Sarah

Another excellent book by French. I think she just gets better with every mystery. The audio was especially compelling - it's nice to hear the accents.

I literally could not bear to put this book down! It was gripping. I agree with Jill that the ending wasn't perfect - it came up a bit fast for me after 300 pages of suspense - but it was the meat of the book that left an impression on me so the unimpressive ending didn't really matter.

One of my favorite books ever :)

I enjoyed this - an engaging read and funny, especially if you have spent any time in Seattle. I thought the end dropped off a bit, but oh well.

A light read - not one of my favorite Isabel books, but a gentle and enjoyable listen.

Pretty hilarious - I wouldn't quite call Lawson the David Sedaris of my generation, but she comes close. I listened to her read this memoir and the one thing I found annoying was her singing the chapter titles. It also feels like two separate books - her childhood in uber-rural Texas and then her married life, which mostly takes place in Houston. There is also a lot of cursing, in case such things offend you. I think this may be one of the cases where the audio, with appropriate author sighs and inflections, is funnier than the hardcover book.

One of the more useful bathroom design idea books I have found. This has a wide range of styles, but all feel fairly contemporary (as opposed to nifty bathroom ideas from 1992).

A refreshing change of pace for design books - the spaces in this book look loved and lived in and real. I tend to skip a lot of the text and just get inspired from the pictures, and there are plenty of small and achievable inspirations in here.

I listened to this, and perhaps that was the wrong way to read this book. It had a lot of good information about slum life and culture, but I just didn't get into the story - I found all the different characters and subplots confusing.

Who knew I would enjoy jockey mysteries? I'm not ready to hop on the racetrack and buzz through the series, but this was an enjoyable listen, and i only figured out the whodunit, not the why :)

It's possible that I liked Schmidt's other book, Okay for Now, but it's hard to say. Schmidt captures young voices and struggles beautifully, and the settings (Vietnam-era, in this case) give the books a timeless and nostalgic quality.

I quite enjoy Miss Maisie Dobbs and her sleuthing abilities. Thoroughly British and proper, these are good, light mysteries and make excellent audiobooks.

Excellent - I much preferred this view of WW II to In the Garden of Beasts. Ackerman finds a unique perspective in the story of the Warsaw zoo and its many inhabitants (of all species!).

A good high school read. Saldin creates deep characters with all the problems and promises of youth. She handles important but troubling problems (delinquency, underage drinking, drug use, and cutting) gracefully and within the frame of the timeless quest for identity.

This is an awesome book. With the gentle science and helpful instruction, it made me feel like I could cook a real meal, from scratch, without worrying about exact measurements and precise cuts.

This book has received a lot of critical acclaim, and while I certainly found it a good read, I don't quite see this as a modern Catcher in the Rye. I think the praise comes from the subject, a gay Montana teen sent to a homosexuality reform program, and the fact that it's well-written. All this rambling boils down to this: a good novel, great characters, but it didn't live up to the hype.

Fantastic! I could hardly put this book down. More compelling than The Red Breast, the other Nesbo book I've read. For some reason, sexual deviance seems to be at the heart of every mystery I read these days, which is disturbing, but that's neither here nor there.

Interesting and balanced, Pritchett explores and excerpts bear encounters from many eras and perspectives.

The plot sounds like something from a daytime talk show, but this book reads beautifully. The characters are rich and beautifully drawn. Each chapter is written from a different character's perspective, allowing the reader to empathize with each life. I couldn't put this down.

This book had so much potential! Like many first-generation immigrants, Gill wants a modern childhood with summer camp and music lessons, activities deemed luxurious by her Indian parents who recall their own toys made out of mud. As a child, Gill is embarrassed by her parents and their strict rules and, now that she's a adult, Gill seeks to reclaim her lost childhood by doing all the things she was denied - learning to swim and tap dance, having sleepovers, visiting Disney World. The problem is that Gill reflects on her childhood through her now educated and sympathetic adult eyes and this self-awareness leads to a fear of appearing ungrateful for her parents' sacrifices. Gill seems perpetually on the verge of being laugh-out-loud funny but rarely achieves such a level of humor. Still a fun, entertaining read, but I can't help feeling that it could have been so much more.

This was fascinatingly different from any other mystery that I've read. It's both more real and almost mystical, which fits the setting of post-Katrina New Orleans. The characters are gritty, especially compared to the detectives in the “cozy” mysteries I typically plow through, but well constructed and nicely flawed. All in all, a good book by literary and mystery standards.

Cute and clever, although I preferred Stewart's latest in the series, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict. Great for kids around 10 years old.

I'm not quite sure why there are endless books in this series, but I'm still enjoying them (especially the audiobooks, because the narrator is absolutely incredible). Once again, fate intervenes in Jaimy and Jacky's relationship. In this episode, Jacky finally begins her pirating adventures and gets her hands on a boat to begin Faber Shipping Worldwide. Jacky is a lot stronger here, and not as often at the mercy of her male superiors.

Yikes. I admit to giving up on this book about 1/4 of the way through. I found this book almost insulting to Austen fans in its obsequious imitative style. Plus it's boring.

I started this book years ago and couldn't get engaged in the story. This time I listened to the audiobook and completely fell in love with it! The characters are beautiful, set within the lush wildlife of Appalachia, and I became utterly absorbed in their lives. The three central characters, Lusa, Garnett, and Deanna, have come to Zebulon Mountain from different paths and for different reasons, but each has a special connection to the environment. Southern Appalachia becomes another character weaving through each narrative. Nature is boisterously and beautifully evoked here, though I imagine the novel resonates more with readers already drawn to wilderness tales.