The House of Broken Angels

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea  336 pp.

Big Angel de La Cruz is dying. The patriarch of a large family has gathered them together for the funeral of his mother followed by a celebration of what is to be his last birthday. The multi-generational clan gathers in Big Angel's Southern California home to reminisce reveals stories of their lives, sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, and often philosophical. Occasionally I was confused about which way the characters are related but it didn't really matter. A large part of the story focuses on Big Angel's much younger half-brother, Little Angel, who was not brought up with the others. The story is hard to describe but I enjoyed listening to the audiobook.

11 Birthdays

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass  267 pp.

I read this as a possibility for use with my kids book club. It didn't make the cut. It's an okay story but I had to keep reminding myself it was written for kids when I found problems in the story. Essentially it's about two kids, Amanda & Leo, who were born on the same day and who celebrate every birthday together until their 11th because of something that happened on their 10th birthday. Their 11th birthday keeps repeating (like the movie "Groundhog Day") while they try to figure out how to stop it. Of course, there is a mysterious old woman and an old family feud causing all this. As I said, it's an okay book, but just okay.