Drop City

Drop City (2003) by T.C. Boyle. Drop City is the name of a hippie commune in California presided over by Norm, who owns the land on which it resides. The story takes place in the late-'60s, early-'70s, a time when people were actively dropping out of society and setting up little separate communities of their own. But a substantial part of the story takes place in Alaska, after the authorities chase Norm and his cohort off the land and they decide to try to make a go of it in the frozen North. There are a few vividly drawn characters, but in general the novel suffers from too many characters, so that the second tier, made up of about 20 or 30 people, are impossible to keep straight -- and really not worth the effort. Grade: B-

Candy Girl

Candy Girl - A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2006) by Diablo Cody. Cody is at great pains to keep her intellect on display as she describes her year of misadventures as a stripper in Minneapolis. She never really manages to convey the why of it -- i.e., why she felt compelled to become a stripper, and why she quit after a year. The book does provide an inside look at the life of a stripper (hint: it's not glamorous). And there's not much, short of flat-out prostitution, that Cody refuses to do in the stripper's world. Readable, but not compelling. Grade: B

The Dogs of Babel

The Dogs of Babel (2003) by Carolyn Parkhurst. When his wife Lexy falls out of a tree to her death, Paul Iverson is haunted by questions -- above all, was it an accident? Since he is a linguist, perhaps it is not too surprising that he decides to teach the family dog (the only witness to Lexy's death) to talk. But the plot concerning teaching the dog to talk takes a back seat to flashbacks of Paul's relationship with Lexy, from the beginning, when they meet at a garage sale, to the unhappy end. It's an elegiac love story, told with insight and grace. Grade: B

The Hard Way

The Hard Way (2006) by Lee Child. Child has become an immensely popular writer of thrillers featuring his invincible hero, Jack Reacher. Reacher, a former military MP, is smart, tall and strong. This book is a pretty typical Reacher installment, with Reacher encountering evil and dealing with it in his own forceful way. Highly readable, as evidenced by the fact that I got through it. Grade: B