July Reads
61. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan This book is about a couple who witness a ballooning accident and Joe Ross attempts to rescue a small child from a runaway balloon. Another bystander also tries to help and is killed in the process. There is another bystander called Parry who feels that he is in love with Joe, even though Joe is married to Clarissa. He also tries to share with him about God’s love. Parry’s obsession with Joe almost leads him to murdering Parry.
62. Atonement by Ian McEwan
63. Found by Karen Kingsbury In this eighth book in her series about the Baxter family, John Baxter finds out who his biological oldest son is and that he’s a famous movie star named Dayne Matthews. Both Katy and Dayne have feelings for each other, but don’t get together romantically yet. Dayne has to work through some things like why his adoptive parents put him in a boarding school while they worked in the mission field. A tornado rips through the town of Bloomington while the Baxter family is having a family reunion, minus Dayne since he didn’t know about it. John does try to contact him though.
64. To Catch a Husband by Lindsay Graves When Colina Linda billionaire David Clemente files for divorce it becomes gossip for the ladies who lunch. Four of the community’s ex wives each vie for his attention and its interesting to see the lengths that these women would go through in order to snag a rich husband. When Jessica, who is an ex lawyer whose ex husband is a neurosurgeon wants a reduction in her child support payments she fights against it, not thinking that she could get a job to support herself and the children. Catlin is a single mom who isn’t really rich but spends above her means in order to get herself a rich husband who can support her and her son. Lally is an ex-Bond girl who is the Queen Bee of the ex wives social group. Janey is a dowdy old money Colina Linda woman with many well connected relatives. Its good entertainment to see which one of these women will capture the heart of David Clemente, though its sad that they try to get rich through marriage and not through hard work.
65. Shifting Calder Wind by Janet Dailey
66. The Reluctant Bridegroom by Gilbert Morris In the seventh book in the House of Winslow series we see Sky Winslow leading a wagon train of brides to the Oregon territory. He’s not interested in marrying any of them since his first wife was unfaithful to him. One of the young women, Rebekah Jackson on the train is a single mother to two children, and she’s going west to escape a troubled past.
67. The Manning Sisters by Debbie Macomber This book is actually a collection of two of her novellas, The Cowboy’s Lady and The Sheriff Takes a Wife. In The Cowboy’s Lady Taylor Manning accepts a teaching position in Cougar Point, MT where she meets opinionated stubborn rancher, Russ Palmer. After a few months the two of them seem to more than notice each other, even if Taylor did flee Seattle, Washington from a failed romance. In The Sheriff Takes a Wife, recently elected Sheriff of Custer County, Cody Franklin discovers that he is attracted to Taylor’s sister Christy when she visits her sister. She is attracted to him too, even though she does have a fiancée back in Seattle. See how the two of them work out their attraction to each other.
68. Peculiar Treasures by Robin Jones Gunn In the opening of this book Katie Weldon’s best friend Christy Miller gets married and she catches her wedding bouquet. She is starting out her adult life in her senior year at Rancho Corona University, a Christian university in Southern California. She is offered a job as a RA at one of the dorms at this university, while trying to figure out her relationship with her almost boyfriend Rick Doyle. Of course she wonders about their relationship at Christy’s wedding and at this point in her life her and her friends are taking different directions with their lives. She also is faced with real life decisions that she has to make, that the women in her life help her to make. This is also the first time that Katie realizes that her friends are in different chapters in their lives.
69. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer In this second book in the Twilight series, the Cullens including Edward leave Forks which devastates Bella. She gets to know Jacob better while Edward is away, which confuses her about her love for Edward. She still wants to become a vampire but at least this time she has unselfish reasons for doing so, she thinks that being a vampire would keep her family safe. At the beginning of the book, another reason that she has for wanting to be a vampire is because she wants to stay young forever, even though she is 18 years old.
70. The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer This book follows four friends who have chosen to give up their careers to stay at home with their children, who live the upper class New York lifestyle. Amy, who is one of the stay at home mothers is starting to question whether or not she should go back to work When she befriends a working mother, she wonders how she manages working and her home life. When a housewife’s husband dies who lives in her building, she realizes that his widow would have to move on with their children, because she couldn’t afford their lifestyle on her own. The book also has flashbacks to the various women’s childhoods also. Amy’s mom is a novelist who is disappointed that her daughter is a housewife and not working in a career. The title of the book is stating that being a housewife is like taking a long nap, since they are detached from the real world that their husbands inhabit.
71. Love Me by Garrison Keillor Larry Wyler settles in St. Paul with his wife Iris, who is working to change the world. Larry writes a best selling novel and moves to New York City away from his wife and has an office at The New Yorker. His second novel is a flop, but this work describes Larry’s life before and after he wrote his best selling novel. Larry takes a job writing an advice column under the name Mr. Blue, even when his own love life is in a mess.
72. Family by Karen Kingsbury
73. Deep in the Heart of Trouble by Deanne Gist This book is the sequel to her Courting Trouble, where we find Essie still in control of her bicycle club and not needing a man. Disinherited from his father’s fortune after his father’s death Tony Morgan gets a job with Sullivan Oil Company in Corsicana, Texas using the name Tony Bryant, he gets to know Essie better. He isn’t looking for a wife, especially one as headstrong and independent as Essie. Though he did see the downside of female dependence when his mother and sister have to rely on the generosity of his half-brother for their daily needs.
74. Yours, Forever by Robin Jones Gunn This is the third book of her Christy Miller series written for teens from 12-16 years old, even though it does have some lessons in there that are relevant to older readers. In this book, Christy returns to her aunt and uncle’s house in Newport Beach, CA for the Christmas holiday. She tries to manipulate Todd into paying attention to her, but of course all of her efforts backfire and Todd has a way to spend some time with her, though. She learns that she doesn’t have to manipulate a guy to make him hers forever. This book was written in the late 80s early 90s and there are some small things in there that date it, like when Christy gives Rick a cassette tape for Christmas. Overall this was a good book that encourages good values in young women.