The Daring Book for Girls -- The female answer to The Dangerous Book for Boys touches on crafts and cooking, but also has great instructions for games, survival skills round-ups, and stories of real-life princesses who could wipe the floor with Cinderella. If you're a dude, hide the cover and get over yourself; it's fun, useful reading for all.
Gods Behaving Badly: A Novel -- The classical gods are living in London. Their powers are waning and they're bored. Their lives finally get interesting again when two mortals inadvertantly get sucked into their drama. A beach read.
Grayson -- A champion swimmer finds a baby gray whale who had been seperated from his mother. She manages to swim alongside him until the mother can be found. Short and sweet.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard -- This companion to the Harry Potter series tells some fairy tales from the wizarding world. A few minor points stuck out to me (Hermione Granger seems too much of a prescriptivist to translate a singular personal pronoun, gender unknown, as "they"; she strikes me as the "he or she" type), but overall it's a cute book, well-suited for kids who are disappointed the series is complete, or who maybe aren't quite old enough for the last few books.
The Westing Game -- The heirs of the late recluse Sam Westing have absolutely nothing in common. They're an ethnically, socioeconomically diverse group with personalities that vary as much within families as between them. But they all have a shot at the estate of their "Uncle Sam" -- if they can figure out which of them killed him. Lots of fun.
You Suck: A Love Story -- An average guy is turned into a vampire by his girlfriend, and the two of them have misadventures in dealing with a set of his-hers-and-theirs obstacles: his idiot friends, her ancient sire, and their new teenaged minion. Lots of fun.
So, go read one, have a laugh or a pleasant thought, and enjoy!
Cover of Westing GameDid you make it through my list of depressing books? If you did, I bet you could use a pick-me-up. I know I could.
