This is a fantastic book for parents with kids of all ages--it's never too late to help your child love reading! The authors, both of whom work for the NY Times Book Review, provide book recommendations and strategies for showing your kids from birth-teenager the great value and joy that can be found in a good book.

We climb with the author up Mount Everest, from the Napal side of the mountain to the top, experiencing the effects of the loss of oxygen and strength as he climbs. Krakauer was writing a piece for the Outsider magazine, about climbing the tallest mountain in the world. This was a sad book to read. I do not understand the drive that exists in these people to climb a mountain, risking their life to complete the challenge! Knowing that you can kill yourself with a slip of a step or a broken rope connection OR due to the various affects that the lack of oxygen can do to the heart and brain, and still pushing to climb is insane, in my personal opinion.

Centered in the culture of the Amish in Pennsylvania, the resident doctor, Reese meets Caleb, who is caught between two worlds, bound by a deathbed promise to raise his orphaned niece and nephew in Middle Grove, where life revolves around family, farm, faith, and the English world of medical care and technology. When his nephew loses a hand in a farm accident, questions of ethics are confronted as the two worlds clash for Reese and Caleb, on what is best for his children. This was both a thought provoking read and an education into the practices of the Amish.

This book combines the best of two genres -- historical fiction and romance! Set in Gettysburg, PA during the Civil War, Caroline, a recent widow when her husband, Jacob, gets wounded and dies from battle as a Union soldier, finds her farm on the outskirts of the Battle of Gettysburg, and requisitioned to be a battle site hospital for the wounded. The noise and blood of battle are blended with the protection of a runaway slave, and the romance of two soldiers - a Yankee and a Rebel -- for her love. I was drawn away from other household tasks to read this book to the finish to see who won her heart!

An exhilarating story of survival and second chances! This book grabbed me by the wrist on page one! Riveting!

If your child enjoys I-Spy or Look and Find style books, this new title is super fun! The book explores a place called Happy County in a bit of a nod to Richard Scarry. There are lots of cute, quirky animal characters and tons of fun stuff to find!

Dental drama at its finest for a preteen girl! Smile is a memoir graphic novel that centers around Telgemeier's traumatic orthodontic experience, along with the struggles of puberty, friendships and fitting in at school. I also love how Raina illustrates and describes the scenes so well!

This book is a salute to the women who are serving in the military for our country. It blends the heroic efforts of a soldier returning from Afghanistan, suffering from PTSD, with a Civil War soldier, who leaves a diary of her experiences as a soldier. Yes a woman soldier! Larkin discovers a treasure in the belongings of her best friend who dies in combat : the diary of Emily Wilson, a young woman who disguised herself as a man to fight for the Union in the Civil War. The book alternates between these two women to share their stories.

How is one's life changed when a person is forced to stay within the walls of one building for the rest of your life? Though this book is set in Russia, during the 1930 - 1950's, the topics of ones' emotional, mental and physical health in a confined setting is very applicable to our current conditions of "Sheltering in Place." When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel's doors. Time passes, friendships with hotel staff and guests grow, and bring humorous and touching adventures for this Gentleman in Moscow.

Wow! What a romance! This is a blend of situational comedy and hate/love relationship which made the book a fun, fast read and memorable to me. Twin sister Olive finds herself going on the free Hawaiian honeymoon with her sister, Ali's brother-in-law, Ethan, whom Olive hates. When the entire wedding party gets food poisoning, the only people who aren't affected are Olive and Ethan. Enduring Ethan turns out to not be "such a trial" as they try to enjoy Maui.