Gone Girl

I'm not usually into suspense or psychological thrillers, but I just could not put this book down! Thanks to Rita for the recommendation - and it's been on the best seller list for awhile, too.

On the morning of Amy and Nick Dunne's five-year wedding anniversary, Amy disappears. Nick's called home from work to find the front door open, and signs of a struggle in the living room. The first section of the novel - told by turns from Nick's point-of-view and from pages in Amy's journal - gradually points everyone - including the cops - toward thinking that Nick killed his wife and dumped her body somewhere. But there's no body.... and then we get to the second part of the novel.

I don't want to give anything away, so I won't say anymore about the plot. The story is very cunning - usually I'm good at figuring stories like this out, but the author, Gillian Flynn, really had me going. And her characters are so clever - imperfect yet likeable, charismatic, quirky, and unsettling. And this is a psychological thriller in the truest sense, a real study in what makes people who they are and how their minds work.

My only disappointment was the ending. I wanted vengeance, and I didn't get it. But I still highly recommend this book, it's just fabulous.

Gone Girl

Dragonfly in Amber

This is the second book in the Outlander series (Outlander being the first), and IT ROCKED!! In the first book, Claire Randall went back in time from 1948 to 1745ish, and ran into Scotsman Jamie Fraser and all sorts of fun Highland adventures with Jacobites, Bonny Prince Charlie, and those folks. This novel starts in 1968, when Claire has returned to Scotland for the first time in 20 years with her 19-year-old daughter Brianna.

Claire has decided she needs to tell Brianna who her biological father is, and how she came into being, so the biggest chunk of this very long novel is Claire telling the further story of her adventures with Jamie in Scotland and France from 1745 to 1748 or so. The other story line is in present day (1968) Scotland, with Roger Wakefield helping Claire find out what happened to the folks she knew back in the 18th century, and showing Brianna all the local sights.

Diana Gabaldon has obviously done a lot of studying of her British history, so there is a ton of great historical detail. And the story just runs away - I couldn't put the book down, and though it's a long one I got through it fairly quickly. And the characters are great, and there are some neat little twists too. I just put the third book on hold at the library - can't wait!

Dragonfly in Amber

Dreams of Joy

WOW! I could not put this book down. I read Lisa See's Shanghai Girls a couple of years ago, and this novel starts where that one left off - when 19-year-old Joy learns that Pearl is not her birth mother, but Auntie May is, and that May gave her to her sister to raise after they fled China twenty years before.

It's now 1957, and Joy is an idealistic college student who thinks socialism sounds just great, and that Chairman Mao is a wonderful guy. So she leaves her family in Los Angele's Chinatown and runs off to Shanghai, in search of her birth father and a "better" life. When Pearl learns where she's gone, she heads to China after her, in hopes of bringing her home before it's too late. Soon both Joy and Pearl are caught up in Mao's Great Leap Forward, and not in a good way.

This isn't a pretty story, and See doesn't shy from the nastier details of life in the PRC. But it is a beautifully told story, and both Joy and Pearl grow and learn through their experiences. It's a really great read.

Dreams of Joy