The Magic Room

The Magic Room: A Story About The Love We Wish For Our Daughters, by Jeffrey Zaslow. When I first drove up to Becker's Bridal, I was aware only that the store was a popular stop for brides-to-be from central Michigan. I didn't know its history. I knew nothing about the family...

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The Lake of Dreams

The Lake of Dreams, by Kim Edwards. My name is Lucy Jarrett, and before I knew about the girl in the window, before I went home and stumbled on the fragments and began to piece the story back together, I found myself living in a village near the sea in Japan. It had been a...

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Restoration

Restoration, by Olaf Olafsson. Later, when she lay in the clinic at San Martino, listening to the cicada singing outside the window and watching Melchiorre's shadow by the door, it occurred to her that she had begun to change that evening. It took a long time; there was more...

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The World We Found

The World We Found, by Thrity Umrigar. She made a face. "I was the ugly duckling of the group, I'm afraid." "Are you kidding me? My God, Mom, you're still beautiful. Jeez, have you seen how Dad looks at you, still? Like he - like he could just inhale you or something." Diane...

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The Best of Me

The Best of Me, by Nicholas Sparks. Neither one of them was able to move or speak as surprise gradually turned to recognition. Dawson's first thought was how much more vivid she was in person than in his memories of her. Her blond hair caught the late afternoon light like burnished...

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1 Dead in Attic

1 Dead in Attic, by Chris Rose. This is no environment for a wuss like me. We reporters go to other places to cover wars and disasters and pestilence and famine. There's no manual to tell you how to do this when it's your own city. And I'm telling you: it's hard. It's hard...

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Lost in Time

Lost in Time, by Melissa de la Cruz. Oliver took a series of naps, but since time was no longer a factor, it was difficult to tell how he was supposed to feel. Was he hungry? He'd had an enormous breakfast, but the transition from the glom had taken a lot out of him. Did they...

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The Mother Daughter Show

The Mother Daughter Show, by Natalie Wexler. Besides, the show was for Grace, a gift for her, a gesture of love. Because she really did love Grace, she positively ached with love for her, and lately - the last several years, really - it had been hard to figure out how to show...

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The Litigators

The Litigators, by John Grisham. The law firm of Finley & Figg referred to itself as a "boutique firm." This misnomer was inserted as often as possible into routine conversations, and it even appeared in print in some of the various schemes hatched by the partners to solicit...

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The Leftovers

The Leftovers, by Tom Perrotta. They hunkered down for a couple of weeks, just the four of them, watching DVDs and playing board games, anything to distract themselves from the hysterical monotony of the TV news - the obsessive repetition of the same few basic facts, the ever-rising...

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The Night Circus

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The towering tents...

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She Can Run

She Can Run, by Melinda Leigh. He'd known her casually for a long time. Why hadn't he noticed how pretty she was before? Not beuatiful, just wholesome and fresh-faced. He handed her a twenty. "You look nice this morning." Dropping hear head shyly, she blushed and handed over...

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Narrows Gate

Narrows Gate, by Jim Fusilli. Still stunned and confused, Benno was struck by the weighty silence in the apartment. He could've used some noise to block his thoughts. Every week there were funerals at St. Francis. You heard the bells in the classroom, you could smell the incense,...

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In Her Sights

In Her Sights, by Robin Perini. The trigger felt right. The sight was zeroed in, the balance perfect. The Remington 700/40 fit her body and her mind like an old friend she could trust, and Jasmine "Jazz" Parker didn't trust easily. But she and the rifle were connected in a...

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The Return of Jonah Gray

The Return of Jonah Gray, by Heather Cochran. So people sometimes tried to avoid me. Sure, I might have wished it was different, but I was an excellent auditor. Not everyone could do my job. Not everyone could build lives atop quantitative foundations or look beyond numbers...

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Bumped

Bumped, by Megan McCafferty. I check once more for anyone I know, then blind my MiNet with a blink-left-right-left-wink-double-blink. The song is wrapping up - You're the most important person on the plaaaanet ... Babiez R U!" when I'm startled out of my reverie by the sound...

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The Island

The Island, by Elin Hilderbrand. After college, Chess moved to New York City. She got a job in the advertising department at Glamourous Home; then she was promoted to editorial, where they could make better use of her talents. She indulged her lifelong love of cooking by attending the French Culinary Institute on the weekends and learning the proper...

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Twenty Boy Summer

Twenty Boy Summer, by Sarah Ockler. When someone you love dies, people ask you how you're doing, but they don't really want to know. They seek affirmation that you're okay, that you appreciate their concern, that life goes on and so can they. Secretly they wonder when the statute of limitations on asking expires (it's three months, by the way. Written...

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The Weight of Silence

The Weight of Silence, by Heather Gudenkauf. When Antonia laughed, those around here did too, except for Calli. Calli hadn't laughed for a long time. She smiled her sweet, close-lipped grin, but an actual giggle, which once was emitted freely and sounded of chimes, never came, though she knew her mother waited expectantly. This novel was excellent,...

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Fixing Delilah

Fixing Delilah, by Sarah Ockler. The maples near the porch shake their rustling green heads in the breeze, but Mom and Aunt Rachel don't notice. They just stare at each other, standing here in the middle of things with their arms dangling and the screen door half-open, the same blood flowing through their veins and a thousand pounds of unspoken words...

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Delirium

Delirium, by Lauren Oliver. I comfort myself by thinking that in less than two months this will seem like nothing to me. All of it will fall away and I'll rise up new and free, like a bird winging up into air. That's what Hana doesn't understand, has never understood. For some of us it's about more than the deliria. Some of us, the lucky ones, will...

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I Don't Know How She Does It

I Don't Know How She Does It, by Allison Pearson. Monday, 1:37 A.M. How did I get here? Can someone please tell me that? Not in this kitchen, I mean in this life. It is the morning of the school carol concert and I am hitting mince pies. No, let us be quite clear about this, I am distressing mince pies, an altogether more demanding and subtle process. Discarding...

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Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness

Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness, by Dominique Browning. At the start of this journey, all I could think about was loss: lost work, my children who had left home; my house slipping from my grasp; my parents slipping into their last years. Lost love, on top of it all, because I was finally forced to confront the...

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Sisterhood Everlasting

Sisterhood Everlasting, by Ann Brashares. Once upon a time there were four pregnant women who met in an aerobics gym. I'm not joking; that's how this story begins. These large, fit, sweatband-sporting women bore four daughters, all born in and around the month of September. These girls started out as babies together and grew to be girls and then women....

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Divergent

Divergent, by Veronica Roth. "Every faction conditions its members to think and act a certain way. And most people do it. For most people, it's not hard to learn, to find a pattern of thought that works and stay that way." She touches my uninjured shoulder and smiles. "But our minds move in a dozen different directions. We can't be confined to one...

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The Art of Forgetting

The Art of Forgetting, by Camille Noe Pagán. She paused, then added, "In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that i don't trust myself to not be jealous if the two of you are together. Who knows that that could do to our relationship." The picture, out of focus for the past two weeks, was suddenly crisp and clear. It didn't matter if Julia...

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Interview with Susan McBride, author of "Little Black Dress"

Susan McBride is the author of Little Black Dress (click here for my review) and I was able to interview her via email recently. How did you start writing, and who are some of your favorite authors? Susan McBride (from the author's site) I’ve been writing since I was...

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Interview with Georgia Bockoven, author of "The Year Everything Changed"

Georgia Bockoven's newest book is The Year Everything Changed (click here for my review) and I was able to interview her via email. How did you decide to start writing novels, and how long have you been writing? I saw on Amazon that you mostly write romance novels...

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Little Black Dress

Little Black Dress, by Susan McBride. I never meant to resurrect the dress. I had intended for it to remain out of reach so that there would be no more meddling. But I awoke before dawn with tears in my eyes after another strange dream bout Anna, and I knew I had to find it. From the press release: "Antonia "Toni" Ashton has worked hard to build...

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The Year Everything Changed

The Year Everything Changed, by Georgia Bockoven. Lucy took the paper. Fifteen years ago Jessie found his oldest daughter living in Fresno and called her. She'd refused to have anything to do with him. She told him she would get a restraining order if he ever tried to see her. His letters were returned unopened. After a year he stopped trying. When...

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