Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

It's always fun to listen to a book set in England because you get to hear the proper British accents. This book, by Helen Simonson, was full of proper British ideals that were being turned upside-down by the characters. Major Pettigrew is a man of high moral standards and all things properly white and British, and he finds himself falling in love with a lady from Pakistan.

I was impressed with the richness of detail in this book, and the characters were very interesting with their various quirks. It also was an interesting look into the 'country club society' clashing with the 'lower class.'

The Chosen One

This is a young adult book by Carol Lynch Williams, and I highly recommend it. The Chosen One is about teenage girl in a polygamous community. She has been chosen as a bride for her uncle who is 5o years older than she. The story tells of some of the awful things going on in her community, and then how she runs away and is caught. Parts of this story made my stomach turn because it describes some pretty graphic scenes, and it's just plain disturbing to think of a 13-year-old being forced into marriage. It's a fascinating look into the religious bondage that the fundamentalist LDS have gotten into and one girls' struggle to get away. This was fiction, but it's made me interested in reading some non-fiction, first-hand accounts about these people.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

With a name like that, you know the book is going to be entertaining. And it was. I laughed out loud many, many times--but also wanted to cry as parts of World War II were described.

I listened to this book while riding in the car, and it definitely made the miles pass faster. It's written as a series of letters from several different people, so listening to it you get the different voices and the British accents.

This book is written by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and is definitely worth reading.

The Last Song

I've read most of Nicholas Sparks's books, and I think this one is the best. It seemed to have a depth that the others don't have. His books are good for easy-to-read, sweet romances, but I was really impressed with The Last Song.

However, I read it a couple weeks ago, so I can't give you a very good description of it........but one of the things that was different from most of his books is that it was written from a younger perspective.

Has anyone else done any reading this summer? Am I really the only one?

The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer

This is a book that struck me with awe. I listened to it, and I don't usually listen to books this long because it's hard to keep my attention all the way through (it was 27 hours long), but The Invisible Bridge was really interesting, heart-breaking yet encouraging, and well written. Some of her descriptive language made me stop and say 'wow'--which is especially amazing because I have found I notice language a lot less when I'm listening than when I'm actually reading.

The book's narrator is a young Jewish man from Hungary, and it follows his family's story through the years leading up to and during World War II.

I can only find one other book by Orringer, and it's a collection of short stories, which I rarely read--but I was impressed enough with her writing that I might have to look into them.

The Invisible Bridge is definitely worth the time it takes to read.

Ally Carter

I highly recommend all of Ally Carter's books. I just finished listening to Heist Society and would read it again. Carter writes for young adults and keeps me entertained all the way through.

Heist Society is about a girl who is part of a family who steals art. She cheats her way into a boarding school because she wants to get away from the family 'business,' but when her dad is accused of stealing some art he didn't steal, she decides to steal the art from the man who stole it to return it to the owner--who really shouldn't have owned it anyway, but was threatening to kill her father if it wasn't returned. Makes total sense, doesn't it? But they are worth the waiting list that all of Carter's books are on in the audio portion of the library.

Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls

I loved The Glass Castle, but wasn't sure what I would think about the new Jeannette Walls, a story of her grandmother as a first person narrative. I ended up loving the book, even though I often get so depressed reading about the depression, the dust bowl, poverty, etc.

Walls does a fabulous job, as in Castle of showing and not telling. I didn't particularly like the main character, and often despised how she treated some people, especially the emotional development of her daughter (now i know how Rosemary ended up the mother she was portrayed in Castle.) I didn't agree with many of her philosophies in life, or some of the conclusions she came to or assumed about everyone. But i definitely got to know her, I felt as if I met a real person with an intriguing story, and recommend taking the time to read the story (and Walls memoir!)Tawn