16. Snowfall at Willow Lake

This is one in a series, possibly the best in the series actually. It is light, cheesy romance and a perfect quick read.

Here's the description from B&N:

Can a single moment change your entire life?

International lawyer Sophie Bellamy has dedicated her life to helping people in war-torn countries. But when she survives a hostage situation, she remembers what matters most—the children she loves back home. Haunted by regrets, she returns to the idyllic Catskills village of Avalon on the shores of Willow Lake, determined to repair the bonds with her family.
There Sophie discovers the surprising rewards of small-town life—including an unexpected passion for Noah Shepherd, the local veterinarian. Noah has a healing touch for anything with four legs, but he's never had any luck with women—until Sophie.

Snowfall at Willow Lake speaks from the heart about all the loves that fill a woman's life, and all the ways that love is tested and made to grow. It's the story of what comes after a woman survives an unspeakable horror and finds her way home, to healing and redemption and a new chance at happiness.

15. Cooking for Mr. Right

My mom got me this one at a Goodwill store for a quarter... it was definitely worth the price. :)

Actually, it was a cute, quick chick lit read. I've strayed from my typical genre lately for the more serious and the spy novels so this was a nice return to the cheesy, comfort novel I have come to know and love...

Here's a description from B&N:

At twenty-six, Seattle-based chef Kate Linden still has the urge to dye her hair blue and learn to play electric bass. But when she's abruptly fired from the city's hottest restaurant, and her ex-boyfriend, Gaston, announces he's getting married to a woman he's only recently met, Kate feels life's opportunities slipping away. Suddenly she's convinced that Gaston may be her last chance at a happy walk down the aisle. So she cooks up a scheme so grand her ex will be eating out of her hands in no time...It's the perfect recipe for happiness. Until some unexpected ingredients fall into the pot-including a man she'd rather be cooking for.

14. Elements of Style

This is another one that I both liked and didn't like at the same time. I listened to it on my iPod over the course of my trip up to the beach and then in bits and pieces over the last week. I think maybe my not liking it was because I spaced it out so much, but who knows...

Anyway, here's the description from B&N:

Elements of Style, the Pulitzer Prize—winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein’s first novel, is a scathing comedy about New York's high society facing the post—9/11 world.

Francesca Weissman, an Upper East Side pediatrician rated number one by Manhattan magazine, floats on the fringes of the upper strata of privilege and aspiration. Through her bemused eyes we meet the thoroughbred socialite Samantha Acton; relentless social climber Judy Tremont; Barry Santorini, an Oscar-winning moviemaker accustomed to having his way; his supermarket heiress wife, Clarice; and more, tossed together in a frothy stew of outrageous conspicuous consumption and adulterous affairs that play out on Page Six. But when Wasserstein’s madcap tour of the social lives and mores of twenty-first-century Manhattan veers into tragedy, we finally see the true cost of her characters’ choices, and the beating heart of this dazzling novel.

13. The Wednesday Letters

This was a quick read and sweet book. That's the best way I can think of to describe it.

Here's the description from B&N:

Jack and Laurel have been married for 39 years. They've lived a good life and appear to have had the perfect marriage. With his wife cradled in his arms, and before Jack takes his last breath, he scribbles his last "Wednesday Letter." When their adult children arrive to arrange the funeral, they discover boxes and boxes full of love letters that their father wrote to their mother each week on Wednesday. As they begin to open and read the letters, the children uncover the shocking truth about the past. In addition, each one must deal with the present-day challenges. Matthew has a troubled marriage, Samantha is a single mother, and Malcolm is the black sheep of the family who has returned home after a mysterious two-year absence. The Wednesday Letters has a powerful message about forgiveness and quietly beckons for readers to start writing their own "Wednesday Letters."

12. The Kite Runner

The cover of this book has a review that describes it as "powerful and haunting." I completely agree with both. Because reading is an escape for me I can't say I enjoyed this book very much. Yes, there was a happy ending, but the road it took to get to it was so horrible that it was really tough to read at points.

Here's the description from B&N:

The Kite Runner is an unforgettable story of honour, courage and betrayal set in war-torn Afghanistan as two small boys test their friendship to its limits. Compelling, heartrending, and etched with details of a history never before told in fiction, The Kite Runner explores the ways in which we’re damned by our moral failures, and of the extravagant cost of redemption.

11. Executive Power

The Vince Flynn kick continues. This one was good but I didn't like it as much as some of the prior ones. I think I might need to take a bit of a break and read some mindless chick lit fluff in between all of these serious books.

Anyway, here's a description of Executive Power from B&N:
CIA superagent Mitch Rapp battles global terrorism in a high-octane follow-up to The New York Times bestselling Separation of Power -- another chillingly authentic adventure from the master of the political thriller.

Mitch Rapp's cover has been blown. After leading a team of commandos deep into Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein from joining the nuclear arms race, he was publicly hailed by the president as the single most important person in the fight against terrorism. But after years of working covertly behind the scenes, Rapp now lives in the glare of the public spotlight, lauded by the nation and an easy target for virtually every terrorist from Jakarta to London.

As special advisor on counterterrorism to CIA director Dr. Irene Kennedy, Rapp is ready to fight the war on terrorism from CIA headquarters rather than the front line. That is, until a platoon of Navy SEALs, sent to the Philippines to save an American family kidnapped by radical Islamic terrorists, is caught in a deadly ambush. The mission had been top secret -- so who told the enemy? All evidence points to the State Department and the Philippine embassy. But a greater threat still lurks. An unknown assassin working closely with the highest powers in the Middle East is bent on igniting war. Now, with the world watching his every move, will Rapp be able to overcome this anonymous foe and once again keep the flames of war from raging?

Transporting us into an intriguing geopolitical puzzle full of deadly motives, covert operatives, and all the true-to-life insider detail we've come to expect from Vince Flynn, Executive Power is a high-flying story that delivers shattering suspense with the velocity of a 9mm bullet.

10. A Date with the Other Side

I got this one on the bargain table at B&N and I guess it was worth the $5 I paid for it. First, the description:

In the three years Shelby Tucker has been leading tour groups through the haunted houses of Cuttersville, Ohio, she's never caught a glimpse of a ghost. But she does get pretty startled when she waltzes into the bedroom of a supposedly vacant cottage and stumbles upon a sexy, hot-blooded, naked man. This is no ghost, though. This guy is solid as a rock. Bad boy Boston Macnamara is renting the so-called haunted cottage...and he's about to shake things up in Cuttersville. At least for Shelby, who's never been so hot and bothered before. And she may find herself haunted with desire if some feisty matchmaking spirits have their way.

Ok, that description doesn't really signify that the story is really really racy. And, not all that interesting either. It could have been good, but.... nah, it was just so so.

9. Separation of Power

School and life are getting in the way of reading time and I don't like it! Hopefully this weekend will give me the chance to get through several books and try and get caught back up with Mary!

Anyway, this was my latest in the Vince Flynn series and just as fast paced and compelling as the previous ones. If you like the whole spy novel genre I definitely recommend this series!

Here's a review from B&N.com:

A changing of the guard at the CIA attracts some corrupt politicos with eyes on the White House at the start of this sharply plotted thriller, a step up for popular writer Flynn (The Third Option, etc.). Unfortunately for the bad guys, upright CIA agent Dr. Irene Kennedy is tapped to replace her dead boss, foiling their illicit fund-raising plans. Corrupt politico number one, Sen. Hank Clark, enlists Irene's envious second to discredit her and the president. Clark and his cronies are also eager to deal with CIA special ops assassin Mitch Rapp, who's stuck on desk duty after nearly losing his life on a previous assignment and seems ripe to be taken out. Mitch accompanies his girlfriend, White House reporter Anna Rielly, to Italy, where he meets up with his former lover, freelance assassin Donatella Rahn. When Rahn is shot, Mitch uncovers a plot linked to the men behind the threats to Irene and the CIA. Meanwhile, reports surface that Saddam Hussein has acquired nuclear weapon components from North Koreans, who are assembling them in a factory buried beneath a Baghdad hospital. This calls for a gutsy mission, one that entails stopping Saddam while avoiding the PR nightmare that bombing a hospital would cause. Irene pulls Mitch into the plans to deal with Baghdad while she grapples with Congress. Flynn knows his politicians and pits his characters against impossible odds with nonstop action and suspense thus distracting fans from all the clich?s and mediocre prose and a final fillip will keep them guessing as to Mitch's future in the series.