The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island by Dana Alison Levy

When the Fletchers land at their summer getaway, they discover the historic lighthouse next door is blocked off and inaccessible. Not only does that put a damper on their trip, but it sets in motion a mission: to save the lighthouse.

The Fletchers are modern kid lit's favorite diverse family, and in this book they experience a bit of prejudice and hold a few conversations about being brown in America. It's still appropriate for the age group and not overdone, but serves as a great supplementary storyline in a book full of personal interactions and developing feelings.

But the book's not weighed down with politics - there's also time for teaching cats to swim, fear of bees, acting inappropriately at a fancy dinner, kayaking, Shakespeare, soccer, girls, snakes and other critters.

This series is a WONDERFUL addition to the juvenile chapter book world.

The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer

I will be talking about this book for a long time to come - after listening to the library's audiobook (not simply read but PERFORMED by the author) I bought a paper copy so I can post-it note and highlight parts that will bear heavy repetition for their deep resonance.

The book is about her life as a performance artist and indie rock star, and the book is about her successful, ground-breaking crowdfunding via social media. It's about her marriage to writer Neil Gaiman, and it's about her life-long friend and guru Anthony.

But mostly, this book is about the give-and-take of  all relationships: drop a dollar in the living statue's bucket, get a flower; open your heart and mind, receive love. She looks at her art in the way it's building a relationship with her fans - not just as the number of units sold in the usual corporate commercial model.

She's got some fantastic perspective for artists of all types concerning self-worth, doubt, and dealing with criticism. The lesson to glean from Henry David Thoreau: take the donuts. The analogy of "blender setting" for how real-life experiences get chopped up and changed in the art blender.

She's controversial, and there's a strong wave of haters. But it ain't me, man.

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert

In this historical fiction, a young Hawaiian girl is ripped from her family and sent to a remote community isolating those with the same illness she has contracted (Hansen’s disease, incorrectly called leprosy at the time).

Our book club chose to read this 2003 title for discussion, and I’m so glad someone suggested it. This is a wonderfully captivating fiction with a strong nonfiction basis and many lessons to offer.

Everyone who lands on the Hawaiian island of Moloka’i  is surprised (as are we readers) to find this “leper colony” is simply another small town community – with a few notable changes: There are stores, a post office, routine garbage pickup, people of all ages and several races, and a variety of religious beliefs. There are also doctors, hospitals, people with strange and monstrous deformities, and many, many cemeteries.

Rachel is merely 7 years old when she arrives on Moloka’i, and despite the fact she has a beloved uncle on the island, she is forced to live in the girls’ home run by the missionary nuns. She adjusts and makes friends, but never stops missing her family on the big island. Rachel lives, loves, and flourishes on Moloka’i, always wishing and hoping to leave, to travel the world, and to see and experience new cultures.

I basically consumed this book in a sitting, and I adored the island’s funny, creative citizens who were so full of life in the face of death. As any life would, Rachel’s story has ups and downs, joys and heartbreaks. I learned so much about Hawaii history and about Hansen’s disease - I will heartily recommend this book for literary and historical fiction lovers.

Know Your Beholder by Adam Rapp

As musician Frances Falbo's life has crumbled around him (band breakup, divorce, agoraphobia), he conveniently has turned his childhood home into a small community of apartments; this means he has income, friends, and people to watch and interact with, all without ever taking off his robe and slippers.

This apartment microcosm community includes Frances' reclusive ex-brother-in-law, a pair of former circus acrobats whose young daughter has just gone missing, an aspiring thespian, a college artist, and a transient former bandmate, and more.

The book is funny, and also a little heartbreaking. The apartment tenants are a motley crew, and observing their comings and goings is full-time entertainment for Francis and for the reader. It's not the kind of book that everything gets tied in a ribbon bow at the end, but things end in a satisfying manner, and it looks like Francis may get out of the house after all.

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor

In this installment of the lives of our favorite 1960s small-town Ireland physicians, the curmudgeonly Dr. Riley is counting down the days until his 30-years-later wedding to his college sweetheart Kitty. Also, the young Dr. Laverty woos the feisty local schoolteacher.

This is the seventh book in the series (I've been a bit out-of-order with the series lately, but I'm straightening that out now I think).

Along with the usual (and always delightful) workaday village problems the doctors help to sort out, their receptionist and housekeeper, Kinky Kincaide, suffers her own a health scare.

I probably mention this every time, but I cannot give too many props to John Keating's audiobook narration on this series. I have come to love every one of these characters like they're my own friends and neighbors!

Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor by Patrick Taylor

While we've come to know and love Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly as the senior doctor in a tiny Irish town, new doings have stirred things up in his life - including his memories of the past. Interspersed with the "modern" timeline (1960's actually) are his reminiscences of beginning his career out of medical school (in the 1930s).

Almost unbelievably, this is the eighth book in the Irish County series, and I'm still captivated and engrossed in the lives of the residents of Ballybucklebo. I've made it my habit to wait for these on audiobook, because narrator John Keating is a true gem: He seamlessly breaths life into men, women and children from all parts of the British, Scottish, and Irish lands.

These books are touching, but also funny. In this one there's a bit of grandstanding about political unrest and world events, but I have to admit that I've also found it enlightening in ways I wouldn't have expected. Young Fingal's work in the slums of Belfast allow some historical insight into a world I'd heard about but never actually studied. In the newer storyline, there's a new female doctor working with Fingal and her presence stirs up bias and prejudice it's easy to forget our foremothers endured.

I was again glad to visit the good doctors and hilarious characters in this small town, and can't wait to visit again!

Best to Laugh by Lorna Landvik

In this semi-autobiographical novel, folksy funny novelist Lorna Landvik introduces a cast of eccentric Hollywood characters who span from the Golden Era into the tarnished TV years.

Asian-Scandinavian Candy Pekkala followed her dreams to Hollywood so she could pursue a career in comedy. Using baked goods as leverage, she's immediately absorbed into a community that mirrors the Minnesota-nice she left behind: the natty Francis who once ran Hollywood's hottest nightspot along with his blue mohawked punk rock son Frank, a female bodybuilder with a sudsy TV soap star mother, a Romanian seer, a lesbian black-power sistah with a penchant for country music, and many more.

It's an upbeat, funny book about friendship and the end of an era. Candy has some great jobs as a temp worker in Los Angeles, and her friends and neighbors are a hoot. The fact that it's basically Landvik's own story is interesting - because I'm tempted to say the ending is too pat and neatly tied, too "finished" for real life, except it's real life.

Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick

Amber Appleton is the princess of hope - she's super involved in tons of community service projects, and she bounces through life with a song in her heart and a smile on her lips. Which is why nobody has figured out yet that she and her mom are homeless (living on a school bus), and that things aren't so rosy in Amber's home life.

In typical Matthew Quick style, this is a fun book full of slang and trendy teen talk. He's a master at getting you inside the head of his fully-formed characters, and Amber's a real prize. While she's doing her best and pulling out all the stops, she's also just as flawed and mis-directed as the rest of us.

Additionally, this book is chock full of other fantastic people: the misfit band of boys with whom Amber hangs, her English-as-a-second-language learners (aka The Korean Divas for Christ), and all the old folks at the Methodist home gathering for her weekly verbal smackdown with a hundred-year-old pessimist, just to name a few.

I loved this book - but then, I haven't read a bad Matthew Quick book yet. Highly recommended.

Vacationland by Sarah Stonich

While some entitled people believe the planet revolves around them, the truth is that we each DO have a kind of world that circles around us - a web of friends, family, places, and acquaintances that are all connected (and maybe only connected) by you. This book, a series of interconnected yet independent short stories, is about one of those webs - a world that revolves around a way-north Minnesota resort.

Through these stories, you get a feel for the small town of Hatchet Inlet, for the guys who hang out in the coffee shop and the visitors to the resort. We see the resort in the 1960s during its heyday, and also through its decline, piece-by-piece demolition, and rebirth. Immigrants and draft-dodgers, native tribes, locals, and tourists all fill the stories with depth and diversity of view.

This is my very favorite form of storytelling, and Stonich does it incredibly well. Each story stands alone and tells its own tale, but taken together they intermesh and marry to provide a multi-faceted view of life. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

This lovely book deals with a tough subject: super-smart geeky kid Willow Chance is tragically left untethered after an accident claims her parents. But quick thinking and a hopeful heart lead to a new kind of family, made up of friends.

It's hard to write an encouraging review of a book (that will make you want to read it) with a theme so heavy. But this is a really, really wonderful middle-school book about friendship and community, about the impact you have on others without even realizing it. Even though there's tragedy, it's an uplifting book full of hope and happiness. There's a great cast of misfit characters, all of whom are a little broken but together can manage amazing, transformative things.

It's been a major award-winner, and for good reason. Highly recommended!

Librarian on the Roof! by M.G. King

Rarely do librarians get to show our secret super powers with the world, but this awesome book shows just how powerful we can be if we set our minds to it.

When librarian RoseAleta Laurell arrived in Lockhart, Texas, she decided things needed to change: nobody visited their outdated library, and kids believed it wasn't any kind of place for them. Right off the bat, RoseAleta livened the place up with her oversized personality and new books and magazines. Then, she took to the roof in protest - and swore she wouldn't come down until they had enough money for a children's area.

Kids will love this book about a woman who took a stand; it's funny, colorful, and relevant to their experiences. It's also a great depiction of modern librarians - loud, fun, and edgy. RoseAleta is the kind of out-of-the-box thinker that we should all strive to become.