If you're obsessive compulsive about your to be read pile as I am, then, like me, you play with your books on a regular basis, organizing and reorganizing and determining which books will be read next. After one such OCD episode, I've got these books sitting in the top 20 of the to be read next pile. What's in your top 20?
Your Big Break by Johanna Edwards Description: Dani Myers has become an expert at romantic breakups ever since she was hired to "facilitate" them for clients of Your Big Break, Inc. In other words, she dumps people for money. But company rule #5 (do not get personally involved) is getting harder to obey. One of her dumpees is turning out to be the kind of guy she might just want to pick up on the rebound. and a new client has just walked in, begging for Dani's help breaking up with The Big Jackass, who's been leading her on all this time-and now turns out to be married. It would be a routine job except for one problem: the so-called Big Jackass is married to none other than Dani's mother. You Had Me At Halo by Amanda Ashby Description: Holly Evans has just seen her own body laid to rest. Now she would like to move onto the afterlife. But apparently she has some mortal baggage to unload first, starting with the matter of how she died. Her heavenly shrink isn't buying that she didn't kill herself- and says she must return to earth to straighten things out. The thing is, she needs to borrow the body of computer geek Vince Murphy to do it. Oh, and although Vince was supposed to have vacated the premises, he apparently never got the memo. Now, Holly has forty-eight hours to resolve her issues while sharing arms, legs, and...other things...with a guy she barely noticed while she was alive. But the real surprise is what life has to offer when you have only two days to live it. Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich Description: Seven Stones of Power. No one knows when they were created or by whom, each said to represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins. For centuries, treasure hunters have been eager to possess the stones, undeterred by their corrupting nature. The list is long -- Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, to name a few. Now the Stones have found their way to Salem, Massachusetts, and so has Gerwulf Grimoire, adding himself to this rogues' gallery of power seekers. He's an uncommonly dangerous man, with a hunger for the forbidden, and a set of abilities that are way beyond ordinary. Abilities that he feels entitle him to possess anything he might desire. That would include Elizabeth Tucker, the woman he needs to find the Stones. She's freshly transplanted from New York City to Boston's North Shore. With a new job as pastry chef at Dazzle's bakery and an old house inherited from her Aunt Ophelia, her life is pretty much on track …until it's suddenly derailed by a guy named Diesel, a rude monkey, and a ninja cat. Lizzy can handle the monkey and the cat. She's not sure about Diesel. He's offering up his own set of unusual talents, promising to protect her from Grimoire. The kind of protection that Lizzy suspects might involve guarding her body day and night. The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, lust, envy wrath, sloth and gluttony. That pretty much covers everything that is wicked. Diesel thinks it also pretty much covers everything that's fun. And Lizzy thinks Diesel and the Seven Deadly Sins cover everything her mother warned her about. What's A Ghoul To Do by Victoria Laurie Description: M.J., her partner Gilley, and their client, the wealthy, de-lish Dr. Steven Sable, are at his family's lodge, where his grandfather allegedly jumped to his death from the roof-although Sable says it was foul play. But the patriarch's isn't the only ghost around. The place is lousy with souls, all with something to get off their ghoulish chests. Now M.J. will have to to quell the clamor-and listen for a voice with the answers... Through Thick And Thin by Alison Pace Description: Stephanie is an overwhelmed stay-at-home mom with a six-month-old. Her sister, Meredith, on the other hand, is hitting the two-year mark without a boyfriend-or even a decent date-but has a successful career as a food critic. Sometimes it seems the only thing these sisters share is their mutual desire to lose weight, so they decide to do it together. But will the strong desire for sisterhood outweigh their equally strong desire for comfort foods? The Zygote Chronicles by Suzanne Finnamore Description: This is the time of real butter," writes Suzanne Finnamore in The Zygote Chronicles, her fictional journal of pregnancy. In fresh, fed-up language, Finnamore (Otherwise Engaged) captures the universal truths of pregnancy that can seem almost insultingly personal when they happen to you. Finnamore sings the joys of whole cream dairy products, but the blues make themselves heard as well. The narrator, an advertising executive, frets about her credibility at work. "I'm a little worried that I won't have any authority left when I get big and have Pamela Anderson breasts. I may have to compensate in some way. I may have to start carrying a hammer." Women have always been funny about pregnancy, and Finnamore gets all that black humor down on paper. It should be noted, however, that the narrator's grousing can wear a bit thin, given her station in life (she laments giving up her Miata for an SUV). Even so, The Zygote Chronicles should take its place alongside Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions as essential reading for the intelligent breeder. --Claire Dederer The Postcard Killers by James Patterson Description: NYPD detective Jack Kanon is on a tour of Europe's most gorgeous cities. But the sights aren't what draw him--he sees each museum, each cathedral, and each restaurant through a killer's eyes. Kanon's daughter, Kimmy, and her boyfriend were murdered while on vacation in Rome. Since then, young couples in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Stockholm have become victims of the same sadistic killers. Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter, Gabby Larsen. Every killing is preceded by a postcard to the local newspaper--and Kanon and Larsen think they know where the next victims will be. With relentless logic and unstoppable action, The Postcard Killers may be James Patterson's most vivid and compelling thriller yet. The Ghost And The Dead Man's Library by Alice Kimberly Description: Bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure has just received a rare collection of Poe's complete works. Rumor has it a secret code, trapped within the pages, leads to buried treasure. But it seems everyone who buys...dies. Now Pen will need resident ghost P.I. Jack Shepard to help crack the case. Smart Vs. Pretty by Valerie Frankel Description: Out-of-work urban professional Francesca Greenfield has always known that she was the "smart" sister. Amanda was the soft and lovely one who, from the beginning, had always garnered most of the attention -- and all the dates. Now they've been thrown together in a last-ditch effort to save the family coffeehouse business before it goes permanently down the drain. In the chaotic misdt of mad promotional schemes and piranhalike next-door competitors, the sisters Greenfield are going to have to put aside their hard-faught sibling rivalry -- and quick! -- for the family good. No Mercy by Sherrilyn Kenyon Description: Live fast, fight hard and, if you have to die, then take as many of your enemies with you as you can. That is the Amazon credo and it was one Samia lived and died by. Now in contemporary New Orleans, the immortal Amazon warrior is about to learn that there’s a worse evil coming to slaughter mankind than she’s ever faced before. Marked by P.C. Cast Description: The House of Night series is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres have always existed. In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire--that is, if she makes it through the Change. Not all of those who are chosen do. It’s tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite club, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny--with a little help from her new vampyre friends. Love The One You're With by Emily Giffin Description: The New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof delivers another captivating novel about women and the choices that define them. This is the story for anyone who has ever wondered: How can I truly love the one I'm with when I can't forget the one who got away? Ellen and Andy's first year of marriage doesn't just seem perfect, it is perfect. There is no question how deep their devotion is, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other. But one fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo for the first time in eight years. Leo, the one who brought out the worst in her. Leo, the one who left her heartbroken with no explanation. Leo, the one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she's living is the one she's meant to live. Love the One You're With is a powerful story about one woman at the crossroads of true love and real life. Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon Description: At fourteen, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends. . .until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity. Nick quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one: a world where the captain of the football team is a werewolf and the girl he has a crush on goes out at night to stake the undead. But before he can even learn the rules of this new world, his fellow students are turning into flesh eating zombies. And he’s next on the menu. As if starting high school isn't hard enough. . .now Nick has to hide his new friends from his mom, his chainsaw from the principal, and keep the zombies and the demon Simi from eating his brains, all without getting grounded or suspended. How in the world is he supposed to do that? Heart Of The Matter by Emily Giffin Description: Tessa Russo is the mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Despite her own mother's warnings, Tessa has recently given up her career to focus on her family and the pursuit of domestic happiness. From the outside, she seems destined to live a charmed life. Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie--a boy who has never known his father. After too many disappointments, she has given up on romance--and even to some degree, friendships--believing that it is always safer not to expect too much. Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, the two have relatively little in common aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined. In alternating, pitch-perfect points of view, Emily Giffin creates a moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most. Dying To Call You by Elaine Viets Description: Readers of Murder Between the Covers and Shop Till You Drop know that Helen Hawthorne -- the feisty, resolute divorcee of Elaine Viet s previous two Dead-End Job mysteries -- has been through a lot of changes. Faced with paying court-mandated alimony to her cheating stay-at-home spouse, she chose to flee the jurisdiction, abandoning her six-figure salary in favor of a series of cash-only jobs that keep her off company books and off the radar of court officials and her ex-husband. On the lam in sunny, sizzling South Florida, Helen takes a job with a telemarketing firm, where she inadvertendly overhears a murder being committed on one of her cold calls. Soon Helen is running, not just from her unfair divorce settlement but for her very life! Deeper Than The Dead by Tami Hoag Description: Tami Hoag is in a class by herself, beloved by readers and critic s alike, with more than 22 million copies of her books in print. With Hoag’s first novel for Dutton, she proves anew why the Chicago Tribune called her “one of the most intense suspense writers around.” California, 1984. Four children, running in the woods behind their school, stumble upon a partially buried female body, eyes and mouth glued shut. Close behind the children is their teacher, Anne Navarre, shocked by this discovery and heartbroken as she witnesses the end of their innocence. What she doesn’t yet realize is that this will mark the end of innocence for an entire community, as the ties that bind families and friends are tested by secrets uncovered in the wake of a serial killer’s escalating activity. Detective Tony Mendez, fresh from a law enforcement course at FBI headquarters, is charged with interpreting those now revealed secrets. He’s using a new technique—profiling—to develop a theory of the case, a strategy that pushes him ever deeper into the lives of the three children, and closer to the young teacher whose interest in recent events becomes as intense as his own. As new victims are found and the media scrutiny of the investigation bears down on them, both Mendez and Navarre are unsure if those who suffer most are the victims themselves—or the family and friends of the killer, blissfully unaware that someone very close to them is a brutal, calculating psychopath. Death Perception by Victoria Laurie Description: Abby Cooper's betting the house on her inner eye... It took a while for Abby Cooper's FBI agent boyfriend, Dutch Rivers, to accept her psychic gifts as the real deal. But these days he knows better than to question Abby's visions. So when his favorite cousin Chase is kidnapped in Vegas, they both catch the next flight to Sin City. Abby's inner eye insists that Chase is still alive, but nothing else about the case adds up—especially Dutch's reluctance to involve his own Bureau. On top of everything, Dutch is battling a mysterious illness, and Abby keeps having disturbing dreams that predict his death. Dutch wants Abby to promise that if the investigation goes south, she'll head home to safety. But when the chips are down, Abby won't fold without a fight... Cinderella Pact by Sarah Strohmeyer Description: In this funny and big-hearted story by the author of The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives, three best friends make a pact to transform themselves into the glamorous women they've always wanted to be. Nola Devlin has a secret identity. By day she is an overweight, frumpy, and overlooked editor at Sass! (the "celebrity magazine with an edge!"), but by night she slips behind her keyboard and into her alter-ego: Belinda Apple. Belinda is thin, gorgeous, British and the author of a trendy advice column- she is, in effect, the latest Carrie Bradshaw. Not even Nola's two best friends or her self-absorbed sister (who worships Belinda as the "sister she never had") know her secret. When "Belinda" jots off a column about how easy it is to lose weight, Nola is shocked when her best friends take her own lies to heart and urge her to follow Belinda's weight loss program. Since Nola can't reveal herself as the real Belinda Apple, she bites the bullet and joins her friends in making the "Cinderella Pact"- a last ditch attempt to lose weight (again!) and transform their lives for good. But as the pounds come off, things don't turn out the way the three friends expect. Their journey of self-discovery leads to the return of an old love and the unmasking of new problems. Meanwhile, Nola finds herself torn between two different men as she stomps out fires caused by her deception as Belinda Apple and falls in love with the man who just might be her prince - or the rat in coachman's clothing. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin Description: irst comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes....a baby carriage? Isnt that what all women want? Not so for Claudia Parr. And just as she gives up on finding a man who feels the same way, she meets warm, wonderful Ben. Things seem too good to be true when they fall in love and agree to buck tradition with a satisfying, child-free marriage. Then the unexpected occurs: one of them has a change of heart. One of them wants children after all. This is the witty, heartfelt story about what happens to the perfect couple when they suddenly want different things. Its about feeling that your life is set and then realizing that nothing is as you thought it was- and that there is no possible compromise. Its about deciding what is most important in life, and taking chances to get it. But most of all, its about the things we will do- and wont do- for love. A Tale Of Two Sisters by Anna Maxted Description: The bestselling author of Getting Over It and Running in Heels, a writer who "excels at creating winning characters and placing them in artfully crafted muddles" (Florida Sun-Sentinel) has created an unforgettable story of siblings in the best of times and the worst of times in London. Lizbet and Cassie are sisters and, though they've always wanted different things, best friends as well. But that's about to change. Cassie is skinny, clever, charismatic and successful - every not-so-perfect girl's worst nightmare. The one defect in her quality-controlled life may be her marriage. Lizbet is plumper, plainer, dreamier. She's desperate to make her name as a journalist, but is stuck writing embarrassing articles on sex for a men's magazine. Her one achievement is her relationship with Tim, who thinks she's amusing and smart even when she asks ditzy questions. Confronted by challenges that they never asked for, enticed by new loves, and forced apart by mistakes not their own, will Cassie and Lizbet ever figure out how to get back to the simple goodness of their sisterhood, even as their lives take them on a collision course of heartache and new beginnings? Sherri Currently reading VAMPIRE ACADEMY by Richelle Mead & listening to THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES by Cecelia Ahern Up Next: DEEPER THAN THE DEAD by Tami Hoag What am I babbling about? http://sharalsthoughtsandramblings.blogspot.com/ http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1318571455 See the books I have set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/sharalsbooks Swap Your Paperback Books - PaperBackSwap.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Have you told a friend today? http://bookcrossing.com/tellafriend Archives and email list settings: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BookCrossing Yahoo! 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