. The author draws upon real-life stories her mom and aunts shared about their experiences there. I enjoyed the upbeat message as well since I tend to read a lot of thrillers with less-than-upbeat themes. A couple of things I wanted to save for my own reflection: From the discussion questions on page 341: "Do you sense God's love through the wonders of nature?" and also from the last page of the story, "Courage arose out of fear, faith emerged from doubt ... and hope transcended despair" and as well as "...what they'd been given in their darkest moments. Holding on to hope." (pg. 336)

The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards -- Six friends from 1999 are brought back together 25 years later when the professor who tasked them with creating a new dating site, died and one of the couples hosts a dinner party. This book goes from now to back then telling the story of Lily, the genius who writes the code, as well as the narrator, Will, and the other pals, Rohan, Sophie, Georgina, Theo. Pretty good. 

The Highly Effective Detective by Richard Yancey -- First book in the Teddy Ruzak series...he's a pretty likeable guy, but I'm not sure I'll read more of these books as he's a bit too wordy for me at times. We'll see. He is hired to find who killed six goslings (yes, really), but that leads to something more serious. 

I Can See in the Dark by Karin Fossum -- This book is translated from Norwegian so it was kind of cool learning a bit about Norway just by the setting of the book. Riktor is a nurse in a care home for mostly elderly people. He has a fascination with death and he is a bit of an odd fellow. One day a police officer shows up and arrests him for a murder at the care home. Riktor maintains his innocence. 

The Resting Place by Camilla Sten -- A mystery/thriller concerning Eleanor who has prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize a familiar person's face, and her grandmother Vivianne's secret house. She travels to this remote location with her boyfriend and a lawyer and her aunt Veronika shows up. Weird stuff happens. Pretty good.