2.  Queen of Babble, Meg Cabot.  The first in the series and much better than the Manhattan set sequel.  Ann Arbor student Lizzie Nichols gets into adventures and misadventures in England and France, falls in love, and saves the day.  Cute.

3.  Size 12 is Not Fat, Meg Cabot.  The first in this murder mystery series.  Heather Wells, fallen pop star, is an NYU assistant dorm director, as Cabot was in her twenties.  It’s clear that Cabot identifies with Wells, and it’s another funny, charming beach read. 

4.  Frank Lloyd Wright, Ada Louise Huxtable.  Counters some of the untruths told in the FLW autobiography and explains that Wright was two men: the man he saw and the man of reality.  Informative and insightful about why he was the way he was.

1.    Queen of Babble in the Big City, Meg Cabot:  We’ve only read some of Cabot’s work and we were sort-of ambivalent about it, but the Lizzy Nichols series is v. cute.  It takes place in Manhattan, and Lizzy has a Becky Bloomwood obliviousness that is mostly charming.  We decided to read the rest of the series!

2.   Size 14 is Not Fat Either, Meg Cabot:  Of the two Meg Cabot books we read, the Heather Wells series is our favorite.  Heather is a 29 year old has been pop star who wants to be a criminal investigator and is an assistant dorm director at New York College.  The mystery part is a little predictable, but Heather’s cynical, yet hopeful personality kept us giggling throughout.  Plus, each chapter begins with the lyrics of her pop songs that are so bad they’re good.

3.   Trading Up, Candace Bushnell:  Candace Bushnell could be a Jane Austen of our time, because her characters are dark, complex, and driven to succeed in the societies in which they belong.  Janey Wilcox, the protagonist, is no exception and is ruthless, ambitious, and completely unlikable.  While part of us finds Bushnells novels offensive, we’ve read them all.  Bottom line: it’s like a car wreck.  You feel like you should look away, but you can’t stop yourself.