The Longest Trip Home

By John Grogan

John Grogan grew up in a suburb of Detroit. His dad had a good job and his children wanted for nothing. At one point, the dad bought his son a sail boat, which tells you something about their situation.
It was a pretty sweet childhood, far from the struggles and poverty of urban Detroit. About the only fly in John's ointment was his parents  religiosity. They were extremely devout Catholics but John never felt an affinity to the religion.
Boys grow up and John heads off to live his life, eventually sharing a house with the woman he later marries. His devout parents find this arrangement very upsetting when John finally works up the nerve to tell them, which takes him a long time. Even after they get married, his parents continue to bombard him with prayers for his safe return to the religion they cherish that they have finally figured out means nothing to their son.
And so it goes. Mom and Dad get old and the inevitable arrives and  though John never returns to their religion, he and his father come to a sort of understanding about it.

I enjoyed the book. It was nice reading about his family. John was a lucky boy, that's for sure: loving parents with a stable marriage, financial security, a safe environment to grow up in. He never even got fondled by a priest even though he was an altar boy! (Or if he did, he doesn't mention it in the story.) He had the kind of childhood many can only dream about.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Canada

By Richard Ford

The story is told from the point of view of Dell Parsons, a fifteen year old boy living in Montana with his parents and his twin sister, Berner.
The father, Bev Parsons, is ex-military and not adverse to a little larceny on the side. But his schemes lead to money troubles and he gets the bright idea to rob a bank.
The mother, Neeva, a school teacher, goes along with his idea and volunteers to be the driver of the get away car.
They get $2500 from the robbery, which they think is successful. $2000 of the money goes to take care of Bev's money problems. But it isn't long until the cops are knocking on their door and the two are hauled off to jail leaving their two teens home alone. Berner runs away and a friend of the mom takes Dell to live with her brother in a small town in Canada.
In this Canadian hole-in-the-wall, Dell lives in a run-down shack and helps the brother's hired man with various chores. The brother, Arthur Remlinger, has a past, the hired man warns Dell. He tells Dell that when Arthur was younger he got involved with a radical group and had planted a bomb that killed a man. He fled to Canada to escape the consequences. Dell believes the warning and isn't surprised when two Americans show up at Arthur's hotel looking for him. It doesn't end well for the two men. Arthur brings Dell into the whole messy business, using him as a kind of prop to disarm the two Americans.

I found this book boring. I think I read about 50 pages then set it aside for several days. And it's a long book, over 400 pages.  You'd think, what with bank robbery, murders, teenagers running wild it would be more gripping, more exciting but it just wasn't. Also, even though it is titled Canada, the Canada part doesn't start until 200 pages in. Finally I found it simply unbelievable that the mother would go along with her stupid husband's scheme to rob a bank. A silly premise, in my opinion.

The critics loved this book. They think it is wonderful. As in the review by Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian.

Still Life

By Louise Penny

The first Chief Inspector Gamache novel.

A small town murder! An well-loved elderly woman has been shot dead with an arrow through the heart! Chief Inspector Gamache is sent to investigate.
Everything he discovers about Jane Neal indicates she had no enemies, no fortune, and no reason for anyone to take her life. A former school teacher, never married, Jane was living quietly in retirement in the town where she  dwelt her whole life. The oddest things about her were her paintings which she never showed anyone. And that she never let anyone into her house beyond the kitchen area.
She was hiding something. But what? Did her secrets have anything to do with her murder?  Did the fact that she had recently decided to share her paintings with the world factor in to her death? These are the questions the Inspector will ask among others. And all the secrets will be revealed, come what may.

This was a pretty good read, for a murder mystery, which is not my favorite genre. I don't remember why I wanted this particular book but I don't regret getting it. I did enjoy it.

Review from Kirkus.

The Memory of Earth

By Orson Scott Card

Millions of years ago, humanity fled Earth after ruining it with their weapons of mass destruction. Scarred by this, on their new home on the planet of Harmony, they built a super-computer to control their thoughts and keep mankind from developing any technology that would lead to such a disaster again.
So forty million years have passed and the super computer, the Oversoul, is starting to fail. People are once again on the path of conquest, empire-building and developing forbidden technology.
To save itself and humanity, the Oversoul reaches out to powerful local family, sending them visions and dreams and influencing their actions to thwart a growing and dangerous faction of violent men trying to take over the local government.

This book is the first in the Homecoming saga which consists of five novels. The series is based on the Book of Mormon according to Wikipedia.
This was a fairly interesting story but not interesting enough to entice me to read any others in the series. I did find it rather disappointing that after forty million years, people are still the same stupid, selfish pigs they have always been. I mean, forty million years is a long time to stay virtually the same!

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Normal Girl

By Molly Jong-Fast

Miranda Woke is nineteen years old and she is a child of wealth and privilege and she has used her advantages to become a drug addict.
Apparently her issues stem from her gad-about mother and her indifferent father and her guilt over the untimely death of her lover. These fuel her downward slide into degradation.
Ending up in rehab at a clinic in Minnesota, she comes to an understanding of her problems and is released to return to New York City where nothing has changed except Miranda. Same old indifferent and absent parents, same old group of promiscuous and drug abusing "friends." But a hopeful new Miranda who doesn't want to end up like her parents and her dead lover.

I found this book a bit boring. I don't really sympathize with the poor little rich girl. The world is handed to her on a platter but she throws it all away for a booze, sex and drugs. Her idea of a good time, I guess. Her story is nothing new and she is pathetic.

Review by Publishers Weekly.