OK, I wasn't able to get to the library for a few days, so went into my own "stash" of books and read Preaching to the Corpse by Roberta Isleib, Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree (revisiting an old favorite from childhood!), and started Ian Rankin's Set in Darkness.
The books I picked up at the library were:
Telegraph Avenue (Michael Chabon)
San Miguel (T.C. Boyle)
The Lower River (Paul Theroux)
You Might as Well Die (J.J. Murphy)
A Sunless Sea (Anne Perry)
Salvation of a Saint (Keigo Higashino)
The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken (Tarquin Hall)
I usually start with the book that seems the most easy and frivolous, then work up to ones that might be more challenging (this is a 2-3 week progression). I'm not sure about Higashino's book. I read several series that are translations, and some I love, and some I find, well, for lack of a better word, dense. I haven't really enjoyed books translated from Russian or Japanese. Turkish ... a couple of authors I like, but some are rather, well, like the Russian books (let's all go out and commit suicide). The rash of Scandinavian authors I rather like, except for the last book (I don't feel like searching right now for the author's name, but it is, if memory which isn't much serves me, is something like a girl kicking a hornet's nest. I really didn't like it, although I liked the author's previous books. Maybe I'll try it again, after all, it isn't like he's going to write another book!