I bought Karen Joy Fowlers too Scottish- am saving it for a quiet day(looks for pigs out in the sky).
I recommend Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver- not one of her best but still streets ahead of many other writers and the Land of Later On by Anthony Weller.
If anybody hasn't read it then The Help by Kathryn Stockett is such a lovely lovely book and i liked 'Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life by Nina Stibbe too. The name dropping is fabulous.
I have bought King of Cuba by Cristina Gar and A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. If you like crime then the series by Jack Kerley starting with The Hundredth Man (Carson Ryder, Book 1) is worth trying, set in the USA, they are pretty typical of that genre where the detectives seem to be stalked by every serial killer they themselves are hunting down!
I also have Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed, Blind Sunflowers by Alberto Méndez and Ramshackle by Elizabeth Reeder to read
I bought Last Bus to Coffeeville by J. Paul Henderson and it is okay BUT it really does make you wade through an in depth biography and history lesson on each character and event. It is set in the States and concerns a mans promise to a female friend that he will take her back to her Mississippi place of birth to help her end her life when the hereditary Alzheimers hits. It is packed with American history and a cast of characters but it is in need of an edit.
I am intrigued by Punctured (Las Vegas Mystery) by Rex Kusle - has anybody tried it?
If anybody wants to spend £3,95 then Swamplandia is brilliant!