Ok folks, an oldie but a goodie. It all begins in arguably one of the greatest years of the 90's, 1994. "One for the Money" was published and thus began the blockbuster series staring Stephanie Plum. 

The last book we read for my now defunct book club at work was not one I ever would have picked out. Let me start out by saying that I am in no way biblically driven. The few times I've done more than peruse the bible were in church when the sermons were too dry to focus on. So when someone suggested The Red Tent, which is the story of Dinah who was little more than a footnote in the Book of Genesis, I was hesitant to say the least.

The first part of Anita Diamant's book was interesting but slow. Parts two and three of the book really picked up the pace and had me glued to the book. As I said, this book would not have ever been one that I would have chosen, so I am really glad that someone recommended it. I would have missed out on a great tale otherwise. As soon as I finished this book, I found my bible and read the Book of Genesis to see how the story compared. I was amazed to see that a novel this rich and detail oriented was spun from little more than two paragraphs.

I never finished this book. It started out so engaging, so truly interesting. Then halfway through part two, I was so bored I could not will myself to continue on. I almost never quit a book halfway through and was disappointed that it led to that.

Hands down, one of my favorite "chick lit" authors is Dorothy Koomson. The novels I've read of hers are evocative, and have several different layers to peel back. She doesn't focus on the character development of one central character, but several. The one thing I've found in common in the main characters of the three books of hers I've read is their aloofness resulting from being hurt, and their temerity in letting someone in to hurt them again.

I would be willing to bet that this novel will be the beginning in a series. It laid the groundwork for the story to continue by leaving some open endings. I look forward to what the author has in store for us!

The description on the back is rather misleading I would say. It focuses on promoting the mystery aspect of the novel, which wasn't the main theme throughout. The story was much more based in chick lit.

Daphne Uviller's debut novel "Super in the City" has taken inspiration from Sex and the City and focuses around four "Sterling Girls" living in New York City. They all have their place in the group and work to balance each other out. One does not make a move without the others knowing about it, and it has been that way since they were in Sterling Prep School.

While they aren't identical copies of the Sex and the City girls, but there are absolutely parallels. Lucy would be the equivalent of Charlotte. She is a hopeless romantic that defaces ten dollar bills with instructions to meet her at a quaint bookstore. Mercedes would be the Miranda of the group. A disciplined business woman, with a no nonsense view of love. Tag would be the Samantha of the group, having a love for high class parties, and being able to talk her way out of any situation. Zephyr would be Carrie, the one who never knows what the right decision is to make, she wears her heart on her sleeve.

The mystery plot line needed a lot of work. I think she could run with the Janet Evonovichs of the world with a bit of practice. I would have liked a bit more suspense, but I have a feeling that if she turns this into a series we will have a lot more suspense in the next installment.

If you like this try "One for the Money" by Janet Evanovich

Say what you want about Jodi Picoult's writing, but nobody can deny the woman knows how to write, and pulls out every stop she can to do her research and drive her point home. People have stopped me on the metro when I'm reading one of her books (side note: Please wait until someone's closed their book to interrupt them. You never know when they're at an integral part of the storyline.) and asked me if I'd recommend her, told me that they hated fiction, but she's the bridge that connects their non-fiction predilection to a foray in fiction. My least favorite thing about reading her in public is the people who like to point out that she's become predictable in her unpredictability. Really? Her books are known for courtroom spins to be sure but not all of them have it. Case in point? My favorite book of hers: Second Glance.

Ross Wakeman has merely existed for a couple of years now. Not by choice, as he's tried to end his existence for the same duration. When he lost his fiancée in a horrific car accident, going to help the other driver as Aimee appeared unhurt, he realized how wrong he was when he went to tend to her, only to find her already gone. Since then, he's become a ghost hunter. To no avail, but he won't stop searching for her. After finding out his boss is a fraud, Ross quits and heads to his sister's house in a town where a burial ground has been sold to a developer who plans a strip mall. Strange events begin occurring and Ross investigates. On the grounds, he meets a woman, Lia, who makes him feel for the first time in a long time.

Intersecting Ross' story, is the tale of Cissy Pike, a pregnant woman in the 1930s who's never felt as though she measures up to the ideals of her father and her husband Spencer, two eugenics professors who believe something very reminiscent of Hitler's one true race. Although Cissy doesn't feel absolute love for her husband, she does care about him and knows that he does love her, and that is reason enough for her to try to meet the standards which he expects.

There are so many things going on in this novel that it's hard to pick a favorite plot. Picoult has drawn parallels between today's stem cell research and compared it to the Eugenics projects of the 1930s. She's also told the love stories between a mother and a son, and a man who lost the love of his life and blames himself. Interwoven in this is a ghost story. I'm wrong, I've picked a favorite. The supernatural aspect was such an unexpected development in the plot but became such an integral part of pulling everything together. For those who say that her unexpected twists have become predictable, I'd have to say pick up Second Glance or Keeping Faith, or Change of Heart. While you're surely expecting a twist, you never know where the twists will be thrown in.

Have you ever locked yourself out of your apartment, on moving day, not once, but twice, after hours, on the weekend? If so, then you will be able to identify with this book. If not, then you will find the situation to be wildly amusing, and be thanking your lucky stars it didn't happen to you.

Sloane Crosley is comparable to Chelsea Handler in her ability to produce laughs. The essays she has in this book are hilarious, you won't soon forget them. In fact, I doubt you will have the ability to look at a plastic pony the same way again.

"I Was Told There'd Be Cake" opens with a story about plastic ponies. Sloane talks of the dread of dying suddenly and having her mother come to clean out her apartment and finding her secret stash. Her secret stash of ponies that is. The reason why she has all the ponies is quite funny, as is the way that she rids herself of the pony problem.

I loved the essay about her forays into volunteer work in the butterfly room of a museum. She ends up being scared of the creepy huge butterfly in the corner of the room, having nightmares about it, and quits. Unfortunately she accidentally takes one home with her on her shirt, so she ends up having to smuggle it back to the butterfly room, with fear of being prosecuted to the fullest extent.

The most shocking story is Smell This. Sloane has a dinner party for some friends, but when they all leave for the night and she goes into her bathroom she finds that one of them left a nasty present in the middle of the bathroom floor. What follows is her attempt at finding out who the perpetrator was, and not being all that successful in the process.

The book ends with Fever Faker. Sloane having always taken the healthy backseat to her sisters myriad of illnesses was psyched when she found out that she could have a chronic illness. The thought of finally getting some attention was worth the trips to the hospital! Things don't work out exactly as she has planned, and the story is a riot to read. An excellent ending to an excellent compilation of essays.

Survival for the sake of surviving. What is the point? I really find myself asking this question after reading this book.

Let me preface by saying that this book is not for the faint of heart. There are some downright gruesome pictures painted in this novel. It all adds greatly to the story, and is in no way gratuitous, but can at times be all together cringe inducing.

The story is about a nameless man and his son in a post apocalyptic world. The story never really reveals what caused the state of the world. There are glimpses of what it may have been, but ultimately the cause of mankind's demise is left up to the reader. While this can be frustrating, it mirrors our own unease as to how the world might end.

Once I started reading Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" I could not put it down. I read it in one day, cover to cover. There are no chapters, and the writing style almost feels like that of a personal journal. Passages are often short paragraphs and the entire novel is broken up into small blocks of time. I wasn't once bored with the novel. I found myself wanting to know more, wanting to know what was going to happen. I assumed that the man and boy would not survive. The author does leave room for hope in the end, although the situations never are, and never will be ideal.

I loved the struggle the boy has throughout the book with good vs. evil. He is always wondering at what point does he become the bad guy. Even though the entire time I was wanting to shout at him that he was a good guy, some of the things they had to do to survive, were nothing if not evil.

I also kept wondering why they didn't just end it. End the lifelong struggle. The boy was born post Apocalypse, having known nothing of the world before it ended. He father teaches him about carrying the fire, pushing on and not letting up on the drive to survive. I couldn't help but wonder what the struggle was worth. There was nothing to look forward to, no long term goals, nothing more than one moment after the next. To me, that is not a life, it is merely and existence.

Read this book. Then read it again.

Anyone who knows me personally can tell you that I am a bit of a weather enthusiast. I have been known to sit and watch the weather channel for hours on end. Yes I do realize that that is only acceptable behavior after the age of 80, but what can I say? My name is Holly, and I am a weather addict.

There is no doubt about the power of nature. When faced with some of mother natures biggest calamities you can forget trying to save yourself, and just kiss your butt goodbye. I find it all to be wildly exciting! Don't get me wrong, I have a very healthy fear of powerful weather. Just last fall we had a tornado warning and I heard the tell-tale freight train winds and grabbed the cats from under the bed and locked us all in the bathroom until the sirens stopped. You had better believe if a tornado is coming, I wont be standing around to see it.

While browsing the paperbacks in Barnes and Noble one evening, I saw this pip of a book. I grabbed it and ran for the checkout, knocking people over in my haste. I already know a lot about weather. I research weather events all the time on the Internet. I once was a Production Assistant on a Weather Channel commercial (talk about a dream come true!) and I grilled Mike Bettis the entire ride to and from the airport. I learned a lot about water spouts that day, I like to think that I impressed him with my knowledge as well. Naturally I wasn't sure if this book could teach me anything that I didn't already know.

Let me start out by saying that this book is quite funny. It approaches the mundane topic of weather from a really entertaining angle. At the same time it manages to teach about even complex topics in weather. I never cared about the jet stream until I read this book. Now I know exactly how it works and why. I have tried explaining my new found knowledge to others, yet fail miserably, as I cannot serve up the info with such finesse as the author does.

Tofu will never look the same again after reading this novel. That is because the author, Katrina Firlik, compares the consistency of brain matter to tofu.

Having been relatively healthy my entire life, I don't have much inside knowledge on the inner workings of a hospital. I thought this book would be an interesting way to find out more. It ended up being a charming memoir, that at times was quite gripping.

The novel is very well written, and was an absolute breeze to read. This took me by surprise, as it is a book about neurosurgery. An impressive first novel from the author, I eagerly await her next.

I don't know about you, but I find myself running to WebMD every time I have a headache, and then self diagnosing myself with some deadly ailment. I also love to watch the Discovery Health channel. Especially shows like "Mystery Diagnosis" or "Trauma: Life in the E.R.". It comes as no surprise that my favorite prime time drama is "Grey's Anatomy". It is absolutely fascinating to see these obscure medical cases, and how the doctors work to resolve them. People must trust their lives in their doctors hands. In the midst of a life changing medical crisis a patient must have faith in a total stranger.

This book gives a glimpse into the lives of surgeons. They are people just like you and me. Although what the patient is facing may be life altering for them, we find that more often than not, its not life altering for the doctors. It is purely their job. The decisions they make are with their heads, not their hearts. Part of becoming a doctor is learning how to keep their hearts from interfering with their heads, as we learn in this novel.

The author is very confident in her ability and skill within her field. She is one of less than 5000 neurosurgeons in the country, less than 5% of which are female. Although her confidence can be construed as cockiness at times, my general impression of her was in a positive light.

Whats it about?

Katrina Firlik is a talented and highly esteemed neurosurgeon. She writes this memoir of her time post-medical school. The tales span nearly a decade, covering her time as an intern, all the way to Chief Resident of Neurosurgery at a prestigious Connecticut Hospital. The novel is filled with cases she encountered, each one as interesting and amazing as the last. She also briefly covers the history of Neurosurgery as well as the future, which features "brainlifts". You have to read it to believe it!

It took at least a dozen fun sized bags of M&Ms as self bribery to get me to finish this book. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but the entire experience of reading it was very bittersweet. I managed to get through the bitter by snacking on some sweets.

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" is an epic novel. It should be at the top of every book lovers list of books to read. Hands down, one of the best stories I have ever read. The character development was astounding, by the end of the novel I had true insight into their motivations, not an easy task for any writer to accomplish. Filled with Dominican cultural references and Spanish ghetto slang, the book lends itself to authenticity in a way I have not seen before. Well paced, the story is divided up into multiple sections all focusing on one character, although the other characters do intersect in the stories. This method breaks up the monotony of a story from only one perspective. Each section ends on a suspenseful note leaving the reader wanting more.

What the reader does not want more of is footnotes. The one award this book hasn't won is the gold medal for longest footnotes known to man in a fictional novel. Really, its obscene. I approached the first footnote with good intentions of reading and learning from it. What I learned was not only the life history of Trujillo ( the tyrant ruler of the Dominican Republic), but that after a page and a half of microscopic typeface in the form of a footnote, I forget what the heck I was reading about to start with. Time to grab some M&Ms folks.

I don't know about you, but I elected to take French in High School. Little did I know that a decade later I would be kicking myself for not taking Spanish instead. I honestly believe that I missed out on some great lines in the book because I couldn't understand the dialogue which was at times, heavily peppered with Spanish slang.

I've never read a comic book, and I don't know anyone who has. I didn't care for Lord of the Rings, and I certainly didn't read the books. Oscar Wao did though, and he makes endless references to his geek culture. This book introduced me to "The Watchmen" as one of the greatest graphic novels of all time. Instead of the author making one reference to geek culture, he did what a geek would do, listed 4 or 5 references. I understand the intention, and it can be charming at times, but in the end its frustrating.

Keep in mind that some of the best novels of all time are real killers to read. It doesn't have to be a cakewalk to rock your world. This novel was worth the trouble, in fact, its flaws added to it as a whole. Buy this book, dig in, and keep reading even when those footnotes make you want to scream.

What's it about?

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" is about a Dominican ghetto nerd living in New Jersey. He is looking for his own epic love story, although it always seems to elude him. He dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien and writes with passion every chance he gets. Nobody in his family understands him, he has trouble even understanding himself. To make matters worse he is haunted by a Dominican curse on his family: the fuku. We find out all about the fuku and how it came to be placed upon his family, as well as how it is ultimately what makes Oscar Wao's life so wondrous, and so brief.

Every once in a while, there's a book that seems written for you. It speaks to you in a way books you love haven't. You don't just visualize the author's words, they leap off the page, and rather than watching the movie in your mind, you are living it. You feel the pain, the joy, the laughter. When the book is finished, you're more than disappointed. You feel invigorated, and you search eagerly through the author's books to see what, along the same vein, she has to offer. You search readers' recommendations to find the books that leave the same imprint on you. Inevitably, though the books satiate your appetite, they don't resonate in the same way. Welcome to Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants.

In the prologue, we're privy to a murder. We see it as Jacob sees it, and tries in vain to stop it. Though the victim and murderer aren't named, as we're introduced to them, it becomes clear in our mind who filled those roles.

Then we start from the beginning, in the midst of the Great Depression. Jacob is in class, during the final few weeks at Cornell preparing for his finals before he becomes a doctor of veterinary medicine.
In a moment, the Dean will enter and change his path. Jacob was to go home and set up shop with his father, working with the animals in his town. Instead, he goes home to identify the remains of his mother and father. He sees the sign his father added to their on-site practice: Jankowitz and Son Veterinary Practice. After identifying his family, he visits the lawyer, who tells him he has nothing. The bank owns the house and everything in it. The explanation as to why his parents mortgaged the house shatters him. He returns to school to finish his finals and finds that he can't.

Jacob flees and seeing a train pass, tries to jump aboard. Once on, he realizes it is a circus train. An old man, Camel, vouches for him and works to get him a job within.
As soon as the boss finds he is Ivy League educated, degree or no degree, he becomes the animal man. With such a prestigious job within, he straddles the division between the higher ups and performers, and the lower echelon who helped secure his place.

One performer in particular, Marlena, fascinates him. She reminds him physically of the girl he left behind at school, and emotionally captivates him. She matches his love of animals. Married to August, who has the boss' ear, she is off-limits, but a friendship develops anyway.

Later comes Rosie, an elephant pilfered from a circus that has gone defunct. Rosie suffers August's wrath many, many times. Jacob is stunned by her human like qualities. Understanding, pain, anger, empathy, happiness all emanate from her big brown eyes.

Following the story, I felt all of the emotions Rosie feels (except perhaps, the pain). Astonishment at the goings on to keep the circus running smoothly. The love Jacob develops for many people who help him in the course of creating a new life for himself, free of the memories surrounding his past. Sadness at the loss of animals, anger at the treatment of the animals and the red lighting of, as they're called today, carnies.

The characters came alive to me, as did the setting. As soon as I finished this book, I eagerly went to Sara Gruen's website to read excerpts of other novels she had written. While good, they didn't capture me the way this did. And I wanted more of this. So I went to Amazon's recommendations Disappointedly, I moved on to Barnes and Noble. No dice. So I tried the next best thing. Research. I wanted to read first hand accounts of the circus the way it was back then. The more I read, the more I craved.

Then, as though they knew my hunger, work offered me discounted tickets to the circus. I'm still debating. On the one hand, it's the circus. Elephants that feel things like people do! Horses that synchronize! How can I say no? On the other hand, it's not the 1920s. It's almost 100 years later. What if it's not the same? I mean true, we're in the middle of a depression (point 4 of pros: It's almost the same!). But people are categorically different than they were then. Theoretically, this extends to performers as well right?

But alas, I have chosen to forego the circus at this moment, because I fear, like the recommendations of Barnes and Noble and Amazon, it may fall short. So I will hold onto the satisfaction this book gave me, and the hunger for more of the same. Hopefully, there will be another book that catches my attention like this one. And soon.

• Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - Richard P. Feynman
• Stiff - Mary Roach
• Cows Pigs Wars and Witches - Marvin Harris
  
• Stephanie Plum Series - Janet Evanovich
• Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea - Chelsea Handler
• The Rain Before It Falls - Jonathan Coe
• the list could go on for days...