Summer Reading

Welcome to Summer Reading 2011!  At the end of 8 weeks we had 368 people signed up. This week, 2 new people participated and 37 people read 143 books, which brings the totals for the summer to 166 people and 1175 books.

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Handle with Care By Picoult, Jodi 2009-03 - Atria Books 9780743296410 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Handle with Care explores the knotty tangle of medical ethics and personal morality. When faced with the reality of a fetus who will be disabled, should a parent have the right to consider termination? Bestselling author Picoult explores a timely yet controversial issue in her latest novel. HPL patron: This book completely heldmy attention-I couldn't put it down.  But please  don't peek to see the ending.  …More

Sing You Home By Picoult, Jodi 2011-03 - Atria Books 9781439102725 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Zoe Baxter has spent 10 years trying to get pregnant, and after multiple miscarriages and infertility issues, it looks like her dream is about to come true. But a terrible turn of events leads to a nightmare--one that takes away her unborn baby and breaks apart her marriage to Max. Includes a CD of original songs created especially for this novel. HPL patron: How wonderful to have music to accompany the book!  Great touch. …More

Happy Ever After By Roberts, Nora 2010-11 - Berkley Publishing Group 9780425236758 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title As the public face of Vows wedding planning company, Parker Brown has an uncanny knack for fulfilling every bride's vision. She just can't see where her own life is headed. Mechanic Malcomb Kavanaugh loves figuring out how things work, and Parker is no exception. Parker's business risks have always paid off, but now she'll have to take the chance of a lifetime with her heart. …More

The Snow Globe By Roberts, Sheila 2010-10 - St. Martin's Press 9780312594480 Check Our Catalog From the bestselling author of "On Strike for Christmas" comes a magical, heartwarming holiday tale about an unforgettable treasure found in a simple snow globe. …More

The Wreckage By Robotham, Michael 2011-06 - Mulholland Books 9780316126403 Check Our Catalog Someone is bombing the banks of Baghdad. On the streets of London, former cop Vincent Ruiz is robbed of his briefcase. And Richard North, a top-tier VP at an international finance powerhouse, vanishes. North holds the key that connects these three seemingly unrelated events--or did, until he disappeared without a trace. HPL patron: Exciting, non-stop action. …More

Sarah's Key By De Rosnay, Tatiana 2007-06 - St. Martin's Press 9780312370831 Check Our Catalog Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode. HPL patron: Thoroughly enjoyed this book, which is based on terrible incident in French history.  DeRosney weaves quite a story. …More

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading By Sankovitch, Nina 2011-06 - Harper 9780061999840 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Catalyzed by the loss of her sister, Sankovitch spends a year savoring great books from Thomas Pynchon to Nora Ephron, ultimately changing her outlook on life. …More

Allure of the Game By Santiago, Danielle 2011-05 - Atria Books 9780743277624 Check Our Catalog Santiago delivers a sexy, action-packed adventure about two sisters whose lives are changed forever as their fate is determined on the mean streets of Harlem. HPL patron: It was an ok book. …More

The Kid By Sapphire 2011-07 - Penguin Press 9781594203046 Check Our Catalog In a generational story that moves with the speed of thought from a Mississippi dirt farm to Harlem in its heyday; from a troubled Catholic orphanage to downtown artist's lofts, "The Kid" tells of a young 21st-century man's fight to find a way toward the future. HPL patron: This book wasn't as good as PUSH.  It didn't hold my interest. …More

The Godmother By Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann 2009-11 - eReads.com 9780759287181 Check Our Catalog One day in Seattle, social worker Rose Samson made a wish for a fairy godmother to save "the whole damned city". She wasn't expecting a miracle. But then again, no one expects Felicity Fortune. …More

Look Again By Scottoline, Lisa 2009-04 - St. Martin's Press 9780312380724 Check Our Catalog Bestselling author Scottoline's writing is sharp, intelligent, funny, and hip. . . she gives fans of thrillers a good, twisty plot, lively characters, andan all-around fun read ("USA Today"). HPL patron: I'd give this 3 stars out of 4. …More

The Vanishing Point By Sharratt, Mary 2006-06 - Mariner Books 9780618462339 Check Our Catalog Constrained by their small 17th-century English town, two independent, spirited sisters push the limits of propriety--one journeys to America where she disappears, and the other, trained in the physician's arts, sets off to find her in a wild, uncultivated land where old rules no longer apply. …More

Fortune's Rocks By Shreve, Anita 2000-12 - Back Bay Books 0316678104 Check Our Catalog In a summer community on the coast of New Hampshire at the turn of the last century, a girl is drawn into a passionate affair with a man nearly three times her age. From the author of "The Pilot's Wife" and now available in paperback, "Fortune's Rocks" explores reckless love and its consequences, the sensual education of a young woman, and how unconscious choices can shape an entire life. …More

Burnt Mountain By Siddons, Anne Rivers 2011-07 - Grand Central Publishing 9780446527897 Check Our Catalog From a "New York Times"-bestselling author and one of today's most acclaimed writers ("Sweetwater Creek, Fault Lines") comes this dramatic tale of a well-born Southern woman whose life is forever changed by the betrayal of her mother and by the man she loves. …More

Though Not Dead By Stabenow, Dana 2011-02 - Minotaur Books 9780312559113 Check Our Catalog Kate Shugak and the rest of the Park rats are stunned by the death of Old Sam, Kate's 87-year-old uncle and foster father. In his will, he leaves almost everything to Kate, including a homestead deep in gold mining country that no one knew he had and a letter that reads simply, "Find my father." …More

Never Knowing By Stevens, Chevy 2011-07 - St. Martin's Press 9780312595685 Check Our Catalog At thirty-three Sara Gallagher is finally happy. Her antique furniture restoration business is taking off and she's engaged to a wonderful man. But there's one big question that still haunts her -- who are her birth parents? Sara is finally ready to find out. Sara's birth mother rejects her--again. Then she discovers her biological father is an infamous killer who's been hunting women every summer for almost forty years. Sara tries to come to terms with her horrifying parentage -- and her fears that she's inherited more than his looks -- with her therapist, Nadine, who we first met in ""Still Missing"." But soon Sara realizes the only thing worse than finding out your father is a killer is him finding out about you. Some questions are better left unanswered. "Never Knowing" is a complex and compelling portrayal of one woman's quest to understand where she comes from. That is, if she can survive... HPL patron: Exciting, fast-moving, nail biter. …More

The Help By Stockett, Kathryn 2009-02 - Amy Einhorn Books 9780399155345 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another. HPL patron: Best book I've read in a long time.  Love it. HPL patron: Four stars.  Quite  a look at our history. …More

The Companions By Tepper, Sheri S. 2003-09 - Eos 006053821X Check Our Catalog A BookPage Notable Title A thrilling new tale by the acclaimed author of "The Visitor," Tepper pens an otherworldly tale of the planet Moss, where a group of humans discover an intelligent race of natives. HPL patron: A book that keeps you readingjust so you know what happens next! …More

Ashes, Ashes By Treggiari, Jo 2011-06 - Scholastic Press 9780545255639 Check Our Catalog In a future Manhattan devastated by environmental catastrophes and epidemics, 16-year-old Lucy survives alone until vicious hounds target her and force her to join Aidan and his band, but soon they learn that she is the target of Sweepers, who kidnap and infect people with plague. …More

The Trial By Whitlow, Robert 2004-10 - WestBow Press 9780849945199 Check Our Catalog Attorney Kent McClain reluctantly takes on the case of a man accused of killing a beautiful heiress from a powerful family. With the evidence mounting, Mac wonders if he's defending a psychopath--or was his client framed? HPL patron: A great story about a trila that holds ones attention and makes it difficult to put down the book.  What makes it so good is that the author is a lawyer and writes from his knowledge.  He's also a Christian and frees the book from bed scenes and rotten language. …More

Devil's Slew: A Barrett Raines Mystery By Wimberley, Darryl 2011-03 - Minotaur Books 9780312649494 Check Our Catalog When a hardhat diver snags a canvas bag and a pair of severed heads from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the murder investigation brings in federal and county law enforcement, and Special Agent Barrett Raines. …More

Dark Harbor By Woods, Stuart 2006-04 - Putnam Publishing Group 039915342X Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Stone Barrington investigates the secrets of a CIA officer's suicide in this next thriller in the New York Times bestselling series. HPL patron: Good, easy reading. …More

Driftwood Cottage By Woods, Sherryl 2011-03 - Mira Books 9780778329473 Check Our Catalog Presenting the first book in a new trilogy, "New York Times"-bestselling author Woods again brings her signature heartwarming style to the community of Chesapeake Shores. Original. HPL patron: Great story. …More