Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett

Wonderful book, a re-read for a book group, and still absolutely amazing. A group of dignitaries are taken hostage in an unnamed South American country (based on the 146 day long take-over of the Japanese embassy) and the hostages and their captives interact and develop truly remarkable relationships.

Full Dark House, by Christopher Fowler

Interesting and well done mystery, going back and forth from the London Blitz to London in 1985. I have the feeling it didn't make a lot of sense, and I really have no idea what happened, now that I think about it, but I did enjoy the ride.

An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser

Wonderful classic American literature. Longer than I remembered (800+ pages!) but still so so so good. Book club book.

The Rapture, by Liz Jensen

Re-read for book group, vivid and dizzying near-future ecological nightmare, with timely references to evangelical Christianity, deep sea drilling gone wrong, and broken weather.

The Last Child, by John Hart

Very good mystery/thriller. After his twin sister goes missing from their small southern town, 13 year old Johnny's mother falls apart, his father leaves, and he goes searching for who took Alyssa. In a tightly written creeping horror, suspicion and small town claustrophobia create a very nasty and oppressive vibe, and the impressively twisty plot was solid.

Mariette in Ecstasy, by Ron Hansen

Beautiful, haunting novel. 17 year old Mariette Baptiste joins a convent in upstate New York in 1906, and her passionate faith disrupts the calm orders of the priory. Made for a fantastic book discussion!!!

A is for Alibi, by Sue Grafton

Awful, LA noir-ish tough chick mystery. Plot holes you could fly a 747 through, and I didn't care if the heroine, Kinsey, lived, died, or dematerialized into a pluff of smoke. In fact, that would have made her (and the book) substantially more interesting, and would not have interfered with what passed for a logical storyline. Can't belive Grafton is up to U in the alphabet series- readers' appetite for shite seems insatiable.

Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding

Again! For a book group, this time, to be fair! In fact, this was a blast, we had it for the Jane Austen Book Club (with only 6 novels and some unfinished works and juvenalia, there's a very finite amount of genuine Austen!) so I've been trying to branch out (see Bride and Prejudice, etc). We had fun with this one, but the general concensus was that
1. Elizabeth Bennet would never make blue soup.
and
2. The best thing about any Mr. Darcy is his real-estate.

The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs

A. J. Jacobs spent a year trying to live obeying the 720 rules he found when reading about 10 different versions of the bible. From the 10 commandments to the wildly obscure, his quest to find out how relevant ancient moral and ritual law is in the 21st century is definitely entertaining, and surprisingly thought provoking. He is, of course, a trivia fountain, but about halfway through the book, he seems to take what started as a jokey experiment much more seriously, and really tries to find out what his own faith means. Good, fun read.

The Moving Target, by Ross MacDonald

Classic LA tough-guy noir crime fiction, very much in the Dashiel Hammett/Chinatown flavor.

Bride and Prejudice

Really fantastic Bollywood take on Pride and Prejudice, with the stunningly lovely Aishwarya Rai as Lalita, the Elizabeth Bennet character. Made me want to dance and wear saris.

How To Be Good, by Nick Hornby

Re-read for a book group, but I didn't love it any the less this time around.
Doctor Katie Carr has always defined her 'goodness' by the people around her- her absent minded workmate Becca, her husband, The Angriest Man In Holloway (he makes his living writing a bile-filled column for the paper), and by knowing that she, as a GP, at least tries to make a difference. After her husband, David, visits an alternative healer, and makes a sudden about-face in terms of how he lives his life, Katie is adrift, as are their (wonderfully and realistically written) children, Molly and Tom. Fantastic book, this, and made for an excellent, excellent book group discussion title.

"Later, half-asleep, I start to dream about all the people in the world who live bad lives- all the drug dealers and arms manufactures and corrupt politicians, all the cynical bastards everywhere - getting touched by GoodNews and changing like David has changed. The dream scares me. Because I need these people - they serve as my compass. Due south there are saints and nurses and teachers in inner-city schools; due north, there are managing directors of tobacco companies and angry local newspaper columnists. Please don't take my due north away, because then I will be adrift, lost in a land where the things I have done and the things I haven't done really mean something."

Blood Lure, by Nevada Barr

This was so awful, I am going to break one of my own rules and give a spoiler. The bear did it. Save your time.

Mrs. Tim Flies Home, by D.E. Stevenson

The last of the Mrs. Tim Christie series, and let me just say that I was weeping like a baby at the end, not because it was sad, but because I was that sorry to be done with them. These 4 books were all wonderful, in different ways, but the growth of the characters over the years was so beautifully done with such a light touch, and I only wish there were dozens more.

Dialogues of the Dead, by Reginald Hill

Well written and wildly intricate mystery- what at first seems like a standard (but very good) police procedural turns into an intense psychological switcheroo thriller. Excellent Yorkshire dialect, too.

Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938, by R.A. Scotti

Re-read for book group, still fantastic non-fiction that reads like a thriller, still made me cry in parts. Hard to believe the devastation that happened right here in Rhode Island.