The Caper

The Caper by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Super-duper short story. The entertaining tale of one of FBI Special Agent Kate O'Hare's many attempts to capture con artist extraordinaire Nick Fox--one that failed by just a whisker. This one is set in old town Seattle, and is particularly fun for anyone who's taken their Underground tour. Easily readable in just a few minutes. Available online only: http://www.evanovich.com/books/the-caper/.

For readers' advisors: story doorway. Very fast-paced, quick read for fans of the Kate O'Hare/Nick Fox series. No sex or violence, and the only swearing is "Holy crap!"

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Shimmer

Shimmer by Darynda Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Super short. Pretty humorous. Includes a fairly explicit sex scene. Well, the whole thing is just one scene, part of which is a quickie on the couch (that ends up on the floor). I'm not even sure what doorway(s) to tag it with because the whole thing is so short. Anyone who likes the Charley Davidson Grim Reaper series should enjoy this little vignette. Definitely don't read it unless you've read the first 5 books in the series, though, as it contains spoilers.

You can read it online here:   http://www.daryndajones.com/shimmer-a-charley-davidson-short-story/

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Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales

Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales by Tamora Pierce

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I love Tamora Pierce! I'm usually not a big short story fan, but these are great--perfect for reading on lunch breaks. She ranges all over, telling stories involving past characters, to a couple of modern-day real-world tales (one magical and one not). I had no idea Pierce was once a housemother at a group home for teenage girls and that she has a background in psychology. That totally explains how she gets her characters to feel so real and to grow and develop.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, with setting and story secondary



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How Do You Tuck in a Superhero?

How Do You Tuck In a Superhero?: And Other Delightful Mysteries of Raising Boys by Rachel Balducci

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I started reading this while waiting at the Social Security office & DMV. Excellent choice! Short chapters, funny, and easy to put down when my number was called. It's not the parenting book I thought it would be when I checked it out, but it was an entertaining series of nearly random vignettes about the author, her husband, and their 5 sons.



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Goodbye, Evil Eye: Stories

Goodbye, Evil Eye: Stories by Gloria Devidas Kirchheimer

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this book up because of the title. I'd just returned from Egypt, where the Evil Eye is still a strong concept. Turns out that this book isn't really about evil eye stories so much as it is a book of...short vignettes? I am not sure how to classify it, really. The book is thin, and the stories seem to have nothing to do with each other except that they all feature Sephardic Jews in America. (The Sephardim are Jewish people "whose multilingual roots lie in Spain, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, [and:] the Middle East," according to the book's cover.)

Frankly, reading this book was difficult. I never finished. I got all the way to page 108 (out of 150), but in all that time, I never really liked any of the characters in the stories. The tone often felt slightly disrespectful rather than amusing, as though the author was trying to be funny but harbored resentment toward the older generation(s), and that translated into a condescension which trickled through in the narrative. And I never figured out whether the stories were supposed to have any basis in fact--although the book is catalogued as a 974.71, which is in the Dewey range for history.


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