That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

Another tale of two weddings - but a very different story!

Scriptwriter/college professor Jack Griffin's life is unraveling: He's unhappy in his job, uneasy in his marriage, beleaguered by his parents, and bewildered by his in-laws. In the year between two Cape Cod summer weddings, he attempts to figure things out.

Jack's kind of like Winnie the Pooh's friend Eeyore - he's generally unhappy and it actually seems he's the most satisfied when he's unhappy. He's been driving around with his Dad's ashes in an urn in the trunk of his car and he seems completely unable to part with them as he's been instructed. His mother's haranguing on the phone leads to reminiscences about his youth, his snooty professorial parents' drama-filled marriage, and their summers on the Cape.

Richard Russo knows how to write about the common man, and he knows how to make a dramatic situation turn slapstick and yet still ring true. This book is somehow loftier (again, professorial?) than his Nobody's Fool/Everybody's Fool townies and slightly less entertaining, as I found Griffin's doldrums to be a bit wearing. But it's worth it to stick around for the final, dramatic wedding events and the resolution (or non-resolution) to his mid-life crisis.

The Best Man by Richard Peck

Archer Magill's story starts and ends with weddings - but all the fun happens in the in-between.

He makes friends with a girl, his class gets a long-term substitute teacher and then they get a MALE student teacher. There's bullying, sick grandparents, baseball, a new school, and a budding realization that if he keeps his ears and eyes open there is a big, fantastic world happening all around Archer.

The book shifts back and forth in time as Archer tells his own story, and it covers his first-grade through sixth-grade years. It's no secret to reveal there's a gay marriage - Archer tells you right away - but there are plenty of other surprises along the way.

It's a realistic look at modern schools and multi-generational families. A lot of the humor comes at Archer's expense, since his friend Lynette is as savvy as he is oblivious. It's a story sweet, sad, funny, and very, very good.

When I finished, I actually sighed, closed the book, and said aloud, "Oh, Richard Peck." What a writer! What a book! What a fantastic tale told well! Can you tell I loved it?

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Family and responsibility are at the core of this literary novel set in India and the United States. Two brothers - almost as close as twins - take very different paths in their young adulthood. Which is greater: civil action that works for change, or the tending of tradition and family?

We read this as a book discussion title at the library, but I didn't finish it in time for the conversation. Too bad, because there's a lot to talk about.

Even while Subhash builds a life in America, he's bound by duty to his family in India. He marries out of a sense of obligation, but when their daughter is born he finds a pure delight in raising her in Rhode Island. His duty to her future becomes more urgent than his dedication to the past - but that's not true for his wife, who never really left India behind.

The book offers mothers and fathers, siblings, husbands and wives, and there are lots of comparisons to be drawn between counterparts. Also, the role of responsibility: personal responsibility, family obligations, parental duty, social activism, passive acceptance. It's a heavy book, filled with lots of internal dilemmas, and it really would make for a fantastic discussion.

I listened to the audiobook version, which was an excellent way to read a book filled with foreign names and places.

Fields Where They Lay by Timothy Hallinan

Both a Russian mobster's deadline and Christmas are looming large for burglar-turned-detective Junior Bender, and it's likely either or both will be the death of him.

In this installment of the Junior Bender series (#6 if you're counting), our ethically questionable hero is stuck in a decaying suburban mall trying to figure out why store loss numbers are so out of whack. Also, what to buy for holiday gifts.

The book's funny, and this series has a wry wit that's unlike anything else. A dying mall is hardly anyone's dream, and the fact that Junior is stuck circling, circling, circling this pit of despair is a great setup for his equally dark introspection about the state of his life and love.

There's a great cast of characters in the store owners and mall regulars, with a few of Junior's friends mixed in too. It might not put you in the holiday season, but it's a great read.

Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick

Nanette can't keep pleasing everyone else at the detriment of her own desires, but can she face the disappointment of her teammates and parents? Alex has decided to fight back against the bullies, but that might not be the best way to express individualism.

Have you ever read a book that absolutely changed your life? For the characters in this YA novel, a cult classic, out-of-print paperback leads to a different perspective on being one of the generic human crowd. But how much can you "quit" and still be alright?

This book isn't as dark as Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, but it's certainly no spring June walk in the park. Metamorphosis is hard work and not always pretty. (Let's hope Quick does better in handling the enthusiasm of his readers than his character Booker did.)

I adore Quick's writing, and his characters are amazingly nuanced, flawed and very relatable. These kids are searching for something - searching for themselves - and the way they work through it brings love and light but also unpleasantness and drama to their lives.

Three Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

At the suggestion of an alley cat, a brave boy named Elmer Elevator sets off to rescue a dragon.

This 50th anniversary volume contains the books My Father's Dragon, Elmer and the Dragon, and The Dragons of Blueland along with an introduction by the author. Together, they make up the "Elmer and the Dragons series." In the first book, Elmer sets off to save an enslaved baby dragon. The second book is the fantastic journey homeward. In the third book, the dragon returns to enlist Elmer's help in saving his family.

I read this as part of my self-education on award-winners of the past; the first book in the series was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal when it was published in 1948.

It's an odd type of children's story - the kind we had before anyone took "children's literature" very seriously. It's a series of wildly improbable adventures taken by a child without the aid of adults. There are talking animals. There's menace, but no big danger befalls them. All's well in the end, and it always finishes with the adults befuddled as to what's happened right under their noses!

Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Some stories are just so strange they have to be true - and the con artist at the core of Razor Girl is one of those; her scam involves shaving her privates while behind the wheel, "accidentally" rear-ending someone, her hiked skirt and blood droplets for effect.

This book is a return to former-detective, health officer Andrew Yancy and his endangered bit of paradise. A big-city lawyer and his high-maintenance fiance are planning a new McMansion on the lot next to Yancy's house. Things didn't go so well for the last guy that tried to build there ...

Throw into the mix a reality TV star who isn't what he seems, his beleaguered Hollywood agent, and a Florida redneck with a man-crush. Typical Hiaasen!

Truly, it's prime-form Hiaasen too, with a story that hums right along and a plot you couldn't possibly predict. Nobody does comedy-mixed-with-satire the way he does, and it seems like Florida is determined to provide fodder for these novels (we'll call that a silver lining).