Night Town by Timothy Hallinan

An empty, haunted old house even Junior Bender is afraid of? I'm in.

In this, the seventh book of the series, the burglar with a heart takes a job he knows will be trouble. They pay is too high, way too high, but if he's going to make bank to help his ladylove get her kid from the ex, he's going to have to shake off the heeby-jeebies and find a stupid doll in a stinky, vacant house about to be destroyed.

But Junior's a book nerd and historian extraordinaire, so when the house gets to him he embarks on a reference and genealogy project to figure out the backstory. Meanwhile, the job's a big damn mess that's been double-booked and double-crossed, so Junior's on high alert to tails, shooters, and creeps. Which means he's not going home and instead bunking in another crazy, seedy hotel. These hotels have become a character in their own right in the series.

I really like this character, and I especially liked the Grey Gardens style history he digs up this time on the funky house and the family who built it.

Jazz Owls by Margarita Engle

A novel told in verse, this story bounces between multiple Los Angeles civilians during World War II who deal with shortages, soldiers, and working for the war.

Two teen girls who have dropped out of school work at the cannery during the day and dance with the soldiers in the evenings. Their younger brother acts as "chaperone" as he continues in school and seaches for his own place in the world. Their parents worry about all four of their children - the three here, plus an older son enlisted and deployed. Through their eyes, we learn about the real-life race riots between soldiers and Mexican-Americans.

It's a quick read - I read it in an evening. I'd heard good things about the book, which is why I picked it up, and I didn't realize it was poetry until it arrived. Each chapter is a different voice, and each is just a page or two. The changing viewpoints offer an interesting perspective on a complex subject - a true historical event that I didn't know about before. 

It would be a good youth discussion title. The kids in the story are younger than you'd think, dealing with very adult problems and concerns, due to the escalating tensions of wartime. And the racism they encounter would be an interesting comparison for modern discrimination.

The Summer of Jodi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding

Fashion-obsessed teen Abby Ives is excited to start her summer internship at a trendy vintage-inspired boutique. Even though things are a little rocky at home right now, it's going to be a great summer.

And it will be ... but not in any of the ways she may have expected.

I absolutely LOVED this book! It's funny and realistic, and I had a hard time putting it down - I just wanted to spend more time with Abby and the gang.

Abby gets wrapped up in a friend-of-a-friend's quest to load a new app with the "best burger" info for Los Angeles - and ends up with a new buddy, along with a great way to avoid her mom's weird food. She also finds her first girlfriend, worries too much about how the world sees her, and learns a lot about fashion.

Highly, highly recommended. My favorite book of recent history.

We Are All Shipwrecks by Kelly Grey Carlisle

While reading, I had to continually remind myself this book is a memoir - it reads like fiction, a novel of growing up in a strange environment.

Even as a child, Kelly knew the stories that swirled around her may or may not be true: Her mother died when Kelly was an infant. Her faux-aristocratic grandfather is a showman. She was forbidden to talk about some parts of their lives (the boat they live on, the porn store they own). The book is full of what you'd politely call "characters," like the other marina regulars and Kelly's extended family members.

We get the story simultaneously from two different Kellys: the child living it and not understanding it all, and the adult looking back through the lens of experience. She's hungry for love. She's hungry for information. She's dying to get out of there and build a different life.

I enjoyed the book (I even dreamed about it one night). I thought it was a great look at a strange childhood - an unusual perspective on life and family.

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

When hipster chick Weetzie gets three wishes from a genie, she gets what she asked for and so much more.

This celebrated 1989 teen novel takes place in a slightly fictional version of Los Angeles. Weetzie and her best friend Dirk look for love and adventure in their alternative, retro-punk life.  They dress in vintage and leather, and they speak in their own slang language (though it's easily understood). They form a new kind of modern family with 3 dads, 1 mom, freaky cool babies and a passel of bitty dogs. Life is good.

This is the first in a series (Dangerous Angels), and I'm now really looking forward to the rest. For a bit I thought the book might be dated (it's a little bit Pretty In Pink), but the truth is - hipster cool is universal. And Weetzie and her friends aren't really nailed down to any one era - it's 1950s meets 1980s and still works in 2015.

While it's a quick, light read it's also got some meat: the book deals with the AIDS crisis, this unusual blended family, and the universal desire for love and happiness.

Herbie's Game by Timothy Hallinan

Junior Bender's crime sensei - his father figure and burglary mentor - is dead, and it's up to Junior to figure out who and why. But in the course of tracking down the truth, he learns more about Herbie than he thought possible and it's not all good. Can his memory survive the tarnishing?

In this 4th book in the Junior Bender mystery series, Junior is more introspective than we've seen him before. He's a bit adrift, unmoored by Herbie's death, and unsure about the truths upon which he's built his life. This soul-searching also leads to deep conversations with his girlfriend, his ex-wife, his daughter, and several of his crime-world friends.

This book is a wonderful addition to the series - something a bit different, but leading to a new, fuller understanding of the characters. Also, in the author's note, he admits the storyline allowed him to kill off a few characters and thin out the cast list moving forward. It's nice that Hallinan hasn't fallen into a rut with the books, especially how quickly he's putting them out. Each book has been diverse and unique, and each time I finish I can't wait to see where he goes next!

Little Elvises by Timothy Hallinan

When a "connected" music producer needs help proving he didn't commit murder, he's certainly not going to call in the cops. But Junior Bender is a burglar with a heart of gold, and he's just the kind of guy to help a crook prove he isn't crooked.

This is the second book in the Junior Bender mystery series (the fourth is coming out in July). I'm enjoying the series because Junior is a great character: a reluctant private investigator for the seedy underside while trying hard to be a good dad to his precocious preteen, he's intelligent and essentially good ... yet also operating a bit south of the law.

For example, in this book he's being blackmailed into helping with the murder, but he's also helping his landlady look for her missing adult daughter. That investigation he's doing just because it's the right thing to do, and maybe he can help. It's not fun or easy (and he's already busy), but he can't just walk away.

Additionally, I'm a sucker for anything related to rock and roll, and this one's based on the true-life phenomena of post-Elvis pre-Beatles crooners that scars rock history.

Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

Throwing aside Oprah's whole fiasco - fiction or nonfiction, I don't care. Frey knows how to write an engrossing story. This is the story of Los Angeles - its past, it people, its flavor.

This book is supposedly fiction. But you'll recognize many of the characters as not-so-made-up. Each chapter stands alone. Some of the people we meet in the story chapters reappear in later, other characters appear once then disappear forever. Between the story chapters are "fact" chapters: some are brief factoids of just a sentence or a paragraph, others are tourism propaganda, yet others are reminiscent of John Stewart's smarmy "fake news" stories.

Frey is the prince of the king of maybe the tzar of run-on stream-of-consciousness sentences that would have made your uptight wound-too-tight tight-assed high school English teacher weep into her Strunk & White.

I really enjoyed this book and its unconventional structure. But I also really enjoyed Frey's other books. But by all means ... form your own opinion. Don't let me (or Oprah) tell you what to think.