The Three Miss Margarets by Louise Schaffer ✔✔

I don't know how I heard about this, and I was likely more intrigued by the title than anything.  It was  pretty quick read, and I skimmed over a lot.  It's hard to decide whether she was trying to emulate really good Southern writers like Anne Rivers Siddons, Fannie Flagg, or Kathryn Strockett, but no matter - it didn't work.  I grow tired of characters who (a) have a drinking problem because of some deep dark past (b) had rotten parents, or (c) fell in love with the wrong person.  And that about sums up many of the characters in this book.  'Nuff said - there's another book I want to get started on.

Seems a while since I read a REALLY good one!

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson ✔✔✔✔

Allan Karlsson has had a long and eventful life, but as he approaches his 100th birthday, he is very unhappy living in a nursing home.  He's very healthy and he hates Nurse Alice, the administrator who is planning a big birthday party, so the morning of the celebration, Allan steps out of his window in his slippers and embarks on an amazing, unexpected and hilarious journey.

During his adventures, we also learn of Allan's history, and it is an impressive one for he has taken part in some of the most important events of the 20th century, met and mingled with such people as Harry S. Truman, Mao Tse-Tung, Stalin and even LBJ in a unique capacity.

The opening part had me laughing till tears ran down my face, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book.  It's a sort of Forrest Gump as Allan embarks on this remarkable journey as well as an interesting look back at events of the 20th century. And if I hadn't checked the credits, I would not have even guessed that it had been translated from Swedish.

The Guilty Plea by Robert Rotenberg

I read the author's first book and really enjoyed it, and this one is even better.  I could not put it down, as much for the fact that the settting is Toronto - with visits to Cobalt and New Liskeard, too - as it is a good crime/legal thriller.  Short chapters, swift action, hardly any screwing!  Good read!!

Death of a Schoolgirl by Joanna Campbell Slan

This book is a continuation of "Jane Eyre", one of my all-time favorite classics.  Jane has given birth to a son, and is very happy in her marriage to Rochester.  But his ward,Adele, who is attending a private school in London, writes a strange letter, and Jane is sent to find out what is going on.  Of course, there's a big mystery - well not really, it's actually a little mystery but the author drags it out like crazy and by about 2/3 of the way through you're just crazy for it to be over.

No one does Jane Eyre like Charlotte Bronte, I guess.  I did like The Flight of Gemma Hardy, though, which is a re-writing of Jane's story - this is a continuation.  Two stars.....