Sea creatures, by Susanna Daniel

A novel about a difficult choice.  Georgia Quillian met her husband, Graham at a sleep clinic in the Chicago area, but Graham’s sleep problems are far worse than the garden-variety  insomnia she has.  He has “parasomnia” which causes him to do very frightening things while asleep, so frightening that most of the time he fights off sleep for days, then literally chains himself to the wall so that he won’t be able to harm himself – or others—when he finally has to succumb to it.  Despite this handicap, he is a successful researcher, in demand enough that when they are forced to Illinois leave because of something he may have done while asleep, he is able to find a new job researching hurricanes in the Miami area, which is Georgia’s hometown.  While Graham is at work, Georgia stays in the decrepit houseboat they have bought and parked outside her parents’ home on the Coral Gables waterway and cares for their three-year-old son, Frankie.  Troublingly, Frankie has recently stopped speaking at all.  To bring in some needed income, and keep herself busy, she takes a job as an assistant to a reclusive artist who has isolated himself in his house in “Stiltsville,” a group of dwellings literally up on stilts in the middle of the ocean.  At first, her job is mainly ferrying groceries and supplies out to Charlie, but as time passes, she, Frankie and Charlie become close.  As the historic Hurricane Andrew bears down on the area, all of their lives will be changed forever.  An interesting and disturbing book.  311 pp.

The woman upstairs, by Claire Messud

“When you’re the Woman Upstairs, nobody thinks of you first.  Nobody calls you before anyone else, or sends you the first postcard.   Once your mother dies, nobody loves you best of all.”  This is the grim reality that Nora Eldridge faces in this novel about art, love, and betrayal.  Nora was supposed to become a Great Artist; instead she teaches third grade and fits her art in where she can in her solitary rooms upstairs.  In her early forties, she feels that life has passed her by.   Then a new boy comes into her class, the strikingly beautiful Reza Shahid, son of a Lebanese father, Skandar, and Italian mother, Sirena.   They have left their home in Paris for a year in Cambridge, where Skandar is at Harvard.  Sirena is a “real” artist – with recognized work and on the cusp of breaking through to real critical acclaim.  Events draw Nora into their close circle where she finds herself falling in love with all of them.   The aptly named Sirena suggests that they share the rent on a large loft studio and Nora begins to get serious about making her own artistic mark.  As the Shahid’s year in Cambridge draws to a close, Nora finds herself abandoned, betrayed, and angry enough to perhaps start to really live.  253 pp.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy DeLisle, 336 pages.

Guy DeLisle, animator, graphic artist and graphic travel writer, moved with his children and wife to Jerusalem while she worked for Medecin sans Frontiere for a year. DelLisle's drawings and text give his version of the state of Israel, its citizens and their relationship to Gaza, the West Bank, and the Palestinians. It's not a cheery story. He describes his encounters with settlers, armed joggers, soldiers at countless checkpoints, and disillusioned NGO workers. Delisle does a wonderful job conveying a sense of place and of the sometimes hopeless situations he encounters.

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The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, 455 pages.

As it says on all copies of the reprinted editions of the book, "Robert Galbraith is a psuedonym for J. K. Rowling." Unless it isn't, and this is just one more twist in this story.
Lula Lang, glamorous, drug-addicted (maybe), and depressed (reportedly) super-model has committed suicide. Her brother doesn't think so, even though that is what the police have ruled it; suicide. Lula's brother John hires as private investigator, one Cormoran Strike, to find out the truth.
Cormoran is having a few issues of his own as the book opens up. He's got some health problems as a result of a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he has a few girlfriend concerns, and he seems to be temporarily homeless. He is a good detective though. With the help of Robin, a temporary secretary whom he cannot afford to adequately pay, Cormoran begins to unravel the tangled relationships and intrigues centered around the late super-model. It doesn't burn up the page, but the Cuckoo's Calling has a nice steady rhythm, and the characters are all sharply defined (and cleverly named-one of them being Some, Guy- if you put the last name first and ignore the accent marks). Here's hoping we'll see a sequel.
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A Naked Singularity

A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava, 678 pages. This was a big, sprawling, trippy book that just kept going. It's about young lawyers making a difference in the Public Defender's office, and then it's about a couple of those idealistic young attorneys planning the perfect heist. Two of the IYAs are also trying to get a convicted murderer off of death-row. And one of the main attorney's neighbors is bringing Ralph Kramden / Jackie Gleason back to life by watching the honeymooners over and over again in a loop. While it sometimes grinds and groans under the weight of the several simultaneous stories, it is a really well-written, imaginative, and satisfying novel. Check our catalog.

The Five Fists of Science

The Five Fists of Science by Matt Fraction; art by Steven Sanders, unpaged

In this graphic novel, Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain team up to save the world/defeat Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan with a giant steampunk robot. I love Tesla and Twain as much as the next person, and I really did like the character development given to them by Fraction and Sanders, but I just really couldn't get into this comic. I have the sneaking suspicion that it's the steampunk bit. As much as I like the idea of steampunk, any attempts I've made to read or watch something in this genre have left me nonplussed. Sad, since I wanted so much to enjoy this.

The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, 455 pages

Cormoran Strike is your typical down-on-your-luck private eye — he's got just one client, he just broke up with his fiancee, he's deeply in debt, and, because of all that, he's sleeping in the office on a foldaway cot. He's also the illegitimate son of a rock star and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, both of which have given him plenty of mental and physical issues to deal with. But then John Bristow, the brother of a childhood friend, strolls into his office, asking him to investigate the supposed suicide of Lula Landry, Bristow's adopted sister and supermodel. The investigation takes Strike into a world much more suited to his rocker father, filled with drug-addled movie stars, sexy supermodels, and money-hungry filmmakers (and plenty of red herrings, since this is a hard-boiled mystery).

Wow, this Galbraith fellow can really write! Great character development, well-plotted... it's hard to believe this is his first book. Oh who am I kidding? We all know this is J.K. Rowling's pseudonym. You wouldn't know it from the writing style though... no traces of Harry Potter here (unlike Casual Vacancy, which felt from the start like a YA author trying to write a deliberately grown up book, and is likely why I haven't yet finished it). But if you think about how masterfully Rowling wrote Harry Potter, weaving complex plots and keeping millions of readers guessing through seven books, it's not hard to see why she'd do such a great job writing mysteries. Perhaps she just needed a little less pressure and fewer expectations; hiding behind "Robert Galbraith" definitely allowed her to do that. I hope we see more Galbraith books from her in the future. This one was awesome.

You

You by Austin Grossman 383 pgs.

Staff favorite Grossman's second book is the story of friendship and video games.  Mostly the creation of video games.  A high school nerd pack make their way into video production minus Russell who thinks he needs to become a traditional adult.  Russell bounces around never really finding his path and then ends up at the video game company started by his former friends minus Simon who died in an odd accident.  The company is faltering and Russell must solve a mysterious software problem to try to save it.  This follow up to "Soon I will be Invincible" is pretty good but can't compare to the greatness of his previous book. Part of it is probably my lack of experience with gaming and I didn't find myself picturing this book as a movie.  Still, I will probably read anything Grossman writes.

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Soon I Will Be Invincible

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, 287 pages.

I first started listening to this over the 4th of July weekend and then, since there wasn't anything objectionable, and it was very funny I started listening to it over again with my kids. We all loved this hilarious novel. Grossman's novel takes place in a world gone slightly askew, a world where superheroes and super-villains, "enhanced" humans and aliens, battle regularly. Doctor Impossible, an evil super-genius, tells half the story, recounting his many attempts to take over the world (twelve so far), his philosophy, "When life gives you lemons you squeeze them, hard. Make invisible ink. Make an acid poison. Fling it in their eyes." He's enhanced, but damaged, he's got amazing strength and speed now, but he's still the middle-schooler who cried when he dropped his lunch, still the odd man out, just like when he was at the special high-school that produced all those super-heroes. His plans involve math and physics beyond the comprehension of most humans, but he still forgets important points, like how much it hurts when you get hit by a superhero over and over again, and that it's best not to get caught up in the moment and reveal your whole plan when confronted with a super-hero.
The other half of the story is told by Fatale, a newly-minted member of the Champions, the best of the superheroes. Fatale was surgically enhanced. She signed the consent papers while in the ER after a horrific accident. She doesn't know her own origin story too well, and she doesn't know the full extent of her own powers, not really, but she is an eager new member of a storied team.
All of the characters are meticulously crafted, and likable in their own ways. And the plot moves along smartly with lots of action and twists. I look forward to reading Grossman's new book, You.
J. Paul Boehmer narrates part of the audio, and does a terrific job.

Bury me deep

Bury me deep/Megan Abbott 240 pgs.

This book starts our being something typical.  The sweet young wife of a doctor is left alone while he takes a job in Mexico and falls in with a bad crowd of "fast" women who introduce her to the town "player" and they start an affair...blah, blah, blah. I enjoyed the writing so I continued and I'm so glad that I did!  Of course there is an event, a turning point, that is pretty horrible and our sweet young thing (Marion) finds her backbone.  She is tough as nails and not going to let anyone get the best of her. She knows she has made mistakes but is going to fight her way back.  Wow, it turns into a much more interesting story.  Interestingly, at the end, there is a note from the author about a similar true story that she adapted into this fictional account where the main character does a better job fighting back.  The very noir feel about this book kept me reading but the second half made me a believer in Megan Abbott.

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