50 Books in 2009
I found this on another LJ back in August and decided to take up this challenge. I started reading in earnest in August, so I'm truly racing for the finish line, here. Just one book away!
Book 001
A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
Description: At an inn in the Berkshire Mountains, seven former schoolmates gather to celebrate a wedding -- a reunion that becomes the occasion of astonishing revelations as the friends collectively recall a long-ago night that indelibly marked each of their lives.
Status: Complete
Book 002
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
Description: World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization: the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth... the long-forgotten Illuminati lair.
Status: Complete
Book 003
Dark Moon Defender by Sharon Shinn
Description: In this story of hidden magic and forbidden love, the King's Rider Justin befriends Ellynor, a young novice at a convent-only to discover that she is a mystic being manipulated by the fanatical Daughters of the Pale Moon into hunting down and killing other mystics.
Status: Complete
Book 004
Reader and Raelynx by Sharon Shinn
Description: In this novel of secret sorceries and forbidden desires, the mystic Cammon must put aside his personal feelings for Princess Amalie while he reads the souls of her suitors for any potential threats. But Cammon is unable to read Amalie, and he begins to suspect that she herself possesses magic powers-a revelation which would put her life in danger, and throw the kingdom into chaos.
Status: Complete
Book 005
The Dark Mirror (Bridei Chronicles Book 1) by Juliet Marillier
Description: Bridei is a young nobleman fostered at the home of Broichan, one of the most powerful druids in the land. But something happens that will change Bridei's world forever...and possibly wreck all of Broichan's plans. For Bridei finds a child on their doorstep on a bitter MidWinter Eve, a child seemingly abandoned by the fairie folk. The two grow up together and as Bridei comes to manhood he sees the shy girl Tuala blossom into a beautiful woman. Broichan sees the same process and feels only danger...for Tuala could be a key part in Bridei's future...or could spell his doom.
Status: Complete
Book 006
Blade of Fortriu (Bridei Chronicles Book 2) by Juliet Marillier
Description: Bridei is determined to drive the Gaelic invaders from his lands once and for all. And so, with his land secure and his house in order, he prepares for war. One of Bridei’s plans to win the war to come involves the beautiful young Ana. And so she will travel north, to make a strategic marriage with a chieftain she has never seen, in the hopes of gaining an ally on whom Bridei’s victory relies.
Status: Complete
Book 007
The Well of Shades (Bridei Chronicles Book 3) by Juliet Marillier
Description: King Bridei is a man with a mission. His wish to unite his kingdom seems almost within his grasp but there are forces working to undo his dream. He sends Faolan, his most trusted advisor (who is also a master assassin and spymaster) out into the world to ferret out the truth of who is friend and who is foe. Along the way Faolan will uncover many truths. Some may hold the key to Bridei's future. But more important, they may unlock the secrets that Faolan has held deep within his soul for decades. And offer him the chance of redemption.
Status: Complete
Book 008
Watchers of Time by Charles Todd
Description: The year is 1919, and Ian Rutledge is a fragile yet courageous former soldier searching for his place in a postwar world. Now a Scotland Yard investigator, Rutledge is called upon to probe a small-town murder - and discovers that it may be connected to one of the greatest disasters of all time....
Status: Complete
Book 009
The Face by Dean Koontz
Description: In The Face, Dean Koontz delivers yet another spellbinding and chilling novel, where real and imagined monsters walk the streets, ghosts travel through mirrors, and the devil makes house calls. Stalked by both real and supernatural evil, the bright and sensitive Fric, virtually orphaned by his A-list Hollywood parents, and the brave but disillusioned former detective Ethan Truman, himself suffering from the loss of his wife, must rely on their wits and each other to escape a dark and disturbing fate.
Status: Complete
Book 010
Body Surfing by Anita Shreve
Description: The beach house in New Hampshire which figured in Anita Shreve's The Pilot's Wife, Fortune's Rocks, and Sea Glass is once again featured in Body Surfing. This time, it is the summer home of the Edwards family, Anna and Mark and daughter Julie. Mrs. Edwards has great hopes for Julie, who is "slow," so she hires Sydney to tutor her, in preparation for her senior year. There are two older brothers, Jeff and Ben, whose arrival changes the household dynamic considerably.
Status: Complete
Book 011
Reversible Errors by Scott Turow
Description: Arthur Raven, more versed in corporate law than criminal defense, is not eager to accept the court-appointed task of handling death-row inmate "Squirrel" Gandolph's last-minute appeal of his murder conviction. But when evidence surfaces that might exonerate his client, he rises to the occasion with a quiet determination to see justice done.
Status: Complete
Book 012
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
Description: In Paris, a physicist dies after performing a laboratory experiment for a beautiful visitor. In the jungles of Malaysia, a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology, built to his specifications. In Vancouver, a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters off New Guinea. And in Tokyo, an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means.
Status: Complete
Book 013
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Description: Long ago, the wars of the ancient Evil had ruined the world and forced mankind to compete with many other races--gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, and elves. But in peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford knew little of such troubles. And on Shea rested the hope of all the races.
Status: Complete
Book 014
The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Description: The ancient tree created by long-lost Elven magic, is dying. When Wil Ohmsford is summoned to guard the Amberle on a perilous quest to gather a new seed for a new tree, he is faced with the Reaper, the most fearsome of all Demons. And Wil is without power to control them....
Status: Complete
Book 015
The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Description: Horror stalked the Four Lands as the Ildatch, ancient source of evil, sent its ghastly Mord Wraiths to destroy Mankind. Only Brin Ohmsford held the magic power of wishsong that could make plants bloom instantly or turn trees from green to autumn gold. But she, too, was in mortal danger....
Status: Complete
Book 016
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Description: Meet Rachel White, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl -- until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend Darcy throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiance. Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness.
Status: Complete
Book 017
Something Blue by Emily Giffin
Description: Darcy's neat, perfect world turns upside down when her best friend, Rachel White, the plain-Jane "good girl", steals her fiance, while Darcy finds herself completely alone for the first time in her life... with a baby on the way. Darcy tries to recover, feeling to her childhood friend living in London and resorting to her tried-and-true methods for getting what she wants. But as she attempts to re-create her glamorous life on a new continent, Darcy finds that her rules no longer apply.
Status: Complete
Book 018
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
Description: Boston, 1865. A series of murders, all of them inspired by scenes in Dante’s Inferno. Only an elite group of America’s first Dante scholars-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J. T. Fields-can solve the mystery. With the police baffled, more lives endangered, and Dante’s literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find the killer.
Status: Complete
Book 019
The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson
Description: Alex Cross' family is in terrible danger--at the same time that his new job with the FBI brings him the scariest case of his career. A team of kidnappers has been snatching successful, upstanding men and women right before their families' eyes. Alex's knowledge of the D.C. streets, together with his unique insights into criminal psychology, make this case one that only he can solve...
Status: Complete
Book 020
London Bridges by James Patterson
Description: Alex Cross is back--and so is the Big Bad Wolf. Terrorists have seized the worlds largest cities. London, Washington, DC, New York, and Frankfurt will be destroyed, unless their demands are met--and their demands are impossible. After a city in the western United States is fire bombed--a practice run--Alex Cross knows that it is only a matter of time before the bombers threats to the other cities are brutally executed.
Book 021
Mary Mary by James Patterson
Description: FBI agent Alex Cross is on vacation with his family at Disneyland when he gets a call from the Director. A well-known actress was shot outside her home in Beverly Hills. Shortly afterward, an editor for the Los Angeles Times receives an e-mail describing the murder in vivid detail. Alex quickly learns that this is not an isolated incident. The killer, known as Mary Smith, has done this before and plans to kill again. Right from the beginning, this case is like nothing Alex has ever confronted.
Status: Complete
Book 022
Cross by James Patterson
Description: Alex Cross reopens the case of his wife's death...
Status: Complete
Book 023
Double Cross by James Patterson
Description: A spate of elaborate murders in Washington D.C. have the whole East Coast on edge. They are like nothing Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, have ever seen. With each murder, the case becomes increasingly complex. There's only one thing Alex knows: the killer adores an audience.
Status: Complete
Book 024
Good In Bed by Jennifer Weiner
Description: For twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie Shapiro. But the day she opens up a national women's magazine and sees the words "Loving a Larger Woman" above her ex-boyfriend's byline, Cannie is plunged into misery...and the most amazing year of her life.
Status: Complete
Book 025
Little Children by Tom Perota
Description: Tom Perrotta's thirty-ish parents of young children are a varied and surprising bunch. They all raise their kids in the kind of sleepy American suburb where nothing ever seems to happen-at least until one eventful summer, when a convicted child molester moves back to town, and two restless parents begin an affair that goes further than either of them could have imagined.
Status: Complete
Book 026
Three Junes by Julia Glass
Description: An astonishing first novel that traces the lives of a Scottish family over a decade as they confront the joys and longings, fulfillment's and betrayals of love in all its guises.
Status: Complete
Book 027
The Once & Future King by T.H. White
Description: This book is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot; of Merlin and Owl and Guinevere; of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad.
Status: Complete
Book 028
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive & Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Description: Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.”
Status: Complete
Book 029
In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue by Lauren Weber
Description: IN CHEAP WE TRUST considers our hot-and-cold relationship with thrift and offers a colorful ride through its history in America
Status: Complete
Book 030
Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
Description: This is the witty, heartfelt story about what happens to the perfect couple when they suddenly want different things. Its about feeling that your life is set and then realizing that nothing is as you thought it was- and that there is no possible compromise. Its about deciding what is most important in life, and taking chances to get it. But most of all, its about the things we will do- and wont do- for love.
Status: Complete
Book 031
Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
Description: One fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo for the first time in eight years. Leo, the one who brought out the worst in her. Leo, the one who left her heartbroken with no explanation. Leo, the one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she's living is the one she's meant to live.
Status: Complete
Book 032
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Description: Spellbound before his own portrait, Dorian Gray utters a fateful wish. In exchange for eternal youth he gives his soul, to be corrupted by the malign influence of his mentor, the aesthete and hedonist Lord Henry Wotton.
Status: Complete
Book 033
Here On Earth by Alice Hoffman
Description: When March Murray travels East with her teenage daughter to attend the funeral of the beloved housekeeper who looked after her when she was growing up, March's past comes rushing up to meet her. The present is quickly dominated by the lurking presence of her former lover, Hollis, who has patiently awaited her long overdue return. While love has the power to transform those who fall under its spell, the love March herself suffers robs her of nearly all sense and goodness.
Status: Complete
Book 034
The Mirror Prince by Violette Malan
Description: Max Ravenhill was happy with his life as a history professor-until he met Cassandra. Told he was more than a thousand years old and his life as "Max" had been implanted in his mind, he's also been warned that he's in danger, and that his only chance for survival is to flee to the realm of Faerie. Together he and Cassandra must separate the truth from the lies in a dangerous new world.
Status: Completed
Book 035
Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot
Description: Kate Mackenzie, an idealistic HR representative at the New York Journal, has just been forced by her evil boss, Amy Jenkins, to fire Ida Lopez, the wildly popular dessert cart lady at the company cafeteria. Sweet Ida sues for wrongful termination, and Stuart charges his younger brother, Mitch, with handling this delicate matter.
Status: Completed
Book 036
Last Known Victim by Erica Spindler
Description: Captain Patti O'shay is a straight-arrow, by-the-book cop who is assigned to the case. Her tough, unflinching character is fractured when her husband and fellow police captain is found murdered-surprised by looters taking advantage of the post-storm chaos.
Status: Completed
Book 037
Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham
Description: At the first of every month, when the office has reached its pinnacle of hysteria, Maggie, Roxanne, and Candice meet at London's swankiest bar for an evening of cocktails and gossip. Here, they chat about what's new at The Londoner, the glossy fashion magazine where they all work, and everything else that's going on in their lives. Or almost everything. Beneath the girl talk and the laughter, each of the three has a secret. And when a chance encounter at the cocktail bar sets in motion an extraordinary chain of events, each one will find their biggest secret revealed.
Status: Completed
Book 038
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Description: Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear.
Status: Completed
Book 039
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Description: The "star-crossed" lovers theme continues as Bella and Edward find themselves facing new obstacles, including a devastating separation, the mysterious appearance of dangerous wolves roaming the forest in Forks, a terrifying threat of revenge from a female vampire and a deliciously sinister encounter with Italy's reigning royal family of vampires, the Volturi.
Status: Completed
Book 040
In Silence by Erica Spindler
Description: Journalist Avery Chauvin is devastated when she receives word of her father's suicide. Returning to her hometown of Cypress Springs, Louisiana, Avery desperately searches for answers. Instead she hears whispered rumors of strange happenings, of neighbors who go missing in the night. Then the past and present collide. A woman is found savagely murdered. An outsider passing through town vanishes. And Avery begins to wonder, could her father have been murdered?
Status: Completed
Book 041
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Description: The events of a December afternoon, during which a father and his daughter find an abandoned infant in the snow, will forever alter the 11-year-old girls understanding of the world and the adults who inhabit it. Written from the point of view of 30-year-old Nicky as she recalls the vivid images of that fateful December, her tale is one of love and courage, of tragedy and redemption, and of the ways in which the human heart always seeks to heal itself.
Status: Completed
Book 042
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Description: As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger.
Status: Completed
Book 043
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Description: On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered. The Lovely Bones unfolds from heaven, where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.
Status: Completed
Book 044
After Long Silence by Sheri S. Tepper
Description: Gigantic crystal formations tower over the landscape of the planet Jubal, inspiring awe in the Tripsingers and Explorers who have made these "Presences" their lives' work and hatred in the corporations who seek their destruction. Against a backdrop of startling alien beauty, Tepper tells a story of human perseverance for truth in the face of bureaucratic blindness and religious fanaticism.
Status: Completed
Book 045
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Description: The simply told story of a typical, grueling day of the titular character's life in a labor camp in Siberia, is a modern classic of Russian literature and quickly cemented Solzhenitsyn's international reputation upon publication in 1962. It is painfully apparent that Solzhenitsyn himself spent time in the gulags--he was imprisoned for nearly a decade as punishment for making derogatory statements about Stalin in a letter to a friend.
Status: Completed
Book 046
The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) by C.S. Lewis
Description: On a daring quest to save a beloved life, two friends are hurled into another world, where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. But then the lion Aslan's song weaves itself into the fabric of a new land, a land that will become known as Narnia. And in Narnia, all things are possible . . . .
Status: Completed
Book 047
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
Description: In Paul's fantastic and even perilous search for the truth about his wife's death, he abandons his everyday life to embark on a series of experiments designed to teach his dog Lorelei to communicate. Could she really give him the answers he is looking for?
Status: Completed
Book 048
The Amber Room by Steve Berry
Description: Desperate to know the truth about her father’s suspicious dealings, Rachel takes off for Germany, with Paul close behind. Shortly after arriving, they find themselves involved with a cast of shadowy characters who all claim to share their quest. But as they learn more about the history of the treasure they seek, Rachel and Paul realize they’re in way over their heads.
Status: Completed
Book 049 --- Currently Reading
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Description: When missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters set off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium.
Status: Currently Reading
Book 001
A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
Description: At an inn in the Berkshire Mountains, seven former schoolmates gather to celebrate a wedding -- a reunion that becomes the occasion of astonishing revelations as the friends collectively recall a long-ago night that indelibly marked each of their lives.
Status: Complete
Book 002
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
Description: World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization: the Illuminati. Desperate to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth... the long-forgotten Illuminati lair.
Status: Complete
Book 003
Dark Moon Defender by Sharon Shinn
Description: In this story of hidden magic and forbidden love, the King's Rider Justin befriends Ellynor, a young novice at a convent-only to discover that she is a mystic being manipulated by the fanatical Daughters of the Pale Moon into hunting down and killing other mystics.
Status: Complete
Book 004
Reader and Raelynx by Sharon Shinn
Description: In this novel of secret sorceries and forbidden desires, the mystic Cammon must put aside his personal feelings for Princess Amalie while he reads the souls of her suitors for any potential threats. But Cammon is unable to read Amalie, and he begins to suspect that she herself possesses magic powers-a revelation which would put her life in danger, and throw the kingdom into chaos.
Status: Complete
Book 005
The Dark Mirror (Bridei Chronicles Book 1) by Juliet Marillier
Description: Bridei is a young nobleman fostered at the home of Broichan, one of the most powerful druids in the land. But something happens that will change Bridei's world forever...and possibly wreck all of Broichan's plans. For Bridei finds a child on their doorstep on a bitter MidWinter Eve, a child seemingly abandoned by the fairie folk. The two grow up together and as Bridei comes to manhood he sees the shy girl Tuala blossom into a beautiful woman. Broichan sees the same process and feels only danger...for Tuala could be a key part in Bridei's future...or could spell his doom.
Status: Complete
Book 006
Blade of Fortriu (Bridei Chronicles Book 2) by Juliet Marillier
Description: Bridei is determined to drive the Gaelic invaders from his lands once and for all. And so, with his land secure and his house in order, he prepares for war. One of Bridei’s plans to win the war to come involves the beautiful young Ana. And so she will travel north, to make a strategic marriage with a chieftain she has never seen, in the hopes of gaining an ally on whom Bridei’s victory relies.
Status: Complete
Book 007
The Well of Shades (Bridei Chronicles Book 3) by Juliet Marillier
Description: King Bridei is a man with a mission. His wish to unite his kingdom seems almost within his grasp but there are forces working to undo his dream. He sends Faolan, his most trusted advisor (who is also a master assassin and spymaster) out into the world to ferret out the truth of who is friend and who is foe. Along the way Faolan will uncover many truths. Some may hold the key to Bridei's future. But more important, they may unlock the secrets that Faolan has held deep within his soul for decades. And offer him the chance of redemption.
Status: Complete
Book 008
Watchers of Time by Charles Todd
Description: The year is 1919, and Ian Rutledge is a fragile yet courageous former soldier searching for his place in a postwar world. Now a Scotland Yard investigator, Rutledge is called upon to probe a small-town murder - and discovers that it may be connected to one of the greatest disasters of all time....
Status: Complete
Book 009
The Face by Dean Koontz
Description: In The Face, Dean Koontz delivers yet another spellbinding and chilling novel, where real and imagined monsters walk the streets, ghosts travel through mirrors, and the devil makes house calls. Stalked by both real and supernatural evil, the bright and sensitive Fric, virtually orphaned by his A-list Hollywood parents, and the brave but disillusioned former detective Ethan Truman, himself suffering from the loss of his wife, must rely on their wits and each other to escape a dark and disturbing fate.
Status: Complete
Book 010
Body Surfing by Anita Shreve
Description: The beach house in New Hampshire which figured in Anita Shreve's The Pilot's Wife, Fortune's Rocks, and Sea Glass is once again featured in Body Surfing. This time, it is the summer home of the Edwards family, Anna and Mark and daughter Julie. Mrs. Edwards has great hopes for Julie, who is "slow," so she hires Sydney to tutor her, in preparation for her senior year. There are two older brothers, Jeff and Ben, whose arrival changes the household dynamic considerably.
Status: Complete
Book 011
Reversible Errors by Scott Turow
Description: Arthur Raven, more versed in corporate law than criminal defense, is not eager to accept the court-appointed task of handling death-row inmate "Squirrel" Gandolph's last-minute appeal of his murder conviction. But when evidence surfaces that might exonerate his client, he rises to the occasion with a quiet determination to see justice done.
Status: Complete
Book 012
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
Description: In Paris, a physicist dies after performing a laboratory experiment for a beautiful visitor. In the jungles of Malaysia, a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology, built to his specifications. In Vancouver, a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters off New Guinea. And in Tokyo, an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means.
Status: Complete
Book 013
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Description: Long ago, the wars of the ancient Evil had ruined the world and forced mankind to compete with many other races--gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, and elves. But in peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford knew little of such troubles. And on Shea rested the hope of all the races.
Status: Complete
Book 014
The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Description: The ancient tree created by long-lost Elven magic, is dying. When Wil Ohmsford is summoned to guard the Amberle on a perilous quest to gather a new seed for a new tree, he is faced with the Reaper, the most fearsome of all Demons. And Wil is without power to control them....
Status: Complete
Book 015
The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Description: Horror stalked the Four Lands as the Ildatch, ancient source of evil, sent its ghastly Mord Wraiths to destroy Mankind. Only Brin Ohmsford held the magic power of wishsong that could make plants bloom instantly or turn trees from green to autumn gold. But she, too, was in mortal danger....
Status: Complete
Book 016
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Description: Meet Rachel White, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl -- until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend Darcy throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiance. Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness.
Status: Complete
Book 017
Something Blue by Emily Giffin
Description: Darcy's neat, perfect world turns upside down when her best friend, Rachel White, the plain-Jane "good girl", steals her fiance, while Darcy finds herself completely alone for the first time in her life... with a baby on the way. Darcy tries to recover, feeling to her childhood friend living in London and resorting to her tried-and-true methods for getting what she wants. But as she attempts to re-create her glamorous life on a new continent, Darcy finds that her rules no longer apply.
Status: Complete
Book 018
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
Description: Boston, 1865. A series of murders, all of them inspired by scenes in Dante’s Inferno. Only an elite group of America’s first Dante scholars-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J. T. Fields-can solve the mystery. With the police baffled, more lives endangered, and Dante’s literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find the killer.
Status: Complete
Book 019
The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson
Description: Alex Cross' family is in terrible danger--at the same time that his new job with the FBI brings him the scariest case of his career. A team of kidnappers has been snatching successful, upstanding men and women right before their families' eyes. Alex's knowledge of the D.C. streets, together with his unique insights into criminal psychology, make this case one that only he can solve...
Status: Complete
Book 020
London Bridges by James Patterson
Description: Alex Cross is back--and so is the Big Bad Wolf. Terrorists have seized the worlds largest cities. London, Washington, DC, New York, and Frankfurt will be destroyed, unless their demands are met--and their demands are impossible. After a city in the western United States is fire bombed--a practice run--Alex Cross knows that it is only a matter of time before the bombers threats to the other cities are brutally executed.
Book 021
Mary Mary by James Patterson
Description: FBI agent Alex Cross is on vacation with his family at Disneyland when he gets a call from the Director. A well-known actress was shot outside her home in Beverly Hills. Shortly afterward, an editor for the Los Angeles Times receives an e-mail describing the murder in vivid detail. Alex quickly learns that this is not an isolated incident. The killer, known as Mary Smith, has done this before and plans to kill again. Right from the beginning, this case is like nothing Alex has ever confronted.
Status: Complete
Book 022
Cross by James Patterson
Description: Alex Cross reopens the case of his wife's death...
Status: Complete
Book 023
Double Cross by James Patterson
Description: A spate of elaborate murders in Washington D.C. have the whole East Coast on edge. They are like nothing Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, have ever seen. With each murder, the case becomes increasingly complex. There's only one thing Alex knows: the killer adores an audience.
Status: Complete
Book 024
Good In Bed by Jennifer Weiner
Description: For twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie Shapiro. But the day she opens up a national women's magazine and sees the words "Loving a Larger Woman" above her ex-boyfriend's byline, Cannie is plunged into misery...and the most amazing year of her life.
Status: Complete
Book 025
Little Children by Tom Perota
Description: Tom Perrotta's thirty-ish parents of young children are a varied and surprising bunch. They all raise their kids in the kind of sleepy American suburb where nothing ever seems to happen-at least until one eventful summer, when a convicted child molester moves back to town, and two restless parents begin an affair that goes further than either of them could have imagined.
Status: Complete
Book 026
Three Junes by Julia Glass
Description: An astonishing first novel that traces the lives of a Scottish family over a decade as they confront the joys and longings, fulfillment's and betrayals of love in all its guises.
Status: Complete
Book 027
The Once & Future King by T.H. White
Description: This book is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot; of Merlin and Owl and Guinevere; of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad.
Status: Complete
Book 028
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive & Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Description: Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.”
Status: Complete
Book 029
In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue by Lauren Weber
Description: IN CHEAP WE TRUST considers our hot-and-cold relationship with thrift and offers a colorful ride through its history in America
Status: Complete
Book 030
Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
Description: This is the witty, heartfelt story about what happens to the perfect couple when they suddenly want different things. Its about feeling that your life is set and then realizing that nothing is as you thought it was- and that there is no possible compromise. Its about deciding what is most important in life, and taking chances to get it. But most of all, its about the things we will do- and wont do- for love.
Status: Complete
Book 031
Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
Description: One fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo for the first time in eight years. Leo, the one who brought out the worst in her. Leo, the one who left her heartbroken with no explanation. Leo, the one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she's living is the one she's meant to live.
Status: Complete
Book 032
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Description: Spellbound before his own portrait, Dorian Gray utters a fateful wish. In exchange for eternal youth he gives his soul, to be corrupted by the malign influence of his mentor, the aesthete and hedonist Lord Henry Wotton.
Status: Complete
Book 033
Here On Earth by Alice Hoffman
Description: When March Murray travels East with her teenage daughter to attend the funeral of the beloved housekeeper who looked after her when she was growing up, March's past comes rushing up to meet her. The present is quickly dominated by the lurking presence of her former lover, Hollis, who has patiently awaited her long overdue return. While love has the power to transform those who fall under its spell, the love March herself suffers robs her of nearly all sense and goodness.
Status: Complete
Book 034
The Mirror Prince by Violette Malan
Description: Max Ravenhill was happy with his life as a history professor-until he met Cassandra. Told he was more than a thousand years old and his life as "Max" had been implanted in his mind, he's also been warned that he's in danger, and that his only chance for survival is to flee to the realm of Faerie. Together he and Cassandra must separate the truth from the lies in a dangerous new world.
Status: Completed
Book 035
Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot
Description: Kate Mackenzie, an idealistic HR representative at the New York Journal, has just been forced by her evil boss, Amy Jenkins, to fire Ida Lopez, the wildly popular dessert cart lady at the company cafeteria. Sweet Ida sues for wrongful termination, and Stuart charges his younger brother, Mitch, with handling this delicate matter.
Status: Completed
Book 036
Last Known Victim by Erica Spindler
Description: Captain Patti O'shay is a straight-arrow, by-the-book cop who is assigned to the case. Her tough, unflinching character is fractured when her husband and fellow police captain is found murdered-surprised by looters taking advantage of the post-storm chaos.
Status: Completed
Book 037
Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham
Description: At the first of every month, when the office has reached its pinnacle of hysteria, Maggie, Roxanne, and Candice meet at London's swankiest bar for an evening of cocktails and gossip. Here, they chat about what's new at The Londoner, the glossy fashion magazine where they all work, and everything else that's going on in their lives. Or almost everything. Beneath the girl talk and the laughter, each of the three has a secret. And when a chance encounter at the cocktail bar sets in motion an extraordinary chain of events, each one will find their biggest secret revealed.
Status: Completed
Book 038
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Description: Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear.
Status: Completed
Book 039
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Description: The "star-crossed" lovers theme continues as Bella and Edward find themselves facing new obstacles, including a devastating separation, the mysterious appearance of dangerous wolves roaming the forest in Forks, a terrifying threat of revenge from a female vampire and a deliciously sinister encounter with Italy's reigning royal family of vampires, the Volturi.
Status: Completed
Book 040
In Silence by Erica Spindler
Description: Journalist Avery Chauvin is devastated when she receives word of her father's suicide. Returning to her hometown of Cypress Springs, Louisiana, Avery desperately searches for answers. Instead she hears whispered rumors of strange happenings, of neighbors who go missing in the night. Then the past and present collide. A woman is found savagely murdered. An outsider passing through town vanishes. And Avery begins to wonder, could her father have been murdered?
Status: Completed
Book 041
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Description: The events of a December afternoon, during which a father and his daughter find an abandoned infant in the snow, will forever alter the 11-year-old girls understanding of the world and the adults who inhabit it. Written from the point of view of 30-year-old Nicky as she recalls the vivid images of that fateful December, her tale is one of love and courage, of tragedy and redemption, and of the ways in which the human heart always seeks to heal itself.
Status: Completed
Book 042
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Description: As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger.
Status: Completed
Book 043
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Description: On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered. The Lovely Bones unfolds from heaven, where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.
Status: Completed
Book 044
After Long Silence by Sheri S. Tepper
Description: Gigantic crystal formations tower over the landscape of the planet Jubal, inspiring awe in the Tripsingers and Explorers who have made these "Presences" their lives' work and hatred in the corporations who seek their destruction. Against a backdrop of startling alien beauty, Tepper tells a story of human perseverance for truth in the face of bureaucratic blindness and religious fanaticism.
Status: Completed
Book 045
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Description: The simply told story of a typical, grueling day of the titular character's life in a labor camp in Siberia, is a modern classic of Russian literature and quickly cemented Solzhenitsyn's international reputation upon publication in 1962. It is painfully apparent that Solzhenitsyn himself spent time in the gulags--he was imprisoned for nearly a decade as punishment for making derogatory statements about Stalin in a letter to a friend.
Status: Completed
Book 046
The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) by C.S. Lewis
Description: On a daring quest to save a beloved life, two friends are hurled into another world, where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. But then the lion Aslan's song weaves itself into the fabric of a new land, a land that will become known as Narnia. And in Narnia, all things are possible . . . .
Status: Completed
Book 047
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
Description: In Paul's fantastic and even perilous search for the truth about his wife's death, he abandons his everyday life to embark on a series of experiments designed to teach his dog Lorelei to communicate. Could she really give him the answers he is looking for?
Status: Completed
Book 048
The Amber Room by Steve Berry
Description: Desperate to know the truth about her father’s suspicious dealings, Rachel takes off for Germany, with Paul close behind. Shortly after arriving, they find themselves involved with a cast of shadowy characters who all claim to share their quest. But as they learn more about the history of the treasure they seek, Rachel and Paul realize they’re in way over their heads.
Status: Completed
Book 049 --- Currently Reading
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Description: When missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters set off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium.
Status: Currently Reading