The Last Single Woman in America

Love is never an easy thing to come by. Especially when you are living in LA, where men are suddenly the new women.

Cindy Guidry's The Last Single Woman in America, explores the trials and tribulations of the dating world, and of the world in general.

After getting "fired" from her job, but forbidden to use the dreaded "f" word, Cindy decides to use this to her advantage to define herself. Instead of frantically sending resumes out to all the companies in Cali, like her friend Dylan, she parties at night and indulges in arts and crafts by day.

Cindy wonders if there is any man out there for her. She was raised with the statement "anything you can do I can do better" when it comes to men and women. Now that women are being taught to take care of themselves in the real world, are men even needed anymore? Maybe in Never Never Land...

She meets a really handsome, dirty Viking with a small case of obsessive compulsive disorder. After he gets into a motorcycle accident and injures his leg, Cindy decides to play nurse. But their time together turns sour when the Viking's OCD kicks into high gear, and Cindy bolts out of his place.

When at a bar in Beverly Hills with her friend Donna, Cindy meets The Greek. He actually asks for her phone number, and she finds herself on her first actual date in years.

The Greek was insulted that she didn't want him to pick her up on their first date. He also couldn't believe she asked him what he did for a living. Cindy, being the persistent woman that she is, urged him to talk about himself. At the end of the awkward night, she was presented a videotape of a movie The Greek had written and directed, hoping that she would know the right people to put it on the big screen.

She's been on plenty of dates and has had plenty of boyfriends, but lots of her friends are getting married and having babies, now. And where does that leave her?

With a pesky, irritable feline she's forced to take to the LA Cat Whisperer, a nosy in-your-face neighbor who tells her everything she doesn't want to hear about herself, and a lucky leprechaun for a brother, Cindy feels worse and worse about finding "the one" in her less-than-perfect life.

The Last Single Woman in America is a fiesty collection of essays written by a woman who says what everyone only thinks. Guidry's raw stories leave readers with something to ponder, relate to, and laugh along with. Find out what it's like to be the last single woman in America.

Eat, Pray, Love

Imagine that your whole world is tumbling down. Despite your happy home, happy husband, and happy job, you're completely depressed and distraught. Nothing makes you cheery, and no matter how your day turns out, you're always stuck on the bathroom floor, crying by nighttime. Try as you might, your life doesn't get any happier, neither does your love life. Soon, your husband becomes your ex-husband, you quit your job, and you set out on a journey of self-discovery.

Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love tells this exact story. In her early thirties, Liz leaves everything behind to find herself again in Italy, India, and Indonesia.

First, Liz sets out to live in Italy for four months. She always longed to learn the beautiful Italian language, and what better way to learn than to live there. During her first night in Europe she waits for the tears to come at night, but they never do. She wonders if this was all she needed all along.

With classes at the Leonardo da Vinci Academy of Language Studies, Liz meets many more travelers who have all left their lives to learn the smooth, exquisite Italian language just like her. Although she isn't the most expert traveler in the world, she sure knows how to eat delicious food and make new friends, and that's just what she does in Italy.

Next, she's off to spend four months in an Ashram in India. After discovering the magic of gurus, Liz wants to be more like them and find enlightenment through meditation and prayer. Soon she finds that this is easier said than done.

In order to meditate, one must sit completely still in a dark cave for an hour. Liz, being the busy-body that she is, simply can't do such a motionless task. On top of that, all the seekers of enlightenment must first recite a song that has one too many verses in it. This has to be done every day before meditation, which Liz can't stand, so she lets her mind wander instead.

On the bright side, she's lost all the weight she gained in Italy, since everyone in India eats healthy, light vegetables. While she rides her journey towards enlightenment like a roller coaster, Liz wonders if she'll ever be able to reach God.

Finally, the last stop takes her to live in Indonesia where she hopes to take in some wisdom from the medicine man, Ketut Liyer, and to find balance. She spends her mornings in meditation, her afternoons with Ketut, and her evenings just relaxing in the little cottage she found for herself out in the country.

This is the first time on her journey that she actually allows herself to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery around her. She ends up meeting Wayan, a Balinese healer, who becomes her best friend in Indonesia. They talk about all kinds of things, including love. Through a friend of Wayan's, Liz is introduced to the lovely Brazilian Felipe.

Eat, Pray, Love is a most ingenious autobiography full of humor, wit, and self-healing. This creatively written book is truly inspiring and describes an incredible journey of rediscovering one's true self. Through lots of eating, praying, and loving, Liz Gilbert finds exactly what she was looking for all along.

Sandcastles

Sandcastles always wash away with the tides, but a family's love is forever.

In Luanne Rice's Sandcastles this is just what is expected from the Sullivan family. Sisters, Regis, Agnes, and Cecilia have never seen love as strong as that shared by their parents, John and Honor Sullivan. Their passion feeds off of each other and creates the innovative painter and sculptor that they are. The girls always thought their family's love would last through anything.

One stormy, fateful day on a trip in Ireland, the Sullivan family is changed dramatically when John is sent to prison over a mishap with one of his sculptures. Six years later, Honor and her daughters are living their lives alone at Star of the Sea Academy in Connecticut under the careful watch of Mother Superior Bernadette Ignatius, John's sister.

All five girls wait patiently for John's return only to find that he will be arriving much sooner than expected. His daughters are excited for their father to come home to them. They can't wait to inform him of everything he missed in their lives while he was away, most importantly about the engagement of his eldest daughter, Regis.

Naturally Regis, Agnes, and Cecilia expect their mother to be just as excited for John's return as they are. They imagine she'll run into their father's arms, just like in all the romantic movies. But for Honor, John's homecoming brings mixed feelings. She doesn't know how to let go of what happened in Ireland, nor does she know how to react to a husband that's been gone for so long.

Although she still loves him, he broke her heart six years ago, and she doesn't believe that it has fully healed. Honor worries about how her daughters will respond to their father that they barely know.

Bernadette is the only one who knows the truth of Honor's feelings, and even through she's ecstatic for the return of her brother, she also worries about her nieces. Things become even more worrisome when secret messages are inscribed in the chapel at Star of the Sea. Faded memories become real, leading to the appearance of an archangel and the disappearance of one of the Sullivan daughers.

Sandcastles is a painstakingly real novel that defines the true love that can only come from a family. It's full of hope, love, and the reassurance that family will always be there through thick and thin, no matter what hardships may come along in life.

What I Did for Love

Glamour, fame, and fortune: the life of a Hollywood star. Everyone knows your name, who your friends are, your films, family members, life story, personal drama...

In What I Did for Love, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Georgie York leads this exact life. At first everything is certainly glamorous all around, until the paparazzi captures her heartbreaking divorce with one of the top actors in Hollywood and pastes it on the front cover of every popular entertainment magazine.

Georgie began her career as a star on the sitcom "Skip and Scooter", with her loathed costar, Bram Shepard. Everyone on the set catered to Bram and his dreaminess, while Georgie took a back seat and watched his career slowly go up in flames due to alcohol, drugs, and bad influences.

Now, it is Georgie's career that's going up in flames as the world is shown her every raw emotion and open wounds from her devastating divorce. To top it off, every headline on the entertainment magazines highlights some good deed that her ex-husband's new wife is performing to save the world.

Just as she thinks her life can't get any worse, she wakes up in bed with a strange man. This man just so happens to be Bram Shepard, and he just so happens to have their wedding certificate in the pocket of his pants.

Naturally, this scandal would shoot Georgie's career through the roof and most likely make it disappear forever, so she can't do anything but go along with the show, just like the good little actress she is. Luckily Bram agrees to go along, as well, since he's trying to resurrect his acting career from the dead. Plus, Georgie agrees to pay him.

Flames and fire shoot through Bram's house as the not-so-happy newlyweds try to get along for the paparazzi. As the drama unfolds, Georgie begins to see the bad boy in a new light, and Bram concludes that there's nothing wrong with being a goody-goody. But it's all part of the act, right?

What I Did for Love is an excellent novel full of scandal, deceit, and of course, lots of acting. This book brings the Hollywood life into a new light and places an excellent heroine in the spotlight. With humor and many surprise romances, readers will love following the adventures of Georgie York and Bram Shepard.

The Beach House

Nothing can be more relaxing and therapeutic than a few days by the water, sun, and sand.

In The Beach House, by Jane Green, Nan, the sixty-five year old, rambunctious woman who everyone in Nantucket knows of, opens her home to guests wanting a few days of blissful vacation by the beach.

First, there’s Daniel, needing space away from his wife for the summer, who decides to come to Nan’s beach house. He and his wife have spent months with a therapist, struggling with a marriage that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Daniel is quiet and finds it difficult to open up to his wife, especially about his one secret that would tear their family apart forever.

Next comes Daff, a real-estate agent needing some serious alone time with her thoughts and herself after her overwhelming divorce. Her young, teenage daughter struggles so much with the divorce, that Daff actually considers letting her spend some time with her father and his new girlfriend. Although guilty at first, Daff finally is free to just be herself and not have to worry about walking on eggshells in the presence of a teenager.

Finally, Nan is ecstatic to have her son, Michael, come home for the summer. Michael has been so busy as a top jeweler in New York that he barely has time to visit his mother in Nantucket, his home and favorite place in the world. After ending yet another disastrous relationship, he escapes to Nantucket to help his mom with her lovely home on top of the bluff.

Nan is so happy to have her home bustling with people again, that she doesn’t even focus on the money that’s slowly fading away in her bank account and the huge mansions that are being built all around her beach house, taking the place of previous small, beach homes that have always made up Nantucket.

As the group slowly receives their much needed relaxation, some visitors arrive in Nantucket that change the leisure time to anxiety time.

The Beach House is a wonderful beach read that tells the tale of numerous characters who all form a solid connection in the end. This novel looks at many different perspectives that all tie into one destination- finding one’s true self.

Speak

Secrets are not always easy to keep. They can eat away at you and slowly take over your mind, body, and soul until it consumes your every thought and movement. No, secrets are definitely not good to keep. . .

Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak is all about one gigantic secret kept by Melinda Sordino, the quiet, antisocial girl in school.

After a classic, parents-out-of-town summer party, Melinda's world is turned upside down and muted. The party starts to get out of control for her, and all she can think of doing is calling the cops. Unfortunately, everyone at the party shuns her for ruining it, including her very best friends. Melinda becomes the outcast.

Now, it's the first day of high school and instead of having new friends, all Melinda has are some new pencils and notebooks. Not even her old friends speak to her anymore.

Although she doesn't mind being alone, her thoughts haunt her. They take her back to that night at the party where her deep, dark secret still remains.

So when a new girl comes to school and latches herself onto Melinda, she feels a little bit grateful to finally have a friend. But her new friend discovers Melinda's "status" in high school and feels that it's best if they aren't friends after all, for the sake of her reputation, of course. Once again Miss Sordino is alone.

Being alone is not the end of the world, but she needs a way to release her emotions somehow. The secret almost burns through her skin on some days. When the art teacher suggests that she use art to liberate her feelings, Melinda finds this is a fairly good strategy.

But even as she purges her emotions, her secret continues to follow her. . .

Speak is an excellent novel about speaking up for yourself and what you believe is right, even if it's the hardest thing you ever have to do. Exceptionally well written, this book is full of typical high school drama and daunting trauma that is so real, readers actually feel with the leading lady, Melinda. Her story is so memorable and this book is defintely a great read for high school students and anyone else who has ever kept a secret.

The Lucky One

Being a part of the U.S. Marines, you have to face a lot of different, scary, and unforgettable things; a little luck can go a very long way.

In “The Lucky One,” by Nicholas Sparks, Logan Thibault, a U.S. Marine, finds just what he needs to bring him some luck.

When Thibault first finds the photograph of the pretty young woman in the dirt in Iraq, he decides to post it up at his base camp hoping that someone will claim their lost picture. After a few weeks with the picture still hanging up unclaimed, Thibault is struck with an urge to keep the picture for himself, safe in his pocket.

With the photograph safely by his side, he finds himself carrying some newfound luck as well. Not only does he win a few rounds of poker, but he also is miraculously saved from deadly combat.

Once Thibault arrives home, he concludes that the luck he was given in Iraq was no ordinary luck, so he sets out with his dog Zeus to find the woman in his picture.

With a few clues from the writing on the back and the images behind the woman in the photograph, Thibault finds himself in Hampton, North Carolina face to face with his lucky charm.

Elizabeth is her name, and she’s a divorced mother living with her son, Ben, and her Nana. The three of them run a dog kennel, and when Thibault finds her, he has an impulse to apply for a job at the kennel.

Beth and Thibault spend more time together after he starts work, and he is surprised by the way he begins to feel about her. He even becomes closer to Ben, which Beth finds admirable in this new mystery man.

The closer they get, the closer Thibault clings to his secret about the photograph and the reason he came to meet Beth in the first place, but her ex-husband won’t rest till he discovers Thibault’s secret. . .

“The Lucky One,” is another great read by Nicholas Sparks that naturally tugs at the heartstrings. Filled with tender loving moments, and suspenseful edge-of-your-seat surprises, this novel is an excellent read for anyone who has ever fought to find their true destiny and their soul mate.