New York with kleptomaniac Sasha and her boss, rising music producer Bennie Salazar, before flashing back, with Bennie, to the glory days of Bay Area punk rock, and eventually forward, with Sasha, to a settled life. This time-hopping narrative is extremely entertaining. The story skips back and forth in time and place. The voice moves from first person to third person and even to second. In the hands of a less skilled author, this story would not work. This does have a 'short story' feel to it which I don't care for but, overall, I really enjoyed this book and the creative writing style.Rating: 4.1 Good
Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life. I learned a lot about Cleopatra, that although her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties.
This is told in the form of the voice of a working-class woman with remarkable persuasiveness—through a letter from an enraged mother to Osama bin Laden. Cleave has an eye for detail and political commentary and throws in the perfect mix of a little parody and a little sex.
Two cousins reunite twenty years after a childhood prank gone wrong changed their lives and sent them on their separate ways. "Cousin Howie," the formerly uncool, strange, and pasty ("he looked like a guy the sun wouldn't touch") cousin has become a blond, tan, and married millionaire with a generous spirit. He invites his cousin Danny (who as an insecure teenager left him hurt and helpless in a cave for three days) to help him renovate an old castle in Germany. 
In this debut novel, a nostalgia that is "rich and sweet" belies the lingering bitterness of family tragedy. Natalie Ward is a thrice-married writer forced by the imminent death of her mother to return to the town she left. She recounts her golden childhood growing up on a busy farm "carved out of a narrow mountain valley deep in the Cascade Mountains." But when a handsome Vietnam War resister named River Jordon ambles up the family's dirt road in 1966 and offers his services as a farm hand, this innocent simplicity begins to curdle. This novel combines the Canadian setting and characters, blended with optimism, make it charming and reminiscent of Mark Spragg’s Where Rivers Change Direction in the wholesome farm life but, unfortunately it tries to pack in too much drama and ends up being a bit too syrupy. Overall though, it was still enjoyable if a bit fluffy in the writing style.
This is the 2nd in the Outland time-traveling series that captures the people and politics of a pivotal period in history--while turning up the heat between an appealing modern heroine and a magnetic romantic hero. It's now 1968, and Claire Beauchamp Randall has returned to Inverness, Scotland, with her daughter, Brianna. This is Claire's first visit back since she and husband Frank visited 22 years before--when she walked through a Druid stone circle into the middle of the 18th century. Now, Frank is dead, and Claire hopes to learn what happened to the great love of her life--gallant Jamie Fraser, laird of Lallybroch whom she married during her journey into the past. She's also looking for a way to tell Brianna who her real father is. Framed by these dilemmas, the bulk of the story consists of the second installment of Claire and Jamie's adventures. 
The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways--and with unexpected consequences. This book feels light and easy to read and yet I have sense of foreboding the whole time I am reading it (ok, it could be that the first chapter was about a young boy being rushed to the hospital by his father with his severed hand laying beside him!). Each chapter is engrossing and pulls you in more.
Rubin is not an unhappy woman: she has a loving husband, two great kids and a writing career in New York City. Still, she could-and, arguably, should-be happier. Thus, her methodical happiness project: spend one year achieving careful, measurable goals in different areas of life (marriage, work, parenting, self-fulfillment) and build on them cumulatively, using concrete steps (such as, in January, going to bed earlier, exercising better, getting organized, and "acting more energetic"). By December, she's striving bemusedly to keep increasing happiness in every aspect of her life. The outcome is good but not perfect.
Alton Richard's great-uncle Lester Trapp is rich and ailing, a combo that leads Alton's parents to hatch a plan for the teen to cozy up to the old man and carve out a chunk of inheritance. Though blind, Trapp is a brilliant, world-class bridge player and needs someone to read him his cards and make his plays. It is astonishing how Sachar can make blow-by-blow accounts of bridge not only interesting but exciting, treating each play like a clue to unravel the riddle of each hand. This is an intergenerational friendship and is sweetly appealing. It could almost make you interested in bridge!
debut thriller, set on Vancouver Island, pulsates with suspense that gets a power boost from the jaw-dropping but credible closing twist. In psychiatric sessions, Annie O'Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor with a nice boyfriend and a demanding mother, describes her year-long ordeal as the captive of a rapist. Annie was about to close up an open house for a property when a guy who introduced himself as David showed up. The intense plot alternates between Annie's creepy confinement, her escape, and her attempts to readjust to real life, from going to the bathroom when she wants to managing her own meals. Still, Annie knows that a large part of her soul is still missing. Her transformation from victim adds to the believability of the enthralling plot. As gritty as this was, it was a gripping read.
