The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This talented Australian author has written a book, The Book Thief, about Nazi Germany that should be required reading for young adults as well as not-so-young adults. You'll love Liesel Meminger whose little brother dies just before her mother leaves her w/foster parents in So. Germany. Heartbreaker! A real page-turner! Read it all night!

SRC

City of Thieves: A Novel by David Benioff

City of Thieves is a mix of history, imagination, tragedy & humor, which takes place during a brutal Leningrad winter during WWII. Amid the starvation, two unlikely comrads keep each other going. I found it powerful & painful!

SRC

The Pregnancy Test by Erin McCarthy

The Pregnancy Test is a great read. She is funny, sexy and witty. This book is a romance about a positive pregnancy test and what goes through your mind from that first sign of the “pink line”. She is a must read. She keeps you laughing throughout the book.

SRC

The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews

The Fixer Upper is a delightful read! Real Southern charm. Young Washington Lobbyist assistant loses her job. Opportunity arises to rehab southern mansion. Continuing twists make this one you can’t put down.

SRC

Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard

Road Dogs – Always fun to read, Mr. Leonard does it again. Setting is mostly Venice, Connecticut with a little Florida thrown in plus passing mention of Detroit. Jack Foley returns from “Out of Sight” and you’ll certainly picture him as George Clooney.

SRC

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Little Bee is a powerful family saga! A tale of what happens to the lives of Sarah, a British magazine editor and Little Bee, a Nigerian teenager collide. Set in Africa and the USA, the resulting conflict is spectacular stunning and a survival struggle to the 1,000s of asylum seekers housed in the Black Hill Immigration Removal Center.

SRC

The Cradle: A Novel by Patrick Somerville

The Cradle is a short novel that could also be called “A Wild Goose Chase” set in Milwaukee but the story takes us to surrounding Midwest states as Matt sets out to find an antique cradle that is important to his now pregnant wife (was in her childhood room). The unforgettable detours make for a complex read! Do not miss!

SRC

Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

Revenge of the Spellmans, set in San Francisco, is hilarious. It’s not necessary, but it helps to have read the previous two books in this series. All the books are about the escapades of a family of neurotic Private Investigators, Isabel in particular. Her interactions with her family and boyfriends and clients are very funny.

SRC

Mary, Mary by James Patterson

Mary, Mary is a real page turner. I finished it in one day. Short, cliff-hanging chapters encourage you to keep going. Los Angeles is the setting, as Hollywood big shots are targeted for murder. Agent Alex Cross risks his own life to solve the case. Author also of Women’s Murder Club Series.

SRC

The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips

The Rossetti Letter - As an artist and an art history major, I enjoyed this fictional history, set mainly in Venice, Italy (one of my favorite European cities). This first time author helped me learn about the Spanish conspiracy, Venetian history and the lines of courtesans blended into a mysterious love story!

SRC

Little Bitty Lies by Mary Kay Andrews

Little Bitty Lies is the best read of the summer!! Wife and mother finds herself with nothing when husband leaves quietly in the night taking all assets. Tenacity and humor pull her along to a successful conclusion. Very well written.

SRC

Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson

Anne Shirley of Anne and Green Gables fame turns 100 this year, but her popularity doesn't seem to be waning at all. In her honor, Budge Wilson wrote a brand new prequel titled appropriately Before Green Gables relating the trials and tribulations of growing up a red-headed and freckled orphan. The story opens with Anne's parents, Bertha and Walter Shirley, and readers recognize almost immediately Anne's spunk in her mother. But tragedy strikes as they die of a fever shortly after Anne's death. Although her life is riddled with disappointment, it's relatively stable as she lives out most of her childhood between two very child-crowded homes. She gets over-worked and over looked at both of them, and finds comfort in her times at school, where she can escape from the babies and multitude of house work. The three months at the orphange get glossed over as a horrible event before the inevitable salvation and travel to her beloved Prince Edward Island. The writing and reading is beautifully done, and captures the spirit of the original novels. Although Anne's percocious nature seems forced in some areas as she talks in complete sentences throughout the entire novel, regardless of her age, it makes the reading easier than dealing with an evolving child's vocabulary. Fans of the original stories will recognize some of the details, such as her friendly echo and Anne's unique way of praying. Our copy of the audiobook, read by Renee Raudman, provides a soothing and unhurried look at Anne's beginnings. Located in the adult area, it's a wonderful book that I would recommend to children as young as twelve.

AMY

The Richest Season By Maryann McFadden

In The Richest Season A corporate wife has had enough and runs away to Pawley island, she ends up as a caretaker for a dying woman. So she and her husband realize there is more to life than material success.

SRC

The Genizah at the House of Shepher by Tamar Yellin

If you loved "The Ghost of Hannah Mendes" and "The History of Love," this multi-generational family saga is for you! In The Genizah... a family feud over possession of the so-called
Shepher Codex, discovered in the grandparents Genizeh (attic) creates an adventurous mystery. Interesting novel!

Petropolis by Anya Ulinich

Petropolis is an incredible story about a naive Russian emigre who embarks on a challenge-filled journey across America, in search of her father - cross-cultural confusion and bitter sweet, but a worthwhile read.

SRC

The Birth House

Ami McKay's debut novel, The Birth House, tells the tale of Dora Rare. The first daughter to be born in five generations of her family, in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is mentored by an Acadian midwife. Telling of the difficult years near the beginning of World War I, Dora becomes Miss B's apprentice, helping the area women with all of their feminine health needs.

The arrival of a medical doctor with very straightforward ideas of women's medicine is met with mixed emotions, and it becomes clear that the many traditions and wisdom passed down through the generations are at risk. Dr. Thomas seems willing to sacrifice integrity in order to push the cause of "modern medicine", maliciously allowing wrong information to circulate about Dora's midwifery.

Not only is the story of Dora's personal life compelling, but the surprising details of what women were often subjected to will also keep the reader intrigued. Many of the traditions in birthing will not be as unfamiliar to 21st century readers as one would think, as medicine seems to have reconnected with more natural practices.

JB

The Tenderness of Wolves

Winner of the U.K. Costa Award (formerly the Whitbread Award), The Tenderness of Wolves is a finely wrought tale of complex human beings as they react to a violent murder in 1867 in Dove River in Canada’s Northern Territory. Mrs. Ross, a resident of the settlement, discovers the murder and reports it. The murder casts its shadow on two people, one of whom is Mrs. Ross’s adopted son, who is missing and William Parker, a half-breed Native American trapper, who is found in the murdered trapper’s cabin some time after. Several outsiders are drawn to the community because of the murder: Thomas Sturrock, a man whose inquiry into two children’s disappearance years ago ties him to Dove Rover, seeks something the murdered man owned; Mackinley and Moody, the Hudson Bay Company representatives, are here to find an answer. Mrs. Ross’s son, Francis, is the object of a cross-country trip, fraught with its own dangers: bitter cold, wolves, madmen and dangerous people. Moody sets out to bring back Francis, convinced of his guilt. Mrs. Ross’s devotion to her son (and belief that evidence suggests his innocence) makes her seek out Parker to guide her into the wilderness, frightened as she is of it. Parker has his own reasons for the trip.
Penney writes with fluidly and with wonderful detail – both of personalities and setting. The book is not only suspenseful, but revelatory of human actions, desires and feelings.
This is a true winner!

nrh

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

Nina, Mel and Avery have been inseparable friends for years. As the summer leading into their Senior year in High School rolls around, events unfold that begin driving wedges into their once cohesive bond. When Nina flies across the country for a Summer camp at Stanford, she meets the earthy Steve and swan dives into loving admiration.

Meanwhile, back home, Mel and Avery are beginning to forge a different kind of bond in their relationship. When Nina returns she senses something amiss as the once strong trio has become more akin to a lopsided duet. Finding herself struggling with the realities of the new situation, Nina turns to Steve, whose once comforting and frequent emails slowly begin to wane. It isn't long before all three girls must begin to examine their relationships with their own selves to understand their relationships with each other.

The Bermudez Triangle is a page turning novel of discovery, relationships, the pain of heartbreak and the glory of friendship.

KY

Play Dirty by Sandra Brown

Five years ago Griff Burkett, famous quarterback for the Cowboys, did the unthinkable in the sports world: purposely threw games to pay off his gambling debts. Having done his time in prison, Griff is looking to make a new start. But, the first person he sees on his way out of prison is Stanley Rodarte, a low-life scumbag whose sole purpose in life is to bring Griff down.

Not only does Griff have to worry about Rodarte, he has been offered the most bizarre job, so to speak, for Foster and Laura Speakman, a wealthy couple who desperately want to have a child. Griff has been offered a lot of money to father their child and accepting this offer would leave him set for life. But, an offer this good does not come without a price and Griff must decide if he is willing to pay it.

Play Dirty is one of the best books Sandra Brown has written in a long time. The characters are great and the surprise twists and turns of the story will keep readers guessing until the end.

KSS

The Buenos Aires Broken Hearts Club by Jessica Morrison

At the age of seventeen, Cassie Moore planned her life. On a color-coded spreadsheet, she broke her life into eight manageable ten year stages that were broken down further by five year major goals. Cassie has followed her plan religiously for the past 11 years, never straying from her path. But, in one day, Cassie’s life is turned upside down. She loses her job and she comes home to find her fiancée in bed with his ex-girlfriend…so not in her plan.

In a drunken stupor, Cassie decides she needs time off from her plan, six months, in fact, and she books herself a flight to Buenos Aires. Here she spends the next six months learning Spanish, meeting new people, and finding herself.

The Buenos Aires Broken Hearts Club is an uplifting story of a woman who must let go of everything she has believed in for years to rebuild her life around the theory that sometimes life cannot be planned.

KSS