Every so often a novel comes along that takes your breath away. The Orphan Master's Son remained unopened on my nightstand for a couple of weeks. But as soon as I dove into this literary thriller that also includes a love story I was hooked. It's set in North Korea, and amazingly, it’s written by an American.
Pak Jun Do grew up in an orphanage, yet he was no true orphan (as he repeats many times in these pages) since his father raised him, or more accurately, Jun raised himself near his father. Years earlier, his mother, a singer, had been whisked off to Pyongyang, the capital, where all the beautiful women of the provinces were sent, so he never got to know her. Jun Do's job was renaming each orphan upon his arrival--he named each boy after the 114 North Korean martyrs. Jun Do also assigned jobs, taking the worst for himself. But since even children in North Korea work Read more »
Horror fiction: There're a lot of arguments about what it is and isn't – it's bloody; it doesn't have to be bloody. It's supernatural, like werewolves and ghosts; it can have just people – they're scary enough. It's got sparkly vampires who can inexplicably run around all day; vampires don't fall in love, they fall with their fangs into your neck. Whatever version of horror you subscribe to, with Halloween coming up quickly, it's what's for dinner. 
Working in a library, I try to read a wide variety of books – romance books, graphic novels, memoirs, young adult fiction, fantasy and popular non-fiction titles. But my one true love is contemporary literary fiction. A coworker once remarked to me that I didn’t like reading novels by authors who weren’t alive. Yep. Give me Jhumpa Lahiri over Jane Austen any day. 
When enthusiastic home cook, Jennifer Reese lost her job she wondered if making homemade staples would be more cost effective. Is homemade mayonnaise cheaper than the tub you buy in the store? And just as important, does it taste better? Her book,