Pieces of Happily Ever After by Irene Zutell

8/10 - I really enjoyed this light read. It was like getting the inside scoop about some story that's flying around the tabloids. Even with it's Hollywood setting and some off the wall characters, I found it believeable. It even had a nice little moral thrown in there about judging other people. This would be a perfect vacation book.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

8/10 - Fascinating premise for this story, following an ancient book through it's travels through Jewish history. I liked how many of the people who handled and cared for the book were not Jewish. It reminded me a little of The Historian. You got to travel to many different times and places in the world. It's a book meant to savor and not rip through, but on that same note it can move a little slow. The narrator is adequate, but strikes me as someone who belongs better is a CSI lab.

Lottery by Patricia Wood

9/10 - I really enjoyed this Forest Gumpesque novel about a "cognitively challenged" man who wins the Washington States Lottery. The bad characters were a little overly bad, but the good characters were spot on I thought. You can't help but like the main character Perry who is wise beyond his IQ score of 76. The ending was very satisfying for me in that wrap it all together kind of way.

~To Be Read~

Here's my "to be read" list, in no particular order. I will update as I read them, or add on. I have reduced the list to include only books that I currently have on my shelves. If you'd like to see books I'm "wishing" for you can consult my library on librarything.com, see "Links".

Triangle by Katharine Weber
Cherry by Mary Karr
What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Notes on a Scandal (What Was She Thinking?) by Zoe Heller
The Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
Monkeewrench by P.J. Tracy
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Singing Songs by Meg Tilly
The Sunday List of Dreams by Kris Radish
Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf
The Problem with Murmur Lee by Connie May Fowler
The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard
The Breakdown Lane by Jaquelyn Mitchard
The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
After This by Alice McDermott
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Widow for One Year by John Irving
Some Things That Stay by Sarah Willis
Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore
Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
Silent in the Grave by Deanne Raybourn
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
Everything Changes by Jonathon Tropper
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
The Surrogate by Judith Henry Wall
You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen
Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
Bliss by O.Z. Livanelli
Any Bitter Thing by Monica Wood
The Girls by Lori Lansens
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow
Traveler by Ron McLarty
The Mummy by Anne Rice
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
The Ha-Ha by David King
The Reader by Bernard Schlink
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathon Tropper
Last Seen Leaving by Kelly Braffet
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens
The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
A Piece of Normal by Sandi Kahn Shelton
Thank You for All Things by Sandra Kring
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Mean Girls by Hayley Dimarco
Bufflehead Sisters by Patricia Delois
By Bread Alone by Sarah-Kate Lynch
Marley and Me by John Grogan
Self Storage by Gayle Brandeis
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Thank You for All Things by Sandra Kring
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen
The Department of Lost and Found by Allison Winn Scotch
Oxygen by Carol Cassella
Blind Submission by Debra Ginsberg
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
How to Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward

Children of God Go Bowling by Shannon Olson

7/10 - Fairly entertaining, would be more so if I had spent more time single. Singleness and therapy are the main topics here. Olson sprinkles in enough funnies to keep you entertained, and you can glean a little wisdom through her therapy too. Nothing spectacular.

Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde

9/10 - This book would definitely fit into my warm fuzzy stories category. Okay, it can cross the touchy feely line occasionally, but not to the point where it's over the top. It's not Lorna Landvik (whom I love anyway). I really loved Pearl, because I've seen her before. I'm an L&D nurse and I've met this rough, scared little girl. Great a typical characters, and the story has a really good flow. Besides, who wouldn't love Leonard.

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich

8/10 - Boy Evanovich really knows how to string you along. Just when things really start to heat up, boom, game over. So I'm forced to wait until the next book. I'm really liking these, although I definitely couldn't read them back to back.