The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The title was chosen for our wonderful library's Big Read.  I guess I was 1 of the few people in American who not only had not read the book but have never seen the movie.  I can't say that I have been a fan of the detective novel genre but it was a fun read.  Of course even though I have not seen the movie, Sam Spade sounded like Humphrey Bogart in my head.  Can't say he matched Hammett's description though - which I think is one of the things that distinguishes the detective novel from the mystery novel.  In this book, we get the kind of details of every individual that would allow us to pick them out in a line-up but little internal dialog or back story.  It's all about the plot - all action - made for the movies - a great escape.

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

As a young girl, Alma Belasco is forced to leave Poland at the start of WWII and becomes a part of her wealthy uncle's family in San Francisco.  Ichimei Fukada is the young son of her uncle's gardner.  They become fast friends but are separated when Ichimei and his family are sent to the Topaz camp.
As the title suggests, they meet again but neither has the courage to make their relationship public.  Not much new in that story but Alma's story is not so straight forward which is perhaps why Allende chose to tell it backwards.  We first meet Alma near the end of her life.  She has chosen to live in a quirky retirement home rather than in her opulent family home. She has befriended one of the staff, Irina, who has her own interesting back story.  Irina and Alma's grandson, Seth, are determined to find the reason behind Alma's occasional disappearances and the gifts that arrive unsigned.  And it is through their efforts that all the secrets are revealed.  The characters are likeable and the story surprising in some ways but the writing seemed too spare - too simple a translation maybe - just nothing beautiful.  She has written better.

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

This is a story of a logging family in the Pacific Northwest but Sometimes a Great Notion it ain't.  When 13 year old Trevor and his father return to the family estate outside of Seattle, the thing he is most anxious to learn about is the "family curse."  The former grand estate is a shambles but still the home to his aunt and grandfather.  The question that his father is here to help resolve is what to do with Grandpa and what is to be done with the estate.  No surprise - there is little agreement.  But there is an interesting backstory which is revealed in chapters interspersed through the main story - and there is guilt - and there are ghosts - and occasionally some elegantly phrased passages about the old growth forests and our relation to them.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Eli and Charlie Sisters are famous gun slinging killers for hire in the late 1800's.  They are employed by the Commodore, a powerful nasty figure who operates out of Oregon City in the Oregon Territory.  They are on their way from Oregon City to the gold fields of California to kill Hermann Kermit Warm and steal his formula for an amazing liquid which makes the hard to see gold shine in the river beds.  Both brothers seem to kill without a bit of remorse and the killings are frequent which makes the fact that this book is full of humor hard to explain.  The language and voice are pure Twain.  The ending is both strange and satisfying which is good because somehow DeWitt has created two killers you kinda like.