Memoir
Kyle MacDonald is an unemployed slacker. He realizes he is sponging off his girlfriend and decides to trade a red paper clip eventually for a house. The idea is to trade bigger and better. His first trade is a paper clip for a fish pen; his last a movie role for a house.
The writing in this book is atrocious with many repetitive sentences seemingly to fill up space. Also Kyle writes what he considers hilarious events which for this reader fell dead. Although the trades were interesting there was a lot of media attention for the latter ones which helped Kyle immensely. What I couldn't help wondering all along the way was who was paying for the flights, hotels and meals, etc. None of this was mentioned but his father accompanied him many times and assisted him, maybe he was the financial backer.
At the end of each chapter was a motivational quip which was rather insulting but sounded like Kyle need to prove to himself he was doing something worthwhile. Maybe if this book had been written just in fun and not so serious and preachy, it would have been a better read.
First Line: "Dom and I round the corner."
Rating: 
(2.5/5)
Ed Kennedy is a slacker. He drives a cab, plays cards with his friends and wishes for a romance with his girl pal. He definitely has not reached his potential. All that changes when he inadvertently stops a bank robbery and becomes a hero.
Juliet Ashton is a writer living in post-WWII London. She has lost her flat due to a bomb and is looking for her next literary inspiration when fate intervenes. She is sent a letter from Dawsey Adams of the island Guernsey who owns a book that used to belong to her and is asking her more about that author. As Juliet learns more about Dawsey, she realizes that Guernsey was under occupation during the war and the islanders had quite a difficult time during those years. Juliet asks Dawsey if he could get other islanders to write her about their experiences during the occupation and she slowly comes up with the idea for her book.
Detective Harry Bosch is back on the force after almost three years of retirement. When he returns, he's put with his old partner Kiz Rider and the two become part of the Open Unsolved unit. Bosch and Rider are lucky because one of the cases they have been assigned just came back with DNA analysis. The murder happened back in 1988, before DNA analysis was common, and in a racially-charged era. Bosch and Rider have to familiarize themselves with the case, start hunting down the leads, and figure out who the murderer was to bring them to justice.
This story is set in the mid 1800s in Afghanistan, India and England. Darya is born a Muslim Tajik in Afghanistan. She is taught to be obedient and know her place in life (women are seen as little more than slaves). She does try but is curious and intelligent and consequently is continually physically abused by her father. Her father's second wife curses her and her life might as well be over as the village shuns her and she has no prospects whatsoever.
Jeremy Cramer, M.D is researching why children survive hypothermic submersion better than adults when he makes a breakthrough discovery in AIDS research. This discovery thrusts him into a media frenzy and he becomes a political 'basketball' for the hospital administration. But all this is nothing when he accidentally infects a nurse with AIDS and his negligence allows his son to contact a life-threatening disease.
Georgia Walker is a single mother who owns a yarn shop in Manhattan. The club consists of her daughter Dakota, a 12-year-old, who flits in and out of the club with baked goods and entrepreneurial ambitions; a widow named Anita who is Georgia's mentor; an academic named Darwin ; a 40-year-old single woman named Lucie who fools a date into getting her pregnant; an aspiring purse designer and part-time worker in the shop named Petra ; Georgia's best friend, named K.C. in her mid-40s hoping to get into law school; and Georgia's childhood friend Cat who is a wealthy wife bored to tears.
Young Ju is very young when she learns that her family is moving from Korea to America (Mi Gook). She doesn't quite understand and thinks that the trip on the plane to the USA will take her to heaven. She grows up in America with an American schooling system but still has very Asian parents that try to make her adhere to her Korean culture. Young Ju's father becomes verbally and physically abusive the longer the family stays in Korea, making Young Ju question whether she should act according to her Korean background or act like kids of her new country.
Between, Georgia is a very small town with a large amount of drama. Nonny Frett biologically is a member of the Crabtree family but was adopted by the Frett family, their bitter enemies. Nonny's mother is a blind, deaf, and extremely talented at making dolls. One of her aunts is a recluse and the other is overbearing. 
Dr. Frederick Starks is a New York Psychoanalyst. On his 53rd birthday, he receives a note from Rumplestiltskin. In 15 days he must find out the identity of R and the reason he is out to destroy him. If he fails then R will destroy 52 of Dr. Starks' loved ones, one by one until he commits suicide.