I've been reading a variety of things lately and so I decided to use "No Theme" as my theme. I hope you find one (or more) of the following titles interesting:
Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple is a quirky and fun tale.
This book tells us all about the life and times of Bernadette Fox, mother, brilliant architect and a woman with an increasing case of agoraphobia.
Bernadette's beloved daughter Bee aces her report card and lets her family know that she intends to take her parents up on her promised reward - a family trip to Antarctica.
Bernadette is thrilled for Bee but is less pleased for herself; she hates leaving the house. Bernadette's allergy to the outside world slowly increases until her virtual personal assistant - located in India - is doing the most basic tasks for her.
Unfortunately for Bernadette, her virtual assistant can't actually go on this trip in her place. Something big needs changing in Bernadette's life but how will the change affect her and her family?
Read this entertaining novel when you're in the mood for something fun!
Rush of Blood by Mark Billingham is a book about three English couples who meet while on vacation in Florida.
They don't have much in common but they bond over good times in the warm sun until tragedy strikes on the last day of their holiday.
A young girl, also staying at the resort with her mother, goes missing. All three couples are shaken my the mother's understandable fear and, on that note, their vacation ends.
Because they had got along so well while away and because they all live near each other, the three couples decide to meet for a dinner party a few weeks after returning home.
Inevitably the subject of the young girl comes up. They each discuss their memories and talk about where they were when she went missing.
Over the next couple of months they meet two more times. Each time they discuss the crime and each time new evidence is revealed.
This is a classic whodunnit and is a great pick for mystery fans.
In Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, web-designer Clay Jannon has been laid off.
In this economy he doesn't hold out much hope for getting another web design job so he applies to be a clerk at a strange 24 hour bookstore.
Clay, being the new guy, gets the night shift and the customers he sees count as some of the oddest people he's ever interacted with.
To make things even more unusual, none of the customers seem to ever actually buy anything. Instead, they come in and borrow enormous books filled with unintelligible writings.
Because the night shift isn't exactly bustling, Clay has lots of time to puzzle over these mysterious events. Eventually he enlists a few friends to help him figure out what's going on.
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann is another interesting book that ties a group of very different people together using an amazing incident - a man walking across a wire between New York's twin towers.
The first group of stories detail the life of Corrigan, a radical young Irish priest who ministers to a group of prostitutes in a very bad part of the city.
The story then goes on to a group of mothers who have lost their sons in the Vietnam war.
From there we learn about the life and times of a young artist and after that we hear about a judge.
These disparate stories end up beautifully woven together.
This is an absolutely excellent book that will stay with you long after you've finished it.
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published every Wednesday. Bronwyn Punch works at Terry Fox Library in Port Coquitlam.
