Dec's Noms - Voting Now Open!

[Tera, First Chick]

These are only blurbs. Please follow the links to the books and find out more. Im not going to put up the poll until tomorrow so take your time to look at the books. You can only vote for one book but you can put as many as you want on your "to read" list.


Goldengrove By Francine Prose
Over one haunted summer, Nico must face that life-changing moment when children realize their parents can no longer help them. She learns about the power of art, of time and place, the mystery of loss and recovery. But for all the darkness at the novel's heart, the narrative itself is radiant with the lightness of summer and charged by the restless sexual tension of teenage life.
The Myth of You and Me: A Novel by Leah Stewart The Myth of You and Me captures the intensity of a friendship as well as the real sense of loss that lingers after the end of one. Searingly honest and beautiful, it is a celebration and portrait of a friendship that will appeal to anyone who still feels the absence of that first true friend.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover -- these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel.
Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson John Ames, is 76, a preacher who has lived almost all of his life in Gilead, Iowa. He is writing a letter to his almost seven-year-old son, the blessing of his second marriage. It is a summing-up, of his life. Robinson takes the story away from being simply the reminiscences of one man and moves it into the realm of a meditation on fathers and children, particularly sons, on faith, and on the imperfectability of man.
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan The Red Lobster hasn't been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift. With only four shopping days left until Christmas, Manny must convince his near-mutinous staff to hunker down and serve the final customers. All the while, he's wondering how to handle the waitress he's still in love with, his pregnant girlfriend at home, and the perfect present he still needs to buy.
The History of Love: A Novel by Nicole Krauss The History of Love spans of period of over 60 years and takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day Brighton Beach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue of loneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love.
Blackout Girl: Growing Up and Drying Out in America by Jennifer Storm As a young teen, Jennifer’s life was awash in alcohol, drugs, and the trauma of rape. The upside is that Jennifer came through untold darkness to create for herself a life of accomplishment and joy.
The Beach House by Jane Green Known in Nantucket as the crazy woman who lives in the rambling house atop the bluff, Nan doesn't care what people think. But when she discovers the money she thought would last forever is dwindling and she could lose her beloved house, Nan knows she has to make drastic changes.
Pieces of My Sister's Life by Elizabeth Joy Arnold Once, Kerry and Eve Barnard did everything together all the while longing for their absent mother. Until the summer of their seventeenth birthday, when their extraordinary bond was shattered. And thirteen years later, it will take all the courage they can summon to put the pieces back together—at a time when it matters most.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermino Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.
A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period–people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.
Bound: A Novel by Sally Gunning Alice Cole spent her first seven years living in London with her family. But a better life waited in the colonies, a bright dream that turned to ashes when her brothers and mother took ill and died during the voyage. Arriving in New England unable to meet the added expenses her father bound Alice into servitude to pay his debts. Alice soon discovers that freedom—as well as gratitude, friendship, trust, and love—has a price far higher than any she ever imagined.
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn A touching and remarkably funny account of Flinn's transformation as she moves through the school's intense program and falls deeply in love along the way. Flinn interweaves more than two dozen recipes with a unique look inside Le Cordon Bleu amid battles with demanding chefs, competitive classmates, and her “wretchedly inadequate” French.
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin An inspiring book about what one man can do to fight terrorism by building schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan in some of the remotist parts of the world. The book chronicles what Greg Mortenson encountered as he tried to build these schools, the dangers he faced, the political, cultural and economic factors he had to overcome in order to realize his dream.
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore 'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas. But not everybody is feeling the joy. Little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a holiday miracle. Josh is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead.