The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

One day on the beach in San Francisco, a six-year-old child disappears. Her watcher, the father's fiance and our narrator, looks away from Emma for a moment, and the girl simply vanishes.

Abby spends every moment of the next months trying to remember, trying to find a clue, and trying to find Emma. When hope is lost, Abby soldiers on. When Jake gives up and holds a funeral, Abby attends but then continues looking. But in constantly searching for Emma is Abby losing herself?

This book is agonizing at times - Abby really does lose it for a while. Her continual looping of the city, the count of days missing, the fliers and the questions all wear you down as a reader until it's easy to see the claustrophobic emotions of losing a child.

I listened to the audiobook version read by Carrington MacDuffie, and I sometimes found it hard to listen to - it's a heartbreaking scenario. But I also understand that dragging you through Abby's hell (and every parent's nightmare) makes the emotional journey more real to us as readers.

In the end, I enjoyed the book, which was recommended to me by members of our book discussion. They each raved about the writing and the story. And you do certainly learn a bit about memory, photography, and surfing through Abby's quest!

Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott

Steve Abbott gave his daughter an unusual life; he was a devoted and loving only parent, a struggling full-time poet and writer, and on the front line of the 1980s AIDS epidemic as an out gay man in San Francisco.

It's a good book, and Alysia's honest in a way many might have glossed over. She didn't always behave well - often demanding her father's full attention to the detriment of the rest of his life. But it's overall a loving look at a nontraditional life, and the kind of story we've not heard much; since the AIDS epidemic primarily claimed gay men, most of its history has been written about the community of friends that grew up around sick men and their partners. This is a look at a marginalized group that's just beginning to speak out: children and wives of AIDS victims.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

In a desperate act, an unemployed professional takes a job night-clerking in a weird old bookstore. Customers are rare - most visitors instead stop to borrow from an immense and mysterious not-for-purchase collection shelved in the store. Then Clay's customer-less boredom and his attempt to impress a cute girl-hacker cause him to bumble upon the answer to a puzzle he didn't even know he was solving - and the start of an epic quest.

This book is like Dan Brown's stories ... but replace the religious iconography with book nerds and typography: old-school books versus new-fangled computers, a secret underground library, a shadow sect, and the ultimate search for truth in a coded codex vitae. Intrigue, suspense and a secret book club!

But I'm being unnecessarily flippant about it: this is actually a good book that I enjoyed immensely. Despite the unlikely trajectory of the story, it's not cheesy and the characters are all very true to life. Clay's biggest asset is the same as that of any good librarian: he doesn't have to know everything, he just has to know how (or with whom) to find it. Facilitation as super-strength!

A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins

Neil Bassett is a thirty-something emotional trainwreck: He's a little obsessed with his ex-wife, he's going to strange extremes to hook up with women, and he's been hired to help build an "intelligent" computer ... based on his dead father.

The gist of the story is Neil learning to act like a grown-up and navigate his own emotions and relationships, while at the same time he's helping the computer HAVE emotions and relationships. Since the program is a virtual version of his own father, Neil's got a strange beyond-the-grave opportunity to hammer out his relationship and past mis-steps with his cold, distant father.

There's a point in the book where the computer, Dr. Bassett, begins to explore the missing parts of his "memory" and ask questions. I had an "OH! This won't be good," moment - you really start to think of the computer as a person and worry about its future. The characters do too - Dr. Bassett becomes a sounding board and adviser to nearly every character; the IM small talk and chit-chat they're all having with the computer (to give it form and correct dialog mis-cues) becomes extremely confessional, even though his advice tends toward the kind found in fortune cookies.

I liked this book; I became very emotionally involved with the computer Dr. Bassett, and couldn't wait to see what happened next. While it's not overly technical, I did tend to skim parts where they discussed the artificial intelligence technology and philosophy. And I really wanted to see if Neil could come out of this a better person, or if it would break him permanently.

Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

Have you read the other 2 books in Moore's vampire series? If so, skip the whole first disc of the audio - it's just review. I was a little annoyed by the length of "previously, in Bloodsucking Fiends & You Suck" summary that started this book. Sheesh. If you want to know all that, just go read the other books!

Past that, this is pure Christopher Moore genius: a new challenge for San Francisco's vampires, a couple wacky new characters, and the truly incomparable narration of Abby Normal - backup assistant mistress of the Bay Area darkness.

Narrator Susan Bennett does a notable job with the enormous range of voices and characters in this story: ancient multi-cultural vampires, angsty American goth teens, cops, kooks, several dogs, and even a huge vampire cats. And Moore's rapid-fire dialog can't be easy to record - sometimes I have to rewind and listen a couple times to catch it all.

Lola and the boy next door

by Stephanie Perkins

Lola is not your average teenager. She has flair beyond most anyone's wildest imagination. That often makes her stand out in a crowd. Some might think it's a bad thing. Her boyfriend seems to like it, but does he really? Her parents don't trust him; he is much older than her. He endures time with her family.
On top of that, a moving truck arrives next door. Much to Lola's dismay, it is not another renter, but the family that owns the house. The Bell twins hold a special place of disdain in her heart. Calliope is bad enough, but the other one is so much worse. She is now forced to come to terms with a lifetime of friendship and the shattered ending from two years before.
Although much of the plot is heavy on the foreshadowing, this book will be gripping for young romantics.