48. It's Not You It's Me

This was a reread of one of my Red Dress Ink favorites... I was looking at my bookshelves the other day for something familiar and good to read and this is the one i grabbed...

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

Charlie has to keep pinching herself to believe she's leaving Australia for a trip to Europe — a generous gift from her family, who know how tough her life has been lately. But the last person Charlie expects to bump into on the plane is Jasper Ash, international celebrity, rock-star sex-god — and Charlie's former best friend, flatmate and . . .almost-lover!

It's been three years since Charlie impulsively jumped into bed with Jas, then a struggling student. But their nearly-one-night stand had just been warming up when Jas began the male "backing off" ritual, practically sprinting out the door with the classic excuse, "It's not you, it's me." Yeah, right. Everyone knows what that means: It is you! Not pretty enough, not successful enough — just not enough.

Charlie has dealt with it — and a whole lot more — but the unanswered questions still niggle. Acting on impulse once again, she invites Jas to join her own European tour! And as they share hotel rooms, play at being tourists and dodge Jas's determined groupies, it becomes clear they're both at a crossroads in life. Before they can move on, they finally have to deal with the unfinished business between them — starting with a serious conversation about that night.

47. The Birthdays

This one was good, but very serious and complex. The change in narration took some major focusing at times, but overall I did like this book. I wish the ending provided a bit more closure... usually I'm all about closure, but this time I would have been ok with things so up in the air but the ending made me really wonder if there were some pages missing from my copy of the book. Yup... it was that bad. Not the book, just the random ending. Anyway, I own this one as well, just an FYI...

Here's a recap from B&N:

On an island off the coast of Maine, the Miller family reunites to celebrate the father's seventy-fifth birthday. Each of the adult children is expecting a first child, and at the same time each is at a major crossroads in life. The eldest, Daniel, still reeling from a car accident that has left him a paraplegic, is also grappling with the fact that his wife had to be artificially inseminated. Jake, the middle child, discovers that his wife is carrying twins after many trying years of fertility treatments. Hilary—the free-spirited youngest daughter—arrives in Maine five months pregnant with no identifiable father in sight. As the family gathers, something shattering happens from which no one will emerge the same. The Birthdays deftly explores the myriad ways of seeking sustenance after disappointment or loss and announces the arrival of a poignant new voice in fiction.

46. Tallulahland

OK... so apparently I read this one at some point in the past. I know this because 2 scenese from this book were completely and totally familiar as in I know I had read them before and I knew exactly what was going to happen. The rest of the book, not at all familiar. Super weird, I know.

Despite my lack of recollection, this was a cute book and a different angle on typical chicklit. I liked it and I own it in case anyone wants to borrow it.

Here's a review from B&N:

Tallulah West thinks she's got everything figured out, from her interrupted career path to the men in her life. (Career path = anything to displease Dad. Nick = trusty best friend. Dad = see career path.) But when her world is turned upside down (again), not everyone acts accordingly and nothing goes as planned.

Once upon a time Tallulah was happy to follow in her father's footsteps. But then her mom died. Now she'd rather toil away for a hack designer than work on her own designs and lay claim to all that comes with being the only daughter of furniture-designing royalty. Which is a shame — because Tallulah has so much talent.

Nick knows the truth — that she's a little too good at making bad decisions — and has no qualms about interfering in her life. But only after she finds the deed to a plot of land in North Carolina, an unexpected final gift from her mother, is she propelled into action. Accompanied by Nick and an excitement she hasn't felt in years, Tallulah heads south. She's following her mother's dream, but somewhere in the underbrush of an undeveloped plot of land, she finds her own.

45. Swapping Lives

Swapping Lives is Jane Green's latest and like many of her others I liked it a lot. Chick lit yes, but chick lit with a moral to the story which makes it much better. :)

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

The British Green, master of the career-girl novel (if your idea of a career girl includes Manolos and a Birkin bag) switches the lives of a pampered American housewife and a London magazine editor, with predictable results. Thirty-five-year-old Amber Winslow seems to have it all: a McMansion in a Connecticut suburb, a walk-in closet filled with couture, two beautiful children and a doting husband. But of course life in-is it Stepford?-isn't as rosy as it seems. Her Jamaican nanny is all but raising the children; Amber lives in a state of anxiety that one of the League ladies is besting her; and she has this nagging feeling that her whole life is a useless sham. Across the Atlantic, Vicky Townsley is also yearning for what she doesn't have-a country home with kids, a big dog and a husband. At 35, she is the features editor at Poise! magazine and enjoys a glamorously hectic social life and a dishy friend (with benefits) who lives around the block. Thanks to a contest sponsored by the magazine, the two women swap lives for a month, bringing with them little more than a toothbrush and underwear. For both, the situation reaffirms that they really do love their life/family, but for Amber, there are some added realizations that the superficiality of her life is interfering with her sense of self. Good for Amber and Vicky and destination epiphany. The real question is whether the journey is enough for the reader-and it mostly is. Green skewers Connecticut suburbia with a gleeful relish, and she hits the right marks with sympathetic Londoner Vicky, a quirky, imperfect heroine who keeps a pair of fat pants at the back of her closet. Clothes, bags, shoes, romance, self-acceptance-all we've come toexpect and done well enough.

44. Nonprofits and Government: Conflicts and Collaboration

This was my book for my summer class... an interesting read at times and a boring one at others... here's the description from The Urban Institute's website:

What impact do changes in federal spending priorities have on the nation's nonprofit organizations? Should nonprofits be allowed to lobby government? Should government support be tied to regulation of nonprofit activities? What's been the history of government-nonprofit relations in the United States and how does this compare to experiences in other countries?
Nonprofits and Government: Collaboration and Conflict explores these and other issues, providing a framework for assessing a relationship that is both growing and evolving. In an interview, editors Eugene Steuerle and Elizabeth Boris talk about why this discussion is critical for the development of public policy.

43. Joyride

Despite Red Dress Ink as the publisher this book was far from the typical chick lit. This was a great look at how friendships can grow over the years and the importance of the bond that friends have. It was a really good read and hard to put down!

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

For shy, awkward Stella Gold, the only good thing to come out of junior high gym class was her friendship with Emily Martin, the effortlessly cool rebel. Emily is now a trendy New York fashion designer with a penchant for affairs with all kinds of inappropriate men. Stella, a schoolteacher, has never strayed far from her provincial Pennsylvania hometown. Yet these two, now in their twenties, have shared everything, from bonding over the mystery of tampons and Milli Vanilli T-shirts to swapping stories about first loves and one-night stands. But there's one secret Stella has never told her best friend. . .

When Emily calls from London with startling news, Stella is faced with a choice. She must either confront a long-buried demon or let Emily make a giant mistake that just might end their friendship for good.

Joyride is a captivating novel about best friends speeding along on the road of life—unaware of the dangerous curves that await them.

42. The Good Life

This one was complex. It was a good look at how September 11th impacted New Yorkers... not ones who lost a husband or a child, but those who lived and worked in the city. It wasn't a true story, and who knows how realistic it was, but it was a compelling read nonetheless. It didn't have a happily ever after ending, atleast not by my standards, but, I guess a book about September 11th shouldn't have a happily ever after ending of any sort.

Here's the description from B&N.com:

Clinging to a semiprecarious existence in TriBeCa, Corrine and Russell Calloway have survived a separation and are thoroughly wonderstruck by young twins whose provenance is nothing less than miraculous, even as they contend with the faded promise of a marriage tinged with suspicion and deceit. Meanwhile, several miles uptown and perched near the top of the Upper East Side's social register, Luke McGavock has postponed his accumulation of wealth in an attempt to recover the sense of purpose now lacking in a life that often gives him pause--especially with regard to his teenage daughter, whose wanton extravagance bears a horrifying resemblance to her mother's. But on a September morning, brightness falls horribly from the sky, and people worlds apart suddenly find themselves working side by side at the devastated site, feeling lost anywhere else, yet battered still by memory and regret, by fresh disappointment and unimaginable shock.

What happens, or should happen, when life stops us in our tracks, or our own choices do? What if both secrets and secret needs, long guarded steadfastly, are finally revealed? What is the good life? Posed with astonishing understanding and compassion, these questions power a novel rich with characters and events, both comic and harrowing, revelatory about not only New York after the attacks but also the toll taken on those lucky enough tohave survived them. Wise, surprising, and, ultimately, heart.

41. Daniel Isn't Talking

This was a good read and told the difficult story of a mother facing her young child's diagnosis with autism. Melanie is an amazing mom and I hope this book helps others see the struggle and devotion that parents of children with autism face.

Here's the B&N description:

Smart, resilient, engaged with the world, Melanie Marsh has already weathered the suicide of her father, the death of her mother, and the loss of her lover, but she has not lost the thrill of adventure or her wry sense of humour. When she comes to England to study, Melanie meets Stephen, a financial analyst, and is drawn immediately to his strong presence. Marriage and family quickly follow, as well as a certain happiness, until Melanie's worst suspicions are confirmed about their three-year-old son, Daniel. Daniel has autism and the prognosis is grim. Frustrated by the limits of the medical system, Melanie takes Daniel's care into her own hands and devotes all she has to working with him. Her marriage soon begins to falter and Stephen eventually turns to a former lover. It is at about this time that she seeks out Andy O'Connor, an alternative therapist whose controversial approach to autism she's heard something about. It is Andy's creativity, his patience and caring, that enable her son's progress, and for the first time, hope, in many forms, takes root.