The Secrets She Keeps; Undermajordomo Minor; The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray

I've liked all of Deb Caletti's YA novels that I read, and I enjoyed this adult title, too. Callie is convinced her husband, Thomas, is having an affair so when her mother calls, worried about Callie's Aunt Nash in Nevada, Callie is glad for the distraction and hops in the car to go check on her. Nash lives on a ranch that used to be a divorce ranch back in the 1950s: a destination for women seeking a divorce who needed to establish Nevada residency in order to do so. The book alternates between Callie's present day and Nash in the 50s, when the ranch had a rather interesting group of women staying there. The storyline about the wild Mustangs seemed rather unnecessary, but it didn't distract much from the rest of the plot.

I really loved Patrick DeWitt's "The Sisters Brothers". I'm a big fan of black humor done well, and I think he does an excellent job. "Undermajordomo Minor" was pretty good. Lucien (Lucy) leaves home after his father dies and takes a job in a castle as an assistant to the undermajor domo. The Baron of the castle is mysteriously missing, and his Baroness has run off from home. Every morning Lucy takes a letter to the train and passes it off to the conductor from the Baron to his wife, even though he never gets a reply. Lucy meets and falls in love with a local village girl named Klara, and bold in his happiness, writes a letter to the Baroness detailing the Baron's ill state of mind and begging her to return home to her husband, which she does. The book is littered with absurdities, but it's done very well, I enjoyed it.

I wouldn't say I'm a big Bill Murray fan. I loved "Ghostbusters" as a kid and had a bit of a fleeting crush on Dr. Venkman, but that's about it. I haven't actually seen most of his defining movies, like "Caddyshack" or "Meatballs". This book was quite well done, it's alphabetical instead of chronological, which made perfect sense given the quirky subject matter. He sounds like quite an interesting, if not difficult, person. I think really big Bill Murray fans would get a kick out of it.