Goldfinch centers on the life of a New York City boy, Theodore Decker who loses his mother in a museum explosion. He is with his mom, dreading a visit to the principal's office. However, they decide to visit a museum and his life changes. There is an explosion. His mom dies. An old man gives him a ring on the way out and he decides to take a painting. His dad had previously left his family, leaving him a ward of the state. He remembers an elementary school friend and goes to live with them. He also traces down the partner of the guy that gave him the ring and becomes friends with him. (He is also attracted to the girl that was with the old man.) He learns about the antiques business. Months later, his alcoholic, gambler dad picks him up and takes him to Vegas. He is pretty much left alone. He befriends Boris who also lives with his rarely present father. They have a lot of fun drinking and taking drugs.
Theodore's father has some gambling issues and dies after driving drunk. Theodore decides to go back to New York, and ends up going back to the antiques man. The story skips past his time in college and has him back working in the antique shop. He puts things in order financially by passing off remakes as antiques. He has a few chance encounters, discovers his childhood friend is dead and eventually becomes engaged. He runs into Boris, goes to Europe, gets the stolen painting back, kills some people, and loses the painting. He is on the brink of suicide, then decides to turn himself in. Just then Boris appears. He has collected money for reporting the location of the painting (and also uncovering others.) He uses the money to fix the antique fakes, calls off the engagement, and then pontificates at the end of the novel.
The novel is set in the hear and now and attempts to be realistic. However, there are just too many coincidences. There are so many "chance encounters" in Manhattan. Most seem to happen right when needed. Boris seems to come out of nowhere exactly when he is most needed in Theodore's life. The boys also seem to get along pretty well when they are inebriated, yet others get knocked out. You could just about call it "magical realism", except the "magical" is mostly coincidental. The end of the novel also goes on with some random thoughts that seem out of character with the rest of the novel. The story is a "coming of age" for a boy that seems to lose everything again and again, but still manages to bounce back. There is also a bit about art.
The fifth brotherband book has the brotherband team engaging more closely with the Ranger's Apprentice team. They visit the castle and meet the King and princess. Hal invents spectacles to help a team member. The team travels to a desert land to try to lift an assassin cult's death sentence on the princess. They build a "land sail" to travel across the sand. They defeat the bad guys, complete there adventure and make it back safely. It is all the typical story. There is just enough conflict to keep things interesting, but you know that the good guys will win in the end.
The Key to Creation brings the Terra Incognita series to a satisfying conclusion. The two warring groups have an experience that is closely modeled after the Arab/Israeli conflict. Or perhaps even the Suni/Shiite division. Each group is descended from a brother. Their relgious histories are similar, however, they bicker over the minor differences. Each side sees the other as heretics. They see similar areas as holy, yet they constantly fight against each other. The devout religious leaders are more concerned with their dogma than the truth. When a religious leader sees evidence that contradicts his religious understanding, he destroys it. 
The second Phule's company book has the motley crew being sent on a "punishment" mission to try to protect a casino. The owner is a young heir who is in over his head. He inadvertently leans on the very people that are trying to take over his operation to help him out. Phule hires some actors to help supplant his band, while sending others undercover as hotel employee. A crime boss, Maxine, owns all the other casinos and nearly has control of the this one before Phule outfoxes her. However, she is sneaky as him and sets things up for a longer term battle. It is yet another funny episode in this "sitcom in a book".
A Snapshot is a "replay" of a past point in time. A couple of "real detectives" can go back into the snapshot to observe what happened. However, since they are active participants, they can create "deviations" from the actual events. The snapshot computers provide a fully accurate replay of a small region. They also are able to calculate the degree of "change" that occurred in the snapshot. However, only "real people" in the snapshot can observe the details. The real people can also suffer and die within the snapshot. They can't really bring anything out of the snapshot. (Though they may be able to swallow something.) There are also plenty of privacy concerns with Snapshots. They can only be explored under warrant. The snapshot detective positions are low prestige, and typically takes those with minimal other opportunities. In a Snapshot, however, they are near omnipotent. They can flash a "snapshot" badge which lets people know they are in a snapshot, causing interesting reactions. 
Tony Wagner became disillusioned with the education system after spending time working as a teacher and administrator. In Global Achievement Gap, he identifies the problem with the education system and proposes solutions. He levels significant criticism at the "testing system." High stakes tests that are required for graduation have encouraged teachers to teach towards the test. Alas, the tests are created in a way that makes them easy to grade. This results in kids spending time learning facts rather than how to think. AP classes are also geared towards the test, with students required to memorize a great breadth of material rather then truly understand it. The importance of SAT and ACT tests also creates significant problems. 
Phule's Company is a band of misfit space legion recruits led by an ultra-wealthy heir to a Phule company munitions fortune. (Though Phule claims to have earned his money himself.) The legion does not know what to do with him. Rather than kick him our, the send him to be in charge of a remote outpost where nobody wants to be. There he manages to build up the esteem of his group and transform them into a viable fighting force. He always seems to know how to use bureaucracy and rules to his advantage. (Though padding things with some money doesn't hurt.) The rise is not perfect, but they are eventually able to use cunning to tie an elite army group in a contest of abilities. At the end, there is an alien visitation on the outpost. They manage to diffuse the conflict, and Phule gets rich through some business negotiations with them. It all seems very similar to a typical rags to riches sitcom.
Slaves of Socorro is a "standalone" Brotherband book that starts to tie in more closely with the Ranger's Apprentice series. The crew of the Heron set out on their first mission. They are to be the treaty duty ship for an Araluen treaty. They also discover that their former brotherband nemesis has turned rogue. They give him chase, but he gets away. They meet up with a Ranger who wants them to go see the King. However, they end up going to a slave port to try to rescue some people that were taken in slavery. There is a lot of death and destruction, but all the good guys survive. The team also adopts a big dog that comes in handy to save the day. It was surprising that they just let a whole ship full of their nemesis sink. (Though they did have to be cajoled into not saving them.) The various talents of the team members continue to come in handy as they complete their adventures.
Microbes have existed long before we have and make up a greater share of living biomass than their "larger" counterparts. Two bacteria may be much more genetically different than a human and a tree. These organisms occupy just about every possible environment, including within the human body. The microbes are responsible for a great deal of human functionality, both good and bad. Alas, widespread use of antibiotics has pushed things out of whack. These drugs indiscriminately attack microbes, killing off the bad and the good. However, microbes evolve rapidly, thus allowing antibiotic resistant microbes to dominate. Widespread use of antibiotics helps "favor" the antibiotic-resistant strains, making our miracle cures less viable. There is a widespread tendency for doctors to prescribe antibiotics even when an infection would likely not respond to antibiotics. After all, if there is only a 1% chance of this drug helping, they should use it, right? Unfortunately, this logic leads to over-prescription and makes it more likely that the resistant strains develop, making the drugs useless for the people that really need it.
I thought this was the final book in the Ember in the Ashes series. It did seem to wrap things up, however it did it in a very unsatisfying way. The evil ones always seem to be a step ahead of the good guys. The characters are primarily in hard-core "war" mode. There is little time for caring for others. Often time spent loving others causes more negative than good. The struggle of the boy that is the "Reaper in training" is especially prescient. He must learn to not love others in order to use his magic to "reap" the dead into the after life. His failure to let go of love to others led him to neglect his duties, and with that neglect he gave enemies a chance to hurt his friend.