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For those Kindle readers who, like me, read for entertainment, scanning the book reviews in People magazine is good way to check out new people-related books - celebrity bios, popular novels, absorbing nonfiction - just hitting bookstore shelves. Featured in the July 11th issue of People:

You're Next, by Greg Hurwitz. St. Martin's Press, 2011. Print Length: 416 p. THRILLER. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (33 reviews). People's slant: "Hurwitz's latest thriller moves fast enough to glide over a few plot holes and provides a fun tour of green architecture and the Indian casino business along the way." Kindle edition $11.99; Hardcover $14.38. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Mike Wingate, abandoned by his father at four and raised in foster care, is finally living the life he always dreamed of - he’s happily married with a precocious 8-year-old daughter, and his construction company is about to finish a 'green' housing development that will secure a solid future for them all. But then something from his own past, a past he doesn’t even remember, comes back to visit terror upon him and his family. Shady characters begin threatening Mike and, when he reports them, the police seem more interested in Mike’s murky past than in protecting him. Now, with Mike, his wife Annabel and daughter Kat suddenly under attack from all sides, Mike turns to Shep, a dangerous man - and Mike’s only true friend - from his childhood days in foster care. " - Amazon.

The Kid, by Sapphire. Penguin Publishing, 2011. Print Length: 384 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 2 stars (8 reviews). People's slant: "...unflinching authenticity makes it tough yet ultimately rewarding to read." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.10. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Fifteen years and an Oscar-nominated movie adaptation have passed by since Push, and, with Precious long dead, Sapphire unfurls the story of her son, Jamal Abdul Louis Jones. Orphan Jamal winds up at a foster home where he's mocked and beaten to the point of having to be hospitalized. Fast forward, and Abdul, going by the name J.J., is at the St. Ailanthus School for boys, where he's sexually abused by priests and in turn sexually abuses a couple of boys at the school. When J.J. is thrown out of the school, he struggles to handle his own conflicting desires and the rigors of getting by in a tough world by himself, often with very little comprehension of consequences. J.J. is a great creation, if a sometimes frustrating one: Sapphire excels at getting readers into the head of a frightened, enraged, and frustrated wild child, but that isn't always the best vantage point from which to watch this heartbreaking story unfold. This is a sobering and unflinching study of the legacy of abuse, and while the narration can leave readers more puzzled than piqued, it's a harrowing story." - Publishers Weekly.

The One That I Want, by Allison Winn Scotch. Crown, 2011. Print Length: 288 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (48 reviews). People's slant: "Emotional and engrossing." Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $16.32. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"Tilly Farmer is thirty-two years old and has the perfect life she always dreamed of: married to her high school sweetheart, working as a guidance counselor in her hometown, trying for a baby. Perfect. In fact, on the surface you might never know how tough things used to be. At seventeen, Tilly lost her mother to cancer, her father drowned his grief in alcohol, and she played parent to her two younger sisters more often than being a kid herself. Still Tilly never let tragedy overtake her belief that hard work and good cheer could solve any problem. Of course she’s also spent a lifetime plastering a smile on her face and putting everyone else’s problems ahead of her own. But that relentless happiness has served her well - her sisters are grown and content, her dad is ten years sober, and she’s helping her students achieve all their dreams while she and her husband, Tyler, start a family. A perfect life indeed. Then one sweltering afternoon at the local fair, everything changes..." - Amazon.

French Lessons, by Ellen Sussman. Ballantine Books, 2011. Print length: 256 p. NOVEL. People's slant: "With writing that reflects the charm of the setting and a cynical wit, Sussman makes the romance of Paris come alive without lapsing into cliché." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (29 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $8.91. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"A single day in Paris changes the lives of three Americans as they each set off to explore the city with a French tutor, learning about language, love, and loss as their lives intersect in surprising ways. Josie, Riley, and Jeremy have come to the City of Light for different reasons: Josie, a young high school teacher, arrives in hopes of healing a broken heart. Riley, a spirited but lonely expat housewife, struggles to feel connected to her husband and her new country. And Jeremy, the reserved husband of a renowned actress, is accompanying his wife on a film shoot, yet he feels distant from her world. As they meet with their tutors - Josie with Nico, a sensitive poet; Riley with Phillippe, a shameless flirt; and Jeremy with the consummately beautiful Chantal - each succumbs to unexpected passion and unpredictable adventures." - from the trade paperback edition.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See. Random House, 2005. Print Length: 288 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (768 reviews). People's slant: "...exquisite novel set in 19th century China..." Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $9.00. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"During the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, an old woman fainted in a rural train station. While trying to identify her, authorities found scraps of paper with writing they had never seen, leading them to think she was a spy. But scholars identified the script as nu shu, a writing that had been used exclusively by women for over a thousand years in a remote area of southern Hunan province. Nu shu was different from conventional Chinese script in that it was phonetic and its interpretation was based on context. Years later when author Lisa See became aware of nu shu, her discovery turned into an obsession, resulting in her fourth novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Written in the style of a memoir, the book is narrated by 80-year-old Lily Yi as she looks back on her life. Her story begins in 1828 in her village of Puwei in southwestern China...The wonder of this book is that it takes readers to a place at once foreign and familiar - foreign because of its time and setting, yet familiar because this landscape of love and sorrow is inhabited by us all...a triumph on every level, a beautiful, heartbreaking story." - Judy Fong Bates for The Washington Post.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.