Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung FIC Chu

       I liked this book a lot!  It's the story of a Korean family  who came to the U.S.  because of  political dangers. .  The two young daughters quickly adjusted to their new country and the American names the school insisted on - Hannah and Janie (not very politically correct!).   The older one, Janie, is now busy working on her doctorate in math.  Hannah has quit college and left - breaking ties with her parents and sister.  No one in the family understands why she has done that and the parents put a lot of pressure on Janie to find her. Janie does track down her cell phone but Hannah doesn't want to speak to her family.   A medical problem sends Janie and her parents back to Korea where more of the family story is revealed.   I liked the characters, the story and and the cultural background included in the story.  Well-written and entertaining!

The Expats by Chris Pavone FIC Pav

Even though this book is not in the mystery section, it has a lot of mystery in it! Kate Moore had a rough family life and because of that she never expected to get close enough to someone to get married. Of course she did and it caused her a few problems. You see she was an operative for the CIA. She couldn't blurt that out on a first date. Then it got serious - when do you tell a secret like that? She never found the right time. So she had a sham job and a lot of guilt. When her first child was born she took herself out of the field and took a desk job. When her husband is offered a great job in Europe she quits her job and thinks that she can keep that part of her life a secret forever. She tries to be a normal mom but she quickly becomes suspicious of another 'expat' couple. And then she becomes suspicious of her husband. A very interesting novel!

E-mergency by Tom Lichtenheld & Ezra Fields-Meyer

Sometimes picture books have such sophisticated humor that it's a shame they get relegated to the children's area of the library. E-mergency is a perfect example. It's an alphabet book, sure, but the letters of the alphabet are the characters in the story, which is the tale of E being injured and unable to work. After sending E to the ER with the EMTs, A gathers the remaining letters and addresses the problem of the missing E. As you know, E is the most-used letter in the English language, so her absence is huge. A assigns O to fill in for E because he's "so well-rounded." The announcement is made in a "spocial bullotin" on the TV, where the public is admonished "do not uso E until sho rocovors." The real treat, though, is the accompanying illustrations -- done by a 14-year-old -- and the comments from the letter characters (N tells P and U that they shouldn't sit togothor, for example, and guess what P is doing on the opening spread, showing all the letters at home in the house they share).
Just because it's in a picture-book format doesn't mean it's for little kids. Grab this one for some quality yuck-it-up time with your fourth-grader.

A Grown-up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

I listened to this book although we do own the book. I began listening to it as I started out on a walk. I have to say that I really didn't enjoy the audio part of this book. The accents were a bit much for my tastes. However, by the end of the walk I was caught up in the story and was able to overlook (overhear????) the accents. The story is told in three different voices by the Slocumb women. Jenny (also referred to as Big) became a mother at 15. Her daughter Liza became a mother at 15. Liza's daughter, Mosey, is now 15 and although everyone is a bit nervous, there are more pressing issues facing the family. Liza has suffered a stroke and is barely able to communicate anything. In order to facilitate Liza's recovery, Big is going to put in a pool. On the day the big willow tree is being removed to make room for the pool their worlds explode when a box with a small skeleton is unearthed and in a garbled voice Liza cries out "My baby". Even though Liza and Big both made mistakes along the way they are family and they will protect each other. And how about Mosey ? Is she really family too?