Gail—

The New Frugality: How to Consume Less,
Save More, and Live Better
by Chris Farrell
$24

If you’re an NPR listener, you’ve heard of this!!

Story of Edgar Sawtelle
by David Wroblewski
$16.99

Hotel du Lac
by Anita Brookner
$13.95

Cindie—

Past Lives, Present Dreams: How to
Use Reincarnation for Personal Growth
by Denise Linn
$12

Linda—

Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
$15.95
Linda says: Loved it, all 541 pages of it! A critic has described this amazing book far better than I could, saying that Abraham Verghese has said that his ambition in writing Cutting for Stone was to “tell a great story, an old-fashioned, truth-telling story.”  An epic novel that spans continents and generations, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, compassion and redemption, exile and home that unfolds across five decades in India, Ethiopia, and America. 
 
The main characters, Shiva and Marion, are left at birth by their parents, a nurse/nun and a surgeon stationed in Ethiopia.  The story spans the lives of the twins, who grow up to be doctors themselves, and slowly unwraps the stories of the lives of their parents, the medical couple who raise them and train them and the extended family of servants who are an important part of their lives.  It also tells the story of the political upheavals which took place in Ethiopia during the early to mid-1900s. 
 
This is a book that will keep you up reading late into the night, and I closed the book after the final 540-some pages with sadness as I never wanted the story to end.

Jennifer—

The Hooked X
by Scott F. Wolter
$18.95 
Jennifer says: I recently saw a two hour program on the History Channel called Holy Grail in America. The program opens with the tale of the Kensington Rune Stone, discovered in Kensington, Minnesota by a Scandinavian farmer in 1898. One of the key experts in the History Channel program is geologist Scott F. Wolter, of Chanhassen, Minnesota. I couldn’t resist learning more, so I ordered Wolter’s book! 

Stargazer
by Patrick Carman
on audio $28.95
Jennifer says: I’ve been taking my time working my way through this young adult series, savoring each book, so I don’t usually read titles in the series back to back, but the last one I read, literally ended with TO BE CONTINUED. And just after the characters reached an exciting place! I’m such a sucker for cliff-hangers… 

Memory Boy
by Will Weaver $6.99           
Jennifer says: I started reading this the day I spent at Nevis School for the Will Weaver events. I’ve had a hard time putting it down!! I can see why this is such a hot seller. 

Sally—

Every Day in Tuscany:
Seasons of an Italian Life  
by Frances Mayes 
$29.95
Sally says: The author of Under the Tuscan Sun, now retired from teaching, lives half of each year in her home in Tuscany. This book is about her present life in Italy. As in previous books, she extols the beauty of the land and the great food. She goes beyond that, in this book, to explore art, her spirituality, and one incident which dramatically demonstrated the cultural differences between rural Italy and the United States. The book is beautifully written, very engaging--and includes recipes!

Norwegian Wood
by Haruki Murakami 
$14.95
Sally says: This coming of age novel, set in Japan in 1968, explores the life of Toru, a quiet, serious, and lonely college student whose best friend committed suicide a number of years earlier. I discussed the book in a mixed age group. People who remembered the Beatles song, "Norwegian Wood" seemed to resonate more with the themes of the book than the younger people present.