BlogHer Book Club, or What I've been reading lately

I have briefly mentioned this in a few other posts, but I've been really excited to be able to join the BlogHer Book Club! It's a chance to receive and review some great books and check out others in genres that I typically wouldn't pick.

Since starting a couple of months ago, I've read and reviewed six books. Technically, I've read and reviewed eight, but two are still waiting to publish, and I'm finishing up review number nine in the next day or two.

My List, so far (the links will take you to my BlogHer reviews):

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok - By far, this is the best book I've read in the review series, and I can't stop recommending it, to the point that it's on the must-read list on a forum I'm on and I've passed my copy to multiple friends. If you're only going to pick one from my list, this is definitely the one! (And I just realized that the author commented on my review, which is extra wonderful.)

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks - This was the first book I got to review and I found it to be a great historical fiction novel. It is the story of a Puritan girl and a Native American boy, in 1660 Martha's Vineyard. She is a minister's daughter and he is the first Native American to attend Harvard (he was actually a real person, while she is a fictional creation).

A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz - I actually thought this one could be called "Everything I need to know, I learned from Jane Austen". It wasn't a book I would have typically picked up, but it's an interesting non-fiction piece. It was accompanied by a large tome of Jane Austen novels, which I still haven't delved into quite yet (while review book wasn't bad, I'm just not a Jane Austen fan).

Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan - The long awaited sequel to Waiting to Exhale! I enjoyed this one too, although the road to get to happy is full of a whole lot of sad, life changing events. I'm not 100% sure everyone got to happy by the end.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - It's kind of Twilight for grown ups, and not my first pick of genres. I tried to have an open mind and it was better than I anticipated. I do enjoy a good mystery and there is one within the novel. If you liked Twilight, you might very well like A Discovery of Witches too.

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen - Definitely not something I would have discovered on my own, it's more teen fiction than anything else. Dessen is a good writer and touches on universal coming of age topics, I definitely see why she's a popular writer for teens.