The Giver

The Giver by Lowis Lowry is a young adult book that simply states a very complex story. Jonas lives in a place where everything is the same. There is no color, no war, no hunger, and each set of parents is given one male child and one female child. Perfection. Until Jonas finds out that his role in life will be The Receiver of Memories. Jonas works with The Giver to obtain memories good and bad. The end of the book will leave each reader with a different fate for Jonas.

Hungry

Hungry by Crystal Renn is not unlike any other book about anorexia and striving for perfection except for the fact that it is told by a famous plus size model. Renn started off in "straight" modeling, starving herself down to a minimal weight until she became sick and realized that she needed to bring her body back to where it naturally wanted to be.

Committed

This is the follow-up book to Eat, Pray, Love from Elizabeth Gilbert. She ended up marrying her Brazilian lover whom we know as Felipe, but before she made that lifetime commitment she spent a lot of time researching the institution of marriage. There are a lot of historical facts included in this book intertwined with Gilbert's own ideas on love, children, and a woman's place in marriage.

Waiter Rant

Waiter Rant written by The Waiter. The authors real name is not mentioned but if you search this book on Google you can find a picture of him. This is another book that started from a blog and I find The Waiters insights on sizing up customers and life quite smart. I think the author was born to be a writer and I look forward to hearing more from him.

Reading this book definitely makes me look at waiters and how I tip them much differently. I think a book of the same caliber should be written about the Retail Industry. That is where I spent many years and customers are just as bad.

Middle East Memoirs

Prisoner of Tehran is a memoir by Marina Nemat. I could not believe the conditions in the prison that Marina served in for two years and the conditions of her release. She started as a Christian, a small minority in Tehran, and during her prison stay was forced to become Muslim. I can't help but compare what was happening in my own life while she was struggling to live and keep her faith.

Other memoirs that I highly recommend on this topic:

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
My Forbidden Face by Latifa
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni
Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin

Polly

Polly is the main character in this book and the chapters are divided by Polly's relationships with men throughout her life. I forgot how fully emotions ruled my life as an adolescent but I clearly remembered so much of it while I was reading this book. I would recommend this book for a mom with a teenage daughter. Even if you think you can remember how you felt growing up I promise that this book will remind you how much you forgot.

The Imposters Daughter

When I was younger I would sometimes read an Archie comic book but I was never too thrilled with having my story mainly comprised of pictures.......until Laurie Sandell drew those pictures. This book is the true story of Laurie and her relationship with her father and how that relationship affected her as an adult. I very much liked this book, it was a quick read so I actually went through it twice in one day. Laurie Sandell is a contributing Editor at Glamour magazine and you can visit her website at LaurieSandell.com