Non-Fiction
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo, 288 pages
A landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the twenty-first century’s great, unequal cities. Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.
Complicated: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande 288 pages
Delve into the medical world as Gawande brings real life cases, dilemmas, and the scientific unknown.
The Entitlement Trap: How to Rescue Your Child with a New Family System of Choosing, Earning, and Ownership by Richard Eyre, Linda Eyre, 256 pagesDump the allowance-and use a new "Family Economy" to raise responsible children in an age of instant gratification. Number-one "New York Times" bestselling authors Richard and Linda Eyre, have spent the last twenty-five years helping parents nurture strong, healthy families. Now they've synthesized their vast experience in an essential blueprint to instilling children with a sense of ownership, responsibility, and self-sufficiency. At the heart of their plan is the "Family Economy" complete with a family bank, checkbooks for kids, and a system of initiative-building responsibilities that teaches kids to earn money for the things they want. The motivation carries over to ownership of their own decisions, values, and goals. Anecdotal, time-tested, and gently humorous, "The Entitlement Trap" challenges some of the sacred cows of parenting and replaces them with values that will save kids (and their parents) from a lifetime of dependence and disabling debt.
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, 301 pages
This relatable, inspiring project is the result of the author's 12-month adventure in becoming a happier person. Written with a wicked sense of humor and sharp insight, her story will inspire readers to embrace the pleasure in their lives and remind them how to have fun. This was #1 on the bestseller lists. I found there were some ideas that were actually life changing - things I had never thought of before that I now plan to incorporate into my life that I'm anticipating will make me a happier person.
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, 384 pages
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a story about science and so
much more. Lacks died unaware that doctors would be using her cells to
further advances in the scientific community and cashing in on such
developments and never received a dime. In search of justice, Skloot
seeks out Lacks’s descendants to learn if they’re aware of the famed
cells and to see if they’ve derived any benefit from the important
contribution to science their relative made. A fascinating discussion
of the enduring legal and ethical questions that human-tissue research
raises, Skloot’s debut is a gem.
Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibugiza, 2007, 217 pages
In 1994 Rwanda was plunged into a horrifying genocide that much of the world was unaware of until it claimed the lives of nearly a million lives. One that lived to tell the tale was Immaculee Ilibugiza and her story is one of faith in the eyes of terror and forgiveness in a time of hatred.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, 2008, 309 pages
In this provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell examines everyone from business giants to scientific geniuses, sports stars to musicians, and reveals what they have in common. He looks behind the spectacular results, the myths and the legends to show what really explains exceptionally successful people.
Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain 333 pages
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, 457 pages
A true inspirational story about broken hearts and lost souls, the golden thread that holds them together and yes.. belief. Belief in oneself.
A horse, trained to lose right from its birth. Lose so that others can look good when they win. Lose, so that when they win, they can look back and see others way behind. A horse, which has learned to live with pain and humiliation. A horse, which is angry. It is this horse that catches the eye of Tom Smith, a veteran horse trainer employed under Charles Howard, a broken industrialist who has lost his young son. Tom Smith realizes what the horse has been put through and begins to heal it and make it start believing in itself. Enters Red Pollard, a loser jockey employed under Charles Howard too. The story then moves on to the relationship that Red Pollard and the horse share, the way they start to heal each other and what common things they find between themselves.
Beautifully written and amazingly uplifting! I absolutely love this book and even though it is non-fiction it moves at the pace and with the tone of a novel.
The Total Money Make Over by Dave Ramsey, 223 pages
This book has changed my life. It helped my husband and I get on the same page with our finances. I has helped us pay off an impressive amount of debt and has made being debt free one of our most sought after goals.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, 473 pages
The compelling story of Louie Zamperini who not only survived a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean during WWII but also over 40 days in the open ocean in a tiny raft and then the Japanese POW camps. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, 622 pages
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning
author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of
American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who
fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better
life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people
changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to
the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than
a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records,
to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these
American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and
ourselves.
Mysteries
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, 562 pages
A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but moldering old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as a 13 year old child during WWII. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.
Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in ‘the distant hours’ of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it. This book felt very much like "The Thirteenth Tale" and had me guessing until the very end. I loved it!
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, 470 pages
The French Lieutenant's Woman is a book I love. It was made into a movie in the early 1990's. Meryl Streep played the main character and won an award for her performance. It is an intriguing story of a mysterious woman and the love that develops between her and an engaged man. The story is unique in that it has two endings. The genre is a romantic mystery, but it is not a murder mystery.
Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, 528 pages
"The Moonstone is a page-turner," writes Carolyn Heilbrun. "It catches one up and unfolds its amazing story through the recountings of its several narrators, all of them enticing and singular." Wilkie Collins’s spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre–the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.
Autobiographies/Biographies
As I Have Loved You by Kitty De Ruyter, 192 pages
This is a great true story, similar to The Hiding Place or Diary of Anne Frank. It is about a Dutch-Indonesian family that was taken to live in a concentration camp during WWII. They practiced their Christian religion despite strict orders not to. She tells of the faith and courage of her mother who risked so much for her children as well as other children in the camp. It's amazing how people can live through horrible things and come out so strong and full of faith. The book, thankfully, doesn't focus on all of the terrible things she witnessed, but focuses on the way her mother handled each situation.
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman, 208 pages
The intriguing story of Eleanor Roosevelt traces the life of the former First Lady from her early childhood through the tumultuous years in the White House to her active role in the founding of the United Nations after World War II. Although this is written for a younger audience, it is extremely well-written and complete. It paints a complex picture of Eleanor and shows what made her the exemplary woman we all know and love.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, 207 pages
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interst that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled McCandless. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding--and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.
Lincoln: A Photobiography, by Russell Freedman, 160 pages
Filled with incredible, rarely seen photos, and accounts taken from Lincoln's personal journals, this photobiography paints a compelling and very personal view of one of America's most beloved presidents. Filled with quotes and stories from Lincoln himself, this book offers a rare look into his feelings of inadequacy and the great heart that beat inside "Honest Abe" himself.
It reads so quickly and well, you forget you're not reading a novel!
Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman, 320 pages
“I move throughout the world without a plan, guided by instinct, connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous opportunities.” This is the story of an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita’s example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.
Classics
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, 1243 pages
Falsely accused of treason, the young sailor Edmond Dantes is arrested on his wedding day and imprisoned in the island fortress of the Château d'If. Having endured years of incarceration, he stages a daring and dramatic escape and sets out to discover the fabulous treasure of Monte Cristo, and to catch up with his enemies.
A novel of enormous tension and excitement, The Count of Monte Cristo is also a tale of obsession and revenge. Believing himself to be an 'Angel of Providence', Dantes pursues his vengeance to the bitter end, only then realizing that he himself is a victim of fate. One of the great thrillers of all time, The Count of Monte Cristo has been adapted for film and television many times.
Emma by Jane Austen, 396 pages
Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 273 pages
A Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science. Frankenstein, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 180 pages
In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "somethingnew--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream. +++The movie is coming out this fall.
A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich, 256 pages
Amid the rough-and-tumble world of frontier Iowa, eighteen-year-old Abbie Mackenzie treasured a secret dream. And while dreams don't always come true, Abbie finds love and laughter in a story that has captivated generations. Originally published in 1928, this has turned into an American Classic - a sort of "Little House on the Prairie" for adults. It is a timeless tale of motherhood and womanhood, of dreaming of the life yet to be lived and loving the simple life you've lived. This is a classic that should be read over and over again.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 449 pages
In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age while their father is off to war. Both a classic and autobiographical, Little Women is the classic story of a Northern family at home during the Civil War. This book was unique since it focused not on the war, but on the bond the sisters of the home shared. Through Little Women, we meet 4 incredible sisters and experience the timeless bonds of love, loss, family, and friendship that has ensnared readers for over a century.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs 324 pages
A ship's mutiny forces a young noble English couple out onto the African coast, and their child is born in the wild. When they die a short time later, the boy is adopted by an ape, and raised as her own. The boy, Tarzan, rises to dominance in the jungle . . . TARZAN OF THE APES is Edgar Rice Burroughs's exploration of mankind a it's seen from the perspective of a man reared outside civilization, and the insights he offers are often not flattering. Tarzan has all the features we look for in a hero -- he is handsome, brave, and stronger than any ordinary man. But he is an arrogant loner, prone to violence. TARZAN OF THE APES explores that which is within all of us, the primal drives and abilities that made for our survival -- Burroughs created a hero who, because of his immense potential and truly unique upbringing -- became a believable SUPERMAN. Burroughs told the tale in engaging prose which still sweeps us along.
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, 272 pages
When Viola is shipwrecked in enemy lands, to avoid capture she must dress as a man and help the Duke woo lady Olivia. This is one of Shakespeare's funniest comedies and the Boulder Shakespeare company is performing it this summer.
Fiction
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame Smith, 336 pages
Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness." Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.
When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.
While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.
Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 550 pages
This book is about a hungry, illiterate, young girl named Liesel living during the Holocaust. Through a kind, foster father, Liesel discovers a love for books and words and begins to steel them from the Nazi book burnings as well as The Mayor's wife's library. As Hitler was destroying the world with his words, Liesel found her salvation and education through the books she read. She has a knack for drawing people to her and makes many unexpected friends. Rudy is an unforgettable friend and their story is captivating.
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, 274 pages
In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova 324 pages
A quick read that you're bound to get drawn into quickly, like "Still Alice" by Lisa Genova we go into the thoughts and feelings of a Harvard Business school grad working her way up through echelons of a Boston consulting firm while trying to balance three young kids at home and a husband worrying about the viability of his own career. Everything comes to a halt in the blink of an eye when Sarah wakes up from a horrible car crash to realize she has Left Neglect where her brain doesn't register the left part of her body or surroundings. Sarah fights the long, uphill journey to recovery and also finds what really matters in life.
On Little Wings by Regina Sirois, 361 pages
This is a story of the countless ways we get love wrong. And why, despite every disappointment, we keep fighting to get it right.
Jennifer must do the impossible – bring her mother home. When a family is torn apart by death, two sisters take violently divergent paths and the story of their family appears to end terribly and abruptly. Two decades later Jennifer never dreams that the photo she finds stuck between the pages of a neglected book will tear open a gaping wound to her mother’s secret past. Abandoning her comfortable life with her parents and best friend in the wheat fields of Nebraska, Jennifer’s quest for a hidden aunt leads her to the untamed coast of Maine where she struggles to understand why her mother lied to her for sixteen years.
Across the grey, rocky cove she meets Nathan Moore, the young, reluctant genius surrounded by women who need him to be brother, father, friend, provider, protector and now, first love. The stories, varied, hilarious, and heartbreaking, unfold to paint a striking mural of the shattered past. As Jennifer seeks to piece together her mother’s story, she inadvertently writes one for herself.
Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran, 446 pages
This is an interesting historical fiction set during the French Revolution. Madame Tussaud and her family run a wax museum in Paris and try to stay in favor while different groups fight over the way France should be governed. They have to continually try to prove their allegiance to whoever is currently in power by changing the figures in their museum, associating with the right people, and making sure they stay informed of which people the French commoners are currently aligning with. Madame Tussaud is particularly at risk because of her close relationship with the royal family as tutor to the king's sister. It's a fascinating look at what happened during the revolution and how allegiances were easily won by anyone willing to give an angry crowd what they want. I couldn't put it down and wanted to read more about the time period after I finished.
March by Geraldine Brooks, 280 pages
"March is Geraldine Brook's fictional account of what happened to the
father of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Ms. Brooks has an
afterword and explains that she took some of the missing details—the
father being gone—and combined them with some anecdotes from various
books she read and on Louisa May Alcott's father, who held radical
ideas for the time and was much-published. From his writings, she drew
part of her character of Mr. March, the girl's father, even though she
plays with the timeframe and makes Mr. March 40-ish whereas Mr. Alcott
would have been sixty-ish at the same time. So from Little Women and
many other sources, she creates the fictional world of Mr. March's
experiences during the Civil War.
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus, 304
pages
***Some Violent and Graphic scenes***
Based on an actual historical event, "One Thousand White Women" tells
the story--in diary and letter form--of a young woman, who in 1875,
travels to the American West to marry Little Wolf, the chief of the
Cheyenne nation. The covert and controversial "Brides for Indians"
program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is
intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world.
Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their
lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it
is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, 320 pages
Paula McLain has taken on the task of writing a story most of us probably think we already know--that of a doomed starter wife. To make life more difficult, McLain proposes to tell us about Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson, who is a twenty-eight-year-old Midwestern spinster when she marries the twenty-one-year-old unpublished, (but already cocksure) writer and runs off to Paris with him. The talent and joy of this novel is that McLain does a startling job of making us understand this as a great love story and seducing us into caring deeply, about both Ernest and Hadley, as their marriage eventually comes apart.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, 302 pages
Set in South Carolina in 1964,
The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love—a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher, 224 pages
Many years ago, so long that truth has become legend, the Persian Sultan discovered his wife had betrayed him. After killing her, the Sultan married a new girl - every night - and the next morning had her beheaded. One thousand women died at his hands until he met Scheherazade. She volunteered to marry him and that night began an incredible story. At dawn, her story was incolplete and the king granted her an additional day to live so that she might finish her story the next night. This went on for 3 years and Scheherazade saved many women from the Sultan with incredible stories such as Ali Babba and the 40 Thieves and Aladdin, but after more than 900 days, she is running out of stories to tell the king. Then she meets Marjan, a crippled servant girl with a love for stories. She begs Marjan to help her save the daughters of the city, but the job is dangerous, especially for a woman in ancient Persia. In an adventure equal to any a storyteller might relate, a crippled serving girl faces the intrigues of the harem, the dangers of the streets, and the anger of the Sultan himself to find the needed ending to an incomplete story.
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill, 2007, 470 pages
A great story about a girl named Aminata Diallo who was captured and sold into slavery but didn't let her situation beat her down. Her lifelong journey takes her from Africa and back again ending up in London where the abolitionists have her tell her 60 year long story.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, 2006, 258 pages
In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women’s writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames," in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova, 2009, 293 pages
Alice Howland is a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and well-renowned linguist who receives the tragic news that she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. As the inevitable descent into dementia strips away her sense of self, fiercely independent Alice struggles to live in the moment. While she once placed her worth and identity in her celebrated and respected academic life, now she must reevaluate her relationship with her husband, a respected scientist; her expectations of her children; and her ideas about herself and her place in the world.
The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman, 325 pages
Three long-haired sisters are stolen from their “faerie” family by mortals, stripped of their magic and given a false name. I could be wrong about that. That could be just a story the eldest sister tells her siblings. They’re imaginative, these three. They make up an enchanted world they call Arnelle and have their own language. In the end, “The Story Sisters,” for all its magic realism, is about a family navigating through motherhood, sisterhood, daughterhood.
These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner, 415 pages
These is My Words is about a young woman named Sarah Agnes Prine. The book follows Sarah's life beginning at age 17 through the next 20 years in diary format. Through this format you read first hand about the challenges, struggles, and triumphs facing those in the late 1800's in the very rugged frontier of the Arizona Territories. Sarah is a courageous and spirited young woman. It is this courage and spirit that helps Sarah through all the hardships and unknowns of her life. The love story between Sarah and Jack is one of the best in literature. This is a "must read." It is moving, emotional, and inspiring.
The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, 368 pages
The realization that life is perpetually unfair and disappointing is
the common thread that connects an illegal immigrant couple named
Cándido and América Rincón and an upscale, yuppie couple named Delaney
and Kyra Mossbacher. Both couples have their own version of the
American Dream, and both find their dreams to be merely illusions,
even though one couple has reached its goals and the other is still
fantasizing about them. Though the premise of the American Dream in
this novel is based on fantasy, the realities that are addressed
within the context each are relatively true to life. Both couples have
placed so much stock in the American Dream, that they are wholly
unprepared when their ideals eventually “crash”.
Fun Reads
Austenland by Shannon Hale, 197 pages
Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen;or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It's all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello, 313 pages
Gracie Lynne Calloway, once left on a coal bucket on a front porch in a small southern Alabama town, discovers on her 25th birthday that she is the kidnapped daughter of a late New England financier and heiress to a fortune. The only problem? Gracie doesn't want any part of it. From the snooty new rich relatives to the handsome and wealthy attorney trying to convince her to take it, Gracie wants all of them gone. There's nothing wrong with the side of the tracks she grew up on, and she's much more comfortable pitching a baseball than she is in high society. As this Southern Cinderella tries to come to terms with her new "fairytale" life, she discovers that some things aren't as great as they seem, but some things, can be even better. This was a wonderful romance with some fantastic characters. A very fun read!
Two Moon Princess by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban, 323 pages
A Spanish Princess, An American Boy, A King set on revenge.
An unrequited love and a disturbing family secret bring a World to the brink of War.
In this coming-of-age story set in a medieval kingdom, Andrea is a headstrong princess longing to be a knight who finds her way to modern-day California. But her accidental return to her family's kingdom and a disastrous romance brings war, along with her discovery of some dark family secrets. Readers will love this mix of traditional fantasy elements with unique twists and will identify with Andrea and her difficult choices between duty and desire.
When I read this book I was thrilled to find that it was
so good! I haven't read something this well written in a
really long time and this is one of my favorite books. It has so many themes and features wonderful characters that really make it an incredible story.
