Bedbugs by Ben Winters

An engaging story that went off the deep end.

The Associate by John Grisham

Engaging story, but the ending was sort of anti-climactic.

(And, why yes, I did spend last week sitting on the beach reading classic beach reads.)

The Other Daughter by Lisa Gardner

Lame.

Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Near-perfect fluff.

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke

I'm pretty sure Attica Locke is one of my very favorite writers.  Recommended.

Beowulf: Dragonslayer by Rosemary Sutcliff

I read this to the boys.  I liked it.

The Reversal by Michael Connelly

meh

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Very interesting and a lot of fun.  Recommended.

Flower Net by Lisa See

Lame.

Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin

I fully expected to hate this book because it combines three of my least-favorite things:

(1) Anything remotely similar to a self-help book.

(2) The overdone and lame-to-begin-with trend of "doing something weird for a year and then writing a book about it."  (Note:  this doesn't apply to The Year of Living Biblically.)

(3) Any book with the whiff of "this is a second book similar to a first book that was really popular--let's extend the brand!"

(So why did I read it?  Because Janssen won't stop talking about it.)

But I didn't hate it.  In fact, I liked that she:

(1) is sort of a contrarian.

(2) didn't say "you should do X because experts say blah blah blah" but rather "you know what?  I did X and it was awesome!"

(3) got a little philosophical.

(4) has a great collection of quotations.

But I didn't love it either.  I found it sometimes shallow.   But it was a quick read, and pretty interesting overall.

Note:  The publisher provided me a digital review copy of this book.

The Confession by John Grisham

This was lame, even for John Grisham.

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Very weird, but I really liked it.

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

Top-notch fluff.  You want a pre-apocalyptic police procedural?  This is definitely the book for you!

As Texas Goes by Gail Collins

Can't even tell you how much I liked this.

Into the Forest by Jean Hegland

Too weird.

Love Wins by Rob Bell

Rob Bell always makes me really happy to be a Christian.  

(His analysis of the parable of the prodigal son[s] is particularly good.)

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Stephen Galloway

Didn't do anything for me. Only read it because I had to for book group.

Breasts by Florence Williams

Fascinating.  Recommended.

A Good Man by Mark Shriver

I really liked this.

A Hologram for the King by David Eggers

Kind of weird, but I kind of liked it.