Water, stone, heart by Will North

A newly divorced architect goes to Cornwall for a stone-building class and comes alive. The place, Cornwall, becomes another well drawn character in this novel. Heartwarming.

The Castaways, by Elin Hilderbrand

Four couples on Nantucket have been friends for years, until one couple dies in a boating accident. Hilderbrand peers under the surface to see what's really been going on between them. Beach read for people who stay on the sand.

Real Life & Liars, by Kristina Riggle

Max and Mira are about to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary and all three of their children come home for the party, but the first thing we learn about Mira is that she still smokes pot at 65. Then we find out she's just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Mira is a wonderfully drawn character, very much her own self. The author tells the story from different viewpoints so we get to know all the members of the family. For a first novel, this really stands out.

Still Alice: a novel, by Lisa Genova

What is having Alzheimer's disease like, from the point of view of the person who has it? This fragile story has a hard-hitting impact. Alice Howland, a 50-year-old Harvard professor, finally goes to the doctor to find out if she's in menopause, because she's had a few episodes that don't make sense to her. Early onset Alzheimer's disease, is the diagnosis. The scientist in her carefully observes herself. She makes a daily to-do list on her Blackberry, including asking herself five questions, with a note to herself on what to do if she can't answer those questions. She watches the effect that her behavior has on her husband and children. Both personal and objective, this novel will haunt you. I'm recommending this book to everyone.

Don't look twice, by Andrew Gross

Detective Ty Hauck (from The Dark Tide) is in the gas station with his 13-year-old daughter when a shotgun is fired through the plate glass window. Dead is a federal prosecutor. The action never stops, even when the killer is found. Gross is a co-author with James Patterson and has developed the right ingredients for a real page-turner.

Mounting fears, by Stuart Woods

Another in the series about Will Lee, now President of the United States, and his wife Kate, now CIA Director. A group seizes a missile site in Pakistan; a vice president has cancer; affairs are covered up and uncovered; the elusive Teddy Faye is discovered in Panama City. Another great suspense story from Woods.

Terminal freeze, by Lincoln Child

A story from frozen Alaska; scientists find something buried in ice that looks like a sabre-toothed tiger. A documentary team flies in to film the unveiling of the corpse, but instead the thing defrosts itself and becomes what it was when it was flash-frozen: a killing machine. Blood, gore, and ice trucking - what fun!

Critical mass, by Whitley Streiber

Las Vegas is blown up by an atomic bomb. Yeah, I'm in! We follow James Deutsch as he tracks the trail of the bomb and tries to get to the President before the traitors within the government find him. His ex-wife, Nabila, is also on the job. Will they find the next bomb before it blows up Washington? Read and find out!

Lethal legacy, by Linda Fairstein

What's beneath the fabled 42nd Street library? Alex Cooper and her two cohorts, Mike and Mercer, are looking for clues to a murder and get a behind-the-scenes look at NYPL. Rich donors, eccentric board members, secret tunnels - for library lovers, this is great fun; library staff and conservators will be horrified by the rough handling of rare books and maps. Put on white gloves before you pick up that bloodstained clue!!

Racism 101, by Nikki Giovanni

What a wonderful collection of messages! "... the biggest stumbling block to progress in America is still racism... we have to find a way to comfort young white people about the fact that, though they will never ... rule the world again, they can make valid contributions to our planet. The world is not, and has never been, white..." A great way to touch base with how far we've come, and how far we still need to go.

Enough, by Juan Williams

Subtitle: the phony leaders, dead-end movements, and culture of failure that are undermining Black America - and what we can do about it. Williams is excited by Bill Cosby's perceptive, focused challenge to parents in his famous speech celebrating the anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. "Study," Cosby (and Williams) tells students. "That's all." Williams quotes statistics such as the difference in the amount of time spent studying by white, African-American, Hispanic and Asian students, the amount of time spent watching TV, the number of middle-class African-Americans leaving inner city schools, and time spent by parents helping their children with homework. It all points to more parental involvement. Williams is scathing of so-called civil rights leaders who help their own families to succeed, but don't lead marches on our failing schools or stand in front of crack houses.

Too close to home, by Linwood Barclay

Note to residents of Racine, Wisconsin: I finished reading this book the week our Mayor was arrested.
Jim Cutter's next door neighbors are murdered, while his son Derek hid in their basement. Derek is afraid to say anything about what he saw and heard -- until he is arrested for their murder. Jim used to work for the Mayor of Promise Falls (don't you love that name?) until he got aggravated and punched him in the nose; now he has his own lawn maintenance business while his wife works at the local university. More people are killed while Jim tries to find the thread holding the murders together. Finally it leads back to the Mayor, who had sex with a 15-year-old girl (hence the punch in the nose) and is now about to run for Congress. Barclay is a great writer, but towards the end of the book I just kept saying out loud, oh my goodness. The coincidences between our newspaper headlines and the storyline were just too amazing.

Milk (movie)

Sean Penn does a wonderful job portraying Harvey Milk, the San Francisco city/county supervisor who was murdered by former supervisor Dan White (creator of the "Twinkie defense").
The movie shows Milk's character changing, becoming more politically active, and yet he is still innocent and charming.
I find it depressing that society hasn't evolved much since Milk's murder. This movie is rated "R" because of the subject matter, not because of what you see on screen. And not all families and couples have the same civil rights. We have a long way to go.

Brass verdict, by Michael Connelly

A brass verdict is street justice, not necessarily legal justice. Defense attorney Mickey Haller inherits Jerry Vincent's cases after Vincent is murdered. Detective Harry Bosch is investigating Vincent's death and how it relates to Haller's new big case, a Hollywood mogul charged with killing his wife and her lover. Connelly is first rate, several good surprises here.

Living dead girl, by Elizabeth Scott

This horrifying story's first chapter begins with, "This is how things look." The second chapter begins with, "This is how things are," and we learn about a girl who was abducted five years ago and is still kept in terror by her abductor. She is numb. He won't let her eat, to keep her young looking, but she's growing anyway. He forces her to find her another, younger girl.
There are monsters living among us, and we don't see them; we only see "how things look."
Powerful and moving.