Book recommendations

I love to get recommendations from friends! I'm cheap, so buy books infrequently (less often than yarn; more often than new clothes) but if a friend recommends something, I'm usually in. And you know that as an English teacher I am pickier than your average bear! Not just any pick-a-nic basket for this girl. I must fall in love with the book to stay with it.

My friend Katie over at One Scheme of Happiness is having a book recommendation contest, so go and visit before noon on the 11th (it's my birthday on the 11th, btw, so I hope that helps me win) and recommend books to the knitblogging world!

Here are the three I recommended. I have read and reread them and loaned them out and bought each of them at least twice because the loaned-out copies didn't return to me and so you KNOW they must be good.

1. The Highest Tide, by Jim Lynch. A great book set in the Pacific Northwest--sort of Holden Caufield meets Snow Falling on Cedars.

2. The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. Came out a few years ago; a mix of sci-fi, lit-fic, and heartbreak. You will never feel the same about space travel, love, anthropology, or religion again.

3. Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos. Set in Seattle. (I guess I'm feeling the need to push Northwest writers.) Amazing imagery. Manages to tie together some stuff you'd never think possible. Lovely.

And need I mention summer is the perfect time to reread Harry Potter?????