"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

From www.bookbrowse.com:
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

"The Eight" by Katherine Neville

Published in 1988 "The Eight" was one of the first Quest novels and a huge international bestseller. Spanning centuries and numerous continents, the author explores the mysteries of a powerful chess game. Two intertwined and complex storylines take our heroines into danger, intrigue, historical and political events beyond their control to unlock the key to ultimate power. The story continues in the 2008 sequel "The Fire."

"The Outliers: the Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell

You know you have arrived when your last name becomes an adjective! It is "Gladwellian" to come up with one word descriptions of the latest trends in modern life. Malcolm Galdwell, a staff writer for "The New Yorker" has done it again with his new book "The Outliers." He provides a fascinating look into the many factors that contribute to a person's success. One of these factors is when you were born-- both the month and year can be critical. The author provides many interesting examples and research which supports his theories. A very engaging and informative book which helps debunk the myth of the "self-made man."

"My Life in France" by Julia Child

In the unmistakable words of Julia Child, here is a summary of this delightful memoir: "In Paris in the 1950s, I had the supreme fortune to study with a remarkably able group of chefs. From them I learned why good French food is an art, and why it makes such sublime eating: nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should... In all the years since that succulent meal, I have yet to lose the feelings of wonder and excitement that it inspired in me. I can still almost taste it. And thinking back on it now reminds me that the pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite-- toujours bon appetite!"

Julia Child was a pioneer of the popular cooking movement that has brought gourmet cooking to the average American's kitchen. Her passion for French food, her unfailing research into recipes and the science of food, along with her sense of adventure are evident on each page. She made French cooking accessible not only through her cookbooks but also in the early days of public television. A remarkable woman along with her husband Paul, and her partners they all achieved so much due to Julia's unfailing "wonder and excitement."

"Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout

Reprinted by permission from:

"Tales from the Scriptorium" (crazy4novels.blogspot.com)

Angry words hide fear
The loudest bird feels smallest
Seek one another.

When is the last time that you willingly spent an entire week with someone you didn't like, even though you were free to escape at any moment without the slightest penalty? Never? Neither had I, until I picked up Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer prize winning book, "Olive Kitteridge," last month, and discovered that the longer I lingered with the book's abrasive main character, the less I wanted to leave her house.
Caustic, judgmental, and "honest" to a fault, Olive Kitteridge resembles the scary aunt that children run away from at family reunions -- the one who informs you that your legs are too fat to wear shorts and that you have Grandpa's nose. Even her body is a force of nature. Olive is unusually tall, and not in a willowy way. She slices through the small Maine town of Crosby like a sturdy ship of state, leaving battered feelings in her wake like so much hurricane flotsam.
Olive Kitteridge is a woman to be reckoned with, a fact that is not lost on her long suffering husband, Henry. He's a bespectacled, tentative man who loves his job as a pharmacist and awakens each morning with the belief that the world is a good place filled with good people. His workplace is a refuge where he can satisfy his hunger to make everyone happy. No one can make Olive happy, however, and the hairs on the back of Henry's neck tingle each evening as he drives home in anticipation of Olive's inevitable irritation with him or with Christopher, their only child.
Olive may be easy to dislike, but she's also fascinating. She delivers one-liners that are rude and yet strangely satisfying to read; they're the kind of remarks that we've all secretly wished we could say at some time. Olive: "How I hate a grown woman who says 'the little girls' room.' Is she drunk?" Further example: When Christopher leaves Olive alone with his recent (and many-times divorced) bride, Olive looks about and casually asks, "Where is your newest husband?" Her thoughts aren't something to be proud of, but we've all had them ("More gratifying, however, was the fact that . . . the story of Bill and Bunny's offspring was worse than their own.")
Olive isn't all bad, however, and the author is brilliant in her ability to elicit compassion from the reader as the complexity of Olive's personality is gradually developed. Olive's years with her son are filled with impatience and discord, but she is devastated and profoundly lonely when he chooses to move to California; "Pain, like a pinecone unfolding, seemed to blossom beneath her breastbone." She observes her future daughter-in-law gently stroke the hair of a young flower girl at Christopher's wedding, and acknowledges to herself that something is deeply wrong with her own inability to express physical affection. She is mortified when, after an evening dinner, she realizes that Christopher and Ann never informed her that she had food on her blouse, a "courtesy" extended to an aging old woman. Olive's former students (she was a junior high math teacher) remember her with respect and admiration. "Don't be scared of your hunger," she told one of them, "If you're scared of your hunger, you'll just be one more ninny like everyone else." These moments help the reader to empathize with, if not admire, Olive. In doing so, the reader expands his/her ability to realize that the complex mystery of others is never fully knowable.
This book is technically a series of short stories that are all connected in some way to Olive, but it reads more like a novel. In addition to being a character-driven tour de force, it is also a wise commentary on domestic relations, the ways of small towns, and the human condition in general. Take a trip to Crosby, Maine and spend the week with Olive. I think you'll be glad you did.

"Zorro" by Isabel Allende

Master storyteller Isabel Allende, takes on the iconic legend of Zorro. In her wonderful blend of fiction, history and magic, she introduces us to Diego de la Vaga, and his "milk brother" Bernardo, as young boys in California. Allende follows the brothers through their formative years in Barcelona, to Louisiana, and back to California as adults. With an engaging plot, full of great characters and historical detail, Allende brings the legend of Zorro to life in this captivating novel.

"The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America" by Bill Bryson

Journalist, author and expatriate Bill Bryson, comes back home to Des Moines, Iowa to begin a 13,000+ mile trip across the United States. This book is part travelogue, part memoir and full of Bryson's trademark humor as he seeks to connect with his childhood memories, and find the perfect American small town. At times poignant, irreverent and scathing, this book is full of classic Bryson gems of insight into America. It should also bring back memories to many readers of the classic American road trip.

If you enjoyed this book you may also like: "Blue Highways: a Journey in to America" by William Least Heat Moon or works by Tim Cahill or Paul Theroux.