Home Before Dark

 

Riley Sager's latest, "Home Before Dark", was a little disappointing. I was surprised, because normally I really enjoy Sager's books. The premise was interesting: Maggie Holt has lived her life in the shadow of The Book (always in caps). When she was five, her parents bought Baneberry Hall in Bartley, Vermont. They only lived there a few weeks before fleeing in the middle of the night with only their clothes on their backs, claiming that the house was haunted by malevolent spirits who were trying to kill Maggie. Maggie's dad, Ewan, got a big book deal out of it, and "House of Horrors" became a huge bestseller. Unfortunately, it's plagued Maggie her whole life, more so because she thinks it was  all a big fat lie. She doesn't remember anything her dad recounted in the The Book. Her parents got divorced a few years after The Book was published and refuse to discuss it. 

Maggie's father dies, and Maggie discovers that he never sold Baneberry Hall and now she owns it. She's determined to get to the truth of the matter so she decides to move in while she fixes it up to put it on the market. The house certainly does seem haunted: lights and record players turn on by themselves, Maggie keeps seeing shadows of people both inside and outside, and things keep disappearing. Since her dad recounted all the same things in The Book, it's starting to look like maybe it all wasn't such a big lie, after all. It all made sense in the end, but it was disappointing. I think I would have preferred if the house had actually been haunted. 

Survive the Night

 

I put off reading Sager's latest because I didn't love "Home Before Dark", and a friend at work told me this one wasn't great, either. I really liked it, though. 

Charlie is still in a fog after her best friend and roommate, Maddy, was murdered a few months earlier. Charlie's parents died in a car crash four years ago and ever since Charlie's had hallucinations. She slips into what she refers to as "movies" in her mind and she can't tell what's real and what's fake. She saw Maddy talking to the man who most likely killed her but she doesn't know if the man she saw was real or made up. She's made the painful decision to leave college and her boyfriend, Robbie, and go back home to Ohio. The only problem is she needs a ride since she hasn't driven since her parents died. 

She meets Josh at the rideshare board. He's headed to Ohio too and offers to take her. Robbie isn't thrilled with her catching a ride with a complete stranger, but Charlie insists she'll be careful and call him from the road. They even come up with a code system if she's in trouble (the book takes place in 1991, so before cell phones were a thing). 

Their ride starts off uneventfully but quickly turns weird. Josh is clearly not who he claimed to be but Charlie isn't sure if she can trust what her mind is telling her. It was full of twists and turns and of course red herrings. I was trying really hard to see if I could figure out the ending before I got there but I had no clue. 

Adrian Mole: the Lost Years; Heaven; Dark Angel; Fallen Hearts

I eagerly gobbled up Sue Townsend's "Adrian Mole: the Lost Years", which covers 1984 through 1991, roughly, and enjoyed the heck out of it. Funny, charming stuff. Then I moved on to garbage :)
Years and years and years ago, my little sister and I both devoured V.C. Andrews' Casteel family series. Over the weekend, with piles of brand new books waiting, I instead choose to reread the first three in the series. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
"Heaven" introduces us to the Casteel family, the lowest of the hillbilly scum in the mountains of West Virginia known as the Willies. Heaven lives with her father's parents, her father and stepmother, and her four half-siblings in a tiny two room shack. She learns at the age of ten that she's not fully related to her brothers and sisters, that she is instead a product of her father's first marriage to a young Bostonian runaway named Leigh (the fact that her younger brother is only 6 months younger than her might have tipped me off, but hey, she *was* only ten when she found out. Of course the really horrifying part is that Luke was fooling around on his wife who was six months pregnant. That gives you a good idea as to how awesome he is). The Casteel family have it pretty rough in their mountain shack, and when Luke, her dad, gets sick and starts spending less time with the family, his wife and Heaven's stepmom Sarah gets pretty irritated and eventually she takes off, leaving the kids to fend for themselves and look after Grandpa after Granny dies. Dad decides to sell his kids rather than, hmmm, I don't know, take care of them. I actually thought this was a good idea on his part, and the kids should have been grateful. I know I would have been, to escape that awful miserable poverty. And luckily the two little kids go to a great home and live happily ever after (although their relationship seemed like it might go incestuous, but hey, it's V.C. Andrews, and that's par for the course) but Tom, Fanny, and Heaven aren't so lucky. Heaven ends up in the home of one of Luke's ex-girlfriends, Kitty, whom he knocked up before Leigh (good grief, dude). Kitty gave herself an abortion and ended up barren, so she was excited to be able to buy one of Luke's kids. She basically treats Heaven like a live in slave, making her cook, clean, do the laundry, for hours on end before and after school. And her husband seduces her and takes advantage of her. Still, all in all, I think it was a better ending than staying in the shack in the Willies. At least she didn't starve to death.
"Dark Angel" has Heaven going off in search of her mother's Bostonian relatives and finding out they're fabulously rich (there is always a pattern like this in Andrews' books, god love her) but very twisted. Turns out her step-grandfather was the one who got her 13 year old mother pregnant, and that's why Leigh ran away from her wealthy Boston home and ended up with Luke Casteel. Awesome. Of course she found out after she had fallen in love and decided to marry Tony's younger brother Troy, who is her uncle. Whoops. When we were kids my sister and I *adored* Troy. We swooned every time he was mentioned, and rereading it I'm not sure why. He's kind of annoying, all doom and gloom and "oh my god I just know I'm going to die before I'm thirty" blah, blah, blah. Dude! You're fantastically wealthy, a talented artist who gets to spend his whole day doing whatever he wants, and gorgeous. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BE DEPRESSED ABOUT?? Seriously? Anyway, Heaven graduates from college and returns to Winnerrow, the little town in the valley of the Willies, to teach school there to the poor hill children like she always planned.
In "Fallen Hearts" Heaven marries her high school sweetheart, Logan, and they go to Farthinggale Manor, Tony Tatterton's home, for a reception. Tony offers Logan a substantial part in his company, which Logan eagerly accepts. Heaven has dark reservations about how Tony is trying to control their lives, but Logan is so excited about being a rich businessman that she goes along with the plan. Logan is building a toy factory in Winnerrow and makes frequent trips back there, so frequent he manages to knock up Heaven's sister Fanny. Whoops! Meanwhile, Heaven discovers that Troy faked his own death, and after a night of forbidden passion she too is pregnant. Jesus, doesn't anyone use condoms around here? It's not difficult, people. So Luke and his new wife are killed in an accident and Heaven takes over custody of their little boy, Drake. What really got to me in this book was how she was so eager to return to the Willies and kept waxing poetic about how wonderful it was. Um...no, I read about your childhood and it sucked pretty bad. Give me the big Boston mansion and the servants and the Rolls-Royce any day. But maybe I'm just shallow like that.
Anyway, when Fanny steals Drake with the intention of keeping him just because she's petty and jealous and wants whatever Heaven has, there's an ugly court battle where are their dirty laundry is aired in public and in the end Heaven ends up paying her a ton of money to turn Drake over to her. I don't know why she wanted him so bad, anyway, since she had her own kid on the way plus she wasn't even related to Drake since Tony Tatterton was her biological father, not Luke Casteel. Well, whatever. In the end Fanny and Heaven give birth on the same night, Fanny to Logan's little boy whom she names Luke, and Heaven to Troy's little girl (although Logan doesn't know it) whom she names Annie. At least Heaven wasn't all high and mighty over Logan after he knocked up Fanny, since she'd slept with Troy, after all. Out of all of V.C. Andrews books I think I like this series the best because there is no predictable evil grandmother and the characters are less annoying and more likable than some of the other series. I stopped reading halfway through "Ruby", so the only other series I have to compare it to is the "Flowers in the Attic" (EPICALLY bad, love it) and the Cutler series, which I honestly don't remember that well. There are no excuses ever made for Tony Tatterton, the real villain of the whole story. I think I will be rereading for a bit. Which is not good, because I have a ton of brand new library books. But I've found in the past that when I try to force myself NOT to reread, it just doesn't work out. I need to go with it until it's done.

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.

Bitter is the New Black; Such a Pretty Fat; Destination Morgue: L.A. Tales; The Sound and the Fury: William Faulkner and the Lost Cause; Anything Goes; Roses

Oh lordy am I behind. I've sort of been losing a lot of myself lately, I feel like life is coming apart at the seams and I'm scrambling to hold onto the strings. I actually contemplated giving up on this, but I think I might regret it someday if I do, so along I'll plod. Here goes.
Two by Jen Lancaster, which were really funny and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of her books. First was "Bitter is the New Black", about how she and her fiance both lost their high-paying, high-powered jobs and in their poverty discovered the important things in life. It sounds sentimental and sappy, but it really wasn't. "Such a Pretty Fat" was her account of how she set about losing weight and getting into shape. It wasn't quite as funny, because it's a topic that hits entirely close to home for me, but I have to give her major credit for talking so openly about such an intensely painful subject.
"Destination Morgue: L.A. Tales" by James Ellroy was sheer masterpiece. I saw him a few months ago at the L.A. Times of Festival of Books and he is such a dynamic speaker. I've read a few of his books (highly recommend "My Dark Places") and I've wanted to read more. "Destination Morgue" was an intriguing mix of nonfiction and fiction, starting off with a few short stories of unsolved L.A. murders and how they've affected him, and the last half of the book was a collection of short fiction staring an L.A. detective and his lady love. He skillfully wove real life characters into the fiction and his abrasive style and hardcore slang make Ellroy second to none.
"The Sound and the Fury: Faulkner and the Lost Cause" by John T. Matthews was a short little critical interpretation of Faulkner's masterpiece. If I'm not reading Faulkner then I want to read more about him and his brilliance, and this one was very good, highly readable and he had some interesting insights as to the Compson household. Nothing I haven't read before, obviously, since I've read so much about "The Sound and the Fury", but interesting nonetheless.
"Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties" by Lucy Moore was a fun little read about the decade that defined excess and opulence before it all came crashing down. History seems to always repeat itself, even if we do our best to remember it. Her stories about what was going on in the '20s, everything from Jack Dempsey to Charles Lindbergh, drew parallels to what was going on over the last decade before we lost it all.
And finally, "Roses" by Leila Meacham. I've heard really great things about this book: a sweeping, grand epic about love and revenge set in the lush background of my favorite locale: Texas. It was good, but it fell short of my expectations. I was thinking more like "Giant" by Edna Ferber (I should have known better) but it was pale and weak in comparison.

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.

The Case of the Haunted Husband; Jessica Lange: an Adventurer's Heart; The Case of the Calendar Girl; The Case of the Signing Skirt; The Case of the Duplicate Daughter; The Fourth Rule; The Case of the Spurious Spinster

 

Okay, let's get this party rolling!

This is one of the best Mason books I've read so far. Stephanie is hitchhiking from San Francisco to L.A. The first driver who picks her up and leaves her in Bakersfield was a nice guy, but the next guy who picks her up is a wolf. He's drinking, driving too fast, and can't keep his hands to himself. He causes a terrible wreck, and when Stephanie comes to she's behind the wheel of the car with the man nowhere in sight. She's taken to the hospital and accused of vehicular manslaughter, despite her insistence that she wasn't driving. 

Perry comes on the case and starts looking for the driver. Turns out the car belongs to a wealthy Hollywood producer who claims it was stolen earlier in the day and he has no idea who could have been driving it. There were some really fun scenes with Lt. Tragg being part of the gang, and Paul, Perry, and Tragg shamelessly flirting with Della all at the same time. 

Jessica Lange is a terrific actress, I absolutely loved her in "American Horror Story". I had no idea she was with Sam Shepherd for as long as she was: over two decades, and they had two kids together. She also had a daughter with Baryshnikov, the famous ballet dancer. It was a very interesting story about a woman who doesn't lead a typical Hollywood life. 

This was another terrific one, I loved it. Contractor Ansley is being given rough treatment by the crooked inspectors. He's been resistant to paying out a bribe to Meridith Borden, a self-proclaimed "public relations expert". He finally caves and goes to visit Borden, pays him off, and goes to leave. As he's turning out of his driveway, another car is turning in and hits him. He's fine, but the other car turns on its side. It's dark, so he goes fumbling around trying to see if the driver needs help. He can just make out an unconscious female in the grass, and he starts for the house to get help. The woman starts yelling, so he turns back and helps her up. She claims she's fine and he offers to give her a ride home. She gives him a phony name and address and he drops her off. 

Afterwards, he goes to restaurant and starts wondering if he should report the accident to the police. Luckily (for him, obviously, not so much for them) Mason and Della are eating dinner, and he interrupts to ask for advice. The three of them return to the estate. Perry suggests there may have been two women in the car, but before they can make a really thorough search, the automatic gates close and lock and some ferocious dogs come running. They barely make it over the wall in time. 

Borden is found murdered the next morning and Perry was right: there were two women in the car, each telling a very different story. Ansley is arrested for the murder and Perry is able to successfully prove his innocence. Burger turns around and charges one of the women, Dawn, with murder. Perry ends up defending her and also gets her acquitted. I think that was the first time Perry defended two people for the same crime. 

I liked this one a lot, too. Ellen Robb is a singer and cigarette girl in a gambling joint in Rowena (a stand in for Gardena, which was apparently quite the local spot for illegal gambling back in the day). Her boss wants her to help him cheat a man named Ellis during a poker game and Ellen refuses, so he frames her for theft and throws her out. She goes to Mason for help. 

Ellis's wife turns up dead, and Ellen is the prime suspect. Ellis had a thing for her, but according to Ellen, it was one sided. A gun shows up in Ellen's bag (one of many in this book, I think there were five total). Perry pulls some fast tactics with the guns. Nothing *technically* illegal, just not 100% on the up and up. 

As usual, Gardner makes the D.A. look like a chump. Two bullets were recovered, and he seems rather blasé as to if they were fired from the same gun (spoiler: they weren't). 

A fun twist that hasn't been used in a Mason book before (at least not that I recall): identical twins! Although we don't find that out until the end, I felt like I really should have guessed it. 

Carter Gilman asks his daughter, Muriell, to fix him another egg and sausage for breakfast. While she's in the kitchen, her father disappears, leaving behind his briefcase and a note not to call the police, but rather go to Perry Mason. 

Muriell does, and Mason is intrigued. He goes out to visit the house and finds $10,000 in one hundred dollar bills strewn around Gilman's woodworking shop, along with a broken chair and a spilled can of red paint. 

Vera Martell, a P.I. from Las Vegas is found murdered. Word on the street is that she was blackmailing Gilman's second wife because her daughter, Glamis, is illegitimate. There were some fun scenes with Mason and Tragg again and of course the awesome courtroom battles. 

Taking a brief break from Perry Mason, I finished the fourth Riley Wolfe book by Lindsay. It was pretty good. 

Riley is in London to steal the Rosetta Stone. Why? Well, why not? He needs a new challenge. While casing the Museum of London he meets a young woman named Caitlin. The two of them get along like a house afire, and even though Riley realizes there are red flags all over the place, he lets Caitlin get close. Typical man. Throw a pretty girl in front of them and they lose all common sense. 

Riley barely manages to get away when the heist goes sixes and sevens, and Caitlin is kidnapped by a uber villain named the Cobra. So now he has to save her from the Cobra. Fun twist at the end that I didn't see coming. 

And finally (whew!) "The Case of the Spurious Spinster". Sue Fisher is Endicott Campbell's assistant, and the wealthy majority stockholder of their company is due to show up Monday from South America to look over the books. Sue comes in on Saturday to make sure things are in good order. Elizabeth Dow, Campbell's nanny, drops by with Carleton, Campbell's little boy, and asks Sue to keep an eye on him for a little bit. Sue agrees and Dow leaves. Sue asks Carleton about the shoebox he's carrying, and Carleton tells her he and his dad switched treasures. His dad has his, and he has his dad's. Curious, Sue finally manages to get a peek inside the box and finds it's stuffed with hundred dollar bills. She manages to convince Carleton to put it in the safe. 

Dow comes back for her charge, and just in time, too. Amelia Corning, the wealthy stockholder, calls from the airport, disgruntled that no one is there to meet her, claiming she cabled that she was coming early. Sue hops in a cab and meets the frail woman in the wheelchair and gets her set up in her hotel. She frantically tries to find Campbell to warn him that Miss Corning wants to see him, but she can't find him anywhere. Amelia insists on looking at the books right then and there, so Sue takes her to the office. Amelia sends her out to buy suitcases so she can pack up the books and papers and take them back to her hotel room. Then, of course, she vanishes. Oh, and so does the shoebox full of money. 

But wait! On Sunday *another* woman claiming to be Amelia Corning shows up. Which one was the imposter? Where did the money that was embezzled from the company go? Oh, and by the way, who killed Ken Lowry, the manager of the fake mine that was at the cause of the whole mess? 

 
 

Psycho USA; As I Remember; Fables Vol. 17; Cascade; Cold Dish; Locke & Key Vol. 1; Most Talkative; Divergent

Okay, a bunch of these are from that time period where I couldn't get Blogger to work on my computer. Here we go!

"Psycho USA" by Harold Schechter was a fun collection of little remembered killers. Why is it that some crime stick in our collective consciousness and yet others, equally horrific, are forgotten? Interesting question that I don't know the answer to. Schechter does his best to bring them back to mind. Some truly terrible things in this one.

"As I Remember" by Lillian Gilbreth was a sweet memoir about raising 11 children. She was a kind, humble lady who gave all the credit for her professional success in life to her late husband. I wish this world had more Gilbreths and less reality show trash.

"Fables Vol. 17" by Bill Willingham is his latest in the continuing saga of our storybook friends. Now that North Wind is dead, having taken out the Dark Man, it looks like one of Snow White and Bigby's cubs will have to take his place. A newly slim Ms. Pratt is planning her revenge on the fables as they prepare to move back to Manhattan. I was kind of ambivalent about this one: I think he's taken the series as far as he can and it's sort of time to move on.

"Cascade" by Maryanne O'Hara was a great book that takes places during the Great Depression. Dez married Asa because her father was dying and they were losing their home. She was desperate, and had no where to go and no one to turn to. A few months after the wedding, her father is dead and Dez is stuck married to a man who, while nice enough, wants a family and she doesn't. Dez is an artist, and dreams of going to New York. She feels trapped in Cascade, with only her fellow artist friend Jacob to ease the boredom. Meanwhile, it looks like their town will be destroyed in order to build a reservoir for Boston. Dez takes advantage of the situation and creates a series of postcards celebrating small town life that are picked up by a national magazine. Seizing her chance, Dez moves to New York to work for the magazine full time, after making sure her father's beloved playhouse will be moved to another location before the town of Cascade is flooded. There was a neat twist at the end that I didn't see coming.

"Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson is his first Walt Longmire book. I've been watching the show, mainly because the actor who plays Walt looks like Brett Favre :) The show is actually pretty good, but the book was awful. Johnson writes like you're in his head and starts off in the middle of a thought or a sentence, leaving me to wonder if I missed a page or a paragraph. Very frustrating. And the ending in this one was just ridiculous.

Okay, new ones! "Most Talkative" by Andy Cohen was pretty fun, it was light and breezy. Andy works for Bravo and is responsible for some of the most banal reality shows on TV. I don't watch any of them, but I still enjoyed reading how he developed them and puts the shows together.

"Divergent" by Veronica Roth is the first in a YA dystopian series. I liked it. Beatrice is part of a faction called Abnegation: they are selfless. On Choosing Day, her test results are inconclusive: she is Divergent, and could go into several different factions equally well. She chooses Dauntless because she thinks they are brave, and goes through the brutal initiation process. She makes some friends and a boyfriend, but when her mom comes to visit her she asks Tris (as she's now known) to seek out her older brother, Caleb, who joined Erudite, and ask him to investigate the serum that's used during the tests. Tris soon discovers a plot being hatched by the Erudite leaders to wrest control away from the Abnegation by making the Dauntless their soldiers using drugs and simulation. The book ends with a full on war going down. I'm curious to see where this is headed.

This Storm; The Elephant of Surprise

I wish I could succinctly and beautifully sum up the genius that is James Ellroy, but I can't. The sequel to "Perfida" picks up where it left off: New Year's 1942. L.A. is gripped by war fever. There's all the usual Ellroy tropes: police corruptions and cover-ups, scandals, and unsolved murders with a few more things thrown in: hunt for stolen gold, war profiteering, and arson. It was gritty and dark and lots of fun.

I heard Lansdale was coming out with a new Hap and Leonard book a few months ago and put it on hold, even though there were four others I haven't read yet since "Vanilla Ride". I thought "no problem, I'll whip through those four before the new one comes in".
I, of course, did not. It's not really necessary to read these in order, but I think it helps, since they build on each other.
Hap and Leonard are driving home when they get caught in a bad storm. They rescue a young woman who is out in the middle of the road. Bad guys are after her and tried to cut out her tongue. As soon as they get her loaded in the car, the bad guys show up. They manage to escape and take her to the hospital, where the bad guys show up, kill the cop protecting her, and have a shoot out with Hap and Leonard. They take her to a police station. Safe, right? Well, it's Hap and Leonard, so...no. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it.