'Superpowers' by David J. Schwartz

ISBN: 0307394409
Format: Paperback, 384pp
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Pub. Date: June 2008
Price: $14.95

(Note: this cover is the UK one. I just like it better)

The big question with this one is: Do you have to be a comics fan to get it? Easy answer: No you don’t. But it helps. Reading this novel you can tell the author is a huge fan. Big names like The Hulk, Spider Man, and Batman are dropped pretty early on and a conversation with a comic book store clerk confirms the fandom. But even if you aren’t into the graphic side of life there’s a good chance you’ll find something to like about David J. Schwartz's Superpowers.

“It all started with a party, which is damn convenient if you ask me, and if this weren’t a true story I wouldn’t expect you to believe it.” Marcus Hatch, an ex-reporter for his college paper with a bent toward conspiracy theories, writes in his introduction. He’s the one who recounts the tale of five collage students who suddenly find life holds more than they thought it could. In Wisconsin, on a street called Mifflin, a group of average collage kids get together to celebrate the end of term. The five settle into their home brewed beers never expecting that they will wake up the next morning and everything will have changed.

All five wake up with a superpower. Jack, a farm kid going to school full time and working, brewed the beer and wakes up with speed. Charlie, who has a crush on his neighbor Caroline and always seems to be worrying about something, wakes up with the power of telepathy. Caroline, the flirt that has caught Charlie’s attention, can now fly. Harriet, dedicated to the school paper and her love of music, can now turn invisible at will. Last but not least is Mary Beth who wakes up with super strength, a power that fits her best because out the whole group she could use it the most.

What these five discover is that having superpowers isn’t all fun and games. Each character has hardships and obstacles that they must face and overcome before they can grow and truly understand themselves and the gift they’ve been given. They have to decide if they should keep this to themselves or do some good with it by sharing with the world.

Superpowers will definitely hook you if you’re a 15 and up guy. There’s drinking and some sexual situations so this isn’t a book I’d pass off to anyone younger. And the writing is styled to hit the older market for young adults and beyond. It’s bittersweet, a lesson buried in there if you want to look about morality and responsibility, and if not the story is entertaining and unusual.

We’ve all heard the old adage ‘write what you know’ and to an extent Schwartz has done that. Sure he might not have the superpowers (or does he?) but he lived on Mifflin Street (where the characters live) and spent a lot of time in the area he based his novel around. You can feel that while reading, that this is a real place and real time and that maybe, just maybe, this could really happen.

'Making Money' by Terry Pratchett

ISBN: 0061161640
Format: Hardcover, 384pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Price: $25.95

Moist Von Lipwig is the original con man. He’s so good at it that he’s conned the entire city of Ank-Morpork into believing he’s honest and trustworthy. The thing is that they believe in him even though he keeps telling them they shouldn’t! After all, Ank-Morpork loves a good show. In Going Postal Moist took over the dying Ank-Morpork postal service and turned into a jewel of the city. So when the Royal Bank of Ank-Morpork falls on some hard times the obvious choice is the man in the Golden Suit.

Lord Vetinari, in a very Vetinari move, lets Moist maneuver himself into the job; a job that Moist is convinced he doesn’t necessarily want. But lately the Post Office just hasn’t felt the same and Moist is missing that zing from life that lets him know he’s alive. It doesn’t help that his fiancé, Adore Belle Dearheart or Spike for short, is away hunting Golems. With her gone Moist has resorted to Extreme Sneezing and picking all the locks in the Post Office building in the dark to get that zing.

But once Moist takes over the Royal Bank life is crackling again. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him if he’s going to convince the city that paper money is just as good as gold. Especially when the bank vaults turn out to be empty and oh-so-serious Mr. Bent, manger of the bank, decides that Moist isn’t the right kind of man for the job. With Cosmo Lavish, part owner of the bank, dreaming of being Vetinari and a man from Moist’s dark past creeping up from behind, Moist has a lot on his plate.

There are always a few supporting characters that steal the show. I’ve always been partial to the Igors when they show up, in whatever incarnation, and of course the Golems. In Making Money my hands down favorite was Mrs. Lavish. How fantastic is a gin-swilling, silver-cross-bow-toting old woman? Fantastic I tell you! Of course the Chairman was good too. How can you not love a dog that is partial to the kind of goodies kept in a bedside drawer? My one complaint with this whole wonderful book is that I felt Pratchett could have gone into more detail with the Royal Mint and the men who actually make the money, The Men of the Sheds. Instead these aspects were glossed over, mystery hinted at but never uncovered. I hate to complain (says the complainer) but I wanted more damnit! More!

However when I’m feeling a bit down and need a laugh I pick up my well loved paperback copy of (insert title here). You can’t go wrong with any of the Discworld novels. But, like his characters, Prachett is well rounded. He’ll make you laugh and think, possibly even tear up before a book ends. (Usually with laughter) Pratchett uses his humor to comment on the world today and the relevant issues we face. But he’s never preachy about it and he doesn’t let it get in the way of a good story.

If you are going to read Terry Pratchett for the first time I wouldn’t start with Making Money. You’ll get more out of this title if you’ve read Going Postal (especially since both books contain the same set of characters) and you’d get even more out of it if you’ve read the rest of the Discworld series.

'The Thirty-Nine Steps' by John Buchan

ISBN: 0141033738
Format: Paperback, 148pp
Publisher: Viking Penguin
Price: $10.00

First published in 1915, The Thirty-Nine Steps is John Buchan’s first book in which Richard Hannay has one of his many adventures. This newest edition is part of Penguin’s Great Books for Boys collection, which focuses on celebrating the adventurer within every boy. It’s not just boys who have an inner adventurer. The series, whether you’re young or old, male or female, will appeal to those who enjoy a thrilling edge-of-your-seat read.

Set just four weeks before World War I, The Thirty-Nine Steps is the story of Richard Hannay and his entanglement with international spies and a German plot to steal British military secrets. He is bored with London life and is considering moving on when he meets his seemingly normal upstairs neighbor. The man, who begs to be let into his apartment, soon tells a tale too grand to be a lie.

He is an American spy with knowledge of an assassination to take place on June 15th and that will rock Europe. Upon hearing the truth in the man’s words, Richard decides to help him. When he arrives home one evening to discover the spy’s body with a knife sticking through the heart, Richard realizes how entangled he has become. With one man murdered and the killers after him, Richard decides to run - and stay on the run until the 15th comes around so he can try to prevent the murder of another innocent man.

Through the wilds of Scotland, Richard is chased by a dark, unknown enemy, as well as his own country’s police. Between frantic chase scenes and thrilling escapes, Richard tries to unlock the secrets held in the murdered American spy’s diary. The diary is the key to it all, and Richard could save the day if only he could discover what “the thirty-nine steps” means before it’s too late.

One of the things I loved so much about this book was the feel for the era. It helps that it was written about the time the novel took place. I just don’t think, no matter how meticulously you do your research, that a modern author could have hit the same chords or achieved the same feeling. From the language and settings to the places and people, The Thirty-Nine Steps is perfect entertainment.

The book is short, just 160 pages, and you’ll want to read it all in one go. From the moment you first meet Richard as he becomes embroiled in a plot that covers nations, you just can’t put the book down. Honestly, why would you want to?

'Charlie All Night' by Jennifer Crusie

ISBN: 077832107X
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 256pp
Publisher: Mira
Price: $5.99

I picked Charlie All Night up in a used bookstore for cheap. I just found myself unable to say no and I’m so glad that I lack self control, otherwise I would have missed out on this wonderful lighthearted romp.

When radio producer Allie McGuffey gets demoted from her prime time spot and moved to the graveyard shift it seems as if her career and life are over. It doesn’t help that the talent for the radio spot she had been producing happens to now be an ex-boyfriend and the woman moving into her old job his new girlfriend.

When Mark, handsome but too full of himself, tries to make nice with Allie after ruining her job, Allie does the only thing a girl can do. She picks up a random guy in a bar hoping that Mark will get the picture and leave. But the random guy Allie latches onto just happens to be the new graveyard shift talent she will be producing.

There is more than meets the eye with Charlie. As far as the station is concerned he’s temporary, a fill in until someone else comes along. But he isn’t there just to fill the airwaves; Charlie is also there investigating an anonymous letter sent to the station owner. But before he can get down to that he’s got to learn how to work the control panel and get a show going. All he has to do is lay low and keep his ears open. Allie has other plans however.

As Allie and Charlie’s relationship heats up she is also bound and determined to make him a star. So what starts out as a below the radar late night radio show soon becomes a political mine field as Charlie unearths one secret after another. Along the way there are fantastic one-liners, witty dialogue, fun characters and a happy ending. What more could you ask for?

Charlie All Night is just plain frothy fun. You aren’t going to make any life choices here or face something deep down inside. What you will do is escape for a little while into a funny, slightly wacky romance that will make you smile. Everyone could use a little Charlie.

'An Infamous Army' by Georgette Heyer

ISBN: 1402210078
Format: Paperback, 436pp
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
Price: $14.95

An Infamous Army, originally published in 1937, is centered around the famous battle of Waterloo, the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars. This historical novel gives you an amazingly detailed account of the final battle in which Wellington and his allied forces lost 22,000 of their troops and the French losses totaled over 25,000. Leading up to that point Georgette Heyer (1902-1974), author of over 50 novels set in the Regency period, paints a vivid picture of life in Brussels, a city that is just a few miles away and living life to the fullest with the threat of war looming on the horizon.

The novel takes its title from a famous quote of Wellington’s, “I have an infamous army; very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced staff.” But despite this crusty remark the battle was won, and the war was won with this infamous army of his.

Lady Barbara Childe, Bab for short, is as gorgeous as she is wicked. A widow known to be rather infamous herself, Bab is referred to as ‘the incomparable, the dashing, the fatal Barbara’ because wherever she goes she leaves a trail of broken hearts in her wake. But despite this, or because of it, Colonel Charles Audley, Wellington’s aid-de-camp, falls madly in love with her at first sight and soon proposes.

With the backdrop of the coming war Bab and Charles announce their engagement to the disbelief of many, including Charles’s sister Judith, though it is not a surprise to her husband, Lord Worth. As the weeks pass and Napoleon marches closer, Bab cannot seem to drop the wild aspects of her personality. She does everything she wishes, everything that exposes herself and her newly betrothed Charles to gossip, including almost breaking up the marriage of the close friend of the Worth family.

But Lady Barbara, as the reader and Charles know, has a good heart beneath all her wild behavior. She is a strong character, likable and vibrant. Charles in turn is everything you would expect of an English gentleman and the interaction between the two is delightful. When the battle finally does break out, Bab rises to the occasion, doing everything she can helping wounded men and showing a strength and gentleness of character you always knew was there.

From the beginning to the end, what makes An Infamous Army so easy to read is the flawless style. Each moment is brought out and shown to the reader in all it’s brutal glory. Every episode is mesmerizing: The men leaving a ball when the news arrives that Napoleon is just a few miles away, the soldiers forming their ranks and calling out their battle cry, the sound of the cannons heard for the first time by the residents of Brussels, and even the small conflicts between the characters as they must learn to live with or without each other.

Never has history been more exciting than within the pages of An Infamous Army. The social drama with its romance lightens the almost overwhelming details of which general commands which regiment, troop movements, and battle strategies. The final chapters dedicated to the battle itself are horrific as well as heart-wrenching as the deaths of the soldiers and their horses are described. I have never read a better or more powerful piece of historical fiction.

'The Reincarnationist' A Novel of Suspense by M.J. Rose

ISBN: 0778324206
Format: Hardcover, 464pp
Publisher: Mira Books
Price: $24.95

With the The Reincarnationist, M.J. Rose has crafted a novel that is as interesting as it is entertaining. The idea of reincarnation is the backdrop in this thrilling story that blends mystery and suspense together for a gripping read. M.J. Rose has studied and based her story as much as possible on fact; she even provides a reading list once you've finished her haunting novel.

When we first meet Josh Ryder, a photographer on assignment in modern Rome, he is on the verge of surviving a terrorist explosion. Josh witnesses a security guard arguing with a woman pushing a stroller when his world disappears in a bright flash of light. He survives, barely, but the bombing changes everything about his life. Suddenly he can remember past life experiences; a pagan priest in Ancient Rome and a young man in the 1900's of New York City are suddenly tantalizingly familiar to him.

With his present in ruins Josh has become obsessed with figuring out a past that haunts him. He becomes a member of the Phoenix Institute, a group of researchers that collect evidence of past life experiences from children. One of more prominent members, Malachai, offers to help him in return for his services as a photographer. Josh becomes a sort of pet project for Malachai, who has never had past life experience himself and to a certain extent is jealous of Josh.

As a member of the Phoenix Institute Josh returns to Rome less than a year after the explosion to photograph a freshly discovered tomb. In the tomb are the mummified remains of a woman, a Vestal Virgin, who Josh remembers. She is the woman who has been haunting him and in a flash of memory he knows her name and remembers her scent. But who was Sabina?

Julius is the priest from Ancient Rome whose life Josh has been remembering. With those memories comes Sabina. Lovely and vivacious Sabina, even as a memory, over shadows all other women for Josh. Julius, however, is living in a time when Christianity is overthrowing the pagan religions that Rome has lived with for so long, and he has found a little happiness in Sabina's arms. Despite that, Josh feels as if there is some tragedy tinting these episodes.

Through the tomb Josh meets Gabriella Chase, a woman he is drawn to, and he wonders if she has some connection to his past. When the tomb is robbed of a precious artifact that can help a man remember his past, Josh is pulled into the race to recover it.

As the story unfolds the connections between the past and the present are revealed. M.J. Rose uses the idea that we reincarnate to make right the mistakes of previous lives to propel her characters forward; to make connections where someone else might only see coincidence. As a result, The Reincarnationist is an unforgettable novel that will leave you with questions about the mysteries of the soul.

'Sparkles' by Louise Bagshawe

ISBN: 0452288142
Format: Paperback, 512pp
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Price: $14.00

Sparkles is the kind of thing you read when you should be reading classics. It's the mediocre TV you watch when you tell your friends you were improving your mind by watching documentaries. It's an escape from your own troubles into the realm of retail.

When the head of the Massot family disappears into the night he leaves his family wondering what happened. Pierre was the head of one of the great jewelry companies in Paris, wheeling and dealing, a sharp business man with a good eye he had built an empire. He left behind his timid English wife, a son that grows up to be a rather spoiled young man, his mother who loves to terrorize his wife, and a handful of mistresses. All of these characters are left wondering what happened and why.

It's hard to like some of them. I realize that might have been the point, but I detested Pierre Massot in particular. He has several mistresses, not all of whom know about the rest, and a young, meek wife waiting in the wings, whom all of the before-mentioned mistresses hate. Tom, Pierre's son, is much like his father. When we are first introduced to him, Tom's wondering if maybe he keeps too many women but decides that what they don't know won't hurt them. He's also furious with his mother for declaring his father dead, even though Pierre's been gone for seven years.

Hugh Montfort is working for a rival jewelry house and just happens to be good looking as well as smart. He's the complete package, but has put aside his personal life in favor of his professional. Hugh is famous for pouring his entire being into his work and the bigger and tougher the project, the more he enjoys it. But when he meets Sophie, his rival in the jewelry world, he beings to wonder if maybe he's made the wrong choice despite his broken-hearted past.

On the other side of all these strong masculine men is Sophie. In the beginning she's a door mat for her husband and Katherine, her mother-in-law. Katherine hates Sophie with a biting passion and the heat of her dislike only intensifies once Sophie has Pierre declared dead. Sophie, refusing to let her mother-in-law grind her down, steps up and takes her rightful place at the head of her late husband's jewelry company. A choice which surprises Judy Dean, a money-hungry former mistress of Pierre's, who still works for the company.

All of the characters' lives are connected in some way to Pierre and his actions. Why did he walk out seven years ago leaving behind his business? What are the connections in Russia? What is Katherine hiding? Will Sophie be successful as she negotiates the minefields of the business world? What happened in Hugh's past? Will Judy finally get what she wants? I feel like I should be telling you to tune in next week for the amazing conclusion.

Louise Bagshawe has adapted some of her novels for films in Hollywood and I can understand why they transfer to the screen so well. Sparkles is the kind of thing you would expect to see on the big screen with some hot starlet in the leading role or late in the afternoon as a made for TV movie. A story filled with beautiful clothes, glittering jewelry, and gorgeous people. If you get bored with those, there is a healthy dose of ambition and betrayal thrown in for good measure. Sparkles is a soap opera and if you enjoy that sort of thing you will not be disappointed.

'The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets' by Eva Rice

ISBN: 0452288096
Format: Paperback, 368pp
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Price: $14.00

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is a wonderful book. I stayed up late into the night, consumed by the story, which is so brilliantly told I could not put it down until I had turned the final page. What I found between the covers is a great deal more than what the synopsis leads you to believe the book will be about. It is so much more than just “fashionable parties and romantic entanglements in 1950s London.”

Penelope, who never takes the bus, is waiting at a bus stop when a girl walks up and demands who among the small crowd would like to share a taxi with her. Penelope agrees and slides into the taxi with this strange girl who introduces herself as Charlotte. Penelope, for just a moment, thinks about how if her life were a novel this moment would be a turning point, which of course it is. Delighted that Penelope has accepted her invitation to share the taxi, and knowing she would all along, Charlotte takes Penelope to have tea with her Aunt Clare and Cousin Harry.

Aunt Clare, in her sixties, is a beauty still, and with Charlotte‘s help is in the middle of writing her tell-all autobiography. Aunt Clare is just as delighted with Penelope as Penelope is with her, and claims to know her parents. Penelope’s mother was and still is a famous beauty who at 35 outshines her own daughter and Penelope‘s dashing father who died in the war.

Harry, a magician, looks the part with his mismatched eyes, one blue and one brown, and at 25 he seems much older to Penelope who is only 18. At first she finds him irritating and too short, not at all attractive though terribly interesting. Harry however is desperately in love with an American girl who left him for someone much richer and with better connections. Despite the obvious fact that the American girl is self-centered he is determined to win her back, and when he is introduced to Penelope he knows just how he will do it.

Soon Penelope and Charlotte are inseparable. Penelope can not remember a time when she had not known Charlotte and, thanks to Charlotte, Harry as well. They spend weekends together doing normal teenage things: listening to records all night long, talking, and drinking way too much. Even though the book is set in the 1950s, these characters are timeless and the themes universal.

Harry one night convinces Penelope to go to a fancy party with him as his date, to make the American girl jealous. Although at first she doesn’t want to, in the end Penelope goes and has a lovely time. It is the first of several encounters where Penelope must act as if she is in love with Harry and he with her. But in the end who is really acting?

Then there is Milton Magna (the ancient home of Penelope’s family), her brother Inigo, Rocky the very sexy older American, glittery parties with social butterflies, a Rothko, a very early Elvis Presley, and of course last but not least, Johnnie Ray. Each is woven into the story so that you could not imagine it being any other way.

Filled with sharp and witty dialogue, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is hard to pin down as any one thing: a coming of age story, a fun girl romp, a story about the way music affects the soul, a story of true love on the grandest scale. It is those things and much more besides. The end has a hint of Rebecca in it, which, along with many other wonderful novels, is referenced throughout these completely delightful pages, and by the end I felt as if Charlotte and Harry were my friends and I had come to know Penelope almost as well as myself. Can a simple taxi ride really change the course of your life? I can only shrug and ask, ‘Why not?’

'Ishmael's Wrath' by Steven Shane Pate II

ISBN-10: 0805989757
Publisher: RoseDog Books
Paperback: $18.00

Ishmael’s Wrath is an action-packed debut from native Oklahoma author Steven Shane Pate II. You are kept on the edge of your seat as terrorists, secret societies, and Navy Seals battle for control of a weapon that could change the course of history.

Randy Madduck is a United States Navy Seal fallen on emotional hard times. When we are first introduced to the character he is blocking a painful past with alcohol and a desk job. Angry with himself, he seems to lack direction until he receives a phone call from a mysterious man in the middle of the night.

Randy is informed that the recent suicide of a high-profile senator was not suicide but an act of terrorist Abd al-Raham. When Hermes Sinclair, the senator’s son and Randy’s friend, disappears Randy worries that there might be a connection. Armed with this information and a warning of impending disaster Randy contacts an old military friend at the Pentagon. But when the line goes dead in the middle of Randy’s warning he realizes that things have taken a turn for the worst.

From there the story just explodes off the page as Randy must fight to stop Abd al-Raham from changing not only the world but history, too. With a team of seven battle-hardened Seals Randy travels to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where al-Raham is hiding the weapon. Along the way Randy must come to terms with his life up to this point and what it will be like after, and if, he is successful in this life or death mission.

Part political thriller, part inner quest, and just a plain good time, Ishmael’s Wrath is peopled with very real characters. Randy Madduck is practically jumping off the page; as each chapter unfolds and layers of his personality are reveled you can’t help but like the slightly damaged but ultimately good guy that he is. While the terrorist Abd al-Raham’s devotion to jihad is chilling he is also a character that you come to understand if not necessarily like.

There are a few flaws in the editing, but not in the writing, and those few mistakes are easily overlooked. The story flows quickly and naturally. Available from Rosedog Books, Ishmael’s Wrath is a must for any action fan who enjoys something a little more thoughtful. Long after you have turned the final page, this is a story that sticks with you.

'Nefertiti: Queen of Egypt, Daughter of Eternity' by Michelle Moran

ISBN: 0307381463
Format: Hardcover, 480pp
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Price: $24.95

Nefertiti tells the story of a powerful woman's rise and fall in Ancient Egypt. Through the eyes of her younger sister, Mutnodjmet, we are introduced to a young Nefertiti, destined to one day become a powerful ruler. Beautiful beyond compare and power-hungry, Nefertiti is a fascinating character. As the pages turn her actions become more outrageous and you begin to realize that power is everything and whoever controls the throne has the power.

Nefertiti marries Prince Akhenaten, who has come into line for the throne with the suspicious death of his older brother. Akhenaten is a reckless unstable young man and Nefertiti is chosen by his mother to sway Akhenaten away from some of his more disastrous views. He believes that there should only be one god in Egypt and that the Pharaoh should be his only voice, not some priests in a temple. Suspicious of everyone, including his parents, Akhenaten is determined to alter Egypt’s destiny.

But while both his parents are still alive he does not have complete control of Egypt, even though he is crowed Pharaoh. His father is referred to as the Elder and only once he has passed away does Akhenaten come fully into power. Bitter with life and paranoid beyond reason, Akhenaten moves his court into the middle of the desert to build a new capital and a new city in the glory of his one god Aten.

Nefertiti is meant to be a balancing influence for Akhenaten while being susceptible to the voices of her vizier father and the Queen. But determined to have her name known for all eternity, Nefertiti is soon blind to the folly that her husband presents as she struggles to gain as much control as she can over the thrones of Egypt.

Mutnodjmet meanwhile is trapped in the role of being the sister of Nefertiti. All her life her family has done everything and anything to please Nefertiti because she is the link to their own immortality. But as Nefertiti becomes blind in her arrogance to the problems that are slowly building with the Egyptian people, Mutnodjmet is able to make a break for freedom.

Full of palace intrigues, court banter, and struggles for power, Nefertiti really comes alive on the page. The characters are well rounded, three dimensional beings and you are pulled into their lives from the first sentence on. With each new turn in the story your heart will rise and fall with Mutnodjmet as she tries to be a voice of reason for her sister while still living a life of her own.

Nefertiti is a powerful first novel from Michelle Moran. Well written and rich with details it is hard to put down once you start reading. I can only hope that her next book will be about Ancient Egypt as well; it is a place I long to go back to.

'Woman on the Other Shore' by Mitsuyo Kakuta

ISBN: 4770030436
Format: Hardcover, 272pp
Publisher: Kodansha International
Price:$22.00

Woman on the Other Shore won the Naoki Prize in 2005, Japan’s most prestigious literary award for popular fiction. Mitsuyo Kakuta is the author of over a dozen books and the recipient of several literary awards including the Noma Literary Prize for New Writers and the Fujin Koron Literary Prize. Born in Yokohama in 1967 she began her writing career while still a student at Wasedo University. Besides her works of fiction she writes essays about rock music, manga, and contributes to popular magazines.

Woman on the Other Shore, translated from the Japanese by Wayne P. Lammers, was also specially selected for the Japanese Literature Publishing Project or the JLPP. Launched in 2002, the JLPP is part of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan efforts to promote the translation and publication of Japanese contemporary fiction. At the moment they are targeting four foreign languages, including English, French, German, and Russian.

In Woman on the Other Shore we are introduced to Sayoko, who is a 35 year-old housewife with a three-year-old daughter. Her husband is disinterested, a vague figure in the background for most of the story and her grumpy mother-in-law always has a sharp word for Sayoko concerning her child rearing or cooking. Sayoko is stuck in this mold and keeps asking herself ‘When am I ever going to stop being the same old me?’

When Sayoko finally decides to make a change, she faces the disapproval of her husband and mother-in-law, not to mention her daughter’s unhappiness. But Sayoko forges ahead and finds herself a job with a small travel/house cleaning company run by Aoi, an intrepid business woman.

Aoi is 35 as well but without the family and reasonability that Sayoko has in her life. At first it seems that these two very different women have nothing in common. As the story slowly unfolds and Aoi’s past is revealed, however, piece by piece you realize how similar these two really are. Both have unhappy memories of school, but Aoi’s past is especially painful and even as adults they are still vulnerable and insecure.

While the story moves forward with the friendship of Sayoko and Aoi, it also looks back at the teenage friendship that shaped Aoi. Bullied in school Aoi transfers schools and towns in the hope of finding some relief. In her new school she meets Nanako, a girl who floats between the ridged cliques, and soon befriends Aoi.

These two story lines are brought together in the final chapter of the novel. Who Sayoko is has changed; she is stronger and more her own person than she was before. We understand Aoi better, who she is behind the mask she holds up to the world. Their friendship is cemented with simple gestures as both women come to fully understand and accept each other.

What boundaries do you have in your life? When do you dare to cross them? In Woman on the Other Shore these two characters, two very real women, cross a boundary to discover they are not alone; there might be rivers dividing us but there are bridges linking us as well. This is a poignant and beautifully written novel, a novel that is timeless in many ways, a classic in our modern world.

'The Gypsy Madonna' by Santa Montefiore

ISBN: 0743278895
Format: Paperback, 372pp
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Trade
Price: $15.00

Santa Montefiore says that ‘with each book I try to create a world that is exotic, sensual and full of colorful characters.’ The Gypsy Madonna, her sixth book, is no exception. From the first page to the last her words paint a picture of a time and place that is unforgettable.

The majority the of story centers around Mischa’s unhappy childhood living in a château just outside the sleepy French town of Maurilliac. His mother Anouk is a servant of the château turned hotel for wealthy guests and Mischa, only six, helps where he can. What sounds idyllic is far from it.

Everyone in the town is hateful towards Mischa and his mother and soon the reader learns why. The year is 1948, just a few years after the end of World War II, and Mischa is half French and half German. During the war Anouk had fallen in love with a German officer and they were married in secret. But once the war was over Anouk and Mischa were left on their own with the town and its people against them.

Mischa’s childhood is unhappy but with a few bright spots. An American woman who comes to Maurilliac to remember her fiancé who died liberating the town is six-year-old Mischa’s first love. The old man who cares for the vines of the château is a sort of father figure for awhile, supporting Mischa and Anouk as best he can. The one friend Mischa has from town, Claudine and her toothy grin.

Then Coyote, a charming American, is blown into town by the wind. Everything changes for Mischa and Anouk with Coyote’s arrival; suddenly the other servants in the château and the people of the town are being civil. In Mischa’s eyes Coyote is pure magic.

Coyote takes Anouk and Mischa to America with him, stealing away together in the middle of the night without any good-byes. At first their lives in America are everything they had dreamed but soon a shadow falls over this small and happy group. Mischa learns that people are not always what they present themselves to be.

Years later, with his mother's death, Mischa discovers that Anouk has given a priceless Titian to the Metropolitan Museum. But where has this priceless piece of artwork come from? Mischa decides to face the demons of his past and discover how exactly his mother came to have the Titian.

The Gypsy Madonna is a wonderful story of redemption and the fact that it is never too late to make changes in life. True love is always worth fighting for and no matter what choices a person has made they are still capable of that love. Mischa is a very human character, and there are aspects of his personality that many people could find in their own. In the end everything is wrapped up nicely and all the secondary characters are accounted for.

There is nothing I like more than finding an author that I enjoy with several books to their name. After reading The Gypsy Madonna I’ll keep my eyes open for the rest of her work.

'Subterranean' by James Rollins

ISBN: 0380792648
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 410pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Price: $7.99

Subterranean was Jurassic Park meets Journey to the Center of the Earth, but with a lost tribe of marsupial humanoids. It was just great. Great action, great adventure, great suspense, great mystery, and even some great romance — this book had it all.

It starts with some great characters: Ashley, an American anthropologist with her son Jason; Ben, the Australian cave diver; Linda, an American biologist; Khalid, a Egyptian geologist; and Michaelson, the Army man with a hand full of SEALS backing him up. These people form a team that Doctor Blakely has put together to search a cave under the Antarctic continent. There are other characters that come and go, some a little more unexpectedly than others.

In the main cavern, Alpha Base, dwellings have been carved all along one wall. Thousands of years old, maybe millions, these small homes belong to an extinct humanoid creature, or so the scientists believe. There are worm holes leading off the main cavern and the team has been put together to search the worm holes. They discover right before their departure that they are not the first to go down — a team went before them but never returned. They are not only on a discovery mission but also a rescue mission.

What they find in the bowels of the earth is like nothing else. Ben, the man with all the cave experience, claims that it is unlike anything else on the entire planet. They encounter living dinosaurs, species thought to be extinct long ago. All sorts of creatures block their path and obstacles are constantly being overcome, as they move farther and farther down. Alliances are formed and broken as the darkness presses close and they become lost in the maze of caves.

Some of the descriptions were a little light. You get a pretty good feel for the caverns and the different caves but it wasn’t always a clear picture. Sometimes you forget the characters are in a cave but that didn’t happen very often.

The thrill and the action take the front seat and are the driving forces for the book. The action never lets up, leaving you gripping the edges of your book and turning pages at a frantic pace. At every turn something new has happened and you hate to put it down.

'Ask Again Later' by Jill A. Davis

ISBN: 0060875968
Format: Hardcover, 256pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Price:$23.95

What would you expect from a novel written by a woman who had received five Emmy nominations as a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman? A lot, and Jill Davis delivers. Ask Again Later is her second novel and while I have not read her first, Girls’ Poker Night, I am sure to now.

“Ask again later” is Emily Rhode’s favorite answer to a question. A girl with commitment phobia, she even hates to commit herself to hard answers. But there are lots of reasons to love this girl, besides the fact that some of the situations she finds herself in might be similar to your own.

Emily’s mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and she drops everything - quits her job as a successful lawyer in a big firm, walks out on her almost-boyfriend Sam, and moves in with her mother. Emily is good at running away; she seems to live her life with one foot out the door. But there are some things you just can’t run away from.

Emily’s father shows up for the first time since she was five, answering her mother’s phone call for sympathy. Suddenly Emily and her father have a relationship again. There is a scene of Emily and dad in the hospital waiting room while her mother is in surgery that just makes the book.

They sit side by side without looking at each other and her father says ‘I’m going on a trip. The first thing I’m going to pack in my suitcase is a bowling ball.’ And so it goes back and forth, a game of remembrance. In later chapters the thread is picked up in an elevator. It’s a small touch that takes this book from being just another good book to being a great book.

Emily ends up working as a receptionist for her father in his law firm. She spies on him to learn small details about him, things that she never got a chance to learn growing up. But Ask Again Later isn’t just about her relationship with her father. Emily’s relationship with her mother, her friend Perry, her physiatrist Paul, her sort-of boyfriend Sam, her grandmother, and her sister Marjorie all change.

Written in short three to eight-page chapters, with headings taken from an action in the chapter, this is an easy book to read. You tell yourself just one more chapter and by the time you’re done its 3am and you are almost done with the book.

While you wouldn't expect cancer and being reunited with a lost father funny, Mrs. Davis brings the humor out of all situations. Light and funny but still carrying genuine emotion, I laughed as well as cried. This is one of the best books I have read so far this year. Beautifully written, Ask Again Later isn’t easy to forget.

'Love Walked In' by Marisa De Los Santos

ISBN: 064184770X
Format: Paperback, 320pp
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Price: $14.00

“My life — my real life — started when a man walked into it, a handsome stranger in a perfectly cut suit, and, yes, I know how that sounds.”

For Cornelia, manager of the coffee shop Dora in Philadelphia, the day Martin Grace walks in looking like Cary Grant straight out of Philadelphia Story, everything changes. And honestly who could resist Cary Grant? Cornelia and Martin share an instant chemistry and begin seeing each other regularly. Cornelia relates all these dates to the reader as movie-like moments.

Meanwhile Clare, an 11-year-old, is watching her mother Viviana slipping into what is later diagnosed as bipolar disorder. Clare becomes more adult than any child should be, making lists of the things her mother should be doing for her but isn’t. Clare is also a great reader, comparing herself to all her favorite orphan characters in her favorite books, just like Cornelia compares her life to all her favorite old movies.

You know immediately that they are destined to meet. Then Martin shows up at Café Dora with Clare wrapped in her mothers mink coat. Cornelia learns that Martin was married to Viviana and that Clare is his daughter although this is the first she has heard about this part of Martin’s life. Viviana has disappeared, leaving Clare on the side of a road to fend for herself.

Cornelia steps into Clare’s life to be everything she needs since her mother has disappeared and her father is cold and inexperienced when it comes to his daughter. In the middle of this steps Teo, Cornelia’s sisters husband but also, more importantly, her childhood friend. He also steps up to help take care of Clare, to be a steady rock in Clare’s stormy sea.

What was hard to read was the eventual return of Viviana. She is ‘cured’ of her disorder, sharing with Clare and Cornelia, the story of the clinic that saved her and her medication. Viviana wants nothing more than to bundle Clare up and take her home, but things are not that simple. Clare refuses to let go of Cornelia and though Viviana handles it with grace, in the end she comes to the point where she's begging Cornelia to let them try to heal themselves alone.

Love Walked In is a wonderful book, full of beautiful cinematic moments that fill your heart. The story of the three lives — Clare, Cornelia, and Teo — connecting and growing together is wonderful to read. This is a book I’ll pick up and read again, pass along to my best friend, and sit talking about for hours afterward. I’m in love!

'The Painted Veil' by W. Somerset Maugham

ISBN: 1400034213
Format: Paperback, 256pp
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Price: $13.95

“… the painted veil which those who live call Life.”

I saw a preview last week for Edward Norton's new movie, The Painted Veil. The movie looks fantastic, a sweeping romantic period piece. a type that I just love. Then the next day at a favorite bookstore sitting there on the table in front of me was a copy of The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham, first published in 1925.

Maugham (1874-1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer who traveled the globe using the exotic locals as backdrops to his work. This was the 2004 reprint, the cover a beautiful painting of a woman holding a bird cage casually in one hand. There is something so captivating about her face, especially the look in her eyes. So I bought the book.

The Painted Veil is not only a story of Kitty and her ill-fated marriage to bacteriologist Walter Fane, but of her own personal growth as a human being. Kitty was raised by her mother to do one thing in life, marry young and well. When her younger sister announces her own engagement Kitty, who has already passed up several offers of marriage, accepts Walter Fane’s proposal for her own very selfish reasons.

Right from the start you know that Kitty does not love Walter, barely even likes him, and views him as a way of escape from the thought of being an old maid, as well as her mother's bitterness. Kitty is selfish and often unkind to the man so madly in love with her. She pities Walter and often despises him because of his love for her.

But still Kitty moves from England to the British colony of Hong Kong, where she soaks up the attention that is given to a new bride. But when the shine starts to wear off and Kitty discovers that being the wife of a bacteriologist isn’t as glamorous as she had hoped she finds other things to occupy her time.

When Walter learns of Kitty’s adulterous affair with Charles Townsend, an official in the Hong Kong colony, he gives her two choices. Kitty can go to Charlie and ask him to divorce his wife to marry her or she can go with Walter into the middle of a cholera epidemic.

In the middle of this epidemic, Kitty finally starts to realize what a good man Walter is. She still does not love him but can see for the perhaps the first time how lucky she is to have someone like him. Kitty begins to view her self differently as well. But Walter, once so madly in love, can not forgive Kitty her sin.

With beautiful China as a backdrop to this story of growth, The Painted Veil is a classic. It is beautifully written, the writing compact but amazingly detailed. Kitty is finely drawn and fully realized, Walter much more distant but still captivating.

The ending, while being satisfying, is the not ending that I hoped for. Desperately I wanted Kitty to find something in Walter to love; I wanted to see their relationship healed. But in the end it is her relationship with her father that is mended and the narrowness of her soul expanded.

'The Meaning of Night' by Micheal Cox

ISBN: 0393062031
ISBN-13: 9780393062038
Format: Hardcover, 672pp
Publisher: Norton, W.W. & Company,Inc.
Price: $25.95

The Meaning of Night: A Confession by Michael Cox was published by McClelland & Steward in September of 2006. This book was started over 15 years ago by Michael Cox and when you pick it up, feel the weight of it in your hands, and begin to read, you know that you are about to be consumed completely by a story that has lived inside this man for 15 years.

With the opening lines of this novel you are swallowed by an intricate compelling story.

'After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper. It had been surprisingly - almost laughably - easy. I had followed him for some distance, after observing him in Threadneedle-street I cannot say why I decided it should be him, and not one of the others on whom my searching eye had alighted that evening.'

Immediately you wonder why. Why has this character, whose own name we are unsure of until later in the book, killed a man whose name he does not know? What we do learn is that this man, Edward Glyver, has been wronged in some terrible way. Edward’s whole life has been altered by one man, Phoebus Rainsford Daunt, from being swindled out of his birthright to having his school career damaged beyond repair. Only Edward can see Daunt for what he really is, a charming, petty, self-absorbed thief.

Each part of Edward’s story is told by him to different people in his life. From Bella, the long-time lover he could never truly love, to his best friend from his school days, Le Grice. Little by little you come to know him and his complicated past. He is careful not to reveal too much to each person, but we as the reader see all, just as he intends us to.

Edward is an obsessive character, driven by this theft of his birthright. He is obsessive about books, a dedicated bibliophile and scholar. Edward tells you himself that he does things you will not like, from his occasional opium use to solicitation. He is only human, doing very human things.

Ten years after his mother's death, Edward finally starts to go through her papers. She was a successful novelist and there are stacks of things for him to sort, and while sifting through the drifts, he find her diaries, small, compact black books that reveal to him his true identity. He is not Edward Glyver but Edward Charles Duport.

For the first time he realizes that he belongs to one of the oldest and most powerful families in all of England. Edward decides to reclaim his rights, his standing in the world. He begins his restoration which brings him closer and closer to Phoebus Rainsford Daunt.

Beautifully written, this is a classic in the making. This novel has it all - a dark character you have to follow to the end. It covers the full spectrum of human emotion.

'Creepers' by David Morrell

ISBN: 1593153570
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 384pp
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Price: $7.99

Creepers are the people who explore abandoned houses, hotels, subway tunnels, factories, and old department stores. It is highly illegal and there are a lot of fines and penalties out there for those people that get caught, not to mention the danger that an abandoned building poses; have the floors rotted away, will there be homeless people hiding in the corners, and what wild animals have found a way in out of the weather?

At some point in time, mostly in the teenage years, I’m sure a lot of you have wandered into an old building, maybe in the middle of the night with a flashlight and a friend. I must have spent countless hours exploring an abandoned hotel in the city I live in. I could never make myself look in all the closed hotel rooms. I would clutch a shaking flashlight and hurry to the roof, twelve floors up, and then hurry back down. In one of the rooms I did explore I found a copy of a 1960s Playboy in the nightstand next to a copy of the Bible.

Creepers is a book about the people who have the guts to take a look at it all. Open every door, take a look in the basement, and even thoughtful enough to bring a camera to take some pictures. But the abandoned buildings aren’t always truly abandoned and evil never truly leaves a place it has left its mark on.

Frank Balenger is a reporter doing a story on urban explorers for his newspaper. He is invited to join a group of five preparing to explore The Paragon Hotel on the Jersey Shore. The Paragon has a sad history, being built and owned by a man who feared people and the world. It is scheduled to be demolished in a week’s time.

Through tunnels infested with deformed rats and a cat with three hind legs, the group breaks through a metal door and into the hotel. What they find inside is the hotel as it looked in the Victorian era. Lush furnishings and marble that have been slowly rotting all these years. Carefully exploring rooms, they find evidence of the hotel’s brutal and horribly evil past. What they aren’t expecting is that the evil is still alive and waiting just around the corner.

Parts of this book almost made me jump out of my skin. The tension skyrockets and you just can't put down the book until you find out what happens next. Before you know it's 4 o'clock in the morning on a work day.

'Darcy's Story' by Janet Aylmer

ISBN: 0061148709
Format: Paperback, 277pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Price: $13.95


I am a Jane Austen fan. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites. There have been a lot of Lizzys and Darcys out there. Several writers have picked up the classic love story of these two beloved characters: Linda Berdoll the author of Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues and Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley and Elizabeth Aston, author of Mr. Darcy’s Daughters, The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy, The True Darcy Spirit, and due out in March of 2007, The Second Mrs. Darcy. There are many others and each interpretation is different.

I always pick up any new story involving my favorite characters. I know deep down that most of the time I’ll be disappointed, but I like to give each one a chance. I buy the book, make myself some tea, and curl up to read. I did the same with Darcy’s Story, but unlike some novels I have come across, this one did not disappoint.

One of the reasons I think that Pride and Prejudice is loved so much is Lizzy. After reading the novel, each of us wants to be her; she is such a strong character. Then you get involved in the love story, one that has remained a favorite for the last two centuries.

Darcy's Story lacks the depth of the original, only skimming the surface of the classic love story. But we do see much more of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s relationship with his sister and his friendship with Bingley. We get to see what Darcy was up to while he was away from Lizzy and Netherfield in London as well. The best part, though, was getting to see the biggest moments out of the book from his point of view.

This book doesn’t give us anything new; it just covers the ground we have walked before, hand in hand with Jane Austen. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth picking up. Think of it as a companion book to the classic, something to pick up when you might not have the time to read Pride and Prejudice, or would just like to see it all from Darcy’s point of view.

'Motor Mouth' by Janet Evanovich

ISBN: 006058405X
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 376pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Price: $7.99

This is the second Barnaby novel in the series, the first being Metro Girl. I picked Motor Mouth up because the first one was so great. The story is told by Alex Barnaby, nicknamed Barney. She is a mechanic who likes pink and indulges in the occasional manicure. Not your run of the mill girl, she still has all those feminine qualities that men can appreciate.

In Metro Girl Barney hooked up with Hooker, the superstar NASCAR driver. In the beginning of Motor Mouth they have split because Barney found Hooker in bed with a salesclerk. There were pictures on the net so it isn't like he can say it wasn't him. Barney is still on the race team and spotting for Hooker. Somehow they have managed to still be friends, which I find a little hard to believe, but it does make for some nice sexual tension throughout the book as Hooker tries to win Barney back.

A Janet Evanovich novel would not be complete without a dead body. When you go back and read everything else of hers you find a common thread such as dead bodies, large drooling dogs, and little old ladies with very large handguns. Two out of three ain’t bad when you have a huge Saint Bernard named Beans and several dead bodies. I guess those make up for the old lady with a gun.

The action kicks off right away with the possibility of cheating in a race and a gigantic car crash. It only moves on from there with a plastic-wrapped body, dog-napping, and the possibility of illegal race technology.

Barney bumbles around at one point trying to rescue Hooker, which is just a shade too close to the first book for it to feel original. I have to admit that this book feels like it was hurried through and held together by the humor.

The conversations are sharp and quick, everything you expect to find in a Janet Evanovich novel. The humor is a little morbid at times, but often of the laugh-out loud variety, too. I have to admit that this isn't the best but it isn't the worst. I would just recommend waiting for paperback.