Bookshelves

Because my husband is in med school we move around.  A lot.  We're lucky to be in a place right now that we'll be for at least another year, but I long for a day that we will be in one place permanently.  Not just because I hate moving, and believe me I do, but because most of my book collection is still at my parent's house in my old bedroom because books are a b*tch to move.  As a result, this is our pitiful looking bookshelf now:

Four twenty-inch shelves stuffed to the brim.  We acquired most of those Stephen King's after we moved at a Border's going-out-of-business sale.  Not pictured: my bin of books I've read and are posted on my PaperBackSwap shelf.  It's got another 50+ books in it, so it's pretty hefty.

Anyway, I long for a day where I can invest in a gorgeous bookshelf and load it up with books.

I would love to put some Jim Shore tchotchkes and a collection of rare books in the glass cases in this unit, which is called "Hemnes" from IKEA.  It's just under a thousand dollars, so it's a pipe dream to be sure.

Also: stay tuned for a guest book review in the upcoming week!

Little Bee

Little Bee
Chris Cleave
266 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★☆☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Like many before me, I really wanted to like Little Bee.  It's been one heck of a hyped up book, at least by its own publisher.  The back of the book tells me that it won't tell me what the story is about because it's just so amazing I have to read it myself.  Indeed, a couple chapters in, I thought I would love this book.  Unfortunately, something terrible happened.

I found myself putting the book down and not wanting to pick it up because I felt like I was in high school again.  It felt like... required reading.  *sob*  I could imagine all kinds of discussions this book could spur in high schools across the country: cultural differences, immigration policy, personal morals, the theme of "letting go."  Not that there's anything wrong with that, because in that sense I think this novel would be excellent for a book club.  But it wasn't what I, personally, was looking for.

Don't get me wrong, this book was not terrible.  My two star rating means "it was okay" and it was okay.  The characters were rich (I loved Charlie to bits) and the plot was certainly unique, but it just didn't wow me like the back cover claimed it would and it's left me wondering how that advertising campaign worked out for them.

If you're looking for a novel that will make you think, you can find this on my PaperBackSwap shelf.

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl
Eoin Colfer
289 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: NetGalley.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I had seen the title Artemis Fowl in passing for some time, but I'd never really thought about picking it up.  It always seemed to be on those tables in bookstores called "If you liked Harry Potter, read this!"  It took me a long time to finally get on the Harry Potter train, so it only follows to suit that I didn't read Artemis Fowl until ten years after it was first published.

Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl's father has been missing for some time and his mother is practically certifiable over it.  So it's fallen upon the younger Fowl's shoulders to make some money for the family.  How's he going to do that?  Well, obviously he's just got to steal a magical fairy book of secrets, translate it into English, and use it to figure out a way to steal some fairy gold to keep for himself.  Duh.  So, accompanied by his loyal butler, Butler, and his sister Juliet, he sets out to do just that.

Some of my immediate thoughts after finishing this delightful YA novel: Now here's a fairy book done right!  Finally, a YA without a love triangle!  It was definitely a refreshing YA read.  It had fairies, but wasn't dystopian, nor did the fairies and other magical-like creatures have strange characteristic (like blossoms growing out of their backs, haha!).  The plot was unique and settings were great.  I'm looking forward to continuing on with this series.

Broken Flower

Broken Flower
V.C. Andrews
423 pages
Publisher: Pocket Books
Source: Barnes & Noble
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Forty-seven pages in and I was confused.  The poor little girl of a main character was only six years old and had gotten her first period.  Her mother did the right thing by contacting a doctor to see why her daughter had early-onset puberty and what could be done about it, but then when it came time to tell Jordan's father they seemed overly concerned about not telling Jordan's grandmother.  Why would her grandmother be so appalled that Jordan had some sort of hormone problem?  Being sick shouldn't make you some kind of an outcast with your own family, or anyone for that matter.  That's something I just couldn't wrap my head around...

Then things got a little creepy, awkward, and even more creepy.  Suddenly, Grandma learns about the problem and it seems there is some mysterious connection between Jordan her her Grandmothers sister, her great-aunt Francis, which it seems we won't learn about until the second and final novel in this short series.

The plot was interesting, to say the least, and well thought-out, and the characters, even Jordan's character, had depth, feeling, and points-of-view.  I think Jordan was just a little girl who wanted to have a normal life while everything around her was crumbling.

Absolutely nothing happy happened in this novel and by the end a little girl's life as she knew it was destroyed.  Thankfully for V.C. Andrews, a book doesn't have to be happy for it to be good.  I think most V.C. Andrews books are shelved with YA, but I found this one in the adult fiction section.  I have to say, it was appropriately shelved.  I wouldn't recommend this novel for anyway under sixteen.

If you want to read it, you can find it on my PaperBackSwap shelf.

Queen of Babble

Queen of Babble
Meg Cabot
309 pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Source: Library
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Have I mentioned how much I love Meg Cabot's writing?  Her YA is special, but there's something great about her adult chick-lit novels, too.  After finishing what there is of the Heather Wells' mysteries, it was on to the first book in the Queen of Babble series, Queen of Babble.

Lizzie Nichols thinks she's got her life figured out.  She's just graduated (uh, well, almost, just as soon as she finishes her thesis...) and heads to England to meet up with her boyfriend whom she's sure she'll marry just as soon as he's graduated after one more semester and becomes a teacher.  But when she discovers her one-night-stand turned boyfriend isn't what she thinks he is... i.e. he's not independent, he's got a gambling problem, he still lives with his parents, and, worst of all, he's stealing from the government... she's off to France to meet her BFF and try and figure out what to do with her now open future.  There she meets Luke, who's pretty awesome and would make great boyfriend material, but the problem is he's already got a girlfriend.  Oh well...

This was a really cute novel.  You can't beat the scenery... first England (with their wacky advertisements) and then a gorgeous chateau/winery in France.  I mean, who doesn't quirky books that take place in Europe?

I definitely enjoyed Lizzie's character; she thought she knew what she wanted and then learned she was wrong, in the processes learning more about herself and what she wants out of her life.  It was a nice change from heroines in chick-lit who never experience any kind of mental growth in their novels.  With more novels in the series, there's sure to be more growth for Lizzie and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the rest someday.

Dreamland

Dreamland
Sarah Dessen
250 pages
Publisher: Viking
Source: Library
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I've heard several good things about Sarah Dessen's YA novels, yet it took me months to finally find one to read.  There were just so any to choose from, all different kinds of covers and plot descriptions.  What to choose, what to choose?  Then finally I just grabbed one at the library last week and now I've read my first Sarah Dessen.  Yay!

Dreamland was a great novel.  Caitlin's sister, Cassandra, runs away on Caitlin's birthday.  After she leaves, Caitlin feels like she has this hole of perfection to fill and struggles to find a way to be unique.  Soon she meets a strange boy, Rogerson, and they form a relationship that, despite his illegal activities as a pot dealer, starts out innocently enough.  But soon Caitlin is stuck in an abusive relationship that consumes her life and she struggles to find a way to make it better.

The reason Dreamland gets four stars from me was the slow start.  It took me until about halfway through the novel to get to a point where I couldn't put it down.  But once I didn't put it down, it was a great story.  Caitlin's struggle was very realistic and I actually think every high school girl should read this novel and teach herself a little something about abusive relationships.

The Shack

The Shack
Wm. Paul Young
248 pages
Publisher: Windblown Media
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

The Shack is very easy to read with no big words, a plot that is neither too complex nor too simple, and a very deep main character who is struggling in his life to reconcile why God would allow such tragedy to befall him, his family, and most especially, his youngest daughter, Missy.

Mack was on a camping trip with some of his family when his youngest daughter, Missy, was abducted. A few days later they learn that she had been killed and Mack takes on what he considers to be "The Great Sadness."  Not only is he devastated by his daughter's loss, but he blames himself and, previously a religious man, he cannot figure out what God would let this happen.  It's a classic, why does God let bad things happen to good people, kind of story.  But what's great about The Shack, is that the reader actually gets some answers to these age old questions.

The only part of the novel that I didn't enjoy, and caused my rating to be dropped a star, was the middle section.  I really enjoyed the way Mack met God and the Holy Trinity in the woods and they way they interacted with him, but what I didn't care for were the massive conversations that went on for pages in several chapters, in which he discusses with them some deep religious philosophical issues.  I got some good things out of those conversations, but overall they really dragged on.

There's two ways to look at this book, which is classified on its back cover as "fiction," not "Christian fiction."  You can either look at it like a fiction novel that just happens to have God as a main character, or you can look at it as a piece of Christian fiction.  If I was going to rate it as Christian fiction, it would be getting three stars because some of the middle chapters that really dealt with some religious philosophy dragged on quite a bit.  Instead I started reading this novel as if it were just fiction wherein the main character meets the personification of God.  Looking at it that way, it gets four stars, because of the way God is personified and the journey God takes Mack on.

Three Cups of Deceit

Three Cups of Deceit
Jon Krakauer
77 pages
Publisher: Byliner, Inc.
Source: Free PDF
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

This brief book examines the latest literary scandal, i.e. the "memoir" by Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea, and exposes the lies and deceit in Mortenson's book.  I had not had a chance to read Three Cups of Tea when it came public that he had fabricated most of it and now I'm glad I never bothered, nor will I in the future.  It's disgusting that Mortenson could have fabricated such lies in order to raise money in the name of education that he kept for himself.

Krakauer, who was burned by Mortenson's scheme by donating over seventy-five thousand dollars himself, gets right to the point with his new book, summarizing what Mortenson claims happens on his journeys, then telling the reader what actually happened, citing numerous credible sources along the way.

There were several disturbing facts presented in Three Cups of Deceit, specifically, for example, after over forty weeks as #1 on the NYT Bestseller list, Three Cups of Tea fell to #2 behind Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love.  Mortenson used his foundation's credit card to start buying copies of his book in an attempt to put it back at #1.  There's no other word for that than disturbing.  But the absolute worst thing is that of Mortenson's schools, some of them only exist on paper; they aren't really there.  Several that actually do exist are empty because Mortenson failed to provide decent teachers.  Villages decided to create their own schools in lieu of Mortenson's because of the lack of teachers.  So what's the point of him actually building schools?  It seems just so he can raise money... for himself.

The great thing about this book was that I got a glimpse of that area of the world without having to read all the lies.  Whether or not you've read Three Cups of Tea, I definitely recommend this book.

Wings

Wings
Aprilynne Pike
240 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Free NookBook
★★☆☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Warning: sarcastic spoilers to follow.

An overly simplistic plot.  That's what's going on in this novel.  Perhaps it was a little more young than the normal YA I read and it would be a good novel for a fourth grader, I think.  Definitely not the kind of high school YA I enjoy.  But I digress.

Laurel is starting a new school (gasp) and when she goes to bio (double gasp) she meets a boy (triple gasp) and they become fast friends.  Unoriginal plot: girl goes to new school, goes to bio class, meets a boy.  Why can't someone write about physics class for once?  Oh, I digress again.  She's also growing something out of her back.  At first she thinks it's a tumor but decides not to tell anyone - because that's the logical thing to do, right?  Tumors usually just go away by themselves.  But, you see, it's not a tumor.  It's a blossom.  She's growing a giant flower right out of her spine.

Gross.  She and her new boy-friend are in awe of it's beauty, but I'm sorry, a human growing a plant out of their body is gross.  Oh, but then we find out that she's not human at all... she's actually a plant.  That actually makes the blossom a little less gross, but still... kind of unpleasant to think about.  Anyway, it turns out Laurel is a faerie and that's why she's technically a plant.  Aprilynne Pike completely rewrote what it is to be a faerie and her descriptions didn't quite make sense to me.

Here's the major problem I have with this novel: the title.  It's called Wings, so you would expect there to be wings in the novel.  However, Pike makes it a point to note that what's growing out of Laurel's back are not wings at all, but actually petals.  If there are no wings, why call the book Wings?

Even though this is a trilogy (what's with all the YA trilogies these days?) I enjoyed the fact that Wings didn't end on a major cliffhanger.  I didn't get the feeling that I had to read the next book in order to find out what happens next.  Don't get me wrong, I have no idea what happens next, but I guess... I don't really care.  I will not actively try to acquire the next two in the series.  I think a young girl in late elementary or middle school would enjoy this novel a lot more than I did.

Princess Diaries II & III

Princess in the Spotlight & Princess in Love
Meg Cabot
257 & 229 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: PaperBackSwap.com and the library, respectively
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summaries here and here.

While I'm still enjoying this series immensely, the second two novels were not quite as amazing as the first novel.  In Princess in the Spotlight, we follow Mia as her mother announces her pregnancy and upcoming nuptials to Mia's algebra teacher, Mr. Gianni.  Grandmère, naturally, meddles in the whole affair while continuing to give Mia her princess lessons.  The story continues in Princess in Love, as Mia prepares to take her first official trip to Genovia, she must also pass her finals, find a date to the non-denomination winter dance, and find a way to break up with her boyfriend who she is not actually in love with.

As with the first novel, I thoroughly enjoyed Mia's voice as she wrote in her diary, as well as the little extra tidbits she throws in, such as copies of the entries she wrote for her English journal (that she had to turn in!) and Lilly's rejected English paper proposal.  The only thing I'm not enjoying in these novels is the character of Lilly.  I know she's supposed to be out there and annoying, but her character really grates on me.

Can't wait to read the next book and see how Mia's trip to Genovia went!

The Journey

The Journey
Wanda E. Brunstetter
381 pages
Publisher: Barbour
Source: Goodreads win!
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

When Titus' girlfriend leaves him and her Amish community to explore California and the "Englisher" way of life, Titus is heartbroken and moves to a new community in Kentucky to start over.  Meanwhile, Suzanne is having problems of her own: she loves woodworking and she's a terrible cook - not exactly the Amish's idea of a good woman.  Can she learn to cook?  Can her family become more accepting of her hobby?  Will Titus find a new love?  I think you already know the answers...

I think this was the most action-packed Amish romance novel I've ever read!  Robbers tearing apart houses, multiple runaway horses, near-death experiences with motorcycles, and not to mention a pack of wild dogs.  Who-boy, this was definitely a page turner.

Unlike other Amish fiction novels I've read, the plot moved at a normal clip.  Most of the Beverly Lewis novels I've read in the past have moved very slowly, with a lot of thinking going on by the characters about their same problems, over and over.  I was happy to see that while Brunstetter's characters did spend time reflecting on their problems, it wasn't all they did with their time.  I also enjoyed that this book didn't end on a major cliffhanger.  While there's no pressure to read the second book in the series, I'm gladly looking forward to reading it when it comes out later this year.

Disclaimer:  I won a free copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway, but the fact that my copy was gratis did not affect my review at all.

13 Little Blue Envelopes

13 Little Blue Envelopes
Maureen Johnson
336 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Free NookBook!
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

After her aunt's untimely death, Ginny is given a package her aunt put together before she died.  It includes thirteen little blue envelopes and Ginny must open them one at a time and complete the mission within before opening the next envelope.  The mission takes her all over Europe, where her aunt spent the last weeks of her life.

I loved the plot!  It was great to go along with Ginny, reading about far away places and excitedly reading each successive letter to see what she must accomplish next.  Along the way Ginny met some interesting characters, a couple love interests and lots of new friends.  It was great to see Ginny transform during her journey from shy, boring girl, to a little more outgoing and carefree.

What I didn't like at all was Keith, Ginny's main love interest in the novel.  I don't understand why Ginny likes him!  He doesn't sound that attractive, he has a criminal record but lacks the traditional "bad-boy" appeal, he doesn't dote on her at all, doesn't have much of an aspiration for the future except to write plays (not that there's anything wrong with that, but not many people can succeed doing that and he doesn't have a back-up plan!), and I didn't feel any sexual tension between them... I just don't get it.  Maybe you had to be there, which isn't helpful because it's fiction!

Other than Keith, I enjoyed the novel.  I definitely stayed up an hour and a half past my bedtime last night just to finish it up.  It was a very cute YA story and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, The Last Little Blue Envelope, eventually.

Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell
1,448 pages
Publisher: Pocketbooks
Source: giftshop at the Margaret Mitchell House Museum
★★★★★

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

When my parents came down to visit us a couple weekends ago we spent some time sight-seeing, including a stop at the Margaret Mitchell House where Margaret Mitchell wrote the bulk of Gone with the Wind.  I had seen the movie when I was much younger and vaguely recalled it, but upon visiting her home and the Gone with the Wind museum in Marietta, GA, I realized I'd never read the book.  So I picked up the cheapest copy the gift shop had and started reading it that day.  Now, finally, after almost two weeks, I've finished.  And I'm in love.

Talk about an amazingly written novel.  Included in it are rich and dynamic scenes filled with description, deep characters with very distinct personalities, and almost every human emotion is explored.  No wonder it's almost fifteen-hundred pages!  You can't cram all that into a three hundred page novel.  It's not the most historically accurate novel ever written and it is admittedly racist at points, but so were the times in which it takes place and was written.  Aside from that, the novel is beautifully written and immensely interesting.

I think what I loved most about this work was how linear it was; a strange thing to love I admit, but it makes the plot so easy to follow.  It spans twelve years and time flows through the novel without any flashbacks.  Things happen in an order and the way it was written it made me feel like there was more.  It was like Mitchell could have written so much about Scarlett O'Hara and Gone with the Wind is just a brief window into Scarlett's life.  Reading the novel, it seemed like Scarlett must have had an interesting life before the novel started, and certainly much, much more of a life after the novel ended.  The ending is certainly open-ended, with no definite conclusion other than Scarlett finally realizing what a phony she is, but I think it ended perfectly.  If we'd had a definite ending to this epic novel, I don't think it would have been as popular as it has been.  Much of the discussion about Gone with the Wind comes from the question of what happened to Scarlett after the novel ends.

A couple decades ago the estate of Margaret Mitchell allowed a sequel to be written and I've heard mixed reviews about it.  If Margaret Mitchell had written a sequel before her untimely death I would be reading it tomorrow, but I don't know if I want to taint my view of this masterpiece with either of the authorized sequels.  

It's rare that I read a book and don't swap it after I've finished it, even if I've loved it.  But this one is going to stay on my own personal shelf.  That in itself is a testament to how much I enjoyed this novel.

The Shunning

The Shunning
Beverly Lewis
282 pages
Publisher: Bethany House
Source: Books-A-Million
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

You know Amish novels are my guilty pleasure and this was one of the best Beverly Lewis novels I've read.  I wanted to read it soon because Hallmark made a movie from the novel that's premiering on April 16th and I wanted to have read the book before seeing the movie.

Katie Lapp has struggled with her Amish heritage for as long as she can remember, often wanting to just indulge in a simple song.  After her beau dies tragically, she struggles even more despite the fact that she's engaged to the bishop in her town.  The bishop!  It's a big deal.  Life gets even more complicated when she finds a fancy baby gown in her parents' attic, too fancy to be from an Amish child.  Soon she must come to terms with her past and figure out what to do with her future.

The novel was a very good and quick read, I read it in an afternoon.  Things really got interesting about halfway through and I just plowed through the end.  I can't wait to see what Hallmark does with the story in their movie.

Of course, the whole thing ended with a cliffhanger and thus the potential for Katie, who suffered with herself so much in this novel, to find happiness.  I was hoping just this once I could get away with reading just the first book in a series, but no, now I have to get the second book, The Confession.

Dragonfly in Amber

Dragonfly in Amber
Diana Gabaldon
947 pages
Publisher: Dell
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.


Dragonfly in Amber is the second novel in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.  While the novel itself was engaging like the first one, full of rich characters, scenery, and plot, it did seem to serve as merely a bridge from the first novel, Outlander, to the third, Voyager.  Dragonfly in Amber starts with our heroine, Claire, back in her modern day in the 1960s, with her grown daughter, searching for the history of Jamie's clan after she left the eighteenth century some twenty years earlier.  We soon learn what she thought happened to Jamie did not actually happen at all.  Thus, we know how Voyager will start before she launches into her story of what happened before she left him.  The end of the novel, a page turner indeed, confirms it.

Still, despite the novel coming off as a bridge, I found it even more enjoyable than the first in the series and I'm looking forward to reading on.  I think what I enjoyed the most about Dragonfly in Amber was meeting Claire's daughter and speculating as to what will happen in Voyager when Claire must decide whether or not to once again go back in time.  If you haven't started this series yet, well for goodness sakes you're missing out.

PS:  Dragonfly in Amber is actually on my PaperBackSwap shelf right now.  It's a wish-listed book, there are a couple dozen people at least wanting this book, but for some reason the edition I have is not wished for.  I think it's because the cover shown with my edition is not the "latest" cover.  However, the cover of the edition I have is the orange cover people want.  The image is wrong in the PBS system.  Anyhoo, if you've been wanting a copy of this book, it's on my shelf waiting for you!  No wait!  It's been taken.

PPS:  In the future I'm going to try to avoid reading two massive books at the same time.  Not only because I feel like I make no progress when doing so, but because I hate not updating my blog for you!  I'll be reading relatively shorter books as I finish Gone with the Wind, so hopefully you'll get a new review sooner than six days from now.

Oops...

I didn't plan this very well, but somehow I managed to pick up two massive books at the same time.  One is almost 1,000 pages and the other is almost 1,500 pages.  I apologize in advance for at least a week of no updates.  I'll be back when I've finished either Dragonfly in Amber or Gone with the Wind.

Murder is Binding

Murder is Binding
Lorna Barrett
281 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

What's better than reading a cozy mystery?  Reading a cozy mystery about books!  Tricia owns a mystery bookstore in the book district of the small town of Stoneham.  An election is coming up soon when suddenly her neighbor is murdered in her own store, a cook book shop, and her rarest cookbook has been stolen!  Soon Tricia finds herself being framed for the murder and she must find a way to clear her name.  On top of that, her sister has come to town and is determined to "help" Tricia run her store.  Not to mention the mysterious advertisements for the nudist lifestyle are mysteriously showing up in all the bookstores in town!  What is going on in Stoneham?

This was a really great cozy.  I think I enjoyed the setting the most, a street in town filled with just bookstores?  What a dream come true!  I wish it were a real place I could visit.  The plot was great, too; it wasn't a simple murder to solve and I didn't know who did it until the last chapter.  I will definitely be reading the next books in this series.  Hopefully in the future Tricia will find a love interest.  It was barely hinted at in the first book, but she needs a man... other than Sherlock Holmes, that is.

March Recap

Thankfully I got to read more than I thought I would in March.  The following is a list of all the books I read this past month, whether or not I reviewed them on my blog.  It brings my total up to 49 for the year, so just shy of halfway through my year goal and the year is only a quarter over!  This is a good thing: it means I can devote more time to some of the thousand page books on my shelf.  After I finish Murder is Binding, I'm on to the second Outlander novel, Dragonfly in Amber.  I also have a couple mammoth Stephen King novels on my shelf I'd like to get to before the end of the year.  And now without further ado, the list:

Lisey's Story by Stephen King
George Washington by Henry Cabot Lodge
Big Boned by Meg Cabot
The Forbidden by Beverly Lewis
Baby Bonanza by Maureen Child
The Longing by Beverly Lewis
Listen by Rene Gutteridge
Reckless by Andrew Gross
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
1065131 by Jason Breedlove
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella
Incubus by Janet Elizabeth Jones
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
An Uninvited Ghost by E.J. Copperman
Parents Behaving Badly by Scott Gummer
John Adams by David McCullough
16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber
PCOS and Your Fertility by Colette Harris
Wicked: The Light and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Smokin' Six-Shooter by B.J. Daniels
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher
Mating Rituals of the North American WASP by Lauren Lipton
Num8ers by Rachel Ward