A little bit Kafka, a little bit "Geek Love", The Convalescent by Jessica Anthony looks at the people living on the outside of society with an oddball tenderness and lyricism that's truly amazing. It's unpredictable and touching, romantic and skewball all at the same time. Makes you really think about what beauty is!

Submitted by: Elizabeth Platt

If you somehow got through high school without an English teacher having this book on a required reading list you've missed out on one of the greatest books ever written. Pick up a copy and get started. J.D. Salinger is a brilliant author. He will capture your imagination from the first page and take you on a literary journey you won't soon forget. Enjoy!

Submitted by: MJ

Lit by Mary Karr is the third in a series of memoirs. The first book in the series, The Liars Club, was widely acclaimed. The second in the series, Cherry, was also well received. Each of the books deals with a different era in Mary's life.

Surviving a childhood filled with alcoholism, mental illness, and violence set the stage for a life of challenge for this very talented woman. Her talent for writing was her salvation. Lit deals with her own battle with alcoholism. It is one of the most honest accounts I have ever read of the journey from the jaws of death to recovery.

I love the fact that she doesn't blame her childhood or her marriage for her problems but takes responsibility for her own recovery. Her life as a single mother and aspiring writer makes for a very compelling story. Best of all, the writing is amazing. I loved this book.

Submitted by: Sharon Booher Johnson

This is a great reading experience. The author, Jeannette Walls also wrote The Glass Castle, which was wonderful. Half Broke Horses is the story of her grandmother's life. It is one of those books that really makes you think about what is important in life. It is such a pleasure to read that it just flows without effort. I really loved this book.

Sumitted by: Sharon Booher Johnson

Just finished The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second book in the "The Girl" trilogy, by Stieg Larsson. I found the second book to be even better than the first. The depth and detail of the story and characters jump off the pages.

I am looking forward to the U.S publishing of the third book The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (although I just learned you can order the U.K. edition through Amazon). It's too bad Larsson isn't alive to hear the international praise for his books.

Sumitted by: MJ

A seasonal life. A short history of herding, and the art of making (goat) cheese.

This book was introduced to me by a recent interview with the author, on National Public Radio (NPR). When you are in a car, hear one of their (NPR) precious stories, and can't turn off the car because you have to finish hearing it, you know you have to follow up on the story. So we reserved the book at the library and just read it through.

This book is so much more than just a history. It encompasses their lifestyle change from New York City to a small New England town and their quest to live a more simple life. Their place was at the end of a dead end road with 75 acres of land. His (photographer) wife returned home one day with some goat milk from a neighbor and they decided to make some goat cheese...and 'WHAM' their lives were changed forever.

This turns into a very realistic and graphic account of our (human's) history, where we came from, our "so important" connection with animals that we as a people have herded. Brad Kessler is Jewish--But a poet, songster, and, mostly shepard at heart.

His book is strewn with the most comprehensive recent compilations of writing, song, and poetry related to our primeval reliance, and co-existence with all animals, specifically, maybe primarily the goat--this book connects food history with geographic, religious, political, mystical, lyrical, poetical, !! One small sample is an essay about the thought about origins of things like our own letter "A" coming from the Roman letter which is the Hebrew aleph derived from the word "ox". The animals head appears when the letter is inverted...with its two horns sticking straight up to heaven. Similar meanings for the letter 'C', 'H', 'L', 'I'...SO interesting. Even our own word "culture" which we are all so familiar with, is only the 5th meaning of the word which actually began with "agriculture", and on and on it goes.

It caused us to go and buy a French cheese "chevre" which is French for "goat", an appropriate name for a cheese so simple and unmanipulated, it's the closest thing to eating what the goats had been eating--herbs, grasses and hay transmuted through the art of cheesemaking. The graphic detail of the rutting season, the animals antics of the mating season and (incredibly) the making and using of the "Buck Cloth"...WOW!!! Now THAT'S some kind of 'foreplay' for sure.

The book is very interesting and entertaining and highly recommended!!

Submitted by: B. Burton

The Wandering Hill is the second book in Larry McMurtry's tetrology following Sin Killer (which was excellent).

The Wandering Hill picks up where Sin Killer left off, but it turned out to be very slow moving and was actually hard to finish. It does stay with the same good theme and the detailed and graphic type hardships that pioneers, travelers and explorers of the Old West endured. It is very realistic but just couldn't "get going".

I have not gone into the 3rd of his series because I decided to take a break and read another of Dean Koontz's science fictions for a change of pace.

Sin Killer was an excellent portrayal of our early American West and its trials and tribulations of what early travelers, pioneers and explorers experienced and endured. It is soberingly realistic and graphic which leads all the more to the authenticity of it all and its excitement. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

It is the first in a tetrology of the Old West circa early to mid 1800's.

A page-turner you can't put down, non-fiction, and scary! Read on!

Presently, a controversial flu vaccine is being grown using cancerous monkey cells. Millions of people were injected, or took orally, in the late 1950's and early 1960's, these doses of contaminated polio vaccines carrying the SV40 monkey virus, which causes multiple kinds of cancer. Today, most people now have SV40 monkeyvirus in their systems, but only in this book will you find the reason, why it was covered up, and its links to secret laboratories, murders, and assassinations.

This is an underground book sensation produced by a press famous for repressed books, but read the amazon.com reviews to see why this book is an important MUST READ.

If you are interested in learning more about this book or the author you can visit the author's web site for more information.

Grace doesn’t know what Crystal writes in her diary. She wants to know what its really like to be a teenage mum, but Crystal can’t tell her the truth. Her sister Shardonnay wants to be a popstar, and Grace just wants to be a rebel go out clubbing, but Crystal’s stuck at home ironing shirts and looking after baby Ricardo, so it’s no wonder she takes it out on him – right?

This is South Africa, one of the most turbulent places in the world. AIDS, violence, drugs – its not easy to make a future for yourself, and for Crystal it seems impossible.

Stained is well paced and builds to a horrifying climax. It is a harrowing, emotionally engaging story, and the prose is both well crafted and accessible. Whether you’re a teenager or adult, someone who struggles to read or finds it easy, Stained is an extremely satisfying read. I didn’t want to put it down even when I had read the last page, and came away feeling like I’d been on a rollercoaster!

Stained is gritty and down to earth. If you’re looking for a real-world story to feel passionate about, I thoroughly recommend this book.