Okay, I think I'm missing a whole bunch of books because, instead of writing them down immediately after finishing them, I think "oh, I'll remember", and then I never do. Luckily I have a paper back up, I just have to consult it and get caught up. Anyways...
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman was very good, hard to describe but I really enjoyed it. Shadow is released from prison and takes a job with a sketchy guy called Mr. Wednesday after his wife is killed in a car accident and he realizes he has nothing to go back home to. He kind of wove in ancient mythology and gods with the idea of people bringing their old gods over from the old country but then there also being new gods created or already here? Not sure, I was a little fuzzy on the details. But it held my attention better than most sci fi/fantasy books do, so yay for that!
Moving on. I saw the film "Rosewood" a few weeks ago and wanted to know more about what took place in the small Florida town in 1923. "Like Judgement Day" by Michael D'Orso didn't really tell so much about Rosewood and its residents as it explained the nuances of Florida legislation (fascinating stuff). I guess it's nearly impossible to know what happened nearly a century before for sure, of course eye witness accounts are spotty at best, but what it boiled down to was that an angry mob burned down the town, killing many black residents and displacing the entire remaining citizens. Seventy three years later, the survivors and their descendants were awarded compensation for their loss from the state of Florida. The movie was actually very good, if not sad.
"Still Missing" by Beth Gutcheon took place in 1980, so it felt a bit dated but it was interesting. It was inspired by the Ethan Patz disappearance and there was a movie which I've never seen called "Without a Trace" that was based on the book. Boy, that sounds way more convoluted then it needs to be. At any rate, Susan Selky kisses her six year old son, Alex, goodbye one morning and watches him walk off to school. He doesn't return home that afternoon and she discovers he never made it to school, he simply vanished. At first the police and neighbors and friends are eager and gung ho to help her find him, but after the weeks go by and there's still no trace of him their eagerness starts to wane and Susan finds herself fighting to keep attention focused on finding Alex. When a man who used to clean their house is arrested for homosexual activities, the police try to pin Alex's disappearance on him and wash their hands of the whole deal, but Susan isn't convinced he is guilty.
"Size 12 is Not Fat" by Meg Cabot was light and fluffy fun. I've read a few of her YA novels and found them entertaining. I really liked "Avalon High", I thought it was very clever the way she wove in Arthurian mythology. But anyway, "Size 12" deals with a former pop star who is dropped by her record label and her ex-fiance and forced to take work in a college residence hall (an uppity name for a dorm) after her mother runs off with all her money. Heather is surprising optimistic about the whole thing, at least until girls start turning up dead. Their deaths are ruled accidental, caused by a dangerous hobby known as elevator surfing. Heather doesn't buy it, and it turns out she's right: someone is murdering the girls and now the killer is out to silence her, too. While the mystery bit was pretty predictable (I figured it out way in advance, which almost never happens) it was still a cute read and I couldn't help but like Heather. She was so nice but not in a "gag me, she's too good to be true" kind of a way.
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