Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

According to Publisher's Weekly,

"De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down"

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

These characters now on a weekly TV show on TNT!

From Publisher's Weekly
"A creepy cerebral serial killer vaguely reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter pursues a charismatic female doctor in this thoroughly satisfying if somewhat derivative thriller. Skillfully drawn surgical backdrops sizzling with ER intensity balance out the obligatory romantic intrigue and familiar plucky police professionals, attesting to Gerritsen's authentic medical expertise as a former physician. Dr. Catherine Cordell, the main character in this chilling tale, thought she had shot and killed her rapist and would-be murderer two years earlier in steamy Savannah, where he was a surgery intern at her hospital. Now, in Boston, as another hot summer begins, he appears to have miraculously returned and embarked once again on his grisly mission: he rapes women, then surgically removes their wombs. As two intrepid detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli investigate, Cordell begins to doubt her own memories (or lack of) and discovers that not even her OR is safe. Gliding as smoothly as a scalpel in a confident surgeon's hand, this tale proves that Gerritsen (Harvest; Life Support; Bloodstream; Gravity), originally a romance writer, has morphed into a dependable suspense novelist whose growing popularity is keeping pace with her ever-finer writing skills. (Sept.)Forecast: National print advertising in People, the New York Times and USA Today, plus a major promotion campaign, will ratchet Gerritsen's sales up yet another notch. " 

The Alchemyst: The secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

From Publisher's Weekly:

"Twin 15-year-old siblings Sophie and Josh Newman take summer jobs in San Francisco across the street from one another: she at a coffee shop, he at a bookstore owned by Nick and Perry Fleming. In the vey first chapter, armed goons garbed in black with "dead-looking skin and... marble eyes" (actually Golems) storm the bookshop, take Perry hostage and swipe a rare Book (but not before Josh snatches its two most important pages). The stolen volume is the Codex, an ancient text of magical wisdom. Nick Fleming is really Nicholas Flamel, the 14th-century alchemist who could turn base metal into gold, and make a potion that ensures immortality. Sophie and Josh learn that they are mentioned in the Codex's prophecies: "The two that are one will come either to save or to destroy the world." Mayhem ensues, as Irish author Scott draws on a wide knowledge of world mythology to stage a battle between the Dark Elders and their hired gun—Dr. John Dee—against the forces of good, led by Flamel and the twins (Sophie's powers are "awakened" by the goddess Hekate, who'd been living in an elaborate treehouse north of San Francisco). Not only do they need the Codex back to stop Dee and company, but the immortality potion must be brewed afresh every month. Time is running out, literally, for the Flamels. Proceeding at a breakneck pace, and populated by the likes of werewolves and vampires, the novel ends on a precipice, presumably to be picked up in volume two."

Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman

        When thinking of a great children’s book to recommend, this was the only one that stuck in my mind. I remember it being the first book I learned to read as a child. My mother read it to me all the time; I loved it so much. Jillian Jiggs is like most little kids her age, she dislikes cleaning her room.

"Jillian Jillian Jillian Jiggs! It looks like your room has been lived in by pigs!"

Throughout the book Jillian promises her mother that she will do as she is told and clean her room, but instead creates an even larger mess with her two friends and their imaginative antics. This is a great story that will keep the attention of all children.

Beasts  by Joyce Carol Oates

    Oates paints an era where drugs are viewed with a more tolerant eye and sexual promiscuity is the order of the day. This novel reminds me of "Rules of Attraction" by Brett Easton Ellis, but unlike Ellis, Joyce writes from an exciting female perspective.
    The story revolves around a group of private college girls in the 70's and their obsessive preoccupation with their English professor, a charismatic Andre Harrow and his Parisian artist wife, Dorcas. Andre's female students are drawn to him like bees to honey. A talented and infatuated junior, Gillian, is relegated to the shadows until Andre picks her out as one of his "special" girls. What follows is a disturbing look at the power of obsession and the abuse of trust, both common themes for Oates.
    Those who are fans of abrasive and unstylized language will love this novella, which is a quick read. Recommended for readers of: Joyce Carol Oates, Brett Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Augusten Burroughs.

A Good and Happy Child    by Justin Evans

    For those who ever had nightmares about "The Exorcist" and demons this novel is for you. Tame in many ways to "The Exorcist", but still an intriguing first novel from Justin Evans.

It appears to the reader that Evans is writing from personal experiences of rejection from friends and/or a father figure. He captures the bougeious society of academia to a tee, which is scarley brilliant. The flash backs from the present to childhood are easy to follow but I could have done with a few more scares, two or three was not enough for this scare lover. All together a reputable first venture into the literary world.