My Favorite Things! A Book and Wine List

At the request of my employer/food partner-in-crime/the lady of the house Jackie, here is a list of fun, easy reads for the reader who likes a book to be quick, light, and not too depressing. She counts EAT,PRAY,LOVE, THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, and HARRY POTTER as some of her favorites, so I put together this list for the woman who likes to read but never has the time. Written for a slightly older audience than my other lists, I organized these books into two categories: the books to be paired with white wine, very breezy and fun and happily ended, and those to be consumed with a red wine, a bit deeper and darker while still enjoyable and easy to read. Cheers, ladies!


For Chardonnay – light and sweet:

• THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA by Lauren Weisberger: Even more shopping-envy fun than the movie, this story follows bright-eyed aspiring writer Andy Sachs through the cutthroat world of fashion magazines as she struggles to keep her personal life from going up in flames. Even if you’ve seen the Anne Hathaway/Meryl Streep version an embarrassing number of times, this is worth a read: it’s not as sad as the movie, but it is smarter and wickedly funny.

• WELCOME TO TEMPTATION by Jennifer Crusie: Even though she writes trade romance paperbacks, Crusie spins a fun and funny tale that even a literary reader can enjoy. This particular one is the story of an aspiring film producer and a local politician and includes a steamy scene with a pool table, but any of Crusie’s books are a sure bet for book escapism. Her books written with Bob Mayer, who usually writes crime fiction, are especially fun – who knew a man could write such convincing romance?

• THE NANNY DIARIES by Nicola Kraus and Emma Mclaughlin: A fun story about kids, love, and how annoying rich people can be, this book is one of the many that is much, much better than the movie. It pulls some strange literary attempts, like calling the family the “Xs”, but once you get past this quirk the book is mostly a ride of flirting, toddler antics, and just teeniest bit of self-discovery and realism. As long as you can stop picturing Scarlett Johansson as the much more likable character in the book, it’s a fun escape into the lives of the rich and ridiculous, with a narrator whose point of view is much closer to our own than to the people she works for.

• CERTAIN GIRLS by Jennifer Weiner: This is actually a sequel, but it is my favorite of Weiner’s all delightful books (and you don’t need to read the first one, though it’s good too). The story of a mother and her preteen daughter dealing with rules, dating, artistic fulfillment, marriage, and motherhood, this easy but real read is both enjoyable and honest. Weiner has said that she started writing because she wanted to read a story where the girl gets the guy and gets happy without changing how she looks or who she is – what’s not to like about that? ☺

• SOMETHING BORROWED by Emily Giffin: True to its bubble-gum-pink cover, this bubbly books is a fun ride of back-handed compliments, backstabbing friends, and really, really wanting something you really, really shouldn’t. When Rachel gets really drunk and sleeps with her best friend’s fiancé, what can she do? Especially when she really loves the guy, and really sort of hates her friend? I love the main character, and I love the suave, savvy way in which the book is written. This book reads like the life I sometimes wish I had, has the friends I’m glad I don’t, and features a tough situation I hope I’m never in.

For a red wine – a little more dry, a little darker:

• THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE by Audrey Niffeneger: The story of a man who spontaneously travels to different time, usually in his own life, is well-plotted, heart-felt, and heartbreaking. Not only is there the scientific/metaphysic problem of the time travel, but then there’s the girl, naturally: Clare, one of my favorite characters after Holden Caulfield. This is the best, most convincing, most real-feeling love I have ever read or seen – exactly the kind every girl would want. One can only hope one’s own is easier than the love of Clare and Henry. This book is heartbreaking, but it a good way.


• THE BEAN TREES by Barbara Kingsolver: The story of a young woman who adopts a Native American child she finds left in her car in a parking lot, this book has one of the strongest and most believable voices I’ve read since TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Quirky and endearing and smart, I love everything about this book, from the depiction of family to the inimitable Jax Thibadeaux to the bright, quiet young Turtle. If you like books with more heft or you just want to read a heartwarming family tale, you’ll enjoy this slim book. I wish Kingsolver would write this way more often.

• A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini: The better version of the famous KITE RUNNER that features girls instead of boys in war torn Afghanistan, it’s not your typical quick-read. It features death, destitution, and sexual abuse, but it also features love, hope, and such strong female characters that you can’t help but at least admire them. Though KITE RUNNER is more commonly recommended, SPLENDID SUNS is better. It’s about girls instead of boys, how could it not be? It’s a story of war and sadness, but also of motherhood and heart and female friendship. There’s nothing more universal than that.

• THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER by Kim Edwards: This book is sad, to be sure. But it also enlightening, enjoyable, and heartwarming. The story of a doctor father who makes a difficult choice when one of his twin babies is born with Down Syndrome, this features and honest and elegiacly clear picture of how a family can decompose. The characters are so believable, the imagery so close to home, and the decisions so simultaneously easy and hard to understand, I smiled though tears while reading this book I count as one of my all-time favorites.

• THE QUEEN’S FOOL by Phillipa Gregory: This is my favorite of the famous Gregory’s many books about the English Royal Court in Tudor England. The chronicle of Jewish exiles from Spain Hannah and her printmaker father, there is plenty of pain, love, sex, power, and royal intrigue in this pretty-covered tome. Gregory’s other books can be overlong and over-plotted, but this one is clean, powerful, and a delightful journey to read. With lush description, royal intrigue, and dashing rogues, this book is the perfect escape into the heady court of medieval England.

Books for...Miscellanea!

Greetings, latent bibliophiles! I know you are clamoring for this last installment of books for you to read while on top of mountains (the first three were originally part of a failed Books To Read Atop Everest section), in airports, in trees, wherever. These are all the books on my tattered brainstorming paper that didn’t make it into one of my more clever categories.

Lucky for you, this will not be my absolute last foray into the cutthroat world of telling people what books to read: I am working on a list of fun and breezy books for, uh, older readers. It is tentatively titled “To Be Paired With Chardonnay: Jackie Wood’s Fun List of Low-Stress Books for People Who Like Harry Potter and Eat, Pray, Love.” It should be finished and posted here in the next week or so. Cheers!

Anyway, here it goes:

BOOKS FOR…

…EVERYWHERE ELSE!

• INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer: The enlightening and difficult true story of a young man who leaves society to wander around the US in a car, then a canoe, then on foot, this book call into question the merits of traditional values and whether or not they can work for everyone. This would be a good book to read with a group: people receive the often painful story very differently whether they identify more with the son McCandless or his flawed and largely clueless parents. The movie is lovely and visually stunning, but the book is the more graceful and complete picture of a young man both brave and lost.

• THREE CUPS OF TEA by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin: The story of one man’s mission to found schools for children in rural Pakistan as a way to counteract anti-American and jihadist sentiment, this is a story of much adventure and more heart. I highly recommend it: as you can read here, the book had quite a deep effect on me.

• HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins: If you are ever skeptical of the merit of books written for young adults, read this one. Set in a quasi-apocalyptic future North America, this wry and kinetic read follows the government-mandated Games, a sporting event in which two youths from each area of the country fight in a wilderness arena until only one is left alive. This is a one-sitting read: keenly observed and disturbingly current, I just couldn’t put it down.

• THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls: My favorite memoir after Eat, Pray, Love, this honest, enlightening, and often painful story chronicles the writer’s highly dysfunctional family and childhood. Though she looks at her travails with humor and heart, this book made me so, so glad to be as boring as I am. It’s fun and easy to read, but the reader is still moved and learns something: the best kind of summer book.

• PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky: This funny, smart, and trippy (in more ways than one) read chronicles the high-school Charlie as he writes letters to an unknown recipient about the struggles and triumphs of his life as an American teenager. Featuring mix tapes, drug use, and other youthful antics, this book has more dark surprises than you would ever expect from its MTV Books publisher and the lime-green cover. One of the first books written specifically for young people that was loved by adult and lauded by critics, its cult following is richly deserved.

There you have it, dear readership! Thank you for following all 51-odd book suggestions, I hope you take a few and enjoy. And thank you also for visiting my site: according my handy-dandy free hit counter, nearly two hundred and thirty people have at least glanced at these brief bibliographic paragraphs. That’s awesome! I’m tickled that you all like books as much as I do. Please tell you friends and family about this list if you ever run out of books to suggest, and I am always open to starting it up again when you cross all these off of your “want-to-read” widget on your Facebook profile. Thanks again, cheers, and happy reading! Anna

Books for...Cute Shoes!

Second to last list, people! I hope you aren’t worried about running out of stuff to read. Fifty books in one summer is a good goal, eh? Just kidding. I know you’ll be lucky if have time to read, like, one. It counts so much that you even try.

Today’s section may have had you wondering. “Cute shoes?” You may have thought. “Why does my footwear influence my reading experience, Anna? You are large amounts of nonsense.” While that may be true, dear reader, I do have an explanation: these books are all about love, and it might want to make you fall in love, too. So you need to be prepared, looking your best! Wearing cute shoes! Of course, these books are equally enjoyable wearing no shoes paired with yesterday’s sweat pants. It just might not be as easy to attract your own Henry or Noah in that outfit. (I am not discriminating against the two guys who might look here for book suggestions when I list the books this way. I just think maybe you wouldn’t want to read these books, anyway.)

BOOKS FOR…

…CUTE SHOES!

• THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks: If you love the movie, you ought to read the fun, breezy book upon which it was based! And you can picture yourself as Ally, what could be better? It is just as sad and moving as the film, of course, but the back story is a bit more complex, as is the switching between two different times that happens in the movie. I read the entire book in one morning, but that’s the best part: I can read it over and over again without it losing any of its sweet power in no time at all.

• NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan: Anyone who has ever dreamed about having one epic night that changes her life will LOVE this book (which is infinitely better than the mediocre and manufactured teen pop-tart of a movie). Told in alternating voices between the girl and the guy, the story follows a fast-and-lose adventure through a nighttime New York City, in clubs and cabs and Polish diners. If I had to pick a book to live inside for one night only, this would be it.


• SWEETHEARTS by Sarah Zarr: The story of a teenage girl with a rocky past and a fragile psyche who reunites with a male childhood friend with whom she shared a traumatic event, this book is short, tart, and unexpected. Though I didn’t quite feel this way, a reader said of the boy in fan mail to the author, “I have fallen in love with a fictional character who isn’t Edward Cullen. He goes by the name of Cameron Quick.” More complex than you might expect from the saccharine cover art, this book is like the Sour Patch Kids version of an early Sarah Dessen book.

• IN HER SHOES by Jennifer Weiner: All of Weiner’s books are a smart, frothy delight, but this one is my favorite. The story of a hot-shot lawyer and her crazy younger sister, this is a great book about family, relationships, love, and getting what you want out of life. There is also a great movie based on this book – it could be a fun book club party to all read the book and then watch the movie together. And they both feature fabulous shoes!

• THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE by Audrey Niffeneger: For a long, long time, this was my favorite book. OF ALL THE BOOKS IN THE WORLD. (I know I haven’t read all the books in the world. But I’ve read a lot more than a lot of people, so it still says something). That is high, high praise. The story of a man who spontaneously travels to different time, usually in his own life, is well-plotted, heart-felt, and heartbreaking. Not only is there the scientific/metaphysic problem of the time travel, but then there’s the girl, naturally: Clare, one of my favorite characters after Holden Caulfield. This is the best, most convincing, most real-feeling love I have ever read or seen – exactly the kind every girl would want. One can only hope one’s own is easier than the love of Clare and Henry.

• For more cute-shoes reading, try THE NANNY DIARIES by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin and 21 PROMS edited by David Levithan

Thanks again for going on this intrepid journey o’ pages with me, reader people! Next time is our last post (second to last! ☺Oh, I miss Darwin), so get your fill of quirky book selections right here right now. I mean, I’m going to leave this site up so you can visit it any time (and so your friends can visit it any time, or your family, or your mom…). Just…thanks. Yeah. Last post:

BOOKS TO READ…

…THAT DID NOT FIT ON ALL MY OTHER LISTS!

Books for...A High School Football Field!

Hi, readers! I hope you had a great weekend from cover to cover. My plan is to get this list to fifty books – that’s two more posts after this one – and then leave you all to your reading. Thanks for looking here for suggestions. When you’ve read them all, just let me know and I’d love to start posting again.


Today’s books are best read on a high school football field (don’t tell me you’ve never tried this: it’s outside. It’s sunny. It’s where I spent lunch my entire senior year. Just watch out for the security guards – they get suspicious of people with actual books). These reads are nostalgic, fun, frothy, and girly, but they are also deep, heartfelt, and sometimes painful – just like high school. If you’re wishing your biggest problem was still trying to tell if your lab partner likes you or not, pick up one of these books. It will help you remember how much fun you had in school, and make you glad that you don’t have to deal with that drama and agony any more.

BOOKS FOR...

...A HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD!

• PROM by Laurie Halse Anderson: This book is about a girl from a poor neighborhood with way more problems than a teen girl should have to deal with. With Anderson’s classic clear-eyed no-gloss writing style, this takes the girl-wants-perfect-prom fairy tale and put it a world that feels very real. Anderson’s other books TWISTED and SPEAK are also excellent portrayals of high school that trade the trite conventions you usually find in books about high school and instead have real, flawed characters a reader can believe in and root for.

• SLOPPY FIRSTS by Megan McCafferty: This books is like my friends in high school: way smarter than anyone expected, believed, or really felt comfortable with. The story of straight-A student-scholar-athlete Jessica Darling, it follows her various foibles with depression, schools, her parents, sex, drugs, and one Marcus Flutie with an unblinking, uncompromising authenticity that is rare, and so welcome in this dark era of “vampire” “romances.” There is not a girl who has been to high school in the US in the last fifty years who doesn’t recognize some of herself in Jessica, and McCafferty’s fans are famous for saying that they are Jess Darling (yeah, whatever. There are die-hards.). The first of five equally fun and moving books in the series, this is a necessary book whose ease of reading hides its depth of vision and heart. (And I’ve met the author. She’s really cool.)

• INSIDE THE MIND OF GIDEON RAYBURN by Sarah Miller: If you have ever ad a crush on a boy, you will enjoy this book. More light-hearted than the first two selections, this is the quasi-mystery tale of boarding school, girls, boys, and first loves. And if you’re in the mood to be happy, it doesn’t spoil too much to tell you that this one, at least, has a happy ending.

• THE ASTONISHING ADVENTURES OF FANBOY AND GOTH GIRL by Barry Lyga: I read this book in one (long) sitting, in the best possible way. The characters are so endearingly strange, I just couldn’t put it down. A story of depression, artistic endeavor, love, friendship, believing in yourself, and comic conventions, it’s kind of like Paper Towns Lite if Q was a comic book nerd/hermit. This also has one of the most authentic (to my very spoiled ear) portrayal of step-family situations in any book, YA or otherwise. A quirky, squirmy, and moving read, your inner nerd will love this book, no matter how well that inner nerd is hidden.

• KEY TO THE GOLDEN FIREBIRD by Maureen Johnson: Like another of the lovely Johnson’s books I recommended a few posts previously, this book is also unexpected. When their beloved father dies, the three sisters in this Philadelphia family have to deal with everything: their mom, school, boys, alcohol, depression, softball, etc. Johnson portrays the three very different girls with unique personalities and authentic young voices, which so surprised me: this was the first book of hers I read, and I admit I was expecting a sort of Au Pairs/The Clique sappy amalgamation. I was so, so wrong! This book is smart and sad and a fun read to anyone who has ever felt over their heads in school, in family matters, or in life.

Thanks again for reading, people! Two more posts, and I’m done – for now. Next time:

BOOKS TO READ…

…IN CUTE SHOES!

Books for...A Protest!

In honor of my attempts to be an informed citizen, my chronic stick-it-to-the-man-eosis, and my new obsession with HAIR, today’s books are all about social change, civil unrest, peace, war, and other things that get people all riled up. So counteract the summer brain cell depletion, pick up one of these sometimes inspiring, sometimes disturbing novels and get passionate – agree, disagree, whatever. If there’s one thing these books are sure to make a reader do, it’s feel something – you just can’t be exactly sure how you’ll feel about these controversial reads until you reach the back cover. (Apologies for the non-sequitor image. In the absence of a good photo of a hippie reading a book, I opted for the epitome in nerd glasses – something I’d protest in favor of!)

BOOKS TO READ…

…AT A PROTEST!

• THE READER by Bernhardt Schlink: Though I haven’t seen the movie, I count this book, originally written in German, as one of the most moving and question-inspiring books I’ve read in a long, long time. There are so many issues here: age and love, age and sex, guilt, circumstance, leadership, atrocity, secret, justice, and so many more. Told from the perspective of an older man, this book covers the affair he narrator had with a older woman when he was a young teen, and then her trial for heinous crimes years later when the narrator is a law student. The most compelling question this book asks of the reader: do we ever really know the people we love? Do we ever really know anyone?

• JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo: A smart, savvy book written about World War I for which the author was blacklisted and exiled to Mexico, this is close to the best anti-war argument I’ve ever heard. It was a pioneering exercise in the stream-of-consciousness style: if you like James Frey’s style, you will love Trumbo’s. It’s essentially about an extreme quadriplegic, but it is action filled, scary, and moving. Visceral, grim, heartfelt, and powerful, this book cuts no one any slack: even in the last action of the book, the book’s outlook on people is unflinchingly unsympathetic – but also unapologetically true.

• THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O’Brien: The genre is certainly over-done, but this is the best book about war I have ever read. And I do NOT like books about war. The tale of a group of Vietnam soldiers both during the war and after, this is what Apocalypse Now would be if it had the smarts and emotion to be a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Like a friendlier Hemingway with none such romantic sympathies, O’Brien crafts characters that will haunt the reader just like the emotional events he chronicles haunt his characters. A deep and important book – and for summer, a quite ambitious one.

• FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser: Before the craze of books and movies about food and its supposed origins, there was this book. Not a novel, as the movie based upon this non-fiction quasi-expose seems to imply, it is the immediate and emotional story of all that goes into the world of fast food: from the corporations to the undocumented workers, from the cattle cruelty to the science behind the flavors. It is both informative and disgusting, and be warned: I have honestly not eaten a meal at any of the “restaurants” mentioned in this book since I read it nearly four years ago. It’s that persuasive.

• LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold: I didn’t want to read this book at first. A girl who gets raped and murdered, I thought, no thank you. And it’s told from her perspective? When she’s DEAD? Not so much. But gave it a second chance, and it was well worth it: this is an innovative, artistic, and moving novel about youth, love, contentment, and family. Though I still have issues with one scene at the end, I love these characters, the sister Lindsay especially. This is a book to make you think certainly, a book that makes you question, but also a book that makes you laugh, cry, and believe. My favorite line, just one of lots of powerful language: “Our only kiss was like an accident: a beautiful gasoline rainbow.”

Thanks for picking up a book and making me believe in the world, friends! I hope you enjoy a few of my selections. As always, I’d love to hear from you. Peace! Next installment:

BOOKS TO READ…

…IN A FIELD!

Books for...The Seaside!

Greetings faithful travelers of pages! I trust you are finding out, as I am, that adventures through books are the cheapest and best way to inject excitement into your (hopefully not) boring life.

Today’s books are like sun with sea and sand: frothy, fun, and easy to like. They are happy while still being interesting, and have enough conflict to keep you interested, while not enough to ruin your mood. Perfect with a big sun hat and a fruity umbrella drink, these bubbly books are best loved and loaned.

BOOKS TO READ…

…AT THE BEACH!

• THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER by Sarah Dessen: One of my favorite from the brilliant Dessen (her new book ALONG FOR THE RIDE comes out next week), this story features a protagonist you want to root for, a mom you’re glad you don’t have, a job you wish you did, and a boy you wish you could. What could be bad? ☺ It has more substance than you might think (or might want, really, for the beach), but it has so much innovation and heart. All of Dessen’s books are good: some of my other favorites are THIS LULLABY and KEEPING THE MOON.

• THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS by Anne Brashares: If you are one of the seven girls under the age of twenty-five who haven’t yet read this book, get on it! It is even better than the fun, bright movie based on it. Told from alternating perspectives of four best friends, this books takes readers from Greece to Maryland, from Mexico to South Carolina, and every predicament in between. This is one of the more eloquent and artistic books about teens I’ve read, featuring true and heartfelt portrayals of love, relationships, loss, betrayal, and all the rest of wide, wide spectrum of girls’ emotions. In this book they are about sixteen, but the entirely enjoyable rest of the series follows them through the end of college.

• AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by John Green: This is the fun, funny, witty, and moving story of a wannabe prodigy, his broken heart, and his obese Muslim friend Hassan taking a road trip from Chicago and the adventures that ensue. The most underrated of Green’s novel (which are all, in a word, awesome), it features thousands of footnotes, twenty-seven Katherines, several meals at Hardy’s, many hilarious mishaps, one secret cave, and one trip to a tampon factory. This book can make you laugh out loud and make you cry, in a good way: it helps to reader look at the world around her in a new and different way.

• THE BERMUDEZ TRIANGLE by Maureen Johnson: This story follows three friends through a summer of jobs, summer school, boys, and many changes. If you’ve read Maureen Johnson’s other books from my lists, you might expect this book to be fun, witty, humorous, and enjoyable, and it is all those things. But this book has an edge and a moving twist that you might not expect (unless you are my friend Chelsea, who predicts everything).

• SOMETHING BORROWED by Emily Giffin: True to its bubble-gum-pink cover, this bubbly books is a fun ride of back-handed compliments, backstabbing friends, and really, really wanting something you really, really shouldn’t. When Rachel gets really drunk and sleeps with her best friend’s fiancé, what can she do? Especially when she really loves the guy, and really sort of hates her friend? I love the main character, and I love the suave, savvy way in which the book is written. This book reads like the life I sometimes wish I had, has the friends I’m glad I don’t, and features a tough situation I hope I’m never in.

Happy sunbathing, readers! Thanks for your continued support! Next time:

BOOKS TO READ…

…AT A PROTEST!

Books for...A Castle!

Avast, thou readerly folk! Dost thou liketh thine books? Eth?

Today’s books are good when you want to get away from it all – really, really far away from it all, like into another time, or another world. Full of fairies (some), fortunes (more), and fine fellows (all), these books make me want to jump on my black stallion and gallop across the moors on an epic adventure.

BOOKS TO READ…

…IN A CASTLE!

• CITY OF BONES by Cassandra Clare: The first book in the MORTAL INSTRUMENTS trilogy that is really a collective novel (you really shouldn’t read just one – they are so much better all together), this is the story of a girl in modern-day New York City who discovers that she’s part of a whole other world of demons, shadows, and other creatures that her mother has been purposefully hiding her. As Clary learns about this new world and it competes with her old world, there is – of course! – a dangerous and vital battle in her future. Scary, fun, witty, and moving, this book features one of the most tantalizing guy characters I have ever read in Jace Wayland. If you like him, you must read the next two books, as well!

• PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follet: This book is epic in every sense of the word: the years-long arc of the building of a cathedral in a town in medieval England, it is several hundred pages long (okay, fine, it’s 973). Don’t be scared, though! It is a heart-filling tale, with important and delightful portrayals of love, greed, power, family, grief, and faith. It walks a fine line between literary and popular fiction: it is enjoyable, simply written, and easy to read, but I cried while reading it, and it’s hard to forget. It is good to read if you are ever actually near castles, too: the book was inspired by Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England.

• THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE PINK CARNATION by Lauren Willig: This is the first in a whole series of books about women who were spies at important times in world history, without anyone having a clue. Told both from the present through a female historian and from the past, these books are fun, sexy, and even a little informative about history, if not everything is factual. Fiction is way more fun than fact, anyway!

• THE QUEEN’S FOOL by Phillipa Gregory: This is my favorite of the famous Gregory’s many books about the English Royal Court in Tudor England. The chronicle of Jewish exiles from Spain Hannah and her printmaker father, there is plenty of pain, love, sex, power, and royal intrigue in this pretty-covered tome. Gregory’s other books can be overlong and over-plotted, but this one is clean, powerful, and a delightful journey to read.

• WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr: Set in a present day city, this books (and its fabulous sequels) follows Aislinn’s journey as she learns about the evil world of fairies of which she has an important role she never knew existed. I swear it is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than CITY OF ASHES – the language is much more artsy and the story itself is less closely plotted. There are many hot guys and some cool fashions, and the book is short: a sharp, quick read that might make you look at a few people differently.

Yet again, feedback is encouraged! I’d also love tips from you, if you know of any books I should read and consider including in future lists. Thank you for taking the time to come here and consider reading any of these great books, and THANK YOU for reading anything at all, period! Best wishes!

When we meet again…

BOOKS TO READ…

…ON THE BEACH!