HONOLULU by Alan Brennert, 2009.
With a well written, smoothly flowing narrative, Brennert's second novel depicts the lives of four Korean "picture brides" who journey to Hawaii in 1914 to marry men they have never met. Regret (so named by her parents because daughters in Korea were considered unimportant enough for formal names) is the main character of the story. A somewhat feisty and independent girl, she is determined to obtain an education (not usual for girls in Korea) and make a different and better life for herself. A sympathetic relative helps her learn to read in secret. Then, seeing a chance to help her family financially and escape from her strict father, Regret and her childhood friend Sunny decide to make the journey to the island paradise of Hawaii to marry wealthy and handsome men who will give them good lives. All they have are photographs of the men they will marry. On the steamship they meet more girls--Beauty, Wise Pearl, and Jade Moon--all of whom become part of Regret's (now called Jin) circle. When they reach Honolulu, Sunny changes her mind and takes the return ship back to Korea; the other girls are quickly married off to their suitors--none of whom are what they expected. Disappointment, bitterness, backbreaking work, illness, horrific abuse, childbirth, disease, and violence becomes part of their lives, but they are resilient, smart, determined, plucky, and fiercely loyal, and these young girls create a support system which eventually enables them each to find happiness. Brennert follows these women through their triumphs and tragedies, ending the main story in 1937, but includes a 1957 afterword to further tie up loose ends. He is excellent with his historical details about Hawaii, Korea, the various customs and foods and clothes, politics, living conditions in the city and on the plantations, etc., all portrayed realistically and shockingly at times. He weaves through his narrative the stories of the real people who became the characters Charlie Chan and Sadie Thompson, and involves his fictional characters in the sensational scandal concerning rape and lynching known as the Massie case. He includes the racial issues of the time concerning Koreans, Japanese and Hawaiians, the problems of the government, prostitution, workers' strikes, etc., in convincing and interesting ways. Jin is a sympathetic  and believable heroine, and if some of the storylines' resolutions seem a bit too pat, it is still an enjoyable piece of fiction. I would say that it isn't as compelling or as emotionally involving as Moloka'i, his previous book, but a good tale nonetheless.

THE THREE MISS MARGARETS by Louise Shaffer, 2003.
If you enjoy the likes of Fannie Flagg, this may appeal to you. Set in a small town in southern Georgia, the  main part of the story involves a dark secret buried for years. Laurel Selene McCready, a white trash reporter for the local paper, starts digging around after meeting an out of town writer working on a book concerning a former resident, Vashti Johnson. Miss Peggy, Dr. Maggie, and Miss Li'l Bit, who have known each other for years, are solid citizens of Charles Valley, Georgia, and thirty years before, they helped do a terrible thing--they hid the truth about a murder in order to protect someone close to them. In so doing, however, other lives were affected in various ways. When Laurel starts poking around and asking questions, old memories are stirred up and loyalties tested. These women must decide whether it's the right time to reveal the truth about what happened. Enjoyable, suspenseful, with plenty of quirky characters, strong regional flavor, and humor. It's partly a mystery, but it's mostly about friendship, loyalty, righting wrongs, and forgiveness.

FRAGMENT by Warren Fahy, 2009.
I just finished this last night. A fast moving adventure suspense thriller similar to the novels of Michael Crichton. Paper thin characters, but lots of action and violence. Plot concerns an unexplored island in the South Pacific where the ecological system has developed completely and evolved undisturbed for millions of years. The island is remote and only has one way in--and of course, humans eventually discover it. First up is the cast and crew of a TV reality show called "SeaLife", with horrendously bloody results. Next in are the U.S. government and navy, with boatloads of scientists and state of the art equipment. What they find are nightmarish creatures and "plants" that exist in an "everything is food" environment, where all have evolved into animals with many and very startling characteristics and parts--multiple limbs and eyes and brains, abilities to mate in the womb and give birth continuously, are always in motion, and everything eats everything--including each other. When it is realized that these creatures have no natural enemies and no introduced predators can control them and the risk of their escape is too great, it is decided that the island must be destroyed. Meanwhile, it is discovered that salt water repels the attacks of the animals, earthquakes begin, fissures open, and the island is thrown into more chaos. Then, a benign, intelligent life form is found, and it becomes a race against time by a small group of people to save this creature at all costs before the island habitat is totally destroyed. Read this for the excitement and creativeness, I enjoyed the whole environment in chaos thing with weird animals and plants, good page turner with plenty of suspense, but a bit of a letdown toward the end. A really fast read, though.

THE LITTLE STRANGER by Sarah Waters, 2009.
I stayed up past midnight the other night reading this, as I just had to know how it ended. Set in post-World War II English countryside, the story involves a crumbling estate and its owners, the Ayers family. The narrator of the story is Dr. Faraday, a middle aged local GP who has been fascinated with Hundreds Hall since he was a young boy and visited there. The current family consists of the lovely and delicate Angela, her spinster daughter Caroline, and her war scarred son Roderick, and they are struggling with changes in society, have sold off most of their land, have only one full time servant to wait on them, and are strapped for cash. Dr. Faraday becomes involved with the family when he is called to Hundreds to treat their servant, Betty, who is having some trouble adjusting to life at Hundreds. After a disastrous dinner party in which a young guest is seriously injured by the family dog, Faraday finds himself drawn to Hundreds and becomes a frequent visitor. Over time, he comes to realize, as the Ayers do as well, that something isn't quite right in the old Georgian mansion, that the strange creaks and tappings and the series of "accidents" are being caused by something that is dark and menacing. As their lives intertwine, each of them experiences genuine fear and horror over the sinister events at Hundreds Hall. A wonderfully compelling gothic story, full of quiet, unnerving incidents, interesting characters, and a great eerie atmosphere. Waters is a good storyteller and manages to pull the reader in fairly easily and keep those pages turning. If you have enjoyed novels like The Turn of the Screw or Rebecca or The Haunting of Hill House, that are full of creepiness and give you goosebumps, this has a lot of the same elements. I found it quite enthralling, and I am still thinking about it...