The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb

By Melanie Benjamin

Despite the title, this book is a novel. Based on the life of an actual person (who actually started writing her own biography), but fiction. It's easy to forget this while reading the book. It's very immersive and based on a lot of research, so when you read it, you want to believe every single word of it, though for some, as the author admits, there's no actual evidence. It is the fascinating life story of Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump Stratton, made famous as Miss Lavinia Warren, and then as Mrs. General Tom Thumb. She was 'a perfect lady in miniature', a proportionate dwarf, but her dreams, and the life her dreams led her to, were very big. But through her story, you get to see what America (and also, a little bit, the world) was like during her life, in the mid- and late 19th century. Also you learn about the people closest to her, like her sister Minnie Warren, and P.T. Barnum. [440 pp.]

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Awayland, Stories

By Ramona Ausubel

Some stories were weirder than others, but that's expected with short stories. I admit that I didn't quite understand what was going on in the last one. Some were quite endearing. Most of them were inviting. [240 pp.]

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The Wanderers (#2 in the West Country Trilogy)

By Tim Pears

The story follows Leo and Lottie on their now separate ways. They both have problems and they are deeply attached to each other, but it's hard to ignore the vast difference between their problems, with their belonging to such different casts. Reading Leo's parts (and of course, he is the main hero of the story) was a lot more interesting to me. Anyway, looking forward to their reunion, but afraid there will be a war in between. [384 pp.]

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The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe

By Alexander McCall Smith

I was a bit worried when I realized this book is part of a series, and not the first one, either (in fact, the 15th!). But in fact, I had no difficulty understanding, or ever felt like I was missing some useful information. It seems these books are stand-alones as they are a part of a series (though to know the latter for sure I will need to read more of them). In any case, the book is filled with wisdom of human nature, even as the humans are those of faraway countries and distant cultures. It is enjoyable, if sometimes a bit drifting, far into people's thoughts and memories, and you wish them to get back to the point they're supposed to be making. [227 pp.]

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A Robot In The Garden

By Deborah Install

I have to admit, the first part of the book read like a first draft. It reminded me of the process of writing during NaNoWriMo, where you just put on paper (well, digital paper) whatever comes to your mind, because you have to reach a certain word count. Things might make sense, but they don't necessarily read right. But by the end of the book I thought it was quite worth the read. It was a fun read, not too deep, but also not too shallow. [315 pp.]

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The Insides

By Jeremy P. Bushnell

Another evidence for the effectiveness of judging a book by its cover. This book is very accessible and sort of fast-paced, almost like an action movie, but with an actual plot and events that make sense. Mixing people's inner lives with reality and magic, the book tells the story of two women who come in the path of a power-seeking man. [286 pp.]

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The Horseman

By Tim Pears

I was just about to say that the ending of this book would only make sense if it there were to be a sequel, and indeed, I just found out that it is a part of a trilogy. Well, I guess now I have to look around for the next ones... It was interesting, but I felt the end was sort of sudden. The boy who is for years being groomed by his adored father as a horse-handler prodigy is, seemingly out the blue, being cast away. [320 pp.]

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