Reality Boy by A.S. King

Gerald's just a teen trying to get by until he can get out - working his job, staying out of trouble, keeping his head down at school. But that's tough when you grew up on TV as part of a "reality television" show that especially focused on your outrageous behavior. Everyone's sure his future is limited to either jail or death.

When he makes a couple of new friends at work, Gerald decides instead of acting out he'll take his life into his own hands and determine a new, brighter future.

While the story's slightly fantastical, you know this kind of thing actually happens. It's an acidic look at the unreality of reality television and the tolls it takes on its youngest celebrities.

I enjoyed the audiobook - Gerald's a kid forced into his own mind much of the time, and the narrator Michael Stellman does a great job making Gerald relatable and not just a space case lost in his own la-la land.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Narrator Jim Dale does an astounding job with this novel of fantasy and magic, where a young man and a young woman are bound by their mentors in a competition with vague and unknowable rules. Le Cirque des Reves is their competition arena - a remarkable black and white circus where the illusions are real.

The book has a steampunk aura, without the gears and mechanics. Perspective shifts in time and character, from the magicians to an artistan clockmaker, from circus entertainers to boy entralled by the the circus, and even an odd occasional third-person narrative telling "you" where you are and what you see. It all ties together, but the shifts (like magic) put you off-balance and allow the reader to view the wonders from all angles.

The novel takes place all over the world, with a true multi-cultural cast of characters - the kind of narration Jim Dale has made his calling card. I was captivated, and the myriad possibilities of the fantastic setting allowed me to wander wherever the story led without anticipating the finale.

Long Past Stopping by Oran Canfield

I picked up this book because I'm always interested in a good memoir - especially if there's a hook: here, the author offers a demented childhood and drug-addled youth. Oh, and his dad wrote all those "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books.

But it's a pretty common kind of drug tale, and honestly it's been told better in other places. The whole thing is so outrageous that it reads like bad fiction - you'd like to tell the author to edit out some of the stuff, or nobody will believe him ... Abandoned in a commune? Circus-trained children? Drug-addict noise musicians? Rehab? Too, too much.

Except he lived it.

Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar & Grill by N.M. Kelby

A couple years back I read Whale Season, Kelby's first novel, because Carl Hiaasen recommended it. Since then, she has carved out a nice niche for herself in the "wacky Florida writers" genre.

Danni Keene, retired from a career as professional B-horror movie scream queen, is just trying to run a bar. Except dead bodies keep turning up in the dumpster, and somebody torched her yellow Hummer. Then things get really weird when the 3 pink buses pull in - filled with the Rose and Puppet Circus.

This book is entertaining and well written. The wacky characters kept me interested, and their intertwined storylines kept me guessing. Even once we know "whodunnit," the story doesn't collapse like many mysteries. This one had a few more twists and turns keep you wondering.