Don’t laugh – but it took me almost 3 years to realize that there is a Library down the street from me (in about 10-15 minutes walking distance). When I finally discovered this, I took Carli only to realize that it was closed for renovations! Saddened, I packed Carli back in the car and drove out of the Library and went to do a u-turn at City Hall when I saw temporary signs indicating that the library was temporarily in another location. So – we went into the temporarily (in pods) library. They had very little off the books available, but luckily – mostly best sellers! There was still an interesting selection for me to choose from! I selected:

Testimony by Anita Shreve
Synopsis: (Taken from inside cover)
At Avery Academy, a prestigious New England boarding school, the headmaster finds himself in possession of a videotape – a disaster in a small package. More shocking than the sexual acts recorded on the tape are the ages of the students. One girl is just fourteen.

At Pandora’s Box, the tape unleashes a storm of shame and recrimination throughout the small community. The men, women, and teenagers involved speak out to relate the events of the night and their aftermath. Mike Bordwin, the headmaster, struggles to contain the scandal before it destroys the school. Silas Quinney, a well-liked local boy, grapples with the tremendous consequences of his mistakes. Anna, his mother, confronts her own temptations. And Sienna, an enigmatic and troubled young woman, tries to put her past behind her.

For all the tape reveals, it provokes more questions than it answers. How did it happen? Who is to blame? And will the mistakes of one foolish moment ruin the futures of everyone involved? As the chorus o voices rises to a crescendo, it reveals the surprising truth of what occurred that night, and how the lives touched by these events will forever be transformed.

Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her greatest work, Anita Shreve brings us a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compellingly explores the needs and fears that drive ordinary men and women into tolerable dilemmas, or te ways in which are best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.

Teaser by Jan Brogan
Synopsis: (Taken from the Book)
Hallie Ahern, a providence Rhode Island reporter and a recovering gambling addict, is trawling online chat rooms in search of a story for her newspaper’s web site when an anonymous source sends her a short video clip, a teaser. Featuring two girls striking provocative poses, the clip promises more to come. As Hallie follows up on the lead, stalking out tech shops and high school hang outs in search of the girls in the clips, she discovers that men are buying the girls webcams and lavishing them with gifts to make sure they use the cameras. But these gifts are only a taste of the perils to come.

The paper’s new owners love the idea of an expose that warns parents of the dangers of the internet, but when girls start dying, and when Hallie’s boyfriend – a prosecutor with the Attorney General’s office – ends up on the other side of the story all together, the situation goes from dark to lethal.

As Hallie is caught between her responsibilities as a reporter and as a concerned citizen, her investigation leads her deep into a far-reaching conspiracy in Teaser, Jan Brogan’s latest gripping mystery.

The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore by Deepak Chopra
Synopsis: (Taken from inside of book)
WHO IS JESUS CHRIST? In “The Third Jesus”, bestselling author and spiritual leader Deepak Chopra provides an answer to this question that is both a challenge to current systems of belief and a fresh perspective on what Jesus can teach us all, regardless of our religious background. There is not one Jesus, Chopra writes, but three.

First, there is a historical Jesus, the man who lived more than two thousand years ago and whose teachings are the foundation of Christian theology and thought. Next there is Jesus, the Son of God, who has come to embody the institutional religion with specific dogma, a priesthood, and devout believers. And finally, there is the third Jesus, the cosmic Christ, the spiritual guide whose teaching embraces all humanity, not just the church built in his name. He speaks to the individual who wants to find God as a personal experience, to attain what some might call grace, or God-consciousness, or enlightenment.

When we take Jesus literally, we are faced with the impossible. How can we truly “love thy neighbor as theyself”? But when we see the exhortations of Jesus as invitations to join him on a higher spiritual plane, his words suddenly make sense.

Ultimately, Chopra argues, Christianity needs to overcome its tendency to be exclusionary and refocus on being a religion of personal insight and spiritual growth. In this way Jesus can be seen for the universal teacher he truly is – someone whose teachings of compassion, tolerance, and understanding can embrace and be embraced by all of us.

Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner
Synopsis: (Taken from inside of book)
At first my eyes wouldn’t make sense of the letters. Finally, they understand. Loving a Larger Woman, said the headline, by Bruce Guberman. Bruce Guberman had been my boyfriend for just over three years, until we’d decided to take a break three months ago. And the larger woman, I could only assume, was me.

Cannie Shapiro never wanted to be famous. The smart, sharp, plus-sized pop culture reporter was perfectly content writing about other people’s lives on pages of the Philadelphia Examiner. But the day she opens up a national woman’s magazine to find out that her ex-boyfriend has been chronicling their ex-sex life is the day her life changes forever.

Loving a larger woman is an act of courage in our world, Bruce has written. And Cannie – who never knew that Bruce saw her as a “larger woman,” or thought that loving her was an act of courage – is plunged into misery, and into the most amazing year of her life.

For the previous twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie. Sure, her mother’s come charging out of her closet, and her father’s long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her job, her friends, her tiny rat terrier, Nifkin, and her life in Philadelpha. She loves her apartment, and her commodious, quilt-lined bed. She has made a tenuous peace with her non-size 6 body. And she’d even felt okay about ending her relationship with Bruce. But now this.

After finding herself publicly humiliated, with the most intimate details of her life in print, Cannie embarks on a series of hilarious and heartbreaking adventures. From showdowns with her snooping office nemesis to run-ins with her mother’s less-than-lovable life partner, from trips to glamour spots of New York City and Los Angeles to disastrous reconciliation with the man who took her heart and tossed it onto the New Jersey Turnpike, Cannie navigates an odyssey she never planned on taking. She mourns her losses, faces the past, and figures out who she really is, and who she can become.

Radiant with wit, bursting with surprises, and written with bite and bittersweet humor, Jennifer Weiner’s deliciously readable debut novel reaches beyond Cannie’s story and into her heart of every woman. It features an unbelievably funny cast of supporting characters, the strangest dog you’ll ever encounter, and, best of all, Cannie Shapiro – a heroine you’ll never forget.

The Two Marys by Sylvia Browne
Synopsis: (Taken from inside of book)
In The Mystical Lie of Jesus, Sylvia Browne told you the story of Christ. Now she sheds light on how two very special women influenced this man, and taught his word through the crucifixion and beyond.

Many controversies have remained unanswered in Christianity for centuries. Some of these controversies have recently drawn increased attention due to new discoveries in archaeology as well as bestsellers and movies such as The Jesus Tomb and The DaVinici Code. With the unique perspective only Sylvia Browne could bring, The Two Marys focuses on one of the greatest unknowns: the lives of the two most important women in the life of Jesus.

Jesus’s mother had an enormous influence on him, which has mostly been marginalized by the #42 Occult America" href="http://wellreadreviews.com/review-42-occult-america">Christian churches. Contrary to the beliefs of all Christian religions, Jesus did marry Mary Magdalene, and she too influenced his teaching. In The Two Marys, New York Times bestselling author Sylvia Browne uncovers the hidden history of these two remarkable women in a story that will challenge the very basis of traditional Christian faith.

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I believe I have picked out some interesting titles – and am quite content at all the books I am determined to read in the next few weeks!