The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly -- rec'd by Mrs. S, Melody, and Michelle; also the April "selection" for

I actually was the one who picked this for

I did find the end somewhat jarring, but I'm not sure that's entirely fair, because the edition I bought had over 100 pages of appendices about the history of the fairy tales and other stories that Connolly brought into the book (including the traditional stories in their entirety), so I was expecting 100 more pages of story when it ended. So I had a hard time believing that the hero's victory was a real victory. I think the book could have benefited from a table of contents, or some other warning that the end was much nearer than one would think from the number of pages remaining.
Still, I liked this book quite a bit -- I found myself absorbed into the world, and engaged by the question of what familiar-but-not-quite fairy story would appear on the next page. So I do recommend it.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult -- rec'd by Mrs. S.
I had somehow completely missed Jodi Picoult. Then
My only real complaint with this story was that Picoult brought in two characters from other books. I didn't mind that in and of itself, but she dropped asides about those characters' backstories and then never expanded on them. I found this particularly annoying because of the way the story moved back in time -- when the tidbits first came up, I assumed they'd be explained in the historic timelines, but they never were. It bothers me when writers assume that every reader has read all of their work. It's one thing when a book is a direct sequel, but that clearly wasn't the case here.
A minor quibble, though. I found this book to be quite un-putdownable, and I will certainly check out more of Picoult's many works. In fact, I have two in my stack already.
*PS to
