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Friday Reads - the hyperlinked edition

I happened to finish several books this week, and they were all worth mentioning.

The New York Regional Mormon Single's Halloween Dance by Elna Baker, is a memoir of a 20-something Mormon in New York City. The two big themes to her story are that she used to be fat and she's still a virgin even in her late twenties. This isn't a perfect memoir, but anyone who's struggled with trying to live by the rules you grew up with even after you leave the place you grew up will appreciate Elna's dilemmas. Plus, she's pretty funny.

Runaway Bride Returns! by Christie Ridgeway is a Silhouette Special Edition about a firefighter and a librarian who marry in Vegas, only to have the librarian run out on him the next morning. I picked this one up for the librarian heroine, and while I enjoyed it, there wasn't anything extra special about it.

Everything I Need To Know About Love I Learned From Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell - If you haven't gone to Smart Bitches Trashy Books, you must check it out now. Before going there, I felt like I couldn't share my love of romance novels with just anybody, lest they judge me, but Sarah and Candy made it clear that plenty of intelligent women enjoy romance novels, and this is yet another book celebrating what makes romances so great.

After by Amy Efaw - I could not put down this emotionally gripping story of a successful high schooler who's now in jail awaiting trial for throwing her baby out with the trash. The whole debate lays around how responsible she is for her actions because it's clear from the beginning that she may not have even realized she was pregnant or remember giving birth. I was totally sucked into the mystery of figuring out just how Devon's mind was working during her pregnancy and how she could have blocked out all the signs that she was pregnant. Very disturbing, but in a good way. If you like difficult situations, you should check this one out.

Currently I'm working on a few good ones as well ...

 A Very Short Introduction: Modern Japan by Christopher Goto-Jones - I LOVE the Very Short Introduction series, and I picked up this one on modern Japan because my husband is obsessed with anime and really into most things Japanese, so I originally thought about getting this one for him to read, but I got sucked in by the introduction and now I'm reading it instead. Unfortunately, I've been distracted by other things and haven't really had a chance to focus on it until this week. So far the history nerd in me is loving all the recent history lessons on Japan.

Peak by Roland Smith - This is about another trouble teen who finds himself in juvie, only this one got there because he likes climbing skyscrapers and tag them. Eventually it looks like he goes on to climb Everest, but I'm really not very far in this one yet, so I'm interested to see where it goes.
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