31. I Heard That Song Before

This is Mary Higgins Clark's latest and a good read. As a long time reader her books can get a bit predictible but I think she did a good job in this one telling a good story as well as crafting a mystery.

Here's a review from B&N:

Mary Higgins Clark's psychological thriller is set in and around a historic mansion on a sprawling 50-acre estate in Englewood, New Jersey, and revolves around a decades-old mystery. At the center is wealthy industrialist Peter Carrington, implicated 22 years earlier in the disappearance of 19-year-old Susan Althorp, a young woman who attended a dinner party at the Carrington estate and was never seen again. Now Althorp's dying mother has publicly accused Carrington of murder. The allegation, which has been splashed all over the tabloids, brings forward people who believe Carrington was also involved in the drowning death of his first wife, Grace. Deemed guilty by nearly everyone, Carrington has recently remarried; and his new wife Kathryn, the daughter of a landscaper who once worked on the family estate, is determined to exonerate him. Could an argument she overheard 22 years ago as a wide-eyed 6-year-old child hold the key to her husband's innocence? Mary Higgins Clark has perhaps crafted stronger novels, but her impressive storytelling prowess, intricate plotlines, and brilliant characterization and pacing, nonetheless make I Heard That Song Before a solid release.

30. The Next Thing on My List

This one was cute, but again a bit forced at the end. A good read though overall, especially how June ends up feeling about the list.

Here's a review from B&N: Smolinski's follow-up to Flip-Flopped (2002) offers a surprisingly un-morbid account of an underachieving young woman who decides to live out another's unrealized dreams after a tragic car accident. Technically, a piece of furniture toppling off a truck caused the crash that killed 24-year-old Marissa Jones. But June Parker can't help but feel responsible, since she had given Marissa a lift home from a Weight Watchers meeting. The guilt amplifies when June discovers a list in Marissa's purse detailing the 20 things she wanted to do before her 25th birthday. Throwing herself with gusto into completing tasks that range from silly ("go braless") to heartbreaking ("change someone's life"), June finds that they give her lackluster life a focus it has been missing. She mentors an inner city "little sister," trains for and finishes a 5K race, even finds a way for her childless brother and his wife to adopt a baby. Along the way, she grows closer to Marissa's older brother Troy, a helicopter traffic reporter with surfer-boy good looks. He not only helps June check off certain items, such as taking Marissa's mom and grandmother to Las Vegas to see Wayne Newton, but his high-flying job inspires her to do something that just might revolutionize her stalled career. As she powers through Marissa's list, June realizes that her own dreams need tending and tries to break some patterns that have held her back for far too long. Smolinski crafts a believable heroine, and her chipper carpe-diem message may have readers devising their own Top 20s. Sweet, though not particularly memorable.

29. The Winter Lodge

This one is by the same author as Table of Five, a book I read earlier this year and really liked. This one was good as well, although I think the mystery aspect at the end was a bit forced and started too late in the book and then was wrapped up too quickly. Otherwise, it was a good book, it has some yummy sounding recipes throughout and I own it if anyone wants to borrow it.

Here's a review from B&N:

Susan Wiggs follows up her first book in the Lakeshore Chronicles (Summer at Willow Lake) with another satisfying installment set in the small town of Avalon, New York. The main story belongs to two 30-something locals, Jenny Majesky and Rourke McKnight. She runs the Sky River Bakery, founded by her grandparents, and writes a weekly newspaper column; he is the town's chief of police. They are longtime friends with a complicated history and a passion set on simmer. When Jenny's house burns down, Rourke insists on her bunking with him, even though he's a notorious bachelor. The new proximity entices the two to confront old hurts and dreams deferred, before their romance can blossom. There's a wonderful secondary plot involving teenage Daisy Bellamy, her friends, and a mystery that's solved in the snow. Thoughtfully, Wiggs includes Jenny's favorite recipes from the bakery.

28. America's Struggle for Same Sex Marriage

This was the final book of the semester for school and the easiest read of all. It's a pretty interesting book and due to my forgetfulness I am now the owner of two copies in case anyone wants to read it...

Here's the description:

America's Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage chronicles the evolution of the social movement for same-sex marriage in the United States and examines the political controversies surrounding gay people's quest for access to the civil institution of marriage. The book focuses on the momentous events that began in November 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared unequivocally that the state's conferral of marriage only on opposite-sex couples violated constitutional principles of respect for individual autonomy and equality under law.

27. The Power of Three

Another really good one by Laura Lippman. This one reminded me a bit of a combination of Jodi Piccoult's The Pact and 19 Minutes. I had some suspicions of the end result but there was definitely a few unseen twists and turns along the way to the end.

Here's the B&N review: Three longtime friends alone in a girls' bathroom on the last day of high school: Kat, the beautiful brainiac; Josie, the star athlete; and Perri, the drama queen. One shot dead, one in a coma, the other seriously wounded. What transpired between the self-proclaimed divas of the school: and what deep, dark secret is the one conscious survivor hiding?

The three girls, who have been inseparable since the third grade, had "trumped the system" and built a friendship that transcended the confines of their high school's cliques. Pledged to take care of each other and do good deeds in the world whenever possible, the girls had quickly become the luminaries of their Baltimore County school. Kat Hartigan was the beloved Stanford-bound homecoming queen. Josie Patel was headed to Maryland on a gymnastics scholarship. Perri Kahn had accepted a theatre scholarship to Northwestern. With everything to live for, what had possessed one of them to try to kill the other two, then herself? When Homicide Sergeant Harold Lenhardt begins to investigate the seemingly clear-cut case, he finds much more than he ever bargained for…

To the Power of Three -- equal parts coming-of-age tale, suburban murder mystery, and psychological thriller -- is a heartrending novel about childhood friendship and the perils of growing up that is certain to deeply affect everyone who reads it. Intense, thought provoking, and with a jaw-dropping bombshell of a conclusion, this bittersweet story is a page-turner of the highest order.

26. Passion, Betrayal and Killer Highlights

Chick lit combined with a mystery... overall not a bad read.

Here's a review from B&N - In Passion, Betrayal and Killer Highlights -- the sequel to Kyra Davis's 2005 debut novel, Sex, Murder and a Double Latte -- frappuccino-addicted murder mystery novelist and amateur sleuth Sophie Katz is faced with a new whodunit, this one involving her sister, Leah, and brother-in-law, Bob, who turn up dead only hours after confessing his infidelity. With numerous bullets in Bob's head and his gun missing, Leah becomes the prime suspect. But Sophie knows her sister could never commit murder and, with the help of hunky Russian private investigator Anatoly Darinsky, sets off to find the real killer. It soon becomes apparent that Bob was far from an ethical man: He was cheating with not one but three women, and he might well have been involved in far more nefarious activities. But as Sophie and Anatoly close in on the killer, Leah -- the grieving widow -- decides to have her navel pierced and get burgundy highlights in her hair…

A witty and engaging blend of chick lit, pop culture, and amateur-sleuth whodunit, Davis's San Francisco-based saga will appeal not only to female readers but to any mystery fan who has an offbeat sense of humor. Davis effortlessly explores serious social issues -- racial discrimination, sexism, adultery, multiculturalism, etc. -- while keeping the mood light and laugh-out-loud funny. Additionally, the cornucopia of subtle symbolism throughout (like the exploding Barbie Dream House) is priceless. To borrow a line from the book: "Fabulous, absolutely fabulous!"

25. Every Secret Thing

I've been reading a lot lately, just not updating... anyway, I'm totally hooked on the Laura Lippman books. I've read all the non-series ones now and will soon move on to the Tess Monaghan series...

Anyway, back to this one, Every Secret Thing. Again, set in Baltimore, this one was also a really good read and I own it if anyone wants to borrow it.

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

When two 11-year-old white girls kill a toddler, the granddaughter of a beloved back judge, it's not only shocking -- it's news. The girls' motives are muddled, and they disagree about which one of them killed the child, but Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller both are found guilty and sentenced to spend the rest of their childhood in jail. The penal code can do no more, so seven years later Alice and Ronnie are released to begin their lives again…if they can. At first, when children start to disappear, they're quickly found unharmed, so the kidnappings go almost unnoticed -- until one little girl, also a toddler and the sister of the judge's murdered granddaughter, vanishes without a trace. Her mother is frantic -- and certain she knows whom to blame. The press and the police are swamped, digging into the evidence, past and present. Alice's lawyer is rushing to her defense. Ronnie is on the run. And the baby's time is running out…. Every Secret Thing is a powerful, intricately plotted stand-alone suspense novel from the author of the award-winning Tess Monaghan mystery series.

24. I Take This Man

This one was so-so chick lit. A B&N read that had it's funny moments, but was a bit too something... I can't quite put my finger on what that something was, but at times I just felt like the author was trying too hard to do too many things with a simple, chick-lit book.

Here's the B&N description:

Here comes the bride . . . there goes the groom.
Penny Bracket waited two years to marry dream man Bram Shiraz. Then on the morning of the Big Day, while she's trying on her veil, Penny receives the worst two-line letter of her life: "Penny, I can't go through with it. Sorry, Bram."

Penny's hurt and upset. But Esther, Penny's divorced mom, wants Bram's head on a platter. So Mom ambushes the cold-footed coward before he hot-foots it out of town, bonks him on the head with a champagne bottle, and spirits him away to a hidden room in her gargantuan mansion in Short Hares, New Jersey. Esther doesn't want much. All Bram has to do is write personal, heartfelt apologies to each of the two hundred disappointed wedding guests . . . and eat every mouthful of the very expensive gourmet wedding feast that has gone to waste. Then he'll be free to leave.

Penny doesn't want Bram tortured. She just wants answers to "why" . . . and maybe a little revenge. Will she discover her runaway groom is locked away in the attic? Will Bram's widowed father—handsome tough-guy Keith Shiraz—be able to locate his missing son . . . and maybe seduce Esther Bracket in the bargain? Will Bram be able to maintain his athletic figure after consuming two hundred entrées and thousands of baby quiches? Read on!

It could have been really cute, but I think it missed the mark and ended up just being, as I already said, so so....