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Revolting, passionate, wisecracking, horrific, riveting and creepy. Welcome to the toughest and kindest heroine ever presented in fiction: Julia/Kibble/Turtle. Set in Mendocino, one of the most stunning places on the West coast, which becomes another character, Tallent presents an aberrant, gun-toting and psychotic father raising his young daughter in a survivalist environment. [I'll never feel the same way about scorpions again!] So this is how physical, psychological and sexual abuse is taught, honed and ingrained. For starters: Begin young. But children learn and still know what's right.

Matt is cruising through his mildly successful life as a B-list sitcom actor in LA and has a blond fiancé who's a swimsuit model and part-time prison activist, also Boomer parents, a mother who's an artist finding herself, and a distant father who seriously collects toy cars. Like a small bombing raid, into his life drops a highly valued pre-war painting, an affair with the lawyer handling his case to authenticate the painting's ownership, his father's death and aftermath, his Jewish background and a complete crisis in identity and confidence. I first thought Memento was a clever twist on momento [memento being the original spelling] as Matt is quite narcissistic, but it's really a park in Budapest where many Communist statues which were taken after the fall and deposited in an open-air space. Matt goes on a pilgrimage to Hungary to find more clues about the painting but really travels there to meet his few remaining relatives to discuss his father. Matt has a very difficult and prickly relationship with his father who dies before he can even begin to know him and discover his connection to the painting and know his family history. Matt's father, like many Jewish survivors of Nazism, simply can not discuss it. Part mystery, art history and Jewish primer, Sarvas takes us deep into a father-son relationship, maturation and how people come to make the right decisions.

You've never met a cop like Hanson before, a Viet Nam vet and academic in English literature, who abandons tenure for the mean streets of Oakland, CA. He vacillates between being a social worker and cold stone killer. But what stands out is his decency and clear thinking. Somehow he finds beauty in Oakland, a black crime ghetto, in 1983 and not in a Pollyanna-ish way, but with the attitude of a man who's immersed in daily violence yet is able to recognize rare moments of loveliness. Anderson has carefully written and edited his story to the core, 20 years after the release of parts one and two of his trilogy.

It's not easy to write about true love without quickly crossing into treacly romance-novel territory. White Houses, a play on both the presidential one and the cabin retreat they shared on Long Island, chronicles the deep and intimate love shared by Lorena Hicks and Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I was swooning! Written in Lorena/Hick's voice, this recreation reveals Hick to be smart, funny and very streetwise. [Born in So.DAK, raped by her father at 12, sent out as a farm labor worker at 13 and left home on her own with $3 on the train east at 14.] Every once in a rare while a great love story develops, and these two were deeply in love. Hick is down-to-earth, adores FDR but also knows how to handle him and gives Eleanor the grounding and love she deserves. Hick, a celebrated journalist, is Olivia Pope from Scandals and Eleanor is her longtime client. Even then there was lots of White House intrigue! While Hick was cropped out of White House photos, she will not be forgotten after this butchy, tough and sometimes rollicking account.

This is far and above The Best book on drawing ever; I have some perspective and experience with this as a lifelong artist and sketchbook keeper. First, he issues a challenge and call to action with the title, Dare to Sketch. Second, the book is beautifully designed and in a pertinent format, the exact size of a typical sketchbook, 7" x 9.5", also with a sewn binding which works best for a sketching notebook and he highly recommends. Third, Scheinberger presents his primer in a contemporary and simple way with sample drawings at every stage, relevant to drawing en plein air or while traveling or just in a cafe: On The Go! He also doesn't say do-this, do-that but explains why and how. The use of papers, writing materials, shading mechanisms and subject matter are interspersed in a natural and relevant way instead of treated separately in isolated chapters. Want to begin drawing? Need a nudge to pick up that dusty sketchbook on your shelf? Interested in improving your artwork? Buy this book post-haste!

What a fun book, perfect for winter! Pairing famous works of art, mostly paintings, with diverse writers ranging from fiction to mysteries, Block has created a unique twist with art history. All preconceptions and familiarity with these works change with each story. An innocuous bouquet of flowers in a plain vase, Bouquet of Chrysanthemums, by Renoir becomes a sleight-of-hand fakery in the interpretation by mystery writer Lee Child. Jeffery Deaver creates a creepy end for two overeager archaeologists using The Cave Paintings of Lascaux. These pairings completely change one's perspective of these familiar artworks. You'll never view them the same way afterwards.

Kent has written a fascinating and engaging account of Ireland's harsh transition from the old Celtic ways of faeries and changelings to the Catholic religion in the early nineteenth century. Each chapter is named after an herb, all of which play heavily in the plot. It's a wonder people survived with bare feet in winter, scant meals consisting largely of potatoes and the rages produced from poitin. The Irish stories, cures and rural life are expertly woven throughout. Perhaps you can determine what really happened to the child Micheal.

Get a glimpse into the writer's life when a novelist spends the summer in Athens teaching a course in creative writing. In encounters at luncheons with other writers, interacting with her students and spending time on a boat with her flight seat mate, she is passive enough to elicit all kinds of revelations from them, yet also slowly shows us things about herself. She becomes their inspiration to expose themselves, offering that opportunity, yet listening carefully and preparing feedback in a most cerebral and penetrating way. As a former graphic designer, I call this white space, a place for the eye to rest and breathe. Cusk creates white space with and without words. She wrestles with the emotional vs. intellectual, gender, roles and the ever-present themes of marriage, divorce and children but not in any way you've read before.

Coming out is never an easy prospect, but finding your way in a small town is even harder. Growing up in a factory village in northern France, Eddy is labeled gay by family, friends and schoolmates well before his teens. The worst thing a person could be is gay, and Eddy has the stereotypical voice, walk and mannerisms. He's beaten up nearly daily at school; his parents call him derogatory names; and he has no friends. But Eddy discovers the school library, his sanctuary. Unlike his peers, he's a good student. He's also determined to avoid a lifetime of backbreaking work in the brass factory. Find out what happens to Eddy!

This is everyone's fantasy story: to abruptly leave your old life behind including your job, partner, friends and metropolis for the English country life. Stella appears at Franchise Farm, hired to be an au pair/companion to wheelchair-bound Martin, seventeen with a mouth full of sarcasm. The farm, located outside tiny Hilltop in Sussex, is like something out of Downton Abbey with acres of grounds and gardens, main labyrinthine house and Stella's own adorable cottage. One of the main job requirements is to have a driver's license which Stella lacks. Get ready for hilarity at every turn from slapstick pratfalls to laughing aloud humor as Stella fumbles with a series of doors or has an accident with a bottle of champagne. But the real backbone of the book is Cusk's plot arc taking the unstable Stella through all the difficulties of young adulthood such as indecision, uncertainty and fear of the future. And in Martin, Cusk has written the best other-abled character I've read - multi-dimensional, mercurial and very human, not just a sappy guy with atrophied legs in a wheelchair.

Harper places you squarely inside the head of a tween girl who's kidnapped by her convict father. They have to flee, ending up on the lam with death sentences hanging over their heads from a gang edict. You won't forget the tricks he teaches her about how gangs operate, how to properly wield a baseball bat to do the most damage and how to use the two different types of choking. I couldn't put it down, wondering what and who was going down next. You've never encountered a father/daughter relationship like this one!

Dog lovers know that dogs are more than Man's Best Friend. Follow Ted and his dachshund, Lily, on their Hero's Journey through the bad times and good, through sickness and health. Watch Lily take Ted into manhood and love. Be prepared to cry, both in sorrow and joy.

Australia during a drought is already fire-prone but add the three murders of a young family and the small-town mentality of Kiemarra, and you have the makings of a powerful mystery. Aaron Falk has a desk job as a federal agent in Melbourne but returns for the funeral of his best childhood friend, recently deemed a suicide. He hasn't been home for twenty years and is not prepared for the flood of memories, people's attitudes who don't forget the past and, most of all, the deep secrets left behind. Enjoy this new mystery hero, the setting of the Australian landscape and a complicated plot.

Not one to waste pivotal and shocking events, Erdrich begins La Rose with an event so mind blowing that I was still reeling chapters later. [No spoiler here.] What happens to the two families afterwards forms the story as the parents and children adapt, each in their own unique ways, to the aftermath. As always, Erdrich intertwines Native American and American culture and religion, also the dissonant clashes between the two. Erdrich is a brilliant storyteller, effortlessly interweaving history, nature and relationships. But who can be redeemed? Last summer I made a pilgrimage to Erdrich's independent bookstore, Birchbark Books, in Minneapolis, MN, which, in addition to mainstream books, has a wonderful collection of Native American books. Well worth the visit with the canoe and antique Catholic confessional booth.

Ready for another stellar Nordic mystery? Harriet Krohn's Inspector Sejer is a background character in The Murder of Harriet Krohn because the main voice is the criminal in this wrenching and gut-knotting examination of crime from the other side. You will be put inside the crime and experience those tormenting feelings of guilt, rationalization and misplaced confidence.

For all you hardcore Van Gogh-ophiles: You've already read Dear Theo and the big boy bio, now relish Julian Bell's superb Vincent life account. Bell connects Van Gogh's behavior and lifestyle to his paintings, delves into his motivations such as the landscape, religion and women and sends you to bed knowing this complicated genius.

Dive into Wallace's 900+-page compendium of books, essays and the most brilliant short story ever written. No need for a snorkel or oxygen tank because Wallace is all you need to survive. Even his syllabi are amazing reading!

I give myself permission during the summer to read unlimited mysteries! Elizabeth George's Just One Evil Act alternates between a European border crossing kidnapping, a strange Italian convent, transcontinental murders and psychodrama galore. ALL of her Thomas Lynley/Barbara Havers mysteries always have good intellectual content. Plus their professional relationship is always fascinating. At over 700 pages she satisfies all my mystery needs.

If you like Alexander McCall Smith and that detective genre, you will enjoy Rita Mae Brown's Fox Tracks, one in her fox hunting series. It's funny, sweet, thrilling and strangely riveting considering the Southern pace of life. The rituals and skills of fox hunting are fascinating. And the animals even talk!

Now I understand where Stephen King got his idea of taking the mundane in our lives and twisting it into something else, from Patricia Highsmith. This is the last in her Ripley series, very scary and unnerving. Ripley is not only so utterly calm while committing crimes, but so morally unconcerned. The tension of his wealthy life intertwined with his other life of crime propells the plot to the last page.

Welcome to one of the best/top mystery writers! No one describes place better than James Lee Burke, whether it be New Orleans or a tiny border town in Southwest Texas as in Feast Day for Fools. And the characters, you'll never encounter such well-developed and three-dimensional people, especially in the mystery genre. The crimes are layered, complicated and deeply embedded in the history of his people and places. While riveting, you will pause and reread his glorious descriptions of the Bayou Teche and the stunning sunsets over the desolate land in Texas.