All That Remains by Patricia Cornwell
From the Publisher: Dr. Kay Scarpetta is up against a serial killer who targets young lovers. Four couples have disappeared, only to turn up dead months afterward...Now a fifth pair is missing, and the mother of the girl is a powerhouse recently named by the president to head his war on drugs.

Personal recommendation: I highly recommend this book...especially if you like thrillers.


Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell
From the Publisher: When convicted killer Ronnie Joe Waddell is executed in Virginia's electric chair, he becomes what should be a routine postmortem case for Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta. But the murders continue, as everyone connected to Waddell begins to die—including a member of Scarpetta's staff....With some help from her seventeen-year-old niece, computer whiz Lucy, as well as from her loyal friend Lieutenant Marino and FBI agent Benton Wesley, Scarpetta musters all her forensic expertise and investigative skills to uncover shocking secrets that will have vast repercussions.

Personal recommendation: You can't fail with a Patricia Cornwell book. It's an easy read that will keep you intrigued throughout the book!



Unnatural Exposure by Patricia Cornwell
Kirkus Reviews: Whoever shot the latest unidentified female victim Dr. Kay Scarpetta's called out to examine—whoever cut off her head, dismembered her, and bagged her torso for disposal in a Virginia landfill—may have been doing her a favor. Though Virginia's chief medical examiner doesn't realize it until she's called out to an even more horrific death scene—an inoffensive old woman on Tangier Island who seems to have died of smallpox—the earlier victim had signs of the same ravaging illness, supposedly eradicated in 1977. The violence to the first victim, and the care taken to conceal her identity, would point to murder even if Scarpetta hadn't started to get sinister computer messages from somebody called 'deadoc."Arrayed against deadoc are the Richmond homicide squad (headed by Scarpetta's old friend Capt. Pete Marino), the Virginia State Police, the FBI (including Scarpetta's on-again lover Benton Wesley and her niece Lucy), the Center for Disease Control, and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. But in true Cornwell fashion, the good guys are their own worst enemies: The state cops and the FBI are mired in turf wars; a slick state investigator's determined to arrest the wrong perp and smear Lucy for an old lesbian affair; the USAMRIID, woefully underfunded, has furloughed so many unessential employees that there's hardly a nurse to care for Scarpetta when she comes down with a fever she can only pray isn't smallpox. Cornwell's tenth shows her best-selling formula—in-your-face forensics, computer terrorism, agency infighting, soap-opera romance,penny-dreadful villain—wearing a little thin. But fans, swept up in a fever of their own, won't care a bit.

Personal recommendation: Best Patricia Cornwell book I've read yet! If you're tired of reading heavier stuff, this book is perfect. A real page-turner!


Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou
As with the first three books, Maya Angelou, allows us to follow her on her journey through her past. She gets married to a Greek man (whom she later divorces), becomes a professional singer (tours with Porgy and Bess in Europe), and continues being the vibrant young women that we first meet in I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Once again Angelou tackles her life, her shortcomings, her successes, and her failures with a refreshing sense of honesty. I can't wait to read the rest of her work!


Davita's Harp by Chaim Potok
Chaim Potok, as most know, is my favorite writer (in English). I LOVE the way this man wrote. There's a sense of simplicity in all of his novels that is beyond comforting to me. You can tell that he was an observant persons who understood his surroundings. Once again, he didn't fail me or my expectations of him as a writer.
Davita Chandal is born to Michael and Channah (Annie, Hannah, Anna) in the wonderful city of NY. It's the 1930's and both of her parents are communists fighting for a better world. Channah is a (Jewish) Polish immigrant, social worker, and an atheist. Davita's father is a journalist.
With the toll of war, upheaval, and depression weighing too heavily on her young shoulders, Davita unexpectedly turns to the Jewish faith that her mother had long ago abandoned, finding there both a solace for her questioning inner pain and a test of her budding spirit of independence.
This is a beautiful story filled with the realities (sadness and grief) of war and injustice....but it is also imbued with the beauty of family, faith , and the courage of conviction. In other words, it's a must-read!