Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

From Publishers Weekly:
This unique first-person account offers a window into the mind of a high-functioning, 27-year-old British autistic savant with Asperger's syndrome. Tammet's ability to think abstractly, deviate from routine, and empathize, interact and communicate with others is impaired, yet he's capable of incredible feats of memorization and mental calculation. Besides being able to effortlessly multiply and divide huge sums in his head with the speed and accuracy of a computer, Tammet, the subject of the 2005 documentary Brainman, learned Icelandic in a single week and recited the number pi up to the 22,514th digit, breaking the European record. He also experiences synesthesia, an unusual neurological syndrome that enables him to experience numbers and words as "shapes, colors, textures and motions." Tammet traces his life from a frustrating, withdrawn childhood and adolescence to his adult achievements, which include teaching in Lithuania, achieving financial independence with an educational Web site and sustaining a long-term romantic relationship. As one of only about 50 people living today with synesthesia and autism, Tammet's condition is intriguing to researchers; his ability to express himself clearly and with a surprisingly engaging tone (given his symptoms) makes for an account that will intrigue others as well. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Free Press (January 9, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416535071
ISBN-13: 978-1416535072

Customer Review: 4/5

Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

My Review:
Kate Klein, a former newswriter and city girl finds herself living in an upscale Conneticut suburban with three children and where she never quite feels like she fits in. Then one day Kitty Cavanaugh, a member of the "perfect mothers" clan, invites Kate for lunch. But when she arrives, she discovers Kitty's murdered body on the kitchen floor and the phone number of Evan McKenna, her long lost love on Kitty's counter.
Her newswriter instincts kick in and before she knows it, she's enlisted her best friend Janie Segal and relunctantly Evan, to help her ask questions and try to find out who killed Kitty and why. In the process she learns a few "not so perfect" things about her neighbors.
Jennifer Weiner has managed to write a lighthearted and at times, humorous murder mystery. She has the different angles and perspectives just right so that it's nearly impossible to guess the outcome!

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Atria (September 20, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743470117
ISBN-13: 978-0743470117

My Rating: 5/5
I enjoyed every minute I spent reading this book.

Customer Review: 3/5

The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier

Oprah's Book Club Selection

Book Description:
"I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I’ve suddenly come up with the answers to all life’s questions. Quite that contrary, I began this book as an exploration, an exercise in self-questing. In other words, I wanted to find out, as I looked back at a long and complicated life, with many twists and turns, how well I’ve done at measuring up to the values I myself have set."
--Sidney Poitier

In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure -- as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor.

Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of self-worth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. "In the kind of place where I grew up," recalls Poitier, "what’s coming at you is the sound of the sea and the smell of the wind and momma’s voice and the voice of your dad and the craziness of your brothers and sisters … and that’s it." Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life.

Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career. Committed to the notion that what one does for a living articulates to who one is, Poitier played only forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition.

Here is Poitier’s own introspective look at what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, price and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity. What emerges is a picture of a man in the face of limits – his own and the world’s. A triumph of the spirit, The Measure of a Man captures the essential Poitier.

Paperback
Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco (January 26, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061357901
ISBN-13: 978-0061357909

Customer Review: 5/5

Exile: A Novel by Richard North Patterson

From Publishers Weekly:
Bestseller Patterson's new thriller with its focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been overtaken by events (there's no mention of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 or the recent fighting across the Lebanese border), but the underlying political issues may be enough for most readers to put the real world aside and suspend disbelief. Harvard-trained attorney David Wolfe, a San Franciscan on the verge of a congressional campaign, has his plans derailed when his law school classmate (and one-time lover), Palestinian Hana Arif, asks him to defend her from charges that she led a conspiracy that assassinated dovish Israeli leader Amos Ben-Aron. Inspired by idealism and lingering passion, Wolfe jeopardizes his political future by taking the case. His suspicion that the suicide bombers who attacked Ben-Aron were aided by a security breach leads him to Israel and Lebanon. While Patterson (Conviction) attempts to portray the issues fairly, the introduction of a soap-operaish subplot undercuts his intended high purpose, and the resolution of the mystery is too predictable to surprise. 10-city author tour. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hardcover: 576 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (January 9, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805079475
ISBN-13: 978-0805079470

Customer Review: 4.5/5

The Freedom Writers Diary by The Freedom Writers, Erin Gruwell

Book Description:
Shocked by the teenage violence she witnessed during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Erin Gruwell became a teacher at a high school rampant with hostility and racial intolerance. For many of these students–whose ranks included substance abusers, gang members, the homeless, and victims of abuse–Gruwell was the first person to treat them with dignity, to believe in their potential and help them see it themselves. Soon, their loyalty towards their teacher and burning enthusiasm to help end violence and intolerance became a force of its own. Inspired by reading The Diary of Anne Frank and meeting Zlata Filipovic (the eleven-year old girl who wrote of her life in Sarajevo during the civil war), the students began a joint diary of their inner-city upbringings. Told through anonymous entries to protect their identities and allow for complete candor, The Freedom Writers Diary is filled with astounding vignettes from 150 students who, like civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders, heard society tell them where to go–and refused to listen.

Proceeds from this book benefit the Freedom Writers Foundation, an organization set up to provide scholarships for underprivieged youth and to train teachers

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Broadway; Mti edition (December 12, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0767924908
ISBN-13: 978-0767924900

Customer Review: 4/5

Point Blank (FBI Thriller (G.P. Putnam's Sons) by Catherine Coulter

From Publishers Weekly:
Coulter's new thriller romance (Blowout, etc.) opens with Ruth Warnecki lost in a cave in rural Virginia while fellow (married) FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock are hot on the tail of a psychotic dirty old man (Moses Grace) and his flirtatious teenage partner (Claudia), who've kidnapped a smalltime comedian. Coulter fans know if they suspend belief—really suspend belief—she'll deliver page-turners filled with good guys battling bad guys as well as enjoying domestic tranquility. After Ruth makes it out of the cave, she's cared for by Dixon Noble, the local sheriff and ex-New Yorker with two kids and a missing wife; then Ruth and the gang return to the cave to discover the body of a murdered music student. Lacey and Dillon consult MAX the miracle computer about Moses while Dix introduces Ruth to his domineering father-in-law, Chappy, and musician Gordon, Chappy's geriatric lech of a brother. Coulter alternates between the search for the student's killer and the hunt for Moses, cases tied together only by the FBI agents solving them and the theme of criminally insane grumpy old men. Coulter continues to prove more convincing describing virtue than vice, which means that sympathetic characters and happy endings take precedence over serious detective work. (On sale Aug. 23)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Hardcover: 432 pages
ISBN-10: 0399153225
ASIN: B000F5ZH8A

Customer Review: 3/5

A Princess Primer by Stephanie True Peters

Book Description:
For ages the fairy godmother has helped make young girls’ dreams come true. Now, for the first time, she reveals her closely guarded secrets in one wondrous volume. Everything a girl needs to know about being a princess is presented in this facsimile of the fairy godmother’s personal journal, from how to wear a sparkling tiara and choose a fancy gown to what to expect at a royal ball and how to recognize a true prince. In addition to her advice and tips, the fairy godmother offers stories and personal reminiscences, all illustrated with breathtaking paintings of rich landscapes, marvelous castle interiors, and princesses from around the world. This is an incomparable gift for girls who dream of having a little fairy godmother magic in their lives.

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (September 21, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0525477659
ISBN-13: 978-0525477655

Customer Review: 3.5/5

The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene

Book Description:
From the bestselling author of Get With the Program! and Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover comes The Best Life Diet, a lifetime plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Bob Greene helped Oprah achieve her dramatic weight loss, and he can help you too. You'll eat the same delicious food that Oprah enjoys, and, just like Oprah, you'll have Bob to encourage you at every step. Unlike a celebrity, however, you don't need to hire a staff of experts to aid and advise you, because Bob's plan, easily tailored to an array of tastes, lifestyles, and activity levels, acts as your personal trainer and private nutritionist. Just open the book and let Bob help you get started down the path toward your best possible life.

What sets Bob apart from all the other experts who claim to have plans that work is that he admits that weight loss is difficult: seventeen years of watching people struggle to lose weight on a seemingly endless string of trendy crash diets, only to backslide and regain the pounds they've shed, have taught him that dropping pounds is not simply a numbers game. By acknowledging that it is not simple laziness but a complicated web of social rituals, cultural expectations, and habits that drives people to gain weight, Greene is able to attack the problem of weight loss realistically and offer not a short-lived, quick-fix formula, but a long-term program that accounts for the challenges and constraints of the real world.

Divided into three phases, The Best Life Diet gives you the tools you need to change your life. In each phase, you'll be asked to reexamine the decisions you make on a daily basis and gradually alter your habits to achieve lasting results. The book also includes easy-to-follow meal plans that make it simple to meet your daily energy and nutrient requirements, whether you are on the run and breakfast means a quick smoothie or you have time to shop for fresh produce and make something special.

You'll watch the weight disappear as you learn to prepare festive and flavorful dishes like Fire-Roasted Tomato-Shrimp Veracruz, Chicken Sausage Jambalaya, or Flank Steak with Chimichurri Topping and indulge in desserts like Roasted Peaches with Ricotta and Almonds or Apple Rhubarb Walnut Crisp. And for each delicious recipe, there is a detailed nutritional analysis, so you know exactly what you are eating and how it fits into your personal eating plan.

Most important, Bob's plan doesn't end once you've lost the weight. Instead, it gives you the tools you need to make living your best life second nature, because for Greene, a diet is not something you go "on" or "off" but a set of guidelines that will help you claim the life you deserve.

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 26, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416540660
ISBN-13: 978-1416540663

Customer Review: 3.5/5

Plum Lovin' (A Stephanie Plum Novel) by Janet Evanovich

From Publishers Weekly:
In this tart and hilarious "between-the-numbers" Stephanie Plum novel from bestseller Evanovich (Twelve Sharp), the Jersey bond enforcement agent, who already has two guys in her life (cop Joe Morelli and bounty hunter Ranger), reconnects with Diesel, a third heartthrob. Diesel offers Stephanie a deal: if he lets her find Annie Hart, a relationship coach who's become a big-ticket bond on Stephanie's Most Wanted List after fleeing a charge for a robbery she didn't commit, then Stephanie can do Annie a big favor by playing Cupid for a number of Annie's lovelorn clients, including a shy butcher, a desperate vet, an overworked single mom, a 30-something virgin and the marriage-phobic fellow who just happens to be Stephanie's pregnant sister's boyfriend. Diesel and Stephanie's short but sweet adventure ends on a teasing note that will leave fans hungry for the next juicy Plum-a-thon. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (January 9, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312306342
ISBN-13: 978-0312306342

Customer Review: 3.5/5

Charlotte's Web

From Publishers Weekly:
E.B. White's enduring classic celebrates in style with the release of the Charlotte's Web 5oth Anniversary Retrospective Edition. The handsome volume sports a clothbound cover framing original jacket art; inside, Rosemary Wells adds country color to Garth Williams's original b&w illustrations. An afterword by Peter F. Neumeyer illuminates White's life and work, including photographs of the author on his farm in Maine as well as pages from the seminal manuscript.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins; Reissue edition (October 15, 1952)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060263857
ISBN-13: 978-0060263850

Customer Review: 4.5/5

The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage by Dr. Laura Schlessinger

Book Description:

In the long-awaited follow-up to her groundbreaking, million-copy bestseller The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, Dr. Laura now focuses on how men and women need to understand and appreciate the uniqueness of masculinity and femininity; what the best ways to relate, caretake, and nurture each other are; and how to bring a marriage back from the brink of disaster.

Dr. Laura asserts that in order to produce and sustain a wonderfully satisfying marriage, spouses must recognize and appreciate the polarity between the masculine and the feminine. Both husband and wife have power in the relationship, and each needs to realize this in order to ensure personal satisfaction. Using real-life examples from her call-in radio show, and giving real-life solutions, Dr. Laura focuses on the typical mistakes made by men and women in their relationships and shows how marriages can not only survive but thrive.

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (January 2, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061142840
ISBN-13: 978-0061142840

Customer Review: 4/5

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Nora Ephron is funny. She has the credentials to prove it: 12 screenplays, including three nominated for Academy Awards; Heartburn, the story (with recipes) of the disintegration of her second marriage; and five collections of essays.

I Feel Bad About My Neck, her newest collection, is subtitled "And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman," though it might more accurately be called "A Measure of One Woman's Life." A certain melancholy pervades the humor here. The book opens with the title essay about aging and concludes with a rumination about death called "Considering the Alternative." Between are essays about books treasured along the way, thoughts "On Maintenance" (bodily upkeep), the stages of parenting, a timeline of beloved cookbooks, cabbage strudel, her love affair with an apartment and "The Story of My Life in 3,500 Words or Less."

There's more, but basically this is a kind of retrospective -- wry and amusing, as you'd expect, but also a bit strained and sad. It's a condensation of a life graced with privilege, which can make empathizing with Ephron a bit difficult. We all end up too aware of our own deterioration, but we don't all have our hair done twice a week or have our unwanted facial fuzz "threaded" by a woman who uses "a fantastic and thrilling method of hair removal she had learned in Russia." Then there are the three hours every six weeks spent having "four tiny, virtually invisible blondish streaks" added to her hair (which has already had the gray covered over), the weekly manicures and regular pedicures, and vast amounts of skin cream and bath oil. It's all brave (and funny) to talk about -- but odd, because if you've spent all that time and money trying to look younger and better, doesn't it make more sense not to tell anybody you've done it so they can think you just naturally look young and good? And then there's the time and the money. As far as money is concerned, she's earned it, no question about that -- but the specifics of what she's writing about, here and in other essays in the collection, are much less than universal. There are worlds where having your facial hair regularly threaded is as affordable as the judicious use of a pair of tweezers, but that choice is a luxury many women don't have.

Most women will love the essay about her purse. She may "feel bad" about her neck, but she "hates" her purse. She's writing here for women "who understand that their purses are reflections of negligent housekeeping, hopeless disorganization, a chronic inability to throw anything away" and who aren't wildly successful at changing -- at the right time -- from a winter purse to a summer one. Her list of permanent purse contents includes loose Tic-Tacs, lipsticks with no covers, leaky ballpoint pens and crumpled tissues that might have been used but equally well might not have been -- who can tell?

There's a lot of interesting advice in a chapter called "What I Wish I'd Known." She tells us that "the last four years of psychoanalysis are a waste of money," but she doesn't say how you know when the last four years begin. I like "If the shoe doesn't fit in the shoe store, it's never going to fit": So many things could be substituted for shoes in exactly the same sense. She tells us that "The plane is not going to crash," but later she notes "Overinsure everything." The essay's last words: "There are no secrets."

"The Story of My Life in 3,500 Words or Less" is a marvelous compilation of high and low points and moments of great clarity and learning. Under "What my mother said," there is "Everything is copy." This is a lesson the daughter learned well, as her ex-husbands would agree.

Despite the elegiac tone of this collection, it would be nice to think that we'll have Nora Ephron around for a long time. She's always good for an amusing line, a wry smile, and sometimes an abashed grin of recognition as she homes in on one of our own dubious obsessions.

"Goodbye" may be her final word in this uneven book, but with any luck, it'll turn out that she doesn't mean it.

Reviewed by Bunny Crumpacker
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Knopf (August 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307264556
ISBN-13: 978-0307264558

Customer Review: 4/5

The Hunters by W.E.B. Griffin

From Publishers Weekly:
Bestseller Griffin's ponderous third Presidential Agent novel picks up where the previous entry, The Hostage, left off, following U.S. Army Maj. Carlos "Charley" Castillo, a troubleshooter who takes orders directly from the president, as he fumbles about in South America and Europe. Castillo and his crew of specialists are trying to figure out who ordered the murder of American diplomat Jean-Paul Lorimer, who was shot to death in Uruguay while under suspicion of various international misdeeds, including a shady food-for-oil conspiracy in Iraq. Long stretches of dialogue and description come across more as showcases for Griffin's knowledge than as solid narrative, while Castillo and his cohorts never rise beyond their assigned roles. Fans will miss the more captivating heroes of Griffin's Brotherhood of War or the Corps series. Author tour. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult (January 2, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399153799
ISBN-13: 978-0399153792

Customer Review: 4.5/5

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

My Review:
Penelope Keeling, an aging mother and widow, suffers a minor heart attack and finds herself at the mercy of her oldest daughter Nancy's meddling concerns, and her youngest son Noel's greed. But she finds refuge in her middle child Olivia and in her memories, good and bad.

Nancy and Noel discover through an advertisement in the newspaper that one of their grandfather's paintings are being sold at auction and are worth a great deal of money. They try to persuade Penelope to part with some of her father's "lesser" paintings and hope she will be generous with the earnings from the sale. But Penelope is on to them and isn't so sure she's willing to part with the artwork, and definitely not her favorite painting called The Shell Seekers.
Throughout the story, the reader is treated to chapters focused on different characters, some taking us back to pre-WWII, other's after and still other's in more recent years and of course, the present. The history and stories that unfolds makes The Shell Seekers one of those rare books that keep the reader captivated and invoke the reader to feel for the characters.

My Rating: 5/5

Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Gramercy (April 6, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 051722285X
ISBN-13: 978-0517222850

Customer Review: 4.5/5

Shadow Dance: A Novel by Julie Garwood

Book Description:
Jordan Buchanan is thrilled that her brother and best friend are tying the knot. The wedding is a lavish affair–for the marriage of Dylan Buchanan and Kate MacKenna is no ordinary occasion. It represents the joining of two family dynasties. The ceremony and reception proceed without a hitch–until a crasher appears claiming to be a MacKenna guest. The disheveled and eccentric professor of medieval history warns that there’s “bad blood” between the couple’s clans, stemming from an ancient feud that originated in Scotland, and involving the Buchanan theft of a coveted MacKenna treasure.

Jordan has always led a cautious life and has used her intelligence and reason to become a successful businesswoman. So she is intrigued but skeptical of the professor’s claims that the feud has been kept alive by the grave injustices the Buchanans have perpetrated over the centuries. But when Noah Clayborne, a close family friend and a man who has never let a good time or a pretty girl pass him by, accuses Jordan of being trapped in her comfort zone, she determines to prove him wrong and sets out on a spontaneous adventure to the small, dusty town of Serenity, Texas, to judge the professor’s research for herself.

Maneuvering through a close-knit community in which everyone knows everyone else’s business, Jordan never anticipates the danger and intrigue that lie in her path, nor the threat that will shadow her back to Boston, where even in familiar surroundings, her life is at risk.

A powerful thug who rules by fear, a man who harbors a simmering secret, and an unexpected romance that pierces all defenses–beloved author Julie Garwood weaves these dazzling elements into a brilliant novel of romantic suspense. Shadow Dance is a searing tango of passion and peril.

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (December 26, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345453867
ISBN-13: 978-0345453860

Customer Review: 4/5

Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier

Amazon.com:
Fans of the National Geographic Channel's The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan will be grateful for Cesar's Way, an accessible guide to help new and current dog owners better understand the needs of their beloved pets. If you are not yet a fan, try to catch a couple of episodes of the remarkable show--you will be amazed, impressed, and motivated to create a healthier, more fulfilling relationship with your dog. In Cesar's Way, Cesar explains that dogs are not complicated, and despite what various owners think--not human. They rely on three key elements in their lives: exercise, discipline, and affection (in that order). "Problem dogs" can be attributed to "problem owners," owners who don't understand and misinterpret their dog's behavior. Cesar's Way is really a training program for dog owners, with chapters devoted to understanding the "power of the pack," taking responsibility for "how we screw up our dogs," and learning how to manage aggression. Cesar's book (a must-have for new and old dog owners) moves beyond basic obedience school techniques, and teaches owners how to change unwanted behavior by better understanding their "best friends." --Daphne Durham

Hardcover: 234 pages
Publisher: Harmony; RAO edition (April 4, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307337332
ISBN-13: 978-0307337337

Customer Review: 4/5

Fairyopolis: A Flower Faries Journal by Cicely Mary Barker

Book Description:
Do you believe in fairies? Protected and hidden by a society of Fairy lovers for over 80 years the secret fairy journal of Cicely Mary Barker is available for the first time ever to the public. Learn what really happened during that magical Summer of 1920 when Cicely Mary Barker discovered the secret world of the Flower Fairies.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Warne (October 20, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0723257248
ISBN-13: 978-0723257240

Customer Review: 4.5/5

Gone by Lisa Gardner

From Publishers Weekly:
A terrifying woman-in-jeopardy plot propels Gardner's latest thriller, in which child advocate and PI Lorraine "Rainie" Conner's fate hangs in the balance. Rainie, a recovering alcoholic with a painful past (who previously appeared in Gardner's The Third Victim, The Next Accident and The Killing Hour) is kidnapped from her parked car one night in coastal Oregon. The key players converge on the town of Bakersville to solve the mystery of her disappearance: Rainie's husband, Quincy, a semiretired FBI profiler whose anguish over Rainie undercuts his high-level experience with kidnappers; Quincy's daughter, Kimberley, a rising star in the FBI who flies in from Atlanta; Oregon State Police Sgt. Det. Carlton Kincaid; local sheriff Shelly Atkins; and abrasive federal agent Candi Rodriguez, who specializes in hostage negotiation. Gardner suspensefully intercuts the complicated maneuvering of this bickering team with graphic scenes of Rainie bravely struggling with her violent, sadistic captor. When the rescuers make a misstep, he raises the stakes by snatching a troubled seven-year-old foster child named Dougie, who's one of Rainie's cases. The cat-and-mouse intensifies, as does the mystery of the kidnapper's identity. Sympathetic characters, a strong sense of place and terrific plotting distinguish Gardner's new thriller.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN-10: 0553804316
ASIN: B000INB03A

Customer Review: 4/5

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

From Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. Freelance writer Walls doesn't pull her punches. She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn't conventionalize either of them. Her father was a self-taught man, a would-be inventor who could stay longer at a poker table than at most jobs and had "a little bit of a drinking situation," as her mother put it. With a fantastic storytelling knack, Walls describes her artist mom's great gift for rationalizing. Apartment walls so thin they heard all their neighbors? What a bonus—they'd "pick up a little Spanish without even studying." Why feed their pets? They'd be helping them "by not allowing them to become dependent." While Walls's father's version of Christmas presents—walking each child into the Arizona desert at night and letting each one claim a star—was delightful, he wasn't so dear when he stole the kids' hard-earned savings to go on a bender. The Walls children learned to support themselves, eating out of trashcans at school or painting their skin so the holes in their pants didn't show. Buck-toothed Jeannette even tried making her own braces when she heard what orthodontia cost. One by one, each child escaped to New York City. Still, it wasn't long before their parents appeared on their doorsteps. "Why not?" Mom said. "Being homeless is an adventure."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (January 9, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 074324754X
ISBN-13: 978-0743247542

Customer Review: 4.5/5

Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Amazon.com Editorial Review:
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe --This text refers to the Roughcut edition.

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: William Morrow; Rev&Expand, Roughcut edition (October 17, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061234001
ISBN-13: 978-0061234002

Customer Review: 4/5

Buy it at Amazon

The Biggest Loser Cookbook: More Than 125 Healthy, Delicious Recipes Adapted from NBC's Hit Show by Devin Alexander, Karen Kaplan, The Biggest Loser E

Book Description
The Biggest Loser, NBCs wildly popular unscripted series, has generated record-breaking ratings, a best- selling book, a best-selling DVD, and active and loyal online subscribers.Now, The Biggest Loser Cookbook is poised to be the next hit. Timed to coincide with Season 3 of the popular NBC show, The Biggest Loser Cookbook will be launched by the type of high-caliber, NBC-supported marketing campaign that drove sales on the New York Times best-selling book, The Biggest Loser.

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Rodale Books (October 3, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594865752
ISBN-13: 978-1594865756

Customer Review: 5/5

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

From Publishers Weekly
Twenty-five years after Hannibal Lecter, a cross between Professor Moriarty and Jack the Ripper, first invaded the imaginations of countless readers worldwide in Red Dragon, bestseller Harris has crafted an unmemorable prequel that's intended to explain the origins of Lecter's evil. Fans of Harris's previous Lecter novel, Hannibal (1999), already know the major trauma that transformed the young Lecter&mdashthe murder of his beloved younger sister, Mischa, during WWII&mdashwhich the author describes in more grisly detail. Lecter also has an unusual love interest, his uncle's Japanese wife, Lady Murasaki, but the bulk of the narrative focuses on Lecter's quest for revenge on those he holds responsible for Mischa's death. Unfortunately, the prose and plotting lack the suspenseful power of Red Dragon or The Silence of the Lambs, and will leave many feeling that with such a masterful monster as Lecter, less is more.
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Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press (December 5, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385339410
ISBN-13: 978-0385339414

Customer Review: 2.5/5

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is Maguire's take on the Cinderella story. Iris is the sister who is called ugly, or plain if the person saying it is feeling generous. Although she is ugly, she is the sister with the brains. Ruth is large, ungainly, very slow witted and a mute. They travel to Holland with their mother after their father is killed in England. Margarethe, the wicked stepmother is more business-minded than evil. Although her determination to gain money at all costs could constitute her as wicked. Cinderella, primarily called Clara, is a beautiful girl who suffers from agoraphobia (fear of leaving the house). She is much happier staying in the kitchen cleaning the hearth than going out and socializing.

The story and its characters are certainly interesting, and it is a good story, but it doesn't go along with how I interpreted the Cinderella story. The characters are too much out of character and there are too many notions of why they're the way they are.

I read Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West a couple of years ago and I absolutely loved it. I loved the alternative personality of the wicked witch, but it didn't work for me in Confessions.

My Rating: 2.5/5
Customer Review: 4/5

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Regan Books; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (October 1, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060987529
ISBN-13: 978-0060987527
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Out of the Girls' Room and into the Night Stories by Thisbe Nissen

This book is a compilation of short stories. Thisbe Nissen is a very talented writer and brings each and every character to life. I recently read her novel Osprey Island and loved it, but these short stories left me somewhat less enchanted. Some of the stories made me wish that they went on into full novels, while others I was left thinking "huh"? Regardless, I cannot say this was not a good book.

My rating: 3.5/5

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Anchor; 1st Anchor Books ed edition (October 17, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 038572053X
ISBN-13: 978-0385720533

Customer Review: 4/5

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