Wizard and Glass, the fourth episode in King's white-hot Dark Tower series, is a sci-fi/fantasy novel that contains a post-apocalyptic Western love story twice as long. It begins with the series' star, world-weary Roland, and his world-hopping posse (an ex-junkie, a child, a plucky woman in a wheelchair, and a talking dog-like pet named Oy the Bumbler) trapped aboard a runaway train. The train is a psychotic multiple personality that intends to commit suicide with them at 800 m.p.h.--unless Roland and pals can outwit it in a riddling contest.

It's a great race, for the mind and pulse. Movies should be this good. Then comes a 567-page flashback about Roland at age 14. It's a well-marbled but meaty tale. Roland and two teen homies must rescue his first love from the dirty old drooling mayor of a post-apocalyptic cowboy town, thwart a civil war by blowing up oil tanks, and seize an all-seeing crystal ball from Rhea, a vampire witch. The love scenes are startlingly prominent and earthier than most romance novels (they kiss until blood trickles from her lip).

After an epic battle ending in a box canyon to end all box canyons, we're back with grizzled, grown-up Roland and the train-wreck survivors in a parallel world: Kansas in 1986, after a plague. The finale is a weird fantasy takeoff on The Wizard of Oz. Some readers will feel that the latest novel in King's most ambitious series has too many pages--almost 800--but few will deny it's a page-turner. http://bookstorecommunity.com/wizard-and-gla…k-tower-book-4/

All Summer Long

Three friends meet at a 25th high school reunion. In different ways, each is unhappy with his present life. "Summer," mourns Ben, a TV journalist of modest fame, "used to be the best part of our lives, and now it's not." A month later, all three have left families and jobs behind to set off on one final summer of cruising. They crisscross the country without connection or purpose, stopping wherever they land. Unexpected love interests for each of them and a personal crisis apiece add spice to their otherwise bland adventure. The penultimate stop is Las Vegas, where they contrive to sleep in Elvis's suite. Riddled with cliches, this marshmallow of a book trivializes such truly serious matters as the midlife adjustments that men make, the importance of friends and memories, and the value of male bonding.

Meg Cabot - Giving Back: Or, You’re Probably Fine

Meg Cabot - Giving Back: Or, You’re Probably Fine

A gracefully written account of one woman's physical and spiritual struggle to surmount childhood cancer, permanent disfigurement, and, ultimately, ""the deep bottomless grief...called ugliness."" After surviving relentless medical horrors -- the removal at age nine of half her jaw due to Ewing Sarcoma, two and a half years of chemotherapy, and two years of reconstructive surgery -- Grealy's true battle begins when she looks in the mirror and finds herself trapped behind a face, in a ""self"" that she hates, and for which her peers cruelly punish her. Grealy endured insults and ostracism as a teenager in Spring Valley, N.Y. At Sarah Lawrence College in the mid-1980s, she discovered poetry as a vehicle for her pent-up emotions. During graduate school at the University of Iowa, she had a series of unsatisfying sexual affairs, hoping to prove she was lovable. No longer eligible for medical coverage, she moved to London to take advantage of Britain's socialized medicine, and underwent a 13-hour operation in Scotland. She finds solace and inspiration in the company of horses and other animals, and as a young adult, she cultivates an enriching inner life through reading, and later writing. Grealy now lives in New York City. Her discovery that true beauty lies within makes this a wise and healing book. http://bookstorecommunity.com/autobiography-of-a-face/

The Reader

Michael Berg, 15, is on his way home from high school in post-World War II Germany when he becomes ill and is befriended by a woman who takes him home. When he recovers from hepatitis many weeks later, he dutifully takes the 40-year-old Hanna flowers in appreciation, and the two become lovers. The relationship, at first purely physical, deepens when Hanna takes an interest in the young man's education, insisting that he study hard and attend classes. Soon, meetings take on a more meaningful routine in which after lovemaking Michael reads aloud from the German classics. There are hints of Hanna's darker side: one inexplicable moment of violence over a minor misunderstanding, and the fact that the boy knows nothing of her life other than that she collects tickets on the streetcar. Content with their arrangement, Michael is only too willing to overlook Hanna's secrets. She leaves the city abruptly and mysteriously, and he does not see her again until, as a law student, he sits in on her case when she is being tried as a Nazi criminal. [...] The theme of good versus evil and the question of moral responsibility are eloquently presented in this spare coming-of-age story. http://bookstorecommunity.com/2010/the-reader/

In her shoes

Twenty-eight-year-old Maggie Fuller relies on her looks and size zero body to flirt her way through life while working dozens of dead-end jobs and dreaming of stardom. At the other end of the spectrum is her older, larger sister, Rose, who relies on her intelligence and is an accomplished attorney at a large Philadelphia firm. The only things that these two seem to have in common is their shared history, a loathing for their "stepmonster," Sydelle, size six feet and a passion for luxurious shoes. When Maggie is evicted from her apartment and loses yet another job, Rose takes her in and tries to endure her closet raids and endless insults. But her patience abruptly ends when Maggie crosses a line so sacred that Rose kicks Maggie out and all but terminates their relationship ("Her sister was like a fucking Weebel, [Rose] thought. She'd wobble, she'd screw up, she'd steal your shoes... but she'd absolutely never fall down"). The sisters go on with their lives and Maggie discovers that she has a brain and a will to learn, while Rose learns to loosen up a bit and finds that there is more to life than work. The two sisters also get to know their maternal grandmother, Ella Hirsch, who they haven't seen since their mother's funeral more than 20 years ago. With Ella's love and support, Maggie reaches out to Rose and the two begin to repair their relationship. In the end, these three remarkable women learn that they are stronger than they thought they were, that family ties are worth preserving, and that there are perks to sharing the same shoe size. Weiner, a marvelously natural storyteller, blends humor and heartbreak to create an irresistible novel.
http://bookstorecommunity.com/2010/in-her-shoes/

Runaway, the conclusion to the Airhead trilogy, is a snappy and smart read that goes by far too quickly! The novel picks up only days after the tension filled conclusion of Being Nikki, and dives into the action right away, with all of the drama surrounding Brandon Stark’s attempt at whisking Em and the Howards away to his summer home. They are quickly rescued, but when they return to New York, it is evident that they aren’t any safer there. Lulu and Gabriel Luna quickly join the group as Em and Christopher attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery through a series of fast paced action scenes, complete with plenty of quick thinking, computer hacking, and romantic tension. With everyone Nikki loves furious with her for something she can’t explain, and nothing but the live Stark Angel fashion show on New Year’s Eve to look forward to, Em’s reached the end of her rope. Not to mention the person her body use to belong to wants it back. But she is getting closer to discovering the reason why her brain was transplanted into Nikki’s body. Emerson Watts is on the run: from school, from work, from her family, from her friends, from herself. To all the people that say what can I do it…I’m too young, not pretty, not smart enough watch what a group of teenagers and her non-boyfriend (who just happens to be the power hungry son of her evil employer)can do.
http://bookstorecommunity.com/2010/runaway