Pretty Little Secrets; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; Two Truths and a Lie; Dark Laughter; Torrents of Spring

"Pretty Little Secrets" by Sara Shepard is a PLL book that takes place out of order: it's a collection of novelettes about each of the girls in turn, taking place the Christmas after they find out that Mona was the first A but before they find out Real Ali is still alive. Hanna joins a fitness boot camp because she feels fat when her soon to be stepsister Kate moves in, and falls for the instructor. So does another girl in the class, and she ends up beating Hanna to the punch. Aria is home alone at Christmas, and her old boyfriend from Iceland shows up, on the run from the law for trying to protect some wildlife back in Iceland. Aria wants him to be able to stay in the States, so she forges her mom's signature and runs off to Atlantic City with him and they elope. When he goes all eco-terrorist and releases a pair of wild tigers into the population, Aria realizes her mistake and goes back to Rosewood without him. Emily takes a job as a mall Santa in order to infiltrate a group of girls who have been stealing and playing pranks. She finally feels like part of the group when she is exposed as a spy. And Spencer goes to Florida for the holiday where she and her sister Melissa fight over a guy until they discover he's in his thirties and married. Then they work together to get revenge.
Jonathan Safran Foer's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is his beautiful and surprisingly short book about a little boy named Oskar, whose father is killed in 9/11. Oskar is a strange kid, but sweet. He and his father used to have grand games of exploration, so when Oskar finds an envelope with a key labeled "Black" in a vase up on the top shelf of his dad's closet, he goes on a mission to find out where the key goes. Along the two year journey, he meets a lot of really incredible people and finally does figure out who the key belongs to, but it makes him sad because that means that's the true end of his dad, now he has nothing left. It was very powerful and very sweet, I really enjoyed it.
"Two Truths and a Lie" is Sara Shepard's third in the Lying Game series. Thayer is home and looks like a viable suspect in Sutton's murder, but we learn that it wasn't him: the night of Sutton's disappearance someone stole her car and hit Thayer with it while Sutton looked on. Thayer called Laurel to come pick him up and take him to the hospital while Sutton hid, fearing Laurel wouldn't help if she knew Sutton was involved. After Laurel takes Thayer to the hospital, Sutton is left alone in the desert without her car, and whoever ran Thayer over on the loose. Looks like Laurel is back on the table as a suspect.
I recently read the "Paris Wife", which talked about Hemingway's years in Paris. In the book she mentioned how Hemingway made fun of Sherwood Anderson's book "Dark Laughter" in his book "Torrents of Spring". So I read them both to see what I thought. I liked "Dark Laughter", it reminded me of Faulkner's "Wild Palms" for some reason. Bruce up and walks out on his wife Bernice one day, and ends up in a wheel making factory, where he becomes friends with Sponge, one of the long time workers there. He also starts having an affair with the factory owner's wife, Aline. When she gets pregnant she decides to leave Fred and run off with Bruce, who is now miserable again because he doesn't want to be tied down. "Torrents of Spring" was very short and silly, but it did have a few humorous bits to it. It just seems sad that Hemingway felt the need to skewer his friend like that.

Walking Dead Vols. 13 & 14; Fables Vol. 16: Super Team; Hilarity Ensues

Normally I get the Walking Dead in a big book that I borrow from a friend, but he didn't offer this time around, so I'm checking them out volume by volume. I think I missed number #12, but it could be so long since I've read the previous ones I just don't remember. Either way, Robert Kirkman's series continues with Rick and the gang making some inroads at the community they have taken up with. The wall is threatened by a large zombie hoard, which manages to penetrate it with dire consequences, and Rick plays the good guy to save a woman and child from her abusive husband with not so dire but not so awesome consequences. There's a bit of a wait for vol. 15, so I'll just have to try not to lose my thread.
"Fables Vol. 16: Super Team" by Bill Willingham finds the fables gearing up to take one last final stand against Mister Dark. They are starting to despair being able to trap him for good. North Wind, Bigby's father, finds out about the existence of Bigby and Snow's seventh child, a zephyr, and tells Bigby that he must kill him as he's sworn to do long ago. North Wind is torn by his love for his grandchildren and his desire to keep his promise. So he does the only thing he can do: he traps himself and Mister Dark away for good. Well...didn't see that one coming. I wonder how much longer they are going to go with this. Seems like it's run its course, but maybe that's just me.
Tucker Max is hilarious, and I was looking forward to "Hilarity Ensues", mostly for his tales of vacationing in Cancun for six weeks while attending law school, the reason now that most law schools require instructors to take attendance. We also got the full Miss Vermont story, about how a former hook up tried to sue him and shut down his website after he posted about her and used her real name. Bravo to Tucker for not backing down and standing up for his rights! It was a great story. I also enjoyed hearing about his time spent on the crab catching boat from TV's "Deadliest Catch" (which I've never seen). He finishes up with stories of his best friends' bachelor parties and weddings while seeming slightly wistful that he's never been married. He ends by saying he's done writing these types of memoirs because he no longer lives that sort of lifestyle. I have to give him a lot of credit for not milking it for more money. He certainly could have. Plus, he's giving away free eBook copies of "Sloppy Seconds", his book of stories that didn't quite make the cut. Thank you, Tucker!

Knowland Retribution; Roots of Desire; Ruthless

Forgot a few last night when I was updating. "The Knowland Retribution" by Richard Greener is the first "Locator" book. Fox recently started airing a show called "The Finder", which is based on characters in the Locator books. It's a fun show, and as soon as I saw that there was a book I knew I had to read it. It was very good, very engrossing. Walter Sherman is a Vietnam vet who is known as someone who can find people and keep his mouth shut about it. When a sniper starts taking out wealthy New York businessmen, they come to Sherman to find the sniper before he kills them all. Turns out the sniper is a man named Leonard Martin. Several years earlier, Leonard's wife, only daughter, and two grandsons died of e coli poisoning, and so did several hundred other people. The culprit was tainted beef coming out of a meat processing plant. The awful thing? The New York businessmen knew the beef was tainted and could kill, but because of the risk of losing millions of dollars they decided not to recall the beef or shut the plant down. When Martin finds this out he is understandably upset and takes his revenge. It was a hard book to read for me because many years ago I developed an unnatural fear of food poisoning and basically stopped eating. While I'm better now (and even eat steak rare, oooh...) it reminded me of why I became so terrified to begin with. There are unfortunately only two books in the Locator series, and I hope Greener writes some more because they are very engaging.
"Roots of Desire" by Marion Roach examined the cultural history and significance of red hair. While I love my (natural) blonde hair, I always secretly wanted red hair. There's just something about it. A lot of people feel that way, but it hasn't always been so. For a long time and in many cultures, red hair was looked at with suspicion. It was interesting and a quick read.
"Ruthless" by Sara Shephard is the tenth book in the Pretty Little Liars series. Spencer is sure that Kelsey is New A who is sending them threatening messages about what happened with Tabitha in Jamaica. Emily is sure that Kelsey is innocent and that New A is really Ali, who she believes survived the fire in the Poconos. In the end it turns out Kelsey wasn't New A when she tries to commit suicide and is locked up in a rehab facility. The girls are still being taunted by New A. I personally still think Spencer isn't all she appears to be, the girl has some serious mental issues sometimes. I think there are only going to be two more books in the series, so soon the truth will all be revealed! Yay :)

Woman in the Mirror; In the Garden of Beasts; Crazy for You

"Woman in the Mirror" by Cynthia Bulik was a wonderful self help guide on how not to confuse how you look with who you are. She gives practical advice on how to work through negative thoughts and feelings about yourself to move towards a more positive and healthy way of thinking about yourself. I found her straightforward advice very useful.
"In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson was one I started reading a few months ago and didn't get to finish before it was due, so I had to borrow it again and read the last 60 pages. William Dodd was an intellectual and historian when President Roosevelt asked him to be the ambassador to Germany in 1933, a role no one else wanted. Dodd took the job, thinking it wouldn't be that taxing and would give him time to finish his multi-volume work on the history of the Old South. Unfortunately, once Dodd and his family arrive in Germany he realizes the job is going to be much more work than he thought. Dodd becomes increasingly alarmed by what he sees going on around him as Hitler rises to power, and tries to warn Roosevelt and others back home, but no one listens to him. It was chilling to think that he tried so hard to be taken seriously and wasn't with such devastating consequences. As usual, Larson's work was well written and highly readable.
I read Jennifer Crusie's "Crazy for You" after reading on the Fiction_L listserv about how funny and light it was. I was in the mood for something that would make me laugh out loud. Well, it definitely wasn't funny at all. There were some lighthearted, funny moments, but the overall tone was so dark and scary that I didn't enjoy the funny parts. It was about a dangerous stalker named Bill, who is so deranged after his girlfriend, Quinn, leaves him that he refuses to even believe they aren't still together. Despite Quinn buying her own home, Bill persists in his dangerous thoughts. He stalks her, breaks into her house, has a copy of her key made so he can walk in whenever she isn't home. He locks her dog outside of the gate and calls Animal Control to pick it up. He tries to have the dog put down several times, and Quinn is able to rescue her at the last minute. She starts dating a new man named Nick, and Bill threatens him. The climax comes when he packs up his clothes and brings them to her house and unpacks his things while she is in the shower. When she gets out and demands that he leave, he attacks. Luckily the neighbor saw what was going on and called Nick, who comes to the rescue. Um...obviously the ladies on the Fiction_L listserv have a *very* different idea of "funny" than I do! Good lord, I was wincing throughout the whole book, praying that Quinn and her dog Katie weren't going to be permanently harmed by Bill. It's not that it wasn't an interesting book, I just would have enjoyed it much more if I hadn't been expecting fun and lighthearted.