Finished Reading

As well as Michael Connelly's Echo Park, I'm also reading The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn, as my non-fiction book, and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, as my at-home book. Here's what I've finished:

Number the Stars: Lois Lowry. My daughter was reading this book to me and quit, which was a shame since I was enjoying it. I bought it the other day and finished it today, and for such a simple and short story, it's an amazing book. Lowry makes the characters real. The dilemna they face, smuggling Jews out of WWII Denmark, is as scary as any adult book on the subject. Spend some time getting to know 10-year-old Annemarie; she's worth it.

Heart-Shaped Box: Joe Hill. I'm a fence-sitter with this one. The action grabs you from the get-go, and the main character, Jude Coyne, who is unlikeable (at least to me) grows and learns something by the end of this ghost story (not the least of which is "Never buy a ghost over the Internet") -- not always something that happens in a horror novel. Some of the elements of the plot were predictable; I knew the story of Anna's childhood long before Jude figured it out. Hill also has a tendency to go for the gross out if he can't genuinely scare you. Overall, though, I liked Heart-Shaped Box, and I'll read the next Joe Hill novel when it comes out.

Maisie Dobbs: by Jacqueline Winspear. I like Maisie -- both the character and the different take on mysteries that this series presents. I was a little put off by Maisie's perfection at first; she's incredibly intelligent and she always seems to know exactly what to say and exactly what to do. Lazy Cow assures me, though, that Maisie becomes more human as the series progresses. This first book is set in 1920s England, but because the mystery involves a place called The Retreat, which was set up for WWI veterans, the reader is taken back in time to WWI and Maisie's experiences as a nurse in that war. I look forward to my next Maisie Dobbs novel.