Inspire yourself! Reading reviews

Laugh, cry, dream, get inspired... Read!

Ever have trouble finding a book you like? Below is a list of books, articles, poems, and other wonderful reading material some SWWAN has personally reviewed.

Send us your reading suggestions, tell us why you love them, give us a "sneak peak " (a favorite line or quote), and we'll grow our list. The best part is that you can search for keywords that match what you're in the mood for.

Title	Author	About	Type	Where to find it	A sneak peak
Now is the Time to Open Your Heart	Alice Walker	About an older woman's complex spiritual journey--away from old roles in her past and towards her new self	Novel, drama	your library or Amazon.com ISBN: 0812971396	"He thought he needed a perpetual victim...to feel like a winner. He thought he was incapable of being himself on equal terms with a person of color. What he had is by definition an inferiority complex."
Cleveland/Akron Family Magazine	syndicated	Regional publication focusing on resources, information and hints for families - great for SWWAN mothers, too!	News magazine, family	online	Each month new articles on health, childcare, adoption, disabilities, school fun/school traumas, and so on. SWWAN mothers may find some good tips.
The Washington Post	single article	Transgendered male scientist writes about life as a female scientist	Newspaper	online ASIN: B00006L1LF	Someone who didn't know he'd had the operation told him his work was great...much better than his sister's.
The Position	Meg Woltizer	How a revolutionary book about sex affects the kids of the parents who wrote it--and posed for the illustrations	Novel	your library or Amazon.com ISBN: 074326178X	"Coupling aged you...You formed a couple in order to be in love, to stay away from loneliness... But no one told you that it would add age to you quickly..."
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down	Alice Walker	Powerful stories about being a woman, a black woman, a daughter, lover, friend	Short stories	your library or Amazon.com ISBN: 015602862X	"Before she told me about the rape...we had assumed a lifelong friendship...the kind one dreams of having with a person one has known in adversity..."
All That Lives	Melissa Sanders-Self	Classic tale of haunting with great details that bring you right into the early-19th century home of a young girl and her God-fearing family afflicted by an invisible force of evil	Novel, horror	your library or Amazon.com ISBN: 0446526916	"...there came the metal tapping at the glass and a wind entered and blew out every candle...'Please, no!' I cried...for I wished to communicate with my torturer...assuming it had human character and could understand my pleas."
Atlas Shrugged	Ayn Rand	Epic story of a man who fights against the mediocrity of mainstream society and the woman who fights for her place, too. Shake-up-your-world stuff.	Novel, drama	your library or Amazon.com ISBN: 0451191145	After asking for a dime, "Who is John Galt? ...the bum had said it simply, without expression. 'Why did you say that?' asked Eddie Willers, his voice tense. 'Why does it bother you?" the bum asked casually. 'It doesn't.'" But there was a causeless uneasiness within him...
Two for Joy	Patricia Scanlan	Slice of life about 20- and 30-something young women in modern-day Ireland - love, lust, greed, friendship, jealousy, betrayal, baby-need. Love the Irish slang!	Novel, drama	your library or Amazon.com ISBN: 0553813919	"It was horrible getting up in the morning with nothing to do and no job to go to. She hadn't left the house, reluctant to walk through the town, apprehensive of seeing Neil, and hating the idea of people talking about her. Her mother's cake box was a constant temptation..."
Manifesto for a new medicine	James S. Gordon, M.D.	Your guide to healing partnerships and the wise use of alternative therapies. A powerful examination of how western medicine needs to get the lessons about healing that eastern traditions have known for ages. Beautiful stories of healing both spirits and bodies.	Non-fiction, self help	Amazon.com ISBN: 020148384	"Social dislocation and alienation at work and in the world...dramatic...important and pervasive contributors to ill health. ...Japanese immigrants to the US who kept close ties to family in Japan maintained some good health even if they ate the conventional high-fat AMERICAN DIET. ...deprivation of membership in a close knit and supportive group is dangerous to our health. Work satisfaction and employment status also have definite effects and illness."
The Essential Charlotte	Libby Schmais	Young single woman overshadowed by a highly eccentric and dramatic sculptor mother chooses a quiet life of unremarkableness--until her mother's untimely death reveals a provision in the will that forces her to spend a year living with her formerly lost father. They're forced to get to know one another--and Charlotte's mother keeps talking to her from beyond. Then Charlotte begins to know herself in new ways, including her desire to be an actress.	Novel, drama	Amazon.com ISBN: 0312311656	At the reception honoring her dead mother's art: "Charlotte expected her mother to have more comments, but there was absolute silence on that score... Well, she got what she wanted, thought Charlotte, so she's probably having a big old margarita wherever she is."
The Double	Jose Saramago	Strange tale of a history teacher who discovers he has an exact double. This writer leaves out a lot of punctuation and uses long strung-together sentences to tell of the protagonist's tortured efforts to find his duplicate (he sees him in a bit part in a B-movie video) and the twisted turning of relationships and events after they do meet.	Novel, mystery	Amazon.com ISBN: 0151010404	"Tertuliano Maximo Afonso put a sheet of paper in the typewriter and paused to think. The letter would have to look as if it came from an admirer, it would have to be enthusiastic, but not too...after all the actor Daniel Santa-Clara was not exactly a star capable of provoking hysterical outbursts of feelings..."
The Night Journal	Elizabeth Crook	Early American history buffs--or just readers who like lots of detail--will enjoy this story of a young woman who's forced to look back into her family's past in order to come to grips with the life and loss of the grandmother who ruled her throughout her life. Told in present time but interspersed with vividly detailed entries from her great-grandmother's journals from the early 1900s. The description of how single women could find employment and some sort of protection by becoming Harvey Girls (basically servants in luxurious hotels) is fascinating.	Novel, historical drama	Amazon.com ISBN: 0670034770	"The piano and victrola were at odds with each other all evening, the men were intoxicated, the women drank sarsaparillas and opium concoctions--prohibition is all talk and no conviction here. One woman who pretends she is devout uses uterine morphine wafers in her private parts, supposedly to relieve the painful monthly periodicals though I would guess her to be nearly sixty years of age."
Miss Giardino	Dorothy Bryant	Retired schoolteacher is found unconscious in front of the high school where she once taught and can't remember what happened. The story unfolds as her memories slowly return. She begins to realize how estranged she has been from people and from her own life, gradually discovers new truths about herself, and begins an exciting life transformation.	Novel, drama	Amazon.com ISBN: 1558611746	"Arno is exciting. So completely different from anyone I know, like a man from another planet. Arno makes me understand what it means to be poor, for he is not poor. He is so far removed from poverty that when he talks about abolishing poverty, he sounds as if he is talking about abolishing a strange, foreign odor."
Man and Boy	Tony Parsons	A guy cheats on his wife because "he's turning 30." She walks out, leaving their son in the care of family, to find work in Japan, which is what she wanted to do before she gave it up to marry the guy. Guy takes kid in, can't believe that his "minor indiscretion" was enough to make his wife to leave. He learns to be a good dad. Wife comes back for child; he struggles to understand and accept and learn. Very engaging book.	Novel, drama	Amazon.com ISBN: 0743225082	"I went out into the kitchen with my mom and Pat, wondering why all the decent citizens in the world have it in for single mothers. After all, I thought, the single mother is the parent who stayed."
Black Coffee	Tracy Price-Thompson	Meet this tough black single woman serving in the Army who came from loving and devoted, though poor parents. Hear her ethnic slang ringing through scenes of trying to ignore men after making many mistakes, falling in love and sex with a guy who loves her deeply--though he has some pretty heavy baggage, putting up with the prejudice and abuse of commanding officers, and finding her way through. The author even gives you her EMAIL address!	Novel, drama	Amazon.com ISBN: 0375757775	"It didn't matter that I'd arrived on base late Saturday night. In the Army every day was a workday... Yes, some soldiers had it good and some not so good and if today's orders were indicative of what was to come, then Sgt. Sanderella D. Coffee was about to have it pretty damn bad."
Postcards	E. Annie Proulx	By the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Shipping News, this dark story set in rural America uses rich and complex imagery to examine the mind of a man who abandons family and farm and spends his life running away to escape the consequences of an unintentional action. Each chapter opens with a picture of a handwritten postcard from one of the characters in the story--each saying just enough to whet your appetite for what's to come.	Novel, drama, romance	Amazon.com ISBN: 068480087X	"'In my family the men die young. You'll never know what stories I might of made up. Big elk hunts! Mine disasters!' They laughed, but the thought of the Hat Man's reeling, loose-mouthed age drove them to a panic of kissing, of slamming each other with their spongy pelvic bones."
The Smoke Thief	Shana Abe	A story of romance and daring set in a fabled land of beautiful costumes and creatures that can turn at will into smoke and then into dragons. The heroine escapes from the tyranny of the Village to London, only to be hunted down by the handsome, virile alpha male--whom she has loved unrequited since girlhood--and then go adventuring with him to reclaim the stolen Diamond, which she hopes will buy her freedom forever.	Novel, romance	Amazon.com ISBN: 0553588044	"It hurt because she loved him. Because Letty was all that Rue was not, fair and forward and tinkling bright. Because, in the darkest chambers of her heart, she was afraid that was all he wanted, and ultimately he would be disappointed in her. He said he knew her. How could that be, when she hardly knew herself?"
Don't Even Think About It	Lauren Henderson	Best chums Sally, Jude and Michael are living the single life in cool flats within a stone's throw of London. Twists and turns in relationships, Sally unable to let go of Michael, the notorious womanizer, even though they broke up years ago. Brunettes galore, including serious past loves, the latest girlfriend pregnant...and on and on. Fun, witty, perceptive.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-7434-6469-9	"They had that dreamy post-coital look...and as if their clothes had been thrown onto them from a great distance."
Female Intelligence	Jane Heller	Dr. Lynn Wyman is a star for her unique method of getting hopelessly uncommunicative men to relate better to the women in their lives by teaching them Womenspeak. When her own superbly communicative husband is caught cheating and the press hears about it, her business goes to hell. She dreams up a scheme to gain public approval again by getting a high-profile businessman as a client after his Board has warned him that his poor communication skills are losing the company's finest female employees. Real insights into men, women and relationships.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-312-261594	"Do you remember the words Tom Cruise's character [in Jerry Maguire] uses to tell Renee Zellweger's character he loves her?" He shook his head. "No, I must have put my hands over my eyes at that point. I do that when movies have scary parts."
Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man	Joseph Heller	Acclaimed author of Catch 22's last book. He wanders all over the map looking for a storyline for his aging-author protagonist, in the process demonstrating how fiction writers might go about finding their muse and generating stories.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 7432-0200-7	"you'll find in this book a bunch of names of interesting and challenging fiction titles, in case you're always looking for reading ideas."
The Power and the Glory	Graham Greene	Famous book. Dark and heavy. Set at a time of great corruption and crime in Mexico, this book examines the role of religion in the largely Catholic country. Accepting the respect and almost adoration of the people comes hard to a priest who's being hunted by the authorities (no priests allowed anymore), for becoming an outcast has made him aware of his own failings--a whiskey priest they call him.	Dramatic novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-670-56979-8	"The beetles had disappeared; the rain had apparently washed them away: it came perpendicularly down, with a sort of measured intensity, as if it were driving nails into a coffin lid. But the air was no clearer: sweat and rain hung together on the clothes. The priest...had nowhere to go. ...he had believed it would be possible just to hang on somehow, sleeping on benches or by the river."
The Goodbye Summer	Patricia Gaffney	Wonderful, delicately woven story of the emotions a single woman faces as her aging grandmother, who raised her when her rock'n'roll mother left, goes to a convalescent home for a while. Beautifully drawn portraits of the characters inhabiting the home who eventually come to inhabit the heroine's heart as well. Living alone for the first time since college opens her eyes to startling truths about her past. Finding love, mistaken, and love, right. Wise, moving, and reassuringly real.	Dramatic novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-06-018529-5	"She asked Caddie not to let her forget--because she knew she would. 'Don't leave me, Nan, I'm not ready!' She'd been planning to tell Nana about the baby tonight. ...the woman who might as well be her mother. Now she couldn't; she wasn't sure why but she couldn't, not now. And maybe it was just the beginning of not telling Nana things."
The Society	Michael Palmer	You feel almost like you're at the movies. Like the best action thrillers, this one takes you on a ride of suspense, intrigue, and murder. It's got gory surgical intricacies, a love affair between lady cop and a doctor who's accused of using drugs he never took, clinical details only a doctor could give about torture and injuries.	Novel, thriller	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-553-80204-6	"when the itching first began, it seemed like it was happening to the Grace in the dream. ...it got more intense...the burning, especially on her face, was getting frightening. And something else, she was beginning to have trouble breathing..."
The Secret Life of Bees	Sue Monk Kidd	Set in the early-civil-rights-era South, this is a profoundly compelling story of loss and abuse in a little girl's young life--but even more of her courage and the love she eventually found in a new home where beekeeping is the means of income. Perceptive looks at race relations in those turmultuous times. Woven through with fascinating details from the life of the honeybee.	Novel, Drama	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-14-200174-0	"'I'll write this all down for you,' I said. 'I'll put it in a story.' I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants--for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters."
The Tavern on Maple Street	Sharon Owens	A sympathetic glimpse into the lives of several single and married characters who end up coming together around a medieval-age tavern in modern Belfast, Ireland. Told with marvelous attention to detail and lots of food-related descriptions. Interweaves sadness and joy with the colorful lives of those affected by it.	A slice of life novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-399-15343-8	"Her own doctor had been trying to get her to counseling for years. But Trudy's phobias, or her little notions as she liked to call them, were not really a problem. Everyody had something wrong, she reasoned. Some perfectly law-abiding women went shoplifting when they thought their husbands were having an affair." And then she saw him--her roommate's ex-boyfriend that she'd screamed at on the phone that night...
8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra Easy Weight Loss	Jorge Cruise	I'm just reading a very interesting book called "8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra Easy Weight Loss." In it author Louis stresses the importance of asking for help---connecting with others, improving your ability to reach out---as a critical weight loss aid. Which is, of course, the idea behind Weight Watchers' group meetings and weigh-ins and so on. It's also a big factor in the 12-step approach. But in this book, he tells you how to create your own team from among people you know.	Health, Mind & Body	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-06-058085-2
Atonement	Ian McEwan	A masterfully told tale that delves profoundly into the minds of its pre-war and war-time characters. This story captures the nuances of teenage, male and female thought processes, perfectly depicts intense sexual desire and experience, and spins a spellbinding plot wound in with vivid details of living through WWII.	Novel, drama	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-385-72179-X	"She had learned her patience through years of sidestepping migraines. Fretting, concentrate thought, reading, looking, wanting---all were to be avoided in favor of a slow draft of association, while the minutes accumulated like banked snow and the silcence deepended around her."
The Garden Angel	Mindy Friddle	A moving story of a single woman struggling to keep her grandmother's vintage home. She exhibits loyalty and generosity and extraordinary kindness even as she works her jobs and sabotages her siblings' efforts to sell the house.. Beautiful language. Vivid characters.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 0-312-32674-2	"We would manage, I told her (her sister). She didn't even need to tell him. We would live in this house, the baby, too, and I would work and we would do fine, all of us. Why there were even baby clothes in the attic." "Oh, please... Those things are so old they should be burned.. You're so...God, look at the stuff you wear--it's like a hundred years old."
The Best a Man Can Get	John O' Farrell	A guy who makes you laugh can't be all bad, right? Well, John O'Farrell will make you laugh, and laugh. His English humor descriptions of "just being a guy" are irresistiblly charming. Even if you can't stand guys who drink beer and engage in sports trivia, you'll be able to relate.	Novel, drama	Amazon.com ISBN: 7679-0713-2
The Long Walk Home	Will North	Set in a lovely back county of Ireland, the story is about grief and hope and love lost and love found. Lots of details of scenery and cooking. A bit slow, but a nice love scene.	Romantic novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 978-0-307-38302-0
The Granny, The Mammy	Brendan O'Carroll	Wonderful Dublin stories about strong Irish working-class women and the men they raise.	2 novels	Amazon.com: The Granny, Amazon.com: The Mammy	Quote from The Granny: "'If you say he's not yours, okay! What do you want me to say?' 'I want you to say, of course he isn't your son, or yes, I know he's not.' 'How can I say that? I've looked down into his face. And when he looks up at me, what do I see? I see you!'"
Days of Awe	Achy Obejas	Exotic language, rich history of Cuba, and vibrant emotions. Obejas explores the duality of being Cuban and Ameican, Catholic and Jewish. Challenging to read; the angst feels very personal to the author.	Historical novel	Amazon.com	"Imagine the genuine sounds made by the deaf, before they're taught how to pop their lips specifically for Ps, or humming for Ms. Theirs is our sound, all of ours, before it's contaminated by the world and by each other.... In their most authentic, uninhibited form, [the sounds of the deaf] are about desire and need: the most direct, the most religious kind of communication."
The Tattooed Girl	Joyce Carol Oates	Rough lives delineated next to lives of privilege, each with its own set of tortures and contradictions. With a backdrop of the Holocaust, the story unfolds of a wealthy intellectual who invites a young, attractive but lost young woman to be his assistant. Engaging, raw emotions powerfully described.	Novel	Amazon.com	"Jew-money it must be Seigl had inherited. Because you never saw the man work. Never any actual work. Not even teaching you'd expect someone like him to do. (Some mail came to Dr. Joshua Seigl but he was no medical doctor. He'd told her why he was called Dr. but she couldn't remember.)"
The Best a Man Can Get	John O'Farrell	A guy who makes you laugh can't be all bad, right? Well, John O'Farrell will make you laugh, and laugh. His English humor descriptions of "just being a guy" are irresistiblly charming. Even if you can't stand guys who drink beer and engage in sports trivia, you'll be able to relate.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN: 7679-0713-2
A Lesson Before Dying	Ernest J. Gaines	Powerful portrait of 1940s still-echoing-from-slavery Southern America when black people still had profoundly limited opportunities and young innocent black men could still be executed for murder without proof of any kind. An educated man is tasked with making a condemned black boy become a man before he is executed.	Dramatic novel	Amazon.com	"You belive in God, Mr. Wiggins?" Yes." "How?" "I think it's God that makes people care for people, Jefferson. I think it's God makes children play and people sing. " I belive it's God that brings loved ones together.... "Who make people kill people, Mr. Wiggins?"
Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After	Bella DePaulo, PhD	A precise scientific look at the factors in American society that add up to a subtle but powerful prejudice against singles.	Non-fiction	Amazon.com ISBN-13: 978-0-312-34082-7 ISBN-10: 0-312-34082-7	Listen to our podcast interview with the author: Singles--happier than ever! by Bella DePaulo
At Some Disputed Barricade	Anne Perry	A deeply real picture of what it was like to be a soldier in combat during WWI. Riveting scenes of carnage along with secrets and intrigues that reveal the consequences of war and the confusion caused by human frailties.	Dramatic novel	Amazon.com	Must soldiers follow every order of an incompetent leader, no matter how much injury and death it causes?
What I Loved	Siri Hustvedt	A study of human emotion set in a jewel-like setting of art and literature. Ordinary details are exquisitely described to render human emotions like the joy of deep loving, and the years-long agony of losing a child.	Novel	Amazon.com	Are parents always to blame when a child grows up pathological? Where do damaged psyche and mental illness diverge and/or overlap?
Secure in Heart	Robin Weidner	A biblical perspective on how to tackle commonly-asked questions by women, like Am I Enough? What Do Others Think of Me? Will I Be Alone? Lots of stories of troubled childhoods, difficult relationships, abuse, and emotional struggles.	A Christian self-help book	Amazon.com	"How can we feel protected when we've prayed about something for months, years, even decades, and still haven't seen the fruition of those prayers?"
PS, I Love You	Cecelia Ahern	Fluff and fun. Written by the 22-year-old daughter of the Irish prime minister. Predictable in places, repetitive in others, but engaging enough.	Novel	Amazon.com	A 30-year-old woman must learn to live again after her dearly beloved husband dies.
The Keep	Jennifer Egan	Weird combination of modern life and fantasy/fairy tale adventure stories. Strange characters inhabit the story loosely.	Novel	Amazon.com	He couldn't get his cell phone to work in the strange dungeon-like place. "That's what death is," Danny thought: "wanting to talk to someone and not being able to."
Rain Fall	Barry Eisler	Good yarn, well spun. All about a Japanese/American guy who becomes a professional killer for hire--specializing in "natural causes"--after his time in the Vietnam war.	A Spy Novel	Amazon.com	A few love scenes interspersed with lots of hand-to-hand combat details. "I insist on 3 questions. The target must be a man. He must be a principal--no third party stuff. And I must have an exclusive engagement. I am no longer a samurai--I am a realist."
Paradise Alley	Kevin Baker	Powerful story full of grim details about the Irish migration to the US during the potato famine--which was the same time as the Civil War. Clear descriptions of the horrors of the times and the horrors of the mob's madness.	A Novel - Bestseller	Amazon.com	"She made sure to follow the rest of the advice in the Guide to Catholic Girls Who Earn Their Own Living. Going to great pains to keep herself up--to comb her hair out, and scrub and clean herself and her home more fervently than she ever had, even when she was well along."
Lunch at the Piccadilly	Clyde Edgerton	Wonderful story about a single guy who ends up caring for his aging aunt and becoming friends with the folks at the assisted-living home she must stay at in her final illness.	A Novel	Amazon.com	Terrific character development, using delightfully simple language that conveys their thoughts and their actions clearly and tellingly.
Skinner's Drift	Lisa Fugard	Beautiful language--shimmering images of skies an "exhausted blue," sunlight "creeping up the stairs"--describe a haunting tale of a South African white farmer and his family through his single adult daughter's eys. The author finally made me understand the power and attraction of the African continent with deft portrayals of relationships between whites and the loyal and devoted--but angry at their demeaning treatment--black servants during the time of Mandela--of terrible political and civil unrest.	A Novel	Amazon.com	"You want me to forgive you, Naledi?" says the loyal old black servant to the daughter who made him lie about finding the bones of a murdered child buried on the land. "For what? For telling me I am black and I cannot speak, I cannot see? You are not the first. And I forgave you along time ago."
Life's A Beach	Clare Cook	By the bestselling author of Must Love Dogs. Truly funny and entertaining story of a woman who is single again at 41 and living above her parents'garage and trying to be an artist and figure out what she wants to do with her life. Depictions of her relationships with her parents, sister and boyfriend are wonderful. Seems she's always keeping "one foot out the door."	A Novel	Amazon.com	"Cats," he said slowly and clearly, "are for people who don't really want to go out of their way. They're close as you can get to not having a pet." "Oh, okay," she counters, "Dogs, dogs are as close you can get to having a person in your life without really having one."
Ask Again Later	Jill A. Davis	A novel by Jill A. Davis, a writer for the Letterman show. Great story about a single woman who has a hard time committing because of all the baggage she carries from parental failings. Funny, poignant--finds out mom has cancer, reunites with her dad who's been gone 20 years.	A Novel	Amazon.com	"My dad was 15 years older than my mother. When they married she was 27. Men can wait to have children. The window of their opportunity must seem like some never-ending field of poppies. Just enjoy! before you decide which one you wanna pick."
My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike	Joyce Carol Oates	A dark, strange and compelling tale told in flashbacks and vivid, sometimes wrenching prose that shines a light on how children think about things their parents do. Based on the lurid story of JonBenet Ramsey, child beauty pageant queen at age 6, and the strange cover-up that meant her killer was never found. Brilliant. I couldn't put it down.	A Novel	Amazon.com	"For somehow it had happen, that contrary to Mummy's expectation, Jesus had failed to take Bliss's phantom pain from her. And so during her qualifying performance Bliss had been in such conspicuous pain that the Royal Escapade officials refused to allow her to compete."
Out of Time	Starring Denzel Washington	Plot twists and turns as Chief of Police Denzel Washington is about to get divorced, gets involved with another woman, and ends up being the chief suspect in her death. I'd give it a 3 stars--enjoyable enough but not memorable.	Mystery movie
A Thread of Grace	Mary Doria Russell	Amazing story, rich with historical details and powerfully moving descriptions of war and suffering. Set in Italy during the occupation of Italy by the Nazis in 1943 to '45, it is the story of Jews being persecuted and Italians risking their lives to help them resist. Full of painfully real characters facing unbelievable odds with incredible courage. Of sin and forgiveness and redemption.	An Historical Novel	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 0449004139, ISBN-13: 978-0449004135	"Wet for weeks, feet would swell something awful. Men would limp into a town hoping for shelter from the endless goddamned rain, and there'd be nothing left... Whole houses blown to hell, splinters and gravel, that's all. Nothing alive except maybe one poor damned cow, udder full to bursting, bellowing as she roams the muddy road."
Wife Goes On	Leslie Lehr	Four characters who are going through divorce are having completely different experiences, but they find they have something very important in common when they meet each other. Those who belong to the Divorce Club can identify.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 0758222416, ISBN-13: 978-0758222411	"That was the mystery all right. The divorce process has such a steep learning curve, and once you get it, that information is useless except to someone else." "'That table for four in the corner's clearing, but the server just got stiffed and there's a VIP party due. We need a loser table.', 'I beg your pardon?' Diane said. The waitress turned around 'Oh, I'm sorry tha'ts just an expression. It means table for one.'"
Double Jeopardy	Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd	The movies uses a combination of a plot like The Fugitive and the cool-technology-and-strong-woman-thing of the Mr. and Mrs. Smith genre. Judd is wrongly convicted of murdering her husband. After she gets out of prison she's on a mission to find her son, who's mysteriously disappeared along with the friend who adopted him. Watch and see how she handles the advice she got in prison--remember: they can't try you twice for the same crime. Fast-paced, good acting (if a little familiar).	Movie
Wild Animals I Have Known (Yesterday's Classics)	Ernest Thompson Seton	Written in 1899, this book profiles real wild animals with true stories. The author was a trapper and a hunter and, after observing these creatures over the years, came around to believing we shouldn't kill or hurt animals.	Story book	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 1599151812, ISBN-13: 978-1599151816	Wonderful stories about an individual wild wolf, a dog with a split personality, a magnificent Mustang stallion, and more. Charmingly written with poetic descriptions of incidents from the animals' lives.
The Kitchen God's Wife	Amy Tan, author of the Joy Luck Club	Incredible story told as a retelling by a Chinese mother to her daughter the story of her life in 1940s during the war. Graphic descriptions of what the Chinese people had to go through and she personally. Especially her own saga of misery with the cruel husband of an arranged marriage. Beautiful understated expressions of emotion, beautiful ways of showing very simply how different the Chinese culture is from ours.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 0143038109, ISBN-13: 978-0143038108	"I was afraid not because of the ghost, but for another reason. I was a married woman yet I had never felt love from a man or for a man and that night I almost did. I felt the danger that this was how you love someone--one person letting out fears, the other trying closer to soothe the pain. And then more would pour out, everything, more and more sorrow, shame, loneliness, all the old aches. So much released until you overflowed with joy to be rid of it. Until it was too late to stop this new joy from taking over your heart."
Regrets Only	Sally Quinn	The book takes a really detailed, inside look at the insular life of Washington DC citizens--from the craziness of political realities to the press fighting each other for stories. The story is centered around a single woman reporter who is tough, beautiful, successful, and commitment-phobic. It does a great job building the drama of the triangle between her and another strong journalist and the woman who moves from vice president's wife to president's wife.	Popular novel	Amazon.com ASIN: B00128GXVE	"I had to be strong, to be independent. After nana died I felt I couldn't count on anybody. I still can't. They all die or leave, and then I'm alone. I have nobody to love. I have nobody who loves me. I'm afraid I'm being sucked into a black hole. I'm scared."
Saving Fish from Drowning: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)	Amy Tan, celebrated author of The Joy Luck Club	An exotic setting, an unexplained disappearance/kidnapping, love relationships, friendships, mysteries of the dead, all mixed together in a fascinating story mixed up with the real-life history of Burma.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 034546401X, ISBN-13: 978-0345464019	"Two demerits to Heidi for the implants, Harry decided. Marlena's breasts were smaller, but they would react deliciously to his touch, and these days, that was far sexier than size."
Wife Goes On	Leslie Lehr	A celebration of women who overcome the emotional, physical, and financial challenges of divorce to rise again as their own persons. A little racy, but full of hope for women discovering their real selves once they give up the dream of the perfect marriage.	Popular novel	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 0758222416, ISBN-13: 978-0758222411	"With a flash, she understood why the end of her affair had been so devastating. She'd been unhappy in her marriage, so that ending was manageable. With Paul, however, she had a view of the life she'd always wanted. She realized she didn't want to be in his life; she wanted to have his life. She didn't need a man to make her complete; she could be her own prince, make her own dreams come true."
Warrior Woman: The Exceptional Life Story of Nonhelema, Shawnee Indian Woman Chief	James Alexander Thom and Dark Rain Thom. J.A. Thom received great praise for a previous historical novel Sign-Talker.	About a woman Shawnee chief who was warrior, lover and peacemaker all at once. Story is interwoven with the history of the white man's campaign to defraud the Indians of their lands in the early US.	Historical novel	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 0345445554, ISBN-13: 978-0345445551	"Nonhelema was a tolerant judge of men, often quoting to herself the Matthew in the Great Book who had said, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' She knew she was always being judged; she could feel it. And the judgment she felt coming from Brodhead was that she was an Indian squaw who had too much prestige at his fort, and that she deserved to be knocked on the head, and probably raped and scalped--like the praying Indians at the mission."
I am David		Wonderfully poetic depiction of a child escaping from a prison camp in Bulgaria after WWII. Believing both his parents are dead, young 11-year-old David escapes and heads across Europe towards Denmark on the secret urging of a camp guard who provides him a travel kit and advises him to trust no one.	Historical fiction movie		The older woman painter David runs into invites him to her home--across the border into Switzerland. At the border when David starts to freak out because he has no ID papers, she charms the guards. "My grandson and I were in a rush this morning. Can't you relax the rules this once? He just wants to cross into your country, overthrow the government, and rush right back." The guard laughs and lets the boy through.
Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner	F.X. Toole	Stories from the corner of the boxing ring. Powerful details and colorful dialog bring to life the fight game and the characters in it. Even those who don't like boxing will understand what drives those who play and those who work the corners. The author, a trainer and licensed "cut man" (he fixes bleeding fighters during fights so they can keep on fighting) spent 40 years getting rejection slips before his work was published when he was age 70.	Short stories	Amazon.comISBN-10: 006081926X, ISBN-13: 978-0060819262
Warrior Woman: The Exceptional Life Story of Nonhelema, Shawnee Indian Woman Chief	James Alexander Thom and Dark Rain Thom. J.A. Thom received great praise for a previous historical novel Sign-Talker.	About a woman Shawnee chief who was warrior, lover and peacemaker all at once. Story is interwoven with the history of the white man's campaign to defraud the Indians of their lands in the early US.	Historical novel	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 0345445554, ISBN-13: 978-0345445551	"Nonhelema was a tolerant judge of men, often quoting to herself the Matthew in the Great Book who had said, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' She knew she was always being judged; she could feel it. And the judgment she felt coming from Brodhead was that she was an Indian squaw who had too much prestige at his fort, and that she deserved to be knocked on the head, and probably raped and scalped--like the praying Indians at the mission."
A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book)	John Kennedy Toole	This Pulitzer Prize winning story was published several years after the author committed suicide. It is a rollicking romp through the madness of a dysfunctional guy's brilliant mind and damaged psyche. He's angry with everyone and unwilling to buckle down to earn a living. His diatribes are loaded with venomous eloquence yet very entertaining. His colorful, long- suffering mother's character is the perfect counterpoint to his irresponsible carryings-on.	Novel	Amazon.com ISBN-10: 0802130208, ISBN-13: 978-0802130204