Rose Madder/ Stephen King/ 608 pages/ Horror

          After fourteen years in an abusive marriage, Rose Daniels leaves her husband, Norman. Her first step is to find a place he won't find her and start her life over again.
          Rose meets new people, finds friends, gets her own apartment, a job, and meets a new guy, Bill. Even with all this that she has built for herself she still is nervous of Norman finding her. He is a cop and is very good at hunting down who he is looking for. As we follow Rose and her new life we also follow Norman and see his mind as he mentally unravels while searching for his wife.
           This novel had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was an incredible novel with a terrible villain that had me checking over my shoulder while reading. The fantasy in the novel is a little out there but still interesting. Before starting, I was thinking this was going to be boring since it's not like other King novels but I was very wrong. I would recommend looking into this one if you are looking for a mystery/horror novel to try.

Safe Haven / Nicholas Sparks / 340 Pages

Katie is running away from an abusive husband who is also a police detective in Boston. She ends up in a small town called Southport. Though at first reluctant to make any friends, she eventually warms up to the general store owner, who is a widower and father of two children. You gradually get to know about Katie's toubled path and the story switches from Katie's story to her husband's story. The characters were well-written and real. I don't want to give away the ending for anyone who hasn't read it yet, but her husband does eventually find her and in the usual Nicholas Sparks fashion, you are worried about what character will die at the end of the book. I really enjoyed it, though. And the movie was pretty good, too.

Thousand Splendid Suns / Khaled Hosseini 372 p.

Set in Afghanistan during the past 30 years, Mariam and Laila story is told against the turbulent times of war from the Soviets to the Taliban. The plight of these and other Afghan women is sad. They depend totally upon the men of the family, their fathers, brothers and husbands for their very lives. Mariam is illegitimate daughter of a businessman who is forced into marriage at 15 to a much older man, Rasheed--a man who couldn't find a wife in his town and the why is revealed in detail--brutality that is hard to read. The story turns to Laila, the daughter of a teacher, raised by progressive parents at the time of Soviet rule. She fals in love with neighbor Tariq. It is a good time for women...education, modern medical care, freedom of movement. With the Taliban, the bombing escalates. Women's roles revert to very controlled old ways. Tariq and his parents flee the war; her parents wait too late and are killed. Laila marries neighbor, Rasheed, for protection. At first Mariam is cold and distant to Laila. Gradually a love builds between the two women. This love becomes the central point of the story. Rasheed's temper, bullisness, brutality force the two to try to escape but the plot is foiled. Laila gets a respite when she delivers a son--a son who rules the roost. Hosseini interweaves the history and culture of Afghanistan with the story of these women.

Appeal factors: Bleak, haunting--not an easy story to read and images that will remain, intricately plotted, strong sense of place, disturbing, sobering.

Continents Books: Asia
Award Winner

Water, Stone, Heart / Will North 140 p.

Recently divorced Andrew Stratton does something out of character, signs up for a course on mortarless stone-wall building in Boscastle, Cornwall England. Once there he befriends his landlord's daughter Lilly, a precocious 10-year old with depth of knowledge about Boscastle and it's surrounds. His ex's parting salvo motivates him to embrace this change, he falls in love with the area and its people. Though the slow growing romance between Andrew and also divorced Nicola Rhys-Jones are of interest, the real treat in this story is the loving description of Cornwall.