Random House     2003

This book had me laughing out loud! I found Firoozeh Dumas to be a wonderful storyteller. It's a witty and heartwarming story of not only her immigrant family trying to understand life in America, but a memoir of what it was like to grow up Iranian in a Southern California culture. Through lovable relatives and quirky characters, her humorous anecdotes made me realize that when it comes to family, we humans are universally not so different after all. This book is perfect for a fun, light read and appropriate for teens through adult.

Picador     2003

Looking for a book to read that you will enjoy so much you'll want to recommend it to everyone you know? Well, here it is! A personal favorite of mine, it's an amazingly beautiful story of a young German girl during WWII who comes to learn the power of words through stolen books. Narrated by Death, (don't let that throw you, he does his job with more compassion than you can possibly imagine), I found it to be an incredibly moving story that deserves to be read by both teens and adults.

Touchstone     2006

For all us historical fiction lovers. A welcome follow up to the The Other Boleyn Girl, this book intertwines the story of Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard (Henry VIII's fourth and fifth wives) with that of Lady Jane Rochford, the sister-in-law of his second wife Anne Boleyn. Adept at conveying the increasingly frightening and unpredictable atmosphere of Henry's court, this author paints a terrifying picture of what it must have been like to be married to this aging, obese and increasingly mentally unbalanced King.