Here are some books on my recently read list:
James Patterson - Cross Fire (Detective Alex's Cross's wedding plans are put on hold when he is called to the scene of a perfectly executed assasination of a dirty congressman and underhanded lobbyis.)
Bill Holman - The Scandal Plan: Or How To Win The Presidency By Cheating On Your Wife (a presidential hopeful is getting battered in the polls because he is such a straight arrow, so a political guru revitalizes his image with a fake sex scandal)
Chris Bohjalian - Skeletons At The Feast (in Nazi Germany German refugees struggle westward ahead of the advancing Russian army)
Ryu Murakami - Piercing (a spare tale of two people who find each other and then are forced into hurting each other deeply because of the haunting spector of their own abuse as children) *** recommended
Steven Tyler - Does The Noise In My Head Bother You? (the autobiography of Aerosmith frontman, it's amazing the man is still alive)
Kate Atkinson - When Will There Be Good News (a six year old girl is the only survivor of a knife attack that leaves her mother and two siblings dead) *** recommended
Keith Richards - Life (autobiography of the guitarist for the Rolling Stones, audiobook narrated by Johnny Depp and Keith Richards)
Carl Hiassen - Star Island (22 year old Cherry Pye nee Cheryl Bunterman is about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug and alcohol disaster)
Jodi Picoult - The Pact: A Love Story (a 17 year old is shot to death by her boyfriend as part of an apparent suicide pact, leaving their families devastated)
David Nicholls - One Day (snapshots of a 20 year relationship revealed on the same day each year as the couple faces laughter and tears, hopes and missed opportunities)
Carolyn Parkhurst - The Dogs of Babel: A Novel (when his wife dies in a fall from a tree in their backyard, the husband tries to teach their dog, the only witness, to communicate to find out what really happened) *** recommended
Tatiana de Rosnay - A Secret Kept (by the author of Sarah's Key, a brother and sister return to the island where their mother died after 30 years and discover a family secret shrouded by taboo) *** recommended
Lisa See - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2 girls in 19th century China become "old sames" at the age of 7, and as the years pass, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood) *** recommended
Vanessa Diffenbaugh - The Language of Flowers: A Novel (after a childhood spent in the foster-care system, a girl cannot get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings) *** recommended
Kinky Friedman - Ten Little New Yorkers: A Novel (in Greenwich Village a murderer is methodically killing off unsuspecting Manhattan men)
Dinaw Mengestu - How To Read The Air (leaving behind a marriage and job in New York City, the son of Ethiopian immigrants tries to weave together his family's history) *** recommended
Janet Evanovich - Smokin' Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel (the continuing adventures of bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty lot of her former workplace)
John Shors - The Wishing Trees (a man takes his 10 year old daughter on a trip across Asia, something he and his late wife had planned to do and was then his dying wife's last wish)
Benjamin Wallace - The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine (the true story of 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux, supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson, which sold at auction for $156,000)
Candice Millard - The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Medicine, Madness, and the Murder of a President (the story of President James Garfield, who was shot in the back by an assassin, but actually died from a series of shockingly archaic medical treatments administered by a team of physicians)
Susan Orleans - Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend (the story of movie star Rin Tin Tin who was born on a battlefield in France during World War I and later starred in 23 blockbuster silent films and saving Warner Brothers from bankruptcy; at the height of his popularity Rinty was Hollywood's #1 box office star)
Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus (the circus is the setting for a duel between two young magicians who fall headfirst into love)
Robert Greenfield - The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun (the story of Ahmet Ertegen, founder of Atlantic Records who produced Crosby, Stills & Nash, Buffalo Springfield, Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and countless other mega groups)
John Grisham - The Litigators (a two-bit law firm specializing in ambulance chasing try to find fame and fortune by suing Varrick Labs which make a cholesterol drug that may cause deaths from heart attacks)
Happy reading!! So many books, so little time.............
