Zanna's Gift by Orson Scott Card	This is a sweet and sorrowful story about the way a family keeps a lost child in their hearts for the rest of their lives. You know Card for his science fiction and fantasy. This is all his best characterization and his prose pared down to poetry.	Medicus by Ruth Downie	This book is set in Roman Britain and is a mystery series. What could be better than that? Add a great romance and some real historical sensitivity so that characters do what they can do in this time period, but are also not made into villains for being timely.
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory	First I have to say that I did not like the movie based on this book. It just did not have time to give the characters the proper development. On the other hand, don't go pick up this book because you think you are going to be transported to a fairy-tale world where you will fall in love with everyone. Harry the Eighth was a pig and his court was full of people equally despicable. The Boleyn family are no heroes, and even Mary Boleyn is a very flawed heroine. But it is great historical fiction. Lots of real history, some speculation, and you will keep reading.	The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale	This is a book about a Mormon housewife, happily married with four children, who makes an unusual and platonic relationship with a Hollywood actor. It gives a true picture of the real life in Mormondom, with flaws and virtues. It also deals with the uncomfortable social problems when everyone around you is telling you that a platonic relationship with a man is impossible. If you want sparkling dialog, it's here. If you want to laugh until it hurts, open this book. If you want to cry, you won't avoid it. If you want the kind of book you grip with white knuckles to find out what happens, here it is. If you want relationships that are real, if you want to be angry and then to forgive, if you want to see how a housewife uses her skills with pie to save the world--it's here. This is one of the best books of the year.
Painting from Life by Brian Kershisnik	What do I know about art? Well, maybe not much. But I will tell you, the only art I have framed and mounted in my own is by Brian Kershisnik (excluding covers from my books). My favorite art period has always been German Expressionism/Der Blaue Reiter. One of my specialties in grad school was Dada and the Expressionists and I still have some articles hanging around that I thought I would get published someday on them. Kershisnik has many of those qualities I loved in Expressionism. I find Impressionism to be a bit trite these days, since it only shows what is visual, and I am far more interested in what is beneath the visual. That is what Kershisnik paints. I love the painting of a woman flying with infant, and all his paintings on the theme of flying (Flying Instruction, for example). I love the dancing dogs, the spoon tricks, the people standing on each other's shoulders, The Pegasus swimming, and the whole series of Musicians Sleeping. We are all Musicians Sleeping, I think.	The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax	As someone who has picked up an interest in music late in life, I was gripped by this story written by an author who started to play the cello as an adult, about a young man who plays the cello set against the backdrop of WWII. A love triangle, terrible mistakes, handicaps, Nazis. What more could you want?
Austenland by Shannon Hale	If you ever wished you lived in a Jane Austen novel, this is the book for you.	The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini	This is not a book for young readers, though it is about a young boy growing up in Afghanistan with his father's servant's son as his best friend. This was a hard book to read, but it is not something to turn away from. I forgot half the time I was reading a ficitonal account, it felt so real. The rest of the time, I marveled at the details of the story and how everything came together in the end. I wanted this happy ending, but it didn't come cheap.
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro	I loved the movie with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins. I loved the book more. About a butler devoted to his master's service, even when the master is seriously flawed. Even when he must give up his only chance at love.
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler	You already know that I assume you've read everything by Jane Austen? And the Bronte sisters. And Emily Dickinson. And Edith Wharton. And Henry James. This is part modern-day interpretation, part commentary. Very much my style.	Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott	This is religion for the lost, uncertain, and downright angry at God. And for anyone that doesn't cover, too.
T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton	Kinsey Milhone is tough, but vulnerable. I really like this series. It's gritty, and there have been a number of breathtaking scenes along the way, but in the end, it's the message that it's always the closest people who are the murderers of the victim. Always. Grim, but there is some truth in it.	Stranger in Paradise by Robert B. Parker	I enjoy the Spenser novels, but lately I've been more interested in the Jesse Stone/Sunny Randall crossover. I like Sunny, probably more because of her hangups than despite them, and I like Jesse's dialogue, always a strong point for Robert B. Parker.
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters	I just love the combination of mystery and romance in this story. It surprised and amused me.
The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry	This is my favorite mystery series of all time. I love how Anne Perry makes me care about Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, the victims and the murderers all at once, and gives me a picture of Victorian England. I love how Charlotte is still a woman realistic for her own time, that she suffers for her more feminist choices, and that she is also a mother, daughter, and sister.	No Graves As Yet by Anne Perry	I've been sucked into this new series by Anne Perry. She does know mystery and history and can get you to care about someone's dress better than any Regency writer I've ever met. Because it matters. Every detail matters. I didn't know WW I this well, maybe because I didn't want to know the trenches. I love the characters and the hard choices they make, and I also like the sense that this war matters.
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti	This is an unusual story about a young boy missing a hand who grows up in an orphanage and is "adopted" by a thief who wants to use him in his scams. But the boy is also on a journey to find out how he is and what happened to his hand. You won't forget this.
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