"You Are Beautiful" by Ken Paves was wonderful. Paves is hair stylist to the stars, and he thinks all women are beautiful, even without having fancy clothes, makeup, and hairdos, so he wrote the book to inspire and encourage all the everyday "normal" ladies out there. It was very inspirational, and he had a lot of great advice on how to be your best self everyday and enjoy what you have rather than fighting it and always being depressed about not being more or different. I'm trying really hard to take his great advice to heart and use it :)
"Richard Burton, My Brother" by Graham Jenkins was a touching memoir written by a devoted brother. Graham acknowledged Richard's faults, like excessive drinking, but also pointed out how kind and generous and loving he was. It was nicely done.
"Seven Minutes in Heaven" by Sara Shepard was a great ending to the Lying Game series, although I admit I will be incredibly sorry to see this series go. I have really enjoyed it. I didn't see the ending coming a mile away (I'm so dense like that) but it was great and really wrapped things up perfectly without being overly sappy or silly.
"Save Yourself" by Kelly Braffet was pretty good. Owen King's wife's third novel takes place in a small, nondescript working town in Pennsylvania. Patrick and Mike are clinging to a rough existence after their father is imprisoned for running down and killing a kid while drunk. It's hit Patrick hard, who quit his warehouse job and works the night shift at a convenience store. Mike is trying hard to have a normal life with his girlfriend, Caro. And then there's Layla, who is so disappointed by her parents trying to manipulate her that she's ended up in another terrible situation with a weird cult, and she's drug her younger sister Verna into it. It was well written and just heartbreaking. I felt for these people, who really tried to make better decisions in life but still ended up in the same bad spots.
"And the Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini was just brilliant. I love his books. As small children, Pari and Abdullah are inseparable. Abdullah will do anything for his little sister. When his family falls on hard times, their father sells Pari to a wealthy barren woman named Nali, hoping she'll have a better life. The novel what happens to Pari, Abdullah, Nali, and others touched by their story, spanning 60 years.
"Any Empire" by Nate Powell is a graphic novel protesting war that I wasn't terribly impressed with. It didn't make much sense, and I just couldn't get into it. I feel, in a graphic novel with so little text, the pictures really need to make the story pop, and these just didn't work for me.
And finally, the third hangman daughter's book by Oliver Potzsch, "Beggar King". It was pretty good: Jakob goes to the large city of Regensberg when he gets a notice that his little sister is ill. When he arrives he finds she and her husband have been murdered and he is being framed for the crime. While being tortured, he discovers a horrible conspiracy that runs much deeper than the murder of his sister.
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