Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter by Lisa Patton

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Summary: A Memphis belle helps her husband open a B&B in snowy Vermont.

I liked everything about this book. I wavered between giving it 4 or 5 stars, but decided on 5 because, even as much as I could predict what would (and did) happen, I kept coming back to it and stayed up to finish it.

Leelee Satterfield has the perfect life in Memphis: her handsome husband, whom she nabbed in college, after she got boobs; a gorgeous house, supportive friends, and happy children. And one night her husband tells her he's profoundly unhappy and the only thing that will ever make him happy is to be the owner of an inn in Vermont. Since Leelee has never said no to Baker -ever-, she sells her house and uses the money along with her father's inheritance to buy the Vermont Haus Inn.

Despite all the red flags, including a smelly house and a tiny bedroom, Leelee reluctantly settles in to life in Vermont, constantly surprised at al the things she never knew about before: black ice, flies that bite, rook rakes, sonic booms and nor'easters. But the biggest surprise of all is when her husband forgets their wedding anniversary and instead leaves her a note telling her he's fallen in love with an older woman and will be taking a job managing her ski resort instead.

The weakest part of the novel for me was how capable and collected Leelee seemed after the man she has adored forever left her high and dry with a cook who hates her and a falling-down building. The rest of the book travels upon predictable paths - her new cook is single and gorgeous, her girlfriends from Memphis come to the rescue, but it worked in sweet and tender ways. I'm ready for more Leelee.

Book of Shadows (Sweep, No. 1) by Cate Tiernan

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Summary: A teenage girl meets the new student in her high school and is drawn to him before she discovers he's a Wiccan. Her attraction to Cal grows, despite of, or perhaps because of witchcraft.

My book club was lucky enough to have Young Adult author Loretta Ellsworth come speak to our book club after we read her book In a Heartbeat. After we discussed her book, we talked about upcoming trends in YA fiction.

Loretta Ellsworth mentioned that vampires are a waning plot device, at least in the YA market. She mentioned that werewolves seem to be popular, and talked about Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, which I hated. But I'm here to tell you that I can't get enough of the Sweep series by Cate Tiernan.

Morgan describes herself as plain and boring. And she seems like it. She's responsible, she helps fellow students with math problems and seems a little self-conscious when her best friend Bree tries to include her in Bree's clique of popular friends. Morgan's much more comfortable hanging back.

But Morgan is assigned to show new transfer student Cal around their school and can hardly function because Cal is so cute. I totally identified with Morgan, as whenever I encountered a gorgeous male, I can't stop giggling, even today. Cal is very laid back and at ease with all the different groups of people, the popular kids, the brains, the athletes, the stoners, the artists. When he invites all of them to a campfire in the woods, everyone is excited to attend a cool party. But Cal suggests that they hold hands in a circle and thank Mother Nature. Cal "comes out" as a witch (male Wiccans are still witches, apparently). Morgan is intrigued by the ceremony but her best friend Bree is more intrigued by Cal.

Bree starts exploring witchcraft as a way to get closer to Cal, and shares her books and enthusiasm with Morgan. Morgan starts exploring witchcraft on her own, but she also finds herself strangely drawn to Cal as well, but of course doesn't say anything to anyone since Bree is actively pursuing Cal. 

Morgan's mother finds her books and bans all witchcraft books and forbids Morgan to be involved in any of the Wiccan holidays and ceremonies. Morgan is torn between her typical reaction to obey her parents and her curiosity about a gentle philosophy that really seems to speak to her. Morgan starts "practicing" on her own, and creates a potion that clears up her friend's horrible acne. Morgan is astonished that her potion worked but gets scolded by Cal for practicing magick without the recipient's consent. Bree also thinks that Morgan is practicing magick to get closer to Cal and makes Morgan choose between their friendship and magick.

Morgan chooses magick, but recognizes that her pull toward magick will eventually cause problems in her whole life - with her family, her church and even her friendships. I am so hooked on this series. It has humor, teen angst, a cute guy and lots of potential problems. Delicious!

StarCrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce

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Summary: A clever thief is hiding as a ladies' maid in a snow-bound castle in this excellent young adult fantasy novel.

This young adult fantasy novel was one of the best novels I've read. It combines so many elements that I absolutely adore - teen novel, moral conflict, magic, politics, danger and a fast-moving plot. I thought the writing was excellent.

"It was the perfect night to drive us all inside; the heavy sky had finally resigned itself to rain - an ugly, sleety mess that made the roaring fire very welcome. I fingered the beaded trim of my bodice. Tart me up like a lady-in-waiting, but I was still a street thief from Gerse at heart, counting the rings on my neighbors' fingers, the exits in the room." 

This sentence tells so much.  Digger escapes from the Greensmen, the Kings' Guard, and hides with four nobles. She ends up as the maid to Lady Merista, and is snowbound in the castle with the family's guests. Everyone thinks Digger is Lady Celyn and they are unaware of her secrets. Until one guest recognizes Digger and her talents, and blackmails her into spying on the family for him. The tension, the danger, the secrets just keep building and building. I won't give much away, but this book was fabulous! I immediately looked for the sequel on my Nook, but it's not available yet. I am eagerly awaiting it.

In the Woods by Tana French

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Summary: An Irish detective is assigned to investigate the murder of a young girl, right in the same neighborhood where his friends disappeared 20 years ago.

I went to bed with this book and got kicked out of bed for keeping the light on too long! I couldn't stop reading once Detectives Ryan and Maddox hone in on the killer.

In August of 1984, in a suburb of Dublin, three kids run off to play in the woods surrounding their neighborhood.  When the kids don't return, the entire neighborhood searches for the missing kids, turning up only one of the three kids. The other two kids are still missing today. Their bodies were never found, nor was any crime scene, yet the one child found had blood-soaked feet.

The found boy, Rob Ryan, moved away and became a detective in Dublin's Murder Squad. He's inclined to be a loner, but his partner Cassie Maddox is his best friend.

Twenty years later, a young girl's body is found at the edge of the woods where Rob's friends disappeared. Like the now murdered Katy, his missing friend Jamie was also about to be sent away to school. Both Jamie and Katy were twelve years old. Is this new murder connected to his friends' old unsolved disappearance?

The wood was gay and sparkly in the sunlight, all birdsong and flirting leaves; I could feel the rows upon rows of identical, trim, innocuous houses ranged behind me. This fucking place, I almost said, but I didn't. 

A team of investigators turns up no sexual predators, either from then or now, no viable suspects, but plenty of concern about young Katy's life. Katy was raped, but with an object. Her family seems distant and distracted, and there's political corruption, pressure to solve the case and no leads.

Rob starts to go a little crazy (staying up too late and drinking too much) about this case, bringing him nightmares about the unsolved mystery of his life, but Cassie covers for him extremely well. There are no progress made in this case, and Rob has already resigned himself to be haunted by another case involving the woods. Is there a wild animal? Is there a neighborhood murderer, who killed as a teen and is now a father? Two separate mysteries?

Frustrated beyond measure, and feeling like he's messing up his life every day, Rob decides to spend the night in the wood.

Knocknaree wood was the real thing, and it was more intricate and more secretive than I had remembered. It had its own order, its own fierce battles and alliances. 

His night in the woods actually creates a break in the case, as it clears his mind completely. This clue starts an amazing path of discovery and I stayed awake once they had a suspect in custody. I never suspected! The Irish criminal and legal system is different from America's too, which enhanced the story for me too. A lushly, descriptively-written novel, I was sucked in by the first chapter and can't wait to read more by this author. The pacing was just perfect, with hints of dread and mystery being revealed along the way. It's up there with my first John Lescroast novel, Guilt.

Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn

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Summary: Summoned to be the king's fifth wife, Zoe Ardelay runs away to discover her role in the family she had always believed abandoned her, in this new fantasy novel.

Sharon Shinn is one of the most talented authors I read, since she can create entire new worlds that make sense in a believable way. In Troubled Waters, Shinn creates a new world that fascinated me, based loosely on feng shui principles or perhaps zodiac signs.

Each of us have blessings bestowed upon us at birth which remain with us, and our characteristics are also divided into five categories: hunti (wood/bone); sweela (fire/mind); coru (water/blood);  elay (air/soul); and torz (earth/flesh). At any time you can visit a temple to pick a random blessing to give you divine guidance about a current task, problem or event. It's interesting - do people adopt characteristics of their element and do people treat them like their element, so they become that way, or are people destined to act and behave as their elements?

Inside this new world of Shinn's, we have Zoe - the daughter of a fire (sweela) man and a water (coru) woman. Fire and water don't normally mix, but Zoe is the best and worst of her elements. Flexible and powerful, like water; hot-tempered yet warm and affectionate like fire, Zoe is content to let things happen to her, rather than actively forcing something. Her passivity annoys me, but the story develops around her and she seems strangely reluctant to become the head of her family - the coru prime.

After her father's death in exile,  Zoe is escorted to the capitol to become the king's fifth wife. During a traffic jam, Zoe "escapes" and lives a casual, almost vagrant, life alongside the river. On her way to work one morning, she is robbed and attacked by thugs.  For her safety, she leaps into the river and is carried away underneath the city, protected and nurtured by the water. Realizing that she has an extraordinary connection to water - the trait of her mother's family, Zoe leaves her life at the riverbank to take her place as the prime - the head of the family. Once she's connected with her mother's family, Zoe is summoned to court for her official duties as prime and is mired in court politics and a budding romance with a hunti nobleman.

In typical Sharon Shinn fashion, a restless woman discovers her own strengths in a fish-out-of water situation and romance is secondary to the heroine's growth and the exquisitely executed details of Shinn's fantasy worlds. Troubled Waters is no exception.

If you're not a fan of fantasy fiction, and you think feng shui is baloney, you won't like this book. But I consider it one of Sharon Shinn's best, also reminiscent of the Kristin Cashore novels, where political intrigue could topple a monacrchy.

The Secret of Joy by Melissa Senate

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Summary: Just before her father dies, Rebecca finds out he has fathered a child and abandoned her long ago. Rebecca finds her long-lost sister. 

About to marry her long-time boyfriend and boss, Rebecca is delighted and stunned to discover that she has a sister she's never met. Of course, her father's deathbed confession that he had an affair 26 years ago and fathered a child he's had no contact with since leaves Rebecca reeling, especially since she always thought her parents had the perfect marriage.

I loved this book. The complex and messy emotions contained in the book were perfectly described and understandable. The anger, joy, frustration, confusion and stubbornness of being an adult and recognizing your parents' flaws carry this above and beyond a typical chick-lit novel.

Bereft over the upcoming loss of her father, Rebecca is also angered and confused. How could her father, her loving and attentive father, have abandoned her sister? Was her entire relationship with her father a fantasy? And what was her parents' marriage really like? And why did he tell her now?

"If your dad felt that guilty, he would have tracked her down at some point over the past twenty-six years. It's a deathbed confession, Rebecca. It's to ease his heart. It's so he can die in peace." 

But when she is reprimanded professionally for getting too emotional at work after her father's death, Rebecca takes a leave of absence to track down her sister, Joy. Her boyfriend/boss Michael thinks tracking down her long-lost sister is a terrible idea, but something compels Rebecca north to Maine.

"WELCOME TO MAINE: THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE. The sign seemed like her fortune, her horoscope, her Magic 8 Ball answer. Her life was not the way it should be, and she knew it, had known it for a while. She liked the idea that simply passing the sign meant she was working on that."

Joy lives in Maine and runs singles tours on the Love Bus. But Joy's own marriage is in trouble and she rejects all of Rebecca's attempts at friendship and connection. Joy was rejected her whole life by Rebecca's father and now, after his death, the only way she can express the pain of that rejection is by rejecting Rebecca. But Joy is the only family Rebecca has left and Rebecca needs something from Joy, just as she simply needs joy.

The characters are well-developed, with human flaws and needs. I cried with the characters and even though this book had an unexpected happy ending, I hope to read more about these people.

God Is in the Pancakes by Robin Epstein

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Summary: Teenager Grace is struggling with bigger issues than just a typical teenager in this well-written story.

Grace Manning enjoys her job as a candy striper at Hanover House. It gets her out of the house – which has been no fun at all since her dad left her mom – earns her a little money, and Grace loves her time with Mr. Sands. He teaches her cards, laughs at her jokes and is a really good friend to her.
In fact, they’re so close that one day Mr. Sands asks Grace to help him die.

He gives her an envelope of pills and asks her to make him pancakes with the pills crushed up. They will just put him to sleep and it will end his suffering. And it’s medicine he’s already taking, so nobody will be surprised when he has the medicine in his system.

Grace thinks it’s a joke. Maybe a test from the nursing home staff. Mr. Sands can’t really be serious. Plus, he can walk and talk, which makes the request to die seem an overreaction.

Then one day, Grace is turned away from Mr. Sands’ room. He’s having trouble breathing and Grace is concerned. She talks to the head of Hanover House and finds out that Mr. Sands has ALS – Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) – and he will have trouble swallowing and breathing on his own. Eventually, even the machines won’t be able to help.

Grace recognizes that Mr. Sands was serious about wanting Grace to help him die. Mr. Sands only has a painful lingering death ahead of him if Grace doesn’t do it. But how can she?

Grace wants to share all that’s going on with her best friend Eric, but he’s busy with the basketball team. Also, things have been kinda weird between them lately and Grace doesn’t want to force the issue in case she makes Eric leave her like her dad left her mom, but how can she tell Eric she might actually kill a friend?

On another visit to Mr. Sands’ room, she is turned away again while a nurse clears his lungs of fluid. While Grace is furiously ranting in the bathroom over the unfairness of God causing the, she meets Isabelle. Isabella teases her out of her bad mood and then they discover they are going to the same room – Mr. Sands’ room. Isabelle is Frank Sands’ wife, but because she’s much healthier than he is, she lives in a different building at Haven house, one with no nurses.

Isabelle and Grace develop their own friendship but Grace never mentions the pills stuffed in her backpack to Isabelle or to Mr. Sands. What could she do? What can she say?

Then, during a study session for their history midterm, Eric and Grace suddenly kiss. This was one of the most spontaneous, realistic and romantic scenes written, and I read a lot of romance novels.

One friend kissed her, one friend is dying, and Grace keeps sending her father’s calls to voice mail.

“ I want everything to be okay. I want Mr. Sands to be healthy. I want things to be normal with Eric. I don’t want to fail biology. I want to be prettier. I want to be able to speed read. I want world peace. I never want to get a zit again. I want to be able to eat anything I want and not gain weight. I want to be talented at something. I want to know if Isabelle will be okay if I help Mr. Sands. I want to smell nice all the time. I want my dad to apologize for leaving. And then I want him to come back and stay. I want to live happily ever after. And I don’t want to have to think about these things."

I loved this book. The writing seemed authentic, the way an actual modern teen would think and write. The issues were believable and the ending plausible.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

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Summary: A teenage hacker mobilizes fellow teens after another terrorist attack.

I don’t like hackers. They seem obnoxious and troublesome, breaking into files just because they can. So a novel featuring teenage hackers, who are likely breaking the law, didn’t appeal to me. But I kept reading that Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother was one of the best pieces of Young Adult Fiction.

They - whoever they are - were right.

I started reading this book, not expecting to like it and ended up ignoring my kids so I could finish it. It was entertaining, suspenseful and thought-provoking.

Little Brother is set in the near future in San Francisco. Marcus and his friends sneak out of school one day to play an online treasure-hunting game – Harajuku Fun Madness.  Marcus is a snotty punk, who likes feeling smarter than and superior to the adults around him.

“The Man was always coming down on me, just because I go through school firewalls like wet Kleenex, spoof the gait-recognition software, and nuke the snitch chips they track us with.”

While Marcus and his friends are on the streets of San Francisco, a terrorist attack occurs. Terrorists have bombed the Bay Bridge, cutting off the mainland from the rest of the city. Mass panic. Their friend Darryl is stabbed in the back in the chaos after the bombing and when the friends flag down a police car for help, they are instead thrown into a van, taken off American soil and wake up in a cell, alone.

Homeland Security, yes, the Department of Homeland Security of the United States of America, suspects that these high school kids are terrorists because they were close to the bomb at the time of the attack and not where they were supposed to be. Marcus is psychologically tormented, isolated, deprived and humiliated – everything but physically tortured.

“I’d broken a lot of rules all my life and I’d gotten away with it, by and large. Maybe this was justice. Maybe this was my past coming back to me. After all, I had been where I was because I’d snuck out of school.”

Marcus is finally released after he tells the passwords and codes to every piece of technology he has on him. His cell phone, his computer at home, anything you can think of, he provides information about, terrified into spilling his guts. Marcus is released with the threat that DHS will be watching him.

My biggest complaint about many of the YA novels out there is “Where are the parents?!” It seems like kids get into trouble and hide werewolves and vampires in their rooms while the parents obliviously go along. But Marcus’s parents are real characters with real viewpoints.

When Marcus stumbles home, his parents cry with relief that he’s alive. He’s too terrified about his recent brush with Homeland Security to even tell his parents the truth. He doesn’t even know if his friends made it out as well; he’s just so happy to be home and safe.

“Believe it or not, my parents made me go to school the next day. I’d only fallen into feverish sleep at three in the morning, but at seven the next day, my dad was standing at the foot of my bed, threatening to drag me out by the ankles. I managed to get up – something had died in my mouth after painting my eyelids shut – and into the shower.”

At school the next day, Darryl is still missing. Everyone else in the group is home safely except Marcus’ best friend Darryl. Marcus starts asking questions because he owes it to Darryl to get him home. Thugs from Homeland Security confront him on his way home, ordering him to shut up if he knows what’s good for him. Trembling, Marcus vows to bring down DHS, using technology, the power of the internet and a very real distrust of the government.

The humor of this book must be my kind of humor, because I grew to like Marcus’ views on many things, even as I agree (agreed?) with his dad about privacy and security concerns.

‘ “The Bill of Rights was written before data-mining," he said. He was awesomely serene, convinced of his rightness. “The right of freedom of association is fine, but why shouldn’t the cops be allowed to mine your social network to figure out if you’re hanging with gangbangers and terrorists?”

“Because it’s an invasion of my privacy!” I said.

“What’s the big deal? Would you rather have privacy or terrorists?” ‘

It leads to some great discussions the unlimited powers that government holds.

 “It’s unbelievable today, but there was a time when the government classed crypto as a munitions and made it illegal for anyone to export it or use it on national security grounds. Get that. We used to have illegal math in this country.”

I won’t tell you how it ends, but never underestimate the far reaching powers of Homeland Security. Almost anything can be done under the excuse of national security and that is frightening.

So yes, this book is about a teenage hacker who fights the government, but it’s so much more. It’s about cryptology, history, mathematics, writing computer programming code, social revolution, “fighting The Man,”  freedom and of course, teen angst. I’m so glad I read this.

Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis

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Summary: Humorous look at how a book-smart but socially naive teen struggles to deal with his mother's powerful but illegal empire in Flint, Michigan.


It’s hard growing up in Flint, Michigan and even harder when your ambition is to be America’s most successful and wealthy philosopher. “Doing the right thing is like that, you get a strong feeling of relief, sort of like a giant rock has been lifted off your back. Or like the dump you take the day after you eat the ten-taco special from Los Aztecos.” Yet fourteen year-old-Luther T. Farrell has dreams and ambitions, and nothing, not even his mother, the Sarge, can stop him.

I kept laughing at Luther’s life:

“I’ve always thought of myself as being handsome but in an unusual sort of way. And if that Clearasil really works it won’t be too much longer before I’ll be handsome in a more normal sense of the word.” I mean, the honesty and the self-deception is so perfect, written in the voice of a black teenager in Flint. The humor kept me hooked, wondering just where the author would take Luther, and us.

“Holding your blindfolded best friend’s hand in a cage so he can get bit by a diseased rat isn’t as easy to do as it sounds.”

Luther also has a job as a housekeeper/driver/cook/health aide in one of his mother’s nursing homes, $92,000 in a savings account, a fake driver’s license and the Sarge as his mother.

The Sarge.

Whew! I have mother issues, but I’m glad I don’t have the Sarge.

The Sarge has a mandate against PDA, even with her son. With the Sarge, “Break a rule, lose your allowance; break a mandate, lose your life.” So no hugs for Luther, ever. Oh, Sarge is not a loan shark, Sarge distributes what she calls Friendly Neighborhood Loans. Sarge does not cheat the system, Sarge will milk the system. “If it’s got nipples, I’m going to milk it,” Sarge explains to Luther when Luther thinks about getting a different job. “The daily nine-to-five action is purely for the sucker.”

Perhaps because I lived near Detroit for three years, I felt right at home, reading descriptions of life in one of Sarge’s rental homes and the dialogue rings true, too.

Not a single character even blinks when attorney Dontay Orlando Gaddy (or D.O.G. to his clients) cries out, “Ask not for whom the Taco Bell tolls, it tolls for thee!”

And Luther’s philosophy cracks me up.

“Sometimes being stupid is like falling down a flight of stairs: once you trip on that first step, there’s not a whole lot you can do to stop from going down, down, down.”

This is a Young Adult novel. It’s not “Twilight,” and it’s not “The Giver.” If you’re looking for an uplifting story with a message, find something else. If you want to be deeply moved, ask a librarian for a recommendation, but if you want a light, funny, poignant sample of teen life, then pick this book. Once you fall into Luther’s life, there’s not a whole lot you can do to stop yourself from enjoying this book. 

Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn

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Summary: Annabel - fertile, lush Annabel - must marry for money, instead of love, yet finds herself falling for the carefree nephew of her aging intended fiancé, who hopes that Annabel will provide him with a heir.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher.

Ten Things I Love About This Book:

One: It's delightful to read a romance novel and laugh out loud. This book brought back pleasure reading. (Oh, not in that way!)

Two: I've been reading so many depressing books lately and both main characters are such loving, affectionate people despite their trials, that maybe I fell a little in love with them too.

Three: Sebastian Grey is a cheerful, happy hero, despite his insomnia brought on by the war. We know right away that he needs the right woman in his bed, to give him the peaceful sleep he deserves.

Four: Sebastian's insomnia leads to Sebastian becoming a popular novelist, as he writes when he can't sleep. Most people adore the novels of "Mrs. Sarah Gorely", and having a male hero in my romance novel also be the author of romance novels is his time is an enjoyable twist.

Five: Sebastian is a charming rogue, who simply adores women, but not in a leering over-sexualized way that many "reformed rakes" (another common plot) do.

"He looked about ready to chuckle but did not. It was a common expression for him, she realized. He saw humor everywhere. It was a rare gift that, and possibly why everyone liked to be near him."

Six: Annabel's stress about making a match with the repulsive Earl of Newbury while navigating London's social scene is realistic, painful yet humorous.

"There were a thousand ways to make an idiot of oneself, with new opportunities arising every day. It was exhausting trying to avoid them all."

Seven: Annabel knows that she was chosen for her wide hips, her large breasts and the potential to carry many healthy male heirs for the Earl of Newbury. But she doesn't know is that the Earl of Newbury is desperate to have an heir so that his current heir, his nephew Sebastian Grey, will not inherit.

Eight: So when Annabel meets Sebastian, she has no idea how much trouble she is causing, just by both men taking an interest in her.

Nine: This really was a unique plot in terms of how the story unfolded and the problems that the hero and heroine face. Julia Quinn, along with Mary Balogh, is one of my favorite Regency Romance authors.  Quinn writes intricate plots that are complicated by the society in which they live, and they are always delicious and enjoyable, with sometimes surprising, but definitely plausible, endings that could only make sense in that story. 

Ten: I would give and recommend this book to anybody who's hesistant to try a romance novel. It has humor, some angst, love, romance and only a few explicit sex scenes. You like both the hero and the heroine and they will make you laugh. Now, that's a good book.

Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien

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Summary: After losing her parents, teenage Gaia becomes her neighborhood’s midwife and is embroiled in the politics of birth and adoption.

The first three babies each midwife delivers every month are “advanced” to the Enclave, a walled inner city where the best and brightest have been living (and marrying) for years.

As a brand-new midwife, Gaia is only following the policies she’s lived under for years. But after she returns home from her first delivery, and her first advancement, she returns home to find that her parents have been arrested.

There’s a crisis in the Enclave. Rampant inbreeding in the years since the Enclave formed has led to hemophilia and death, with mandatory blood tests before anyone can marry.

Gaia’s parents hold a secret, a secret about the babies who have advanced, one that Gaia must uncover if she ever hopes to keep them alive.

"Because she was scarred, she had had no chance of being advanced to the Enclave. In some ways, her case was the supreme example of why it was better to give the babies over within hours. Years ago, they used to leave babies with their mothers for the first year of life, but the mothers were growing increasingly careless, and the children were getting injured or sick before their twelve-month ceremonies. With the current baby quota system, the Enclave recived healthy, whole babies the day they were born, and the mothers could get on with becoming pregnant again, if that’s what they wanted to do.

...

No deformed babies were ever advanced, for any reason. For Gaia, one accident had guaranteed a life of poverty outside the wall, with no education, no chance for good food or leisure or easy friendships, while the girls her age who’d been advanced were now in the enclave, with boundless electricity, food and education. They were wearing beautiful clothes, dreaming of wealthy husbands, laughing and dancing."

Confession time here: I love dystopian fiction. Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games is one of my favorite books.  While Collins' and O'Brien's worlds are completely different, the same sense of dread, menace and ideal pacing make these books among my favorites.

How did the world end up as it it did?

“The cool age ended when the fuel was used up, and it was too late for the masses to adjust, I guess. Crops failed. Some illness. A few wars. They coldn’t move around  what little food they could grow, I guess. It takes a lot to feed people, Gaia. We forget. We’re lucky here. There are smart people running the Enclave, and we don’t do so badly ourselves outside the wall.”

Many hard-working, decent people kept the foundry, glass factory and mills going to produce useful goods. There were things to respect here, lives that weren’t all brutality.

My few minor complaints about the book are spoilers, but you can find them in the comments section.

A complete satisfying read. The author completely left the book open for a sequel but I hope it won’t be like The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

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Summary: A single mom falls in love with the married plastic surgeon who's treating her injured son. 


I was given a copy of this book by the publisher.


Oh. My. God. Emily Giffin gets it. Did I get kidnapped without knowing it and have my brain harvested for thoughts? I laughed, cried, winced at the truths in this book. If you haven’t yet read Emily Giffin, pick up this book, because this is the one book everyone will be talking about this summer. You’ll see it at the beach, on airplanes, coffee shops and in book clubs. I’m suggesting it to my book club and I know we will continue to discuss it long after we meet, because it’s so relevant, so true, so compelling.

The story, Heart of the Matter, is told from two points of view; Tessa, a mother who recently started staying home with her kids, and Valerie, a single working mother whose son Charlie is seriously injured in a freak accident. When Tessa’s husband Nick becomes the surgeon assigned to Charlie, Valerie cannot help being captivated by the man who will save her son.

From the very first chapter, Tessa’s restlessness and anxiety instill a sense of dread in the reader and I know something bad will happen. I had to read on, because I know just how Tessa feels.

“I still love having sex with my husband, as much as ever once we’re under way. It just so happens that I know prefer sleep to most everything else- chocolate, red wine, HBO, and sex.”

When Tessa’s 5-year-old is fussing in Target, in front of another mother and her docile daughter: “I flash a fake smile of my own, refraining her from telling her what I’m really thinking: that it’s an unwise karmic move to go around feeling superior to other mothers. Because before she knows it, her little angel could become a tattooed teenager hiding joints in her designer handbag and doling out blow jobs in the backseat of her BMW.”

Tessa’s life rung true for me, and will for thousands of stay-at-home moms. Tessa’s life is laugh out loud funny, and so apt. When Nick suggests bringing Oreos to school as the snack for the day, I wanted to reach through the pages to smack him myself.

Yet Valerie, as the other woman, won my heart. Valerie’s intense love for her child, her loneliness, her fragile hope, and Charlie’s brave struggle made me hug my own kids (and my husband) a little tighter.

Strangely enough, my book club is also reading “Free-Range Kids” where the author tells parents to relax, because statistically, it’s unlikely that anything really bad will happen to your child. So when I read about Charlie’s accident, I panicked internally. What if it were my kid? And God, I hope I never find out. Valerie’s helplessness, her anger, her relief at having competent surgeon Nick tell her that he can help, that he will help, makes their relationship not only probable, but plausible. How could you not fall in love with the person who helps heal your child?

The book ends in the best and worst way possible. I was absolutely satisfied with the way things had turned out and would have been just as pleased if things had been different.

Jodi Picoult denied that her books are formulaic in an interview, and I snorted with derision. What’s wonderful about Emily Giffin’s books is that even though she does focus on adultery (a painful subject) she writes such heartfelt, often sympathetic characters in a realistic and funny way. And the book is absolutely up-to-date, with Facebook etiquette dilemmas, and mommy one-upmanship, and preschool applications.

I mean, Giffin really gets it all – the boredom and competition of being a stay-at-home-mom, the anguish of being a single parent, the loneliness of being a working, adult female. Even as Nick, Tessa and Valerie make choices, heart-breaking, anguishing choices, Giffin writes so well, that each action and each character will relate to some part of you and you not only understand why they are doing it, you know that you would do it too. 

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth

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Summary: A vampire sworn to protect the President of the United States battles enemies, both foreign and domestic. 


I was given a copy of this book by the publisher.


At this moment, there are eight separate conspiracy groups plotting to destroy the U.S. government. And Nathaniel Cade, the President’s Vampire, is working against the non-humans who would bring us down. 

This book was awesome! From the very first page, when Zach Barrows, a self-titled “young Karl Rove,” is reassigned as the presidential liaison to the President’s Vampire, I read with accelerated heartbeat and eager anticipation. His new job: “Forget the War on Terror, Zach. This is the War on Horror. And you’ve just been drafted.” Cheese ball line, I know, but it totally works. 

Cade is a newly-formed vampire about to be executed when President Andrew Johnson pardons him. Johnson hired voodoo priestess Marie Laveau (yes, that Marie Laveau) to bind Cade to protect and serve whomever is the President of the United States. What a premise, and one that leaves me begging for the next in what I hope is a long series of books about the President’s Vampire. 

I love political thrillers and this has black ops, treason, betrayal and vampires. Books written by journalists always tend to be better written, because they know how to tell a story efficiently without falling in love with their own words. There is just enough plausibility about real threats that you almost wonder… “Could there really be…? Nah! Right? No!… But maybe…” 

The back of the book reads: Enough action to out-Bourne Jason Bourne and out-Bauer Jack Bauer. I loved most of the Jason Bourne books, and the movies as well. Never quite got into “24” but I know that Jack Bauer does torture. So I chuckled when Cade says with no irony, “The United States doesn’t torture.” 

There are some other bits of humor scattered throughout this action-packed political thriller. Certain lines will have you racing to Google and then laughing once you realize what it really means.

If you like any David Baldacci, any Brad Meltzer, any Dan Brown, any Tom Clancy, any James Rollins, you will devour this book. (Sorry, couldn’t resist a little vampire humor.)


My minor criticism:
As the monsters rampage through the White House, “Bits of human flesh and blood spread out over the wallpaper selected by Jackie Kennedy.” Poor Mrs. Kennedy. Don’t we have enough visions of her covered in the bits of human flesh and blood belonging to her husband? It was a gruesome reference that wouldn’t have been so distracting had it been any other first lady (with the exception of Mary Todd Lincoln, of course).

I could also see almost every scene in my head as I read along, so clear and descriptive was the writing. We could spend hours discussing the casting for when this is made into a movie – and I do hope it is made into a movie. Once you read it yourself, I hope you’ll chime in with your casting suggestions.

Bottom line: Sink your teeth into this one, with relish!

Schooled by Gordon Korman

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Summary: A home-schooled teenager raised by hippies is thrown into a modern-day middle school. Classic fish out of water story.


You need to be an adult to appreciate the humor of a 13-year old boy spouting off 60s commune propaganda. I giggled thru most of this novel. Capricorn Anderson was raised on a commune by his grandmother Rain.


“Rain always said that anger upsets the balance inside a person. So when you yell at somebody, you’re attacking yourself more than whoever it is you’re yelling at. Falling out of the tree must have made her forget this. Because when the nurses finally let me in to see her, she was screaming at the doctor at full volume. “I can’t do eight weeks of rehab! I can’t do eight days.” “


When Rain falls and breaks her hip, requiring eight weeks of rehab, a social worker invites Cap into her home and has Cap attend the local middle school. On the first day back, rising bully Zach Powers removes the L from the sign, reducing Claverage Middle School to a sign announcing C Average Middle School. Throwing a hippie into a modern day middle school is one of the most unique (and humorous) plot devices I’ve read. When Zach shows Cap his locker, Cap responds, “When we lock things away, we’re really imprisoning ourselves.”


The best part about this book was how true Cap remained to his values, despite the social pressure middle school has. It seems that peer shame contributes to a lot of middle school misery. Every year, the students select the nerdiest person to be elected school body president. This year, they select Cap and expect to mock him unknowingly all year. Since Cap is clueless, the kids enjoy making up impossible tasks for him, and watching him try to accomplish them. One running joke is that he has to learn all the names of the 1100 students in the middle school.


Yet Cap is charming and clueless as to how the real world works. Cap, honest as can be, is given a school checkbook to pay for the school dance. When asked for donations, he freely writes checks, because he doesn’t understand how a checking account works. “It was funny – a money-obsessed world was the main reason Rain had dropped out and formed Garland. Yet, in my experience, money was really excellent, and every time I spent it, someone ended up smiling.” Giving away this money makes Cap very popular, but it doesn’t affect his personality at all.


The sheep mentality of middle school becomes so great that when they don’t hear from Cap (he’s gone back home to Garland) his friends hold a memorial service for him. Cap missed his friends so much and never even got to say goodbye, that he decides to visit, right in the middle of his own memorial service, of course.


And during his memorial service, he says goodbye to every single student by name. Perfect scene.

The Council of Dads by Bruce Feiler

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Summary: Upon learning of his cancer diagnosis, Bruce Feiler creates a council of dads to mentor his soon-to-be-orphaned daughters.


I was given a copy of this book by the publisher.

"Take a walk for me."  

I cried at page 32. But the good kind of tears, where you remember the awe-inspiring moments of delivering your child and knowing you have a loving partner who has your back, for life. Though I’ve never met Bruce Feiler and his wife Linda, I wish that I could be a part of their lives.  

Bruce Feiler, the man who wrote “Walking the Bible,” is suddenly told he has a seven-inch tumor in his left femur.  

He will die.  

He panics about leaving his twin girls fatherless and so, with his wife, decides to create a “Council of Dads” to mentor his daughters and also serve as a testament (and memorial) to his life after he dies. As readers, we meet each member of the Council of Dads and Bruce reviews their shared history and also asks what each member can provide to his girls. Male friendship is so different from female friendship (and we recognize that Bruce is so lucky to have these men in his life) and their shared memories offer much-welcomed comic relief to a sad, but also uplifting true story. The true tragedy is that a man who made his living walking is now unable to do so.  

Interspersed with the intros are composites of actual e-mails that Bruce sent out, chronicling his diagnosis, treatment and progress. The e-mails are the best parts of the book - so full of raw honesty, joy in his silly daughters, aching with love for his wife, and always ending with, "Take a walk for me."  

I predict that this book will become a popular book club selection over the next three years, as both women and men analyze their past and current friendships and ask themselves, "What will my friend say my life meant?"  

Read this book. You don't want to miss it.

Replay by Ken Grimwood

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Summary: A journalist gets to repeat his life over and over again.


On the third week of October 1988, journalist Jeff Winston dies of a heart attack in the middle of a droning conversation with his wife and “wakes up” alive at age 19, back in his old college dorm room in 1963. He realizes he must now replay the next 25 years of his life. A few smart sporting wagers and 12 million dollars later, Jeff thinks he is set for life. Until he dies again on the same third week in October in 1988. And again and again and again.

As Jeff replays his lives, he encounters his wife Linda in many forms and many different ways. Jeff uses his journalist’s knowledge of major newsworthy events to make slight alterations in his favor and plays a major role in the Kennedy assassination, with surprising results. Careless conversation where Jeff inadvertently tells the future are giggle-inducing while the birth of Jeff’s daughter inspires Jeff lives out all the various permutations that readers would expect: successful financial decisions, sexual abandon and drug use, isolation in the woods, scientific exploration, meditation. Until one day in one of his lives, he meets Pamela, another replayer.

While this is a fantastical (yet philosophical) thriller, it is also a romance, as Jeff experiences the joy of being with someone who truly understands him.

Jeff and Pamela enjoy the rest of their lives together, until that same third week in October in 1988. They find each other again, though at different points and with different memories. Why are they replaying? Will it end? What’s the point of it all?

Replay is for anyone who has wondered about our purpose, our paths, our choices as humans. But it’s also great fiction. Easy to read, well-written and perfect for a book club as it will spark hours of “what if” conversation.