If you liked "To Kill a Mockingbird"...

...then Howard Frank Mosher's A Stranger in the Kingdom should be on your list of must-reads. Several months ago, while I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird, my main boss at the time told me about this book and highly recommended it. He gave me a brief synopsis (a new--colored--minister and his son move into a small Vermont town, and racial prejudices surface when he is accused of impregnating and killing a white teenage girl) , then told me he would have it sent to my apartment. "Sure, sure," I thought, but sure enough, a few days later it was sitting on my doorstep. I finally got around to reading it last month, and although I didn't find it nearly as powerful as To Kill a Mockingbird, it was a close second. It's not too terribly long (432 pages), but I do have to admit it's very slow-going at times. If you can hang on through the long-winded and sometimes tiresome parts, though, it finally picks up and is a great read. The trial was definitely my favorite part of the story, and I found myself actually talking OUT LOUD to the characters in the book, giving them hints and clues. (I tend to lose myself when reading like that.)

I also recently read The Pearl, by John Steinbeck. I may have had to read this short story in highschool, but if I did, I don't remember it. It's a quickie (96 pages), but if you have an hour and are looking for an interesting read, I'd recommend it.

Now I'm currently reading a book I am borrowing from my dad: Trauma Room One: The JFK Medical Coverup Exposed. (As you can tell, my reading preferences vary greatly.) This is an eyewitness account by Charles A. Crenshaw, MD, who was an attending surgeon at Parkland hospital where Kennedy was rushed after the shooting. I started it about an hour ago and am already 75 pages deep. So far, I'm enjoying it, especially since (I'm ashamed to admit) I didn't know all that much about the president's assassination as I probably should have. But this is a book that definitely opens doors for debate, and raises questions that many people have been asking for years. It should be an interesting, informative read that I'm really looking forward to. For example, one line states, "The wounds to Kennedy's head and throat that I examined were caused by bullets that struck him from the front, not the back, as the public has been led to believe." Interesting.

Other books on my shelf that I have yet to read and re-read are: Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities, Son of a Witch, and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. Hopefully I keep on this chain of reading (devouring?) books that I've been on for the last couple of months. Any suggestions to add to my list?