Lunatics (Dave Barry & Alan Zweibel)

I have loved Dave Barry's other books, both his essay collections and his novels, but this one I didn't like. Perhaps it was the influence of his co-author. Perhaps it is a change in my own perspective. In any case, the humor here seemed forced and mean-spirited, compared with the self-deprecating joy in the zaniness of life of his other works. This book brings together two unlikely allies: a foul-mouthed, bigoted nut job and a Prius-driving, politically-correct pet store owner. They become embroiled in an increasingly far-fetched series of adventures, starting with a kidnapped lemur and stolen insulin pump and escalating from there to police officers shot in helicopters, thugs mauled by bears, naked nuns falling overboard, and on and on. It didn't work for me.

Reamde (Neal Stephenson)

Wow.  This book is massive (1042 pages in hard cover) but it never slows down. I was about a third of the way through when I realized is was expecting it to end shortly because it felt like the grand climax. After that, it just kept ratcheting the intensity higher and higher. Reamde is the name of a computer virus designed to siphon cash out of players in a hugely popular multiplayer world. The virus triggers a sequence of events dragging in the developer of this world, his niece, Russian mobsters, Islamic terrorists, Chinese hackers and a tea distributor, American fundamentalists, M16 agents, and sundry others before all is done. The plot is insanely complicated and intricately worked out, and it grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go. If you like thrillers with lots of intelligent characters, and lots of detail about computers, guns, boats, and undercover operations, you will love this one.

The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi)

In the future, genetic modification, climate change, and short-sighted agricultural policy have caused the world food supply to crash. Bangkok is a city under siege, with giant levees to keep out the ocean and strong barriers to keep out unnatural things - including windups. These "New People" are genetically designed and creche-grown, and one of them ends up abandoned in Bangkok when her Japanese owner tires of her. She is just one of the people trying to survive in this dystopian future. Others are a calorie man, secretly working for an American company making its money providing food to starving people. One is a displaced Chinese man whose family all died in a wave of riots in Malaysia. One is an official taking seriously the attempt to keep dangerous products out of the city, and his unsmiling assistant. How these various people deal with the corruption, physical and psychological, that surrounds them makes for a complex and moving story.

State of Wonder (Ann Patchett)

This story, appropriately enough, reads like something from a dark fever dream. Marina is a pharmacologist in Minnesota working for a drug company that is sponsoring a team in the Amazon river basin working on developing a revolutionary new drug. The team has been there for years, soaking up research funds  and providing nothing in return aside from assurances they are making progress. One of Marina's colleagues was sent down to press the team for more details, but word has come back that he died of a fever. Marina goes to Brazil to find out how he died and what he had learned, going deeper and deeper into an exotic world she is unprepared for. I was completely caught up in the story and the environment, though at times I felt like shouting at Marina about decisions she was making and I came away with too many unanswered questions. The writing is vivid and lyrical and it all feels real, oppressively real, even when it is at its most bizarre. Highly recommended.

A Clue for the Puzzle Lady (Parnell Hall)

This is a charming, light little mystery, pleasant enough, without much in the way of depth. The mystery itself is interesting, though one big question never seems to be answered. A young girl is found murdered in a graveyard in sleepy little Bakerhaven with a clue in her pocket that seems to relate to a crossword puzzle, so the police recruit the aid of the Puzzle Lady, author of a nationally syndicated crossword puzzle column, and things start happening from there. There are enough side plots and red herrings to satisfy anyone. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't entirely satisfying.

Throne of the Crescent Moon (Saladin Ahmed)

While touching most of the themes of classic fantasy - a magic throne with secret powers, dark wizardry drawing its power from pain and fear, holy warriors bound by sacred oaths - Ahmed does so in a way that is fresh and interesting. The story has a strong middle-eastern sensibility that is a pleasant change from the British feel of most, and the main characters are satisfyingly flawed. Secondary characters are sometimes two-dimensional, but the story carried me forward. This is the first of a series, and I expect to read more.

A Duty to the Dead (Charles Todd)

In this moving mystery set in WWI England, an Army nurse on leave goes to deliver a deathbed message from one of her patients, and winds up picking at loose ends until an entire family history unravels. At the core of the mystery is the 14-year-old murder of a servant girl, apparently by a teenage son of the family, but it links through time to a killing today and a heartbreaking miscarriage of justice. The horrible maltreatment of a young boy, even more than the killings, tore at my heart. I will definitely read more by this author.

When She Woke (Hillary Jordan)

This novel sets the story of 'A Scarlet Letter" in a too-believable future. The religious right has become dominant in the US, with Roe v Wade overturned and abortion a crime in most states. To relieve prison costs and overcrowding, most criminals are "chromed": a genetic treatment turns their skins vivid colors to indicate their crime. Hannah is a young woman from a devout family, trying to be as devout as she can, when she falls for the charismatic pastor of a megachurch (who goes on to become the nation's Secretary of Faith). The attraction is mutual, though they both know he cannot give up wife, church, and position for her. When Hannah becomes pregnant she has the child aborted, and when her crime is discovered and she refuses to name the doctor or the father, she is convicted of murder and wakes up bright red. Her pathway back to becoming herself and finding forgiveness (and finding God again in a new way) fills the rest of the book. The tale was gripping, though slightly simplistic (the good people were often unbelievably good, the bad ones unbelievably bad). I did appreciate the author's refusal to paint all religious people with the same narrow minded, bigoted brush.

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Alan Bradley)

This is the third Flavia deLuce novel, and I'm afraid the charm is fading. Eleven-year-old Flavia once again gets caught up in the murder of a movie star in her very own home, and finds clues nobody else sees and is almost, but not quite, murdered herself. The trouble is that there are no new ideas here. Flavia is still obsessed with chemistry, especially poisons. Her father is still distant, mourning the death of his wife a decade ago. Flavia's older sisters still torment her, and vice versa. Handyman Doggery is still mysteriously competent. But aside from these constant elements, the story was unsatisfying. Too many things cropped up and petered out into nothing. (What was the story with the stars personal assistant? Why was she so bullied by and afraid of the star? Why did the spotlight fail at the crucial moment? None of this, and more, went anywhere.) I still enjoyed the story,  but I won't be reading more of them.

An Invisible Sign of My Own (Aimee Bender)

I really liked "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake," so I decided to read something else by Bender. This book was her first, and it didn't work as well for me. Instead of the deeply moving magical realism of Lemon Cake, I found it irritating and unconvincing. The protagonist is a 19-year-old girl whose father is ill with something undiagnosed and she deals with it in ways that are unlikely and unlikable. She is hired at the local school to teach math to elementary school children on the sole basis that the head of the school saw her once in the park doing long division for fun. Her class is a mess, especially the part where she brings in an actual ax and mounts it on the wall of the classroom where a determined child can climb up and reach it. Her fear of sex is overcome by a tender, persistent man who must see something in her I don't. There's an odd neighbor who disappears, leaving his hardware store open for anyone to walk in and take what they want, with no explanation. He's the one who wears signs (numbers indicating his mood at the moment), and she wants a similar, invisible sign, but there is no explanation for this either. I finished it, because it's a short book, but I didn't like it.