Arthur Hailey "In High Places"

"In High Places" is one of Arthur Hailey's best novels. This is a book about Canadian politics during the Cold War era. The novel focuses not only on world of politics but also on press, court, law, legal administration. I find this book very entertaining with a brilliant study of humans.
Lili.

John Grisham "A Time to Kill"

I've decided that Grisham is an author I like very much and if you are a Grisham fan, you will not be disappointed. This is not like most of his other works. I like his way of writing when you feel that you know the characters.
This book tells the story of ten year old black girl who is raped by two white men, the story of racial violence in the deep south and struggle of lawyer to save his client's life and then his own.
It is a very good read.
Lili.

Haruki Murakami "Birthday Stories"

This book includes the best short stories of recent years writers, each with their own birthday experiences, each story displays events on a single day. You can read stories by Russell Banks, Ethan Canin, Denis Johnson, Andres Lee, William Trevor, Haruki Murakami and think about your birthday. What will you get for your birthday this year? A chance to see into the future? Or a reminder of past?
Lili

Joseph O’Neill "NETHERLAND"

This book I have not read, but there is so much talk about it in literary circles that I wanted to share it with you. Many critics selected it as the best work of fiction from 2008. Below is a short review from the New York Times. I am definitely going to make time to read this book very soon!
O’Neill’s seductive ode to New York — a city that even in bad times stubbornly clings to its belief “in its salvific worth” — is narrated by a Dutch financier whose privileged Manhattan existence is upended by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. When his wife departs for London with their small son, he stays behind, finding camaraderie in the unexpectedly buoyant world of immigrant cricket players, most of them West Indians and South Asians, including an entrepreneur with Gatsby-size aspirations.
Jay

Marjane Satrapi "The Complete Persepolis"

Persepolis is a graphic novel that depicts a young women growing up in revolutionary Iran. Some may be hesitant to read a graphic novel, but those that due will find a compelling narrative and memorable characters.
The story is strictly autobiographical, rendered as a memoir of childhood and young adulthood. Satrapi begins her story at age ten, the daughter of well-educated and well-off parents who put a premium on their daughter's religious and academic independence. Marjane's parents prod their pre-adolescent daughter toward a liberal education and encourage her to speak out. However, being a rebel against oppression in Iran leads inevitably to trouble and expulsion from school. Her parents recourse is to pack young Marjane off to Austria, isolated and alone in a foreign and far more secular culture. A series of mostly negative experiences leads her back to her homeland and an unsuccessful marriage during the early years of Iran's fundamentalist revolution with its growing religious oppression. When the young adult Marjane and her parents finally realize that her future lies not in Iran but in Europe, she heads off to France where she still lives today.

Jay

Rick Perlstein "Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America"

This is the ideal book for someone who wants to be entertained and also to learn about a US politics in the 1960s. How can you do both? Certainly, books about US politics are not entertaining? And to that I say: you must read Nixonland.

The sprawling book starts during the Watts riots in 1964 in the shadow of Lyndon Johnson's overwhelming presidential victor, which left America's conservative movement broken. Through shrewdly selected anecdotes, Perlstein shows how Nixon used riots, anti–Vietnam War protests, the drug culture and other displays of unrest as an easy relief against which to craft a campaign for his narrow win of 1968 and landslide victory of 1972. Nixon spoke of solid, old-fashioned American values, law and order and respect for the traditional hierarchy. In this way, says Perlstein, Nixon created a new dividing line in the rhetoric of American political life that remains with us today. At the same time, Perlstein illuminates the many demons that haunted Nixon, especially how he came to view his political adversaries as enemies of both himself and the nation and brought about his own downfall.

Jay

Steve Berry "The Third Secret"

I really enjoyed this book and am moving on to another of Berry's novels now.Berry has created an interesting story with a good plot.The research was done to the history and customs of the Catholic Church. THE THIRD SECRET is a remarkable, fast-moving thriller with murder, suicide, forbidden romances, and a diverse cast of characters, including an evil Pope.
Lili

Margared Mitchell "Gone with the Wind"

Gone with the Wind is a romantic drama and the only novel written by Margaret Mitchell. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize and is one of the most popular books of all time.
Gone with the Wind is an American War & Peace. This is the story of the black and white Southerners before, during, and after the war, very rich in historical facts.The prose is beautiful and perfectly in characters, especially in main heroes, Captain Rhett Butler and the beautiful, strong Scarlett O'Hara.
Lili