Willa Jackson hails from a fine old Southern family that met with financial ruin ages ago. The Blue Ridge Madam, built by her great-great grandfather and once the finest home in Walls of Water, North Carolina, has stood for years as a monument to misfortune and scandal. Will has lately learned that an old classmate, socialite Paxton Osgood, has restored the house to its former glory, with plans to turn it into a top-flight inn. But when a skeleton is found buried beneath the property's lone peach tree, long-kept secrets come to light, accompanied by a spate of strange occurrences throughout the town. Thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the passions and betrayals that once bound their families.

I fell under Sarah Addison Allen's spell when I first read Garden Spells in high school. Though her novels are what I would consider fluffy chick-lit, something which definitely isn't my cuppa, I still enjoy reading her novels. They're light, comforting reads. I pick one up whenever I'm craving a little romance and whimsy.

Though this story was enjoyable, and the cast of characters were lovable, and there was still that element of magical realism Allen is so good at--I must admit, I was a little disappointed with The Peach Keeper. The basic plot elements of this story were really intriguing: a skeleton found buried beneath a peach tree behind an old derelict house. A re-awakened spirit wreaking havoc on the town. But Allen didn't do much with this set-up. Most of her story seemed to be focused on the characters and how they're dealing with their past, present, and future. I felt like this overshadowed the rest of the story. Somehow, Allen made a decades-old murder sound boring.

It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning Italian with a suitcase in her hand. She and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to be safe at last, now that the Italians have broken with Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it becomes overnight an open battleground among the Nazis, the Allies, resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive.

This is the second novel by Mary Doria Russell I have read and loved to pieces. This woman is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Her writing is rich and complex, and all of her characters are well-developed and memorable.

I have a feeling this book will stay with me for a long time. Though I finished it a few days ago already, its images still cling to my mind. I'll be walking down the streets in my town and suddenly, I'm on the Ligurian coast in Italy, listening to a German deserter confess to killing nearly 91,000 Jews. The church bells will ring and I can imagine hundreds of thousands of people shouting, "It's over! The war is over!"

What I love the most about Mary Doria Russell is that she knows how to make her readers feel something. She is a writer who writes with such poignancy--every word carries weight, and demands your attention. Just like when I read The Sparrow, I was dragged on an emotional roller coaster while reading A Thread of Grace. I laughed, I cried, and I got angry. Though, if I were to be honest, I did more crying than anything else; I must have sobbed through the final 100 pages of A Thread of Grace.

Mary Doria Russell = 2
Me = 0

As a 15-year-old boy in postwar Germany, Michael Berg had a passionate affair with a mysterious, guarded woman twice his age that ended suddenly when she disappeared. Years later, Michael sees her again -- when she is on trial for a terrible crime.

I picked this book up on a whim. The premise sounded good enough to interest me but I never expected to fall in love with it as much as I did. There are many adjectives I could use to describe this book--compelling, disturbing, heart breaking; however, none of them really do the novel any justice. It's hard to describe a novel that makes you look at something like the Holocaust through the eyes of a perpetrator of crimes and the man who loved her. This is also a novel that asks more questions than it answers. Several times throughout the novel, Hanna asks, "What would you have done?" When faced with a question like that, we're forced to recognize the world isn't separated into black and white. As somebody said on Goodreads, "There were far more Hannas than Oskar Schindlers and even more that just sat by while it all happened. The Oskar Schindlers make us feel good about humanity and the Hannas make us face up to the realities."

I highly recommend this book. Though it may not be a book for everybody, it deserves a chance. The story is incredible, and Bernhard tells it with such a crisp prose that leaves out all pretense.

Le Cirque des Rêves arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is only the battlefield.

I had heard great things about this book so I was impatient to begin it. Unfortunately, the story was a bit of a letdown. The first hundred pages or so dragged on and I found myself less and less interested in the characters and what would happen to them. Still, I can’t in all seriousness say I didn’t like The Night Circus. The writing was fantastic; I really loved all of the author’s descriptions. Much like the Notre Dame cathedral in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the circus felt like a living, breathing entity that quietly watched over the characters.

After following a taxi-driver's enigmatic advice, Aomame begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She realizes she has entered a parallel existence. She calls this new reality 1Q84--the Q stands for 'question mark.' It is a world that bears a question. Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the novel and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to unravel. As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer.

Step aside Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It pains me to say it, but you've been replaced; 1Q84 is my new favorite Haruki Murakami novel. Every second I spent with this book was an adventure. From the moment Aomame stepped out of 1984 and entered 1Q84, I was sucked into the story. Murakami is truly a gifted story teller. I have now read four of his novels and each of them has hit my "love" buttons perfectly; however, there is something special about 1Q84. It felt different from his other works. It has the same, wonderful Murakami feel, but it's subtle. It takes a few chapters before it really hits you that something doesn't quite make sense. Murakami feeds you only small pieces of information at one time, so you're almost forced to continue turning pages just to get the next scrap of information. I highly recommend this book.

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme that asks us about our reading habits. This week the owner of Booking Through Thursday has prepared a list of questions for us.

1. What’s your favorite time of day to read? I like to read almost any time of the day. But the best time to read is at night, after my boyfriend has gone to bed. The apartment and the world outside is dark and quiet, and there are no distractions.

2. Do you read during breakfast? (Assuming you eat breakfast.) No, I'm usually on the internet at that time.

3. What’s your favorite breakfast food? (Noting that breakfast foods can be eaten any time of day.) Cereal.

4. How many hours a day would you say you read? It fluctuates from day to day. There are days I simply can't concentrate and can't read more than a couple pages before I give up. Then there are days I can read all afternoon without getting tired.

5. Do you read more or less now than you did, say, 10 years ago? The amount I read each year is steadily growing.

6. Do you consider yourself a speed reader? I can speed read but I don't like doing it. I lose a lot of the story if I blaze through it. I prefer to read at a steady pace. It means I usually end up taking a little longer than I would like to finish a book but at least I don't miss anything important. Because I read at such a steady pace, I can remember the major details and plot lines of every book I've ever read.

7. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? To fly. I've always wanted to experience what it feels like to fly.

8. Do you carry a book with you everywhere you go? I bring a book with me to work but that's about it.

9. What KIND of book? Whatever I happen to be reading at the time.

10. How old were you when you got your first library card? My mom finally let me get one when I was about nine.

11. What’s the oldest book you have in your collection? (Oldest physical copy? Longest in the collection? Oldest copyright?) I have a book that was copyrighted in 1896. The book I've personally had the longest would be my copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I've had it since I was in fourth grade, I believe.

12. Do you read in bed? Yes but never for very long. My back gets sore; and I have to let my boyfriend sleep eventually.

13. Do you write in your books? Never.

14. If you had one piece of advice to a new reader, what would it be? I don't know if I would really give them advice. Mostly I would bombard them with book recommendations. XD

Today's Top Ten Tuesday list asks for ten authors we wish would write another book. (Hooray for alliteration!)

In no particular order, my picks are:

• Gregory Maguire. I would love it if he wrote a fifth book in the Wicked Years series but I know Out of Oz was the last.

• Marion Zimmer Bradley. I loved her books in the Avalon series. It's too bad she's passed. I would have liked to see more books from her.

• Stephen King and Peter Straub. These two authors co-wrote the books The Talisman and Black House. For a while there have been rumors that they are going to write a third and final book in the series but I have yet to see it. I really hope they do write a third book. The Talisman and Black House are two of my favorite books ever.

• Haruki Murakami. I never want this man to stop writing books. He is a literary genius! And one of my favorite authors in the world.

• J.R.R. Tolkien. The world lost a brilliant man when J.R.R. passed.

• Charles Dickens. What can I say? The man knew how to use words.

• Lisa See. I loved her novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I know she has written more novels and I can't wait to read them. This is another author whom I hope never stops writing. Reading her novels is like taking a peek into the Chinese culture.

• Mark Z. Danielewski. His debut novel House of Leaves was...weird. But it was also very good and I'd love to see more from him.

• Ken Follett. I haven't read his newest book Fall of Giants yet but I definitely want to. Once I do, I'm sure I'll be waiting impatiently for the next book in the trilogy.

• Tablo. This author is a bit obscure. He is a Korean rap artist but he knows fluent English. He studied English Literature here in the United States and proceeded to write a book of short stories called Pieces of You. I have read a few of the stories and they just blew me away. I would love to see more from him.

So thus far, my reading goals for 2012 are to read at least 20,000 pages. I got pretty close last year so I know I can do it this year. I would also like to complete the 2012 challenge. 24 books is nothing!

I have been trying to decide if I want to join a few reading challenges this year. I joined a handful last year but only managed to complete one--the Reader's Imbibing Peril challenge. In terms of reading, it was a good year for me. But on the challenges front, I flopped. Perhaps reading challenges just aren't for me? They are fun, I will admit. But sometimes they feel constraining, too.

But perhaps I'm just being too hard on myself. Last September I started a new job that really took up a lot of my free-time. Finding time to read when you work 12-hour long shifts is never easy.

I think...I will participate in a few challenges. Are there any you would suggest? I know LibraryThing is doing the 12 in 12 challenge, so I will probably join that (and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it!).