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Staying Sane When You're Planning Your Wedding

Staying Sane When You're Planning Your Wedding

By Pam Brodowsky,Evelyn Fazio 272 pages Adult

Danny Says

Part of the enjoyable Staying Sane series, this easy-to-read collection of helpful essays seems to be an appropriate release for all those dealing with the horrible mortgage crisis. Practical advice and words of wisdom.
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Cancer on $5 a Day*

Cancer on $5 a Day*

By Robert Schimmel 224 pages Adult

Danny Says

The * stands for “Chemo Not Included.” If you ever want to read a memoir, stick to comedians. They are our most precious commodities, as they have a way of dealing with serious issues lightly. As someone who admires comedians greatly, I was extremely pleased when Lissa Warren at DaCapo Lifelong Books sent me not one but two copies of Schimmel’s compelling page-turner about how humor got him through his battle with cancer. Why does that please me? After I read the books that make my lists, I always donate them to teachers, libraries and literacy charities. This is one I wanted to keep for myself (I gave the other one to a student), as Schimmel does everything a great writer needs to do: he makes you laugh, he makes you cry and he makes you think. Better yet, he does it all in under 200 pages!
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I Was Told There'd Be Cake

I Was Told There'd Be Cake

By Sloane Crosley 230 pages Adult

Danny Says

I am increasingly drawn to books with great titles, short stories and funny observations about other people’s miseries. This book has all of those things, and I look forward to reading more works by Crosley in the future. An easy read, perfect for a mindless afternoon at the beach.
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Life Is So Good

Life Is So Good

By George Dawson,Richard Glaubman 288 pages Adult

Danny Says

Amazon says that this book is 272 pages, but my copy is 260 and includes a lot of blank pages. Regardless, I have boasted about this book to too many people to leave it off my recommended readings. This is one of the most inspirational stories I have ever read (I’ve read it twice  in the last three months), as it chronicles 103-year-old Dawson’s life and how he learned to read at age 98. Try reading the first chapter without crying (by the way: if you want to focus just on how he learned how to read at age 98, skip ahead to chapter 21).
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The Wentworths

The Wentworths

By Katie Arnoldi 256 pages Adult

Danny Says

When I see an endorsement on a book from one of my favorite playwrights, David Mamet, that reads “too funny, too sad, too short,” I have to grab that book. This one did not disappoint. If you think your family is dysfunctional, check in on the Wentworths. The payoff at the end is superb, and the book is filled with laughs along the way.
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Around The World On Two Wheels

Around The World On Two Wheels

By Peter Zheutlin 161 pages Adult

Danny Says

This book knocked my socks off! I had never heard of Annie Kopchovsky, a Jewish immigrant wife who in 1894 abandoned her family in Boston to partake in a wager straight out of a certain Jules Verne book. Turning herself into “Annie Londonberry,” she rode a bicycle around the world in 15 months, becoming perhaps the first international female sports superstar. I think I like her story so much because it reminds me so much of Nellie Bly, one of her contemporaries (and my idols).
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Here If You Need Me

Here If You Need Me

By Kate Braestrup 211 pages Adult

Danny Says

When several people tell me I have to check-out a certain book, I make it appoint to oblige them. Did I think I would be interested in a memoir about a mother who lost her husband in a car accident and became a minister? No. That’s why I know I am not that smart, as this is one of the best books I have read this year. I will guarantee you that you will like this book. It touched me in many ways (I lucked out, as I read this book the same weekend I had the pleasure of watching the superb German Academy Award-winner, The Lives of Others, which I strongly recommend). I hope Braestrup writes more, as I breezed through this beautiful book.
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Love, Loss, and What I Wore

Love, Loss, and What I Wore

By Ilene Beckerman 144 pages Adult

Danny Says

Paula Thompson wrote me and insisted I read this short gem. I receive 100-200 emails a day from folks with book picks, but there was something insistent in Paula’s email that spurred me to grab a copy of this largely pictoral “diary.” I was stunned by how quickly I absorbed the book and finished wanting more. Beckerman tells her life story through clothes, and it works. Must read.
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The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture

By Randy Pausch 206 pages Adult

Danny Says

Not that Randy Pausch needs any help from me, but I could not live with myself if I did not recommend his book. I am a sentimental sap who loves inspirational books, and this “lecture” touched me the same way Tuesdays with Morrie did. Trust me: if you are one of the three people who have not read this book, get it.
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Spaceman Blues

Spaceman Blues

By Brian Francis Slattery 219 pages Adult

Danny Says

Reading this book is akin to watching a Terry Gilliam film: the story may often confuse the reader, but the characters and situations throughout keep audiences glued. It’s the end of the world, and two cops try to determine what happened to New York’s biggest party animal, Manuel Gozalez, in this memorable debut science-fiction mystery. Quite a trip!



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The Commitments

The Commitments

By Roddy Doyle 165 pages Adult

Danny Says

Doyle is a wonderful author (check-out his The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, which is also under 250 pages), and I had to include this book as it was made into a magnificent film that won several British Oscars but was largely ignored in America. The story of the formation, rise and fall of a fictional white “soul” band in Dublin, The Commitments is just as great to read as it is to watch on the big screen.
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We Have Always Lived in the Castle

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

By Shirley Jackson 160 pages Adult

Danny Says

I am always trying to include a diverse range of genres for this list, and I thought this Shirley Jackson classic would add great eclectic flair to this month’s list. Jackson offers wonderful female protagonists and one of my all-time favorite lines in a murder mystery (“Poor strangers…They have so much to be afraid of.”).
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The Shadow of Her Smile

The Shadow of Her Smile

By Victoria Taylor Murray 184 pages Adult

Danny Says

One of the quickest mysteries I’ve ever read at the beach. I like books that I get through effortlessly, and this book ensured that I will read much more by Victoria Taylor Murray. 
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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

By Edwin Abbott Abbott 86 pages Adult

Danny Says

When people ask me how I teach math to students, I point them to books for kids like Norton Juster’s The Dot and the Line, Greg Tang’s The Grapes of Math and just about anything that Marilyn Burns has ever written. For adults frustrated by high school geometry, I offer this classic story of a square living in a two-dimensional world that discovers a third dimension. Trust me, this book makes geometry enticing. 
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Dare to Dream: Connecticut Basketball's Remarkable March to the National Championship

Dare to Dream: Connecticut Basketball's Remarkable March to the National Championship

By Jim Calhoun,Leigh Montville 240 pages Adult

Danny Says

I was dismayed to read a recent article in USA Today about UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun’s battle with cancer. I just happened to recently read this wonderful book (written shortly after UConn’s first national championship), and I recommend it because it shows how hard work, a sense of humor and personal beliefs and convictions can pay off. Yes, nice guys sometimes do finish first. One of the elements I really like about this book are the reprints of fan letters that left an impact on this often gruff but tireless Hall of Fame coach.
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