Latest & greatest (or not)

1. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini -- recommended at our annual sales meeting by our guest speaker, Linda Bishop. If you're in sales, read it! Great insight into what motivates buyers.

2. Natural Cures: What "They" Don't Want You to Know by Kevin Trudeau -- take this one with a very large grain of Kosher sea salt. Trudeau goes on and on about how the FDA, FTC and the pharmaceutical companies are in bed together. If he didn't end every sentence with an exclamation point, he'd be a lot more believable. But despite the angry rhetoric, I was intrigued and more importantly motivated to think about what I put into my body.

3. Next by Michael Crichton -- jumps from scene to scene, subplot to subplot. If you put this book down for a day or two, you practically have to reread it to remember where the heck you are. One of my favorite authors but one of my least favorite books. Oh, it's about genetic modification of animals.

4. 4th of July by James Patterson -- part of the Women's Murder Club books, although the club pretty much sits on the sidelines in this one. Great thriller! Go Lindsay!

5. Step on a Crack by James Patterson -- sucks you in right away. Great characters and very mysterious. Ridiculous ending. What do prison guards have to do with our story?

6. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly -- loved it! Slimy defense lawyer comes of age.

7. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen -- highly recommend this book about a man who is 93 or 90, he can't remember for sure. Story goes between present day in seniors home back to his days as a young man during the depression who out of desperation for 3 sqaures and a place to sleep joins a circus. Sounds corny but it's very well done.

8. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield -- best book I've read in a long time. I wasn't sure at first I was going to like it; seemed a little dark. But once I got into it, I really didn't want to put the iPod down. It's kind of Sixth Sense-ish -- not sure if these folks are really alive or if they are ghosts. Great mystery and story.

9. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls -- crazy autobiography of a woman who grows up in the ultimate dysfunctional family. Father is pretty much a dead beat con man and they have to move from town to town as he wears out his welcome. Mother is nuts. Kids are amazing survivors.

10. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult -- touching novel of a family who has a third child to serve as a donor for the older sister who has leukemia. Finally, the donor daughter hires a lawyer to get medical emancipation. The mother is opposing counsel. Excellent book.

11. Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille -- what can I say? I'm in love with John Corey. This time he saves the world from nuclear destruction but still manages to irritate his wife in his spare time.