Book Recommendations - Gather Friends I Need Your Help

The Pact & My Sister's Keeper, both by Jodi Picoult.

If you have not read The Lovely Bones ever, it would be a great read for you.

Thanks Heather and Marianne, I will definitely see if my library has these. I have to write a list before I go in, as Sky is one big energy bomb these days. I have the feeling he sees the word Noise, whenever he sees the library:)

The Secret Life of Bees is a good one if you haven't read it yet.

I also just finished The Lovely Bones and gave it to my mother-in-law. It was fantastic!

I just finished "Waiter Rant!" its a really great book

The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is very entertaining.

I agree - Jodi Picoult's books are amazing and well written and though provoking - but long. Personally, I didn't like The Lovely Bones, but loved Secret Life of Bees. I also just read a sweet, uplifting book called The Art of Racing in the Rain. Three Cups of Tea, if you haven't read it already. I read so much, now I've forgotten which ones I loved!

My reading is sporadic at best these days. The best one I came across this year was the one I reviewed for gather called the War on Wealth by Gabor Steingart. It forced me to think amd re-examine and even change my own economic and politic views.

Girl - two hours on that exercise bike? are you out of your mind?:):)

I don't know if you're into vampires and werewolves and that silly sort of stuff, but the Laurell K Hamilton "Anita Blake" series is an entertaining series.

"Gods In Alabama" is another I am listening to on audio tape... it's been.. interesting.

Well, I'd recommend you to check at least these four books one of the many, I've read for the last few months and that I think are just great reads and these are: 1)"Confessions of a Shopaholic" by Sophie Kinsella( lots of fun to read) 2)The Pemberley Chronicles" By Rebecca Ann Collins 3) Can you keep a secret? by Sophie Kinsella and the " The Da Vinci Code" Who knows, perhaps, you'd like them also.Blessings! D.

What looks like crazy on an ordinary day. by Pearl Cleage. I picked this up at a garage sale and read it. It was so good.

I got this off amazon.com

Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1998: What makes Pearl Cleage's novel so damned enjoyable? At first glance, after all, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day seems pretty heavy going: HIV, suicide, sudden infant death syndrome, and drunk driving all figure prominently in the lives of narrator Ava Johnson and her older sister Joyce. It isn't long before crack addiction, domestic violence, and unwed motherhood have joined the list--so, where's the pleasure? The answer lies in the sharp and funny attitude Cleage brings to her depiction of one African American community in the troubled '90s. Ava Johnson, for example, might be HIV-positive, but she's refreshingly forthright about it: "Most of us got it from the boys. Which is, when you think about it, a pretty good argument for cutting men loose, but if I could work up a strong physical reaction to women, I would already be having sex with them. I'm not knocking it. I'm just saying I can't be a witness. Too many titties in one place to suit me."
Ada has spent the last 10 years living in Atlanta. When she discovers she's infected, she sells her hairdressing business and heads back to her childhood home of Idlewild, Michigan, to spend the summer with her recently widowed sister before moving on to San Francisco. Once there, however, she finds herself embroiled in big-city problems--drugs, violence, teen pregnancy, and an abandoned crack-addicted baby, to name just a few--in a small-town setting. Ava also meets Eddie Jefferson, a man with a past who just might change her mind about the imprudence of falling in love.

In less assured hands, such a catalog of disasters would make for maudlin, melodramatic reading indeed. But Cleage, an accomplished playwright, has a way both with characters and with language that lifts this tale above its movie-of-the-week tendencies. In Ava she has created a character who not only effortlessly carries the weight of the story but also provides entertaining commentary on African American life as she goes. Discussing the insular nature of the black community in Atlanta, she recalls, "I'd walk into a reception room and there'd be a room full of brothers, power-brokering their asses off, and I'd realize I'd seen them all naked. I'd watch them striding around, talking to each other in those phony-ass voices men use when they want to make it clear they got juice, and it was so depressing, all I'd want to do was go home and get drunk." Later, she describes the preacher's wife's hair as "pressed and hot-curled within an inch of its life.... Hardly anybody asks for that kind of hard press anymore. Sister seems to have missed the moment when we decided it was okay for the hair to move."

As the trials and tribulations pile on, the experiences of Cleage's characters prove to be universal: death, love, second chances. Ava's acerbic, smart-mouthed narrative keeps the story buoyant; by the time this endearingly imperfect heroine and her cohorts have negotiated the rocky road to a happy ending, readers will be sorry to see her go, even as they wish her well. --Alix Wilber

I recently read 'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" by Gregory Maguire. I quite liked it.
Its a retelling of the Cinderella story by the author "Wicked".

If you have not read "Wicked", I would recommend that also.

I am more of a suspense person....Mary Higgens Clark, Sue Grafton, Patricia Cornwell.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Hannah's Dream by Dianne Hammond
Anything written by Gregory MacGuire

I am a suspense or thriller person like Janet, but Wendy F. turned me onto Jan Karon. Her work has been a nice change from my norm and since they are based on a small-town rector, they are super clean.

Oh - I liked Water for Elephants, too! And The Zookeeper's Wife...........

Anita Stanfield has very good books. My books are for Young Adults, but lots of older people reads them.
Anna del C.
Author of "The Elf and the Princess"
and "Trouble in the Elf City"

I love Anita Stansfields books. I have read them all.

Anita Stansfield has been the reigning queen of LDS romantic fiction for more than a decade, although her general market releases have been among her readers favorites. Her work has shattered the stereotypes of romance novels with her trademark ability to combine great storytelling with intense psychological depth as she focuses on the emotional struggles of the human experience. Her novels cover a huge spectrum, from the eighteenth century to the present, from heart warming to heart stopping. Hundreds of thousands of readers agree: Anita Stansfield's characters and the lives they lead are not easy to forget.

Thank you everyone for all of your recommendations, I better get started on making the list today.

A very light, clean and fun read if you are a Jane Austen, 'Pride and Prejudice' fan: Austenland by Shannon Hale.

Wait - I forgot - I love ALL of Ann Patchett's books, too - especially Run and The Magician's Assistant - bet you will too!

Here's a book that will make you stick to your exercise bike right from page 1: No Second Chance by Harlan Coben.

I can recommend several books, but that one grabs you right away.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate by Michael D. Yates are two that I think that you would enjoy.

I have just read Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. The beggining is not that great, but when you got to the page 200 , you can't take your eyes out of it. I also like Zoya by D. Steel and also Echoes are great too from the same author. It has romance, but a lot of history too.

Mostly, I read Fantasy. Mercedes Lackey is a good author if you're into that genre at all. :)

I loved The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I also just finished Shadow Baby by Alison McGhee. It was a beautiful story but may not be the thing to get you through a workout session. If you are looking for good historical fiction I might recommend An Inconvenient Wife by Megan Chance which is set in Victorian New York City.

I agree with readers that liked "Eat, Pray Love" and "Water for Elephants". I haven't read the "Secret Life of Bees" yet but since it was mentioned so many times I think I need to :)

I wrote a non-fiction book that is perfect for reading while exerizing. It is about a scret assignment as a test subject for the army Quartermaster that nearly killed me many times back in 1950. I know it is not good to push one's books but this one is designed for easy ready with 12 pt font on 70lb white paper. Easy on the eyes when moving on a machine. I wanted younger and older people to read it without hurting their eyes. By the way before I forget, the title is "Soldier Pigs/ When Soldiers Are Guinea Pigs". Full color hard cover and available at gswansonbooks.com. I read all the time and can provide you a lot of other good books depending on what you like.