16. Ordinary Grace - William Kent Krueger

listened on Audible - read BEAUTIFULLY
2013 Atria Books
307 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 2/14/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.15 - 48,224 ratings
My rating:  4.5
Setting:1961 New Bremen, sourthern Minnesota

First line/s:   "All the dying that summer began with the death of a child, a boy with golden hair and thick glasses, killed on the railroad tracks outside New Bremen, Minnesota, sliced into pieces by a thousand tons of steel speeding across the prairie toward South Dakota."

My comments:  This story is about a minister's family in New Bremen, Minnesota in the summer of 1961, told in the first person by the middle child, a 13-year old named Frank, called Frankie by his family.  The story examines faith and the "awesome grace of God."
     I am genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.  Usually I go running in the other directions - screaming - when I discover a book contains ruminations about religion.  This one never ever shoved religion down my throat, and the minister father, Nathan Drum, was everything anyone could ever want in a minister.  It certainly game me lots to think about, particularly about grief.  It also made me ponder so many people's unquestionable belief that anything that happens is "God's will."  And, if anything, it strengthened my own beliefs. 
     So many strengths here - wonderful characterization, beautifully crafted plot, and really lovely writing.
     So many great things bout this book, but the best for me?  I really like the relationship between Frank and his stuttering younger brother, Jake.

Goodreads synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger comes a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in the summer of 1961.
         New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were at the ready at Halderson’s Drug Store soda counter, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a summer in which death assumed many forms.
          When tragedy unexpectedly comes to call on his family, which includes his Methodist minister father, his passionate, artistic mother, Juilliard-bound older sister, and wise-beyond-his years kid brother, Frank finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal.
          On the surface, Ordinary Grace is the story of the murder of a beautiful young woman, a beloved daughter and sister. At heart, it’s the story of what that tragedy does to a boy, his family, and ultimately the fabric of the small town in which he lives. Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, it is a moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.

26. The Library at Mount Char - Scott Hawkins

I read the real honest-to-goodness hardcover book
2015, Crown
390 pgs.
Adult fantasy
Finished 4-24-16
Goodreads rating: 4.05
My rating:  5
Setting:  Contemporary anywhere-in-suburbia USA

First line/s:  "Carolyn, blood-drenched and barefoot, walked alone down the two-lane stretch of blacktop that the Americans called Highway 78."

My comments:  This book was a total mind f**k.  That's the only word ] I can think of that describes it.  It was sitting innocently on a table at the library and when I saw the word LIBRARY in the title - I had to, of course, pick it up and check it out.  It's certainly not about any library I've ever encountered!  I couldn't put it down.  I was pulled into it immediately.  I realized you weren't supposed to totally "get" what was going on at first, and that it would all come together at the end.  It pretty much did.   What an imagination this guy has!  I'm blown away.  I was meant to read this book.  I've gone back and forth clicking the *4*, then clicking the *5*, then back to the *4*.  I'll remember this book for a long time and I really loved it.  I'm going all the way with the 5!   (And I can totally understand why some people don't like this book at all, it's not for everyone, that's for sure!)
    Oh - and the humor.  I didn't mention how funny it can be!

Goodreads synopsis:  Neil Gaiman meets Joe Hill in this astonishingly original, terrifying, and darkly funny contemporary fantasy. 
          Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. She's sure of it. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. She even remembers what clothes are for.  After all, she was a normal American herself, once.  That was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.  Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.
          In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power.  Sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.
          Now, Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library—and with it, power over all of creation.  As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her.  But Carolyn can win. She's sure of it. What she doesn't realize is that her victory may come at an unacceptable price—because in becoming a God, she's forgotten a great deal about being human.