American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Caught up in the Great American Read frenzy, one of my book groups decided to up the ante and read an old classic. Can't remember how the conversation lead us to this one.  Seymour Levov aka Swede was the high school hero of Newark, New Jersey before WWII.  He comes home after the war to marry Miss New Jersey and take over the family business.  All is well until his lovely daughter Merry gets sucked into the protests of the 60's with tragic consequences.  How do we know all this? Roth's favorite narrator, writer Nathan Zuckerman went to school with his brother, Jerry.  When they meet at a high school reunion, Jerry shares that life for the Swede has not gone so well.  When Swede gets in touch with Nathan and asks him to write a story about his father, the telling begins.  There is very little room for the reader's thoughts here because every possible internal dialog is shared.  More than I wanted to hear/read actually.  I think this book has been described as the modern Job story.  I get that.  It won the Pulitzer which I wonder about.  I also wonder if I am supposed to think that Swede is to blame for Merry's mistakes.  Or maybe all the people like Swede are to be blamed for the 60's. Guess I should go back and read Job.

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny

Someone recommended this book to me because, as a teacher, they thought I would enjoy the character of the non-neurotypical young boy in the book.  Matthew's struggle to make friends is oh so familiar but this is not his story.  The marriage of his upper middle class, New Yorker, parents is.  Graham is 15 years older than out-going Audra.  While she has her pulse on the neighborhood and no apparent verbal filter (which is sometimes very funny), he sometimes misses the quieter although colder life he shared with his first wife.  When he runs into his first wife again, they begin a Audra approved purely intellectual affair with Graham's internal musings providing much of the thoughtful meat of the story.  There are many delightful moments of quirky detail - some having to do with the fact that Matthew is considered a "folding genius" by the mostly over 35 members of his origami club.  Mostly it is a beach read for people who also like the NYT crossword puzzle but maybe can't finish it past Wednesday.

Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna

Aah those lazy summer mystery reads.  Alice Vega is an expert at finding lost children.  She is 18 for 18 - but not all of them were happy endings.  When 10 year old Kylie and 8 year old Bailey go missing from their small town grocery parking lot, the deadbeat dad seems an obvious candidate for the guilty party.  But there are a whole host of questionable characters to suspect and even a few cold cases to throw in before this case gets closed.  Definitely worth the shady afternoon with my feet up.