SOUTH OF BROAD BY PAT CONROY

Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Bend gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, the narrator is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school Principal and a respected Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of ten, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that include Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hard scramble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead, socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge. The ties among them last for years. The final test of friendship brings them to San Francisco and is something that no one is prepared for.

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

Nearly thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell resolves to reclaim her life by cooking, in the span of a single year, every one of 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves liver and aspic, but a new life.....lived with gusto.

This was the worst book that I ever read. I finished it because the library is doing it for a book discussion and since Martin has CHF we will never attend GREAT BOOKS again. I wanted to discuss a book and this is it. It isn't worth the paper that it was written on.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

This is the story of two women. Their lives collide on faithful day and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice that we hope that you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again......the story starts there.

The Forger's Spell

As riveting as a World War II thriller, this book is the true story of three men and an extraordinary deception: the revered artist Johannes Vermeer, the small time Dutch painter who dared to impersonate him years later and the con man's mark, Hermann Goering, the fanatical art collector and one of Nazi Germany's most reviled leaders.

The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz

This book is beautifully written. It is a deeply felt discourse on Mexico's quest for identity. It gives us an unequaled look at the country hidden behind the mask.

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

At the heart of this Pulitzer Prize winning play stands the ornately carved upright piano that has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, her exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dream of buying the same Mississippi land that their family had worked on as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the cash he needs to stake his future. Berniece refuses to sell, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This book tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women, brimming with truth, compassion and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul.