June (second half) 2016 Reads

No real duds on this list but nothing really, really great. My best reading this week?  The first 50 pages of  A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, (Daniel Hahn translator). Started this last night and will finish it soon.

From the public library: 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
"Stretching from the wars of Ghana to slavery and the Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the American South to the Great Migration to twentieth-century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi's novel moves through histories and geographies." I liked this but lost some of my reading momentum during the last few chapters.

The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson
I alternated between being rather angry and being delighted by this. Ultimately, I decided that I really liked it.

June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Lots of secrets as Hollywood comes to a small Ohio town in 1955 and again in 2015. A fun read.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
A Twenty-first Century retelling of The Taming of the Shrew.  Anne Tyler has written better books, but this was fun. Clever situation makes the plot fit modern life.

Ollie's Odyssey by William Joyce; Moonbot (Illustrations)
Middle Grade children's book. Ollie is a stuffed, uh, a stuffed one of those. A nice adventure story for those a little too old for Pooh and a bit too young for Tolkien.

You May See a Stranger: Stories by Paula Whyman
This is kind of a novel told in short stories. Each one can stand alone (and several have been published as independent stories) but put together in book format they tell a story of a woman's life. It's easy to sit and imagine what happened to Miranda before, between, and after these brief episodes in her life.

From my personal library:

The Search for the Homestead Treasure: A Mystery by Ann Treacy
Fourteen year old takes responsibility for family farm when his father is injured. Set in Minnesota in 1903. Upper Middle Grade to Teens.  Free copy from publisher.

The Tea Lords by Hella S. Haasse, Ina Rilke (Translator)
Dutch tea and quinine plantation. 1873-1918.