Currently Reading

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Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer - It seems like I read this a million years ago, but it was probably only 3 weeks.  Jonathan arrives in Ukraine on a mission to find the woman who saved his grandfather during WWII.  Alex, a local boy, acts as Jonathan's translator, while his grandfather is their driver.  And of course, Sammy Davis Jr. Jr, their dog, joins them on their adventure.  This book is beautiful and bounces around from present day to pre-war.  It's funny, poignant, and a beautiful look at how we carry our histories with us.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer - I loved this book.  I never wanted to put it down.  Leila is a non-profit worker in Asia.  Leo is a rich kid struggling with his own mind.  Mark has found himself suddenly famous and clinging desperately to it.  And yet they all come together when The Committee, a multi-national cabal, is attempting to buy, own, and then sell back all of the world's information.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is darkly funny.  My only complaint is that the ending was too open-ended, but hopefully that means there will be a sequel.

Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel - Amazon does this thing if you have a Kindle where every month, you get to choose a free book from a very limited selection of new books.  I'm not one to turn down a free book, so I usually just grab the one that looks the most up my alley and go for it, as was the case with Crooked Little Lies.  We've got Annie, whose brother Bo has gone missing.  We've got Lauren, who was in an accident a few years ago and then became addicted to pain medication.  She is sober now and also may be one of the last people to see Bo.  Everything after that really doesn't matter because this book was so melodramatic and idiotic that I don't even want to discuss it further.  

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes - Now this is what I'm talking about.  I read The Shining Girls not too long ago and loved it, so I was excited to try another of Beukes's books.  Present-day Detroit.  A boy's body is found, but this is far from a typical homicide.  Only half of the boy's body has been found and that half is attached to the legs of a deer.  This kickstarts a city-wide investigation.  Beukes takes us through the Detroit PD, the city arts scene, the lives of teenagers, and the dark side of the internet.  This book is smart, fast-paced, and topical on so many subjects.  It's a brilliant piece of writing and I can't wait to read more of her work.