In this yoga memoir, author Jessica Berger Gross details how she “lost 40 pounds with a yoga mat, fresh pineapples, and a Beagle-Pointer.” With a subtitle like that, I had to read this book.

It’s a very relatable tale. After a challenging childhood (including an abusive father and an exhausted, cowed mother), college-age Jessica finds herself an overweight, chain-smoking wallflower. Envious of her slimmer, more energetic friends, Berger Gross assumes it’s her destiny to be heavy and sluggish. However, after spending a year in Nepal, finding her true love, connecting with her yoga practice and moving to a house in the mountains, she begins to realize that she can change herself, although she has a few false starts before she finds her path.

She begins writing for yoga magazines, deepens her home practice and starts teaching classes. She attends a yoga retreat with Baron Baptiste. She gets a dog and starts walking her regularly. And she revamps her diet, starting off every day with fresh pineapple (and ending it with a lot of black bean chili).

By taking the advice of her healthier friends, severing ties with her parents and taking control of her destiny, Berger Gross eventually loses the weight and finds her happiness, though not without some struggle and a lot of hard work, proving that none of us is a slave to our past. An inspiring tale, indeed.

In this magical memoir, author Noelle Oxenhandler explores the power (and danger) of the art of wishing. After a series of tumultuous personal events, Oxenhandler finds herself divorced, spiritually bereft and raising her daughter alone in a rental house. Simultaneously envious and suspicious of her friend Carole’s ability to manifest her desires through wishing (a husband! a successful art career! three houses in France!), Oxenhandler decides to research and explore the history and power of wishing.

She embarks on a year-long journey to fulfill three wishes: to find love with a man, to buy a house and to heal her soul and spirituality. She reads all that she can on wishing in its various manifestations (prayer, magic, positive thinking, etc.) as she struggles to reconcile the sacred and the profane (is it okay to ask God for more money?) and magic versus hard work (do shrines, wishlists and ceremonies have any place in modern society?).

To her surprise, her wishes do begin to come true, in a variety of ways. She discovers that she spends as much time wishing for her friends as she for herself, and after a year of startling discoveries, begins to feel comfortable with the blessings appearing in her life. An intriguing, compelling read for believers and non-believers alike.

One really cold evening last winter, I snuggled up with a blanket and a space heater and dove into the debut novel by an author I’d never heard of: Sarah Addison Allen. I devoured the book, Garden Spells, in a matter of hours; it captivated me from page one. Allen’s writing is somewhat similar to that of Alice Hoffman; her characters and settings are real, but her novels contain just the slightest touch of magic. In Garden Spells, two sisters reunite at their childhood home, and find both their gifts and their paths in life. Allen’s second novel, The Sugar Queen, is the story of Josey, a young woman who has lived her entire life under her mother’s thumb. With the help of the mysterious Della Lee, Josey finally begins to blossom into her own woman, finding love and friendship along the way. 

These books are great; everyone who reads them ends up loving them. I highly recommend that you pick one up today!

Eclipse is book 3 in the ongoing saga of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, which I’ve been looking forward to the way most people have been waiting Harry Potter. Meyer’s writing is so captivating, I just get swept away by her stories. In Eclipse, Bella finally graduates from high school, meaning her transformation from human to vampire is imminent. Though nervous, she is prepared, when suddenly things go awry. A series of serial killings in Seattle prompts the Cullen family to suspect that vampires are at work, and it doesn’t take long for them to realize that Bella is at the heart of the matter. Everything must be put on hold until the danger is past.

Further complicating the issue is Bella’s friendship with Jacob Black, who is desperately trying to save her. With her impending transformation postponed, he is certain he has time to change her mind, if only she’d recognize the depth of her feelings for him. Much to her consternation, Bella realizes that a part of her does love Jacob, but at the same time she finally accepts Edward’s marriage proposal.  Now the question is, will she survive long enough to get married…and die? Or will Jacob find a way to keep her from Edward?

Oooo. It’s compelling, chilling, romantic and delicious. I love this series. It’s going to be a long year waiting for the next one, which Meyer says will be the final book of the Twilight saga. I can’t wait to find out what happens, though I know I’ll be sad when it’s over, like saying goodbye to old friends for the last time.

Okay, how to even begin without spoilers?

Finally, with Book 7, J.K. Rowling brings her epic Harry Potter series to a close. For those who complained that Book 6 was all talk, and no action, fasten your seat-belts. Deathly Hallows is just the opposite. It’s fast-paced. Violent. Creepy. It’s good, but also sort of ultimately unsatisfying. I mean, it ended the only way that it could (great battle between good and evil, losses on both sides, some heart-wrenching), but I guess I wished for something else. And while I understand that to give it a sweet, bubble-gum ending would be to cheat the fans out of everything they’ve been waiting for, damn! the death count is high. Rowling admitted in advance to the deaths of two major characters, but there are more. Way more. Some of the deaths I predicted (the one that is handled at the Shell Cottage), others had to happen (and we all knew it). But the very first loss crushed me (hint: the character was in every single book, but never spoke a line–I was sad through the rest of the book over that one), some of the ones at the end just sucked, and I don’t think the ultimate gain was really all that rewarding.

On top of that, the end of the book gets strange. Really weird and sort of hard to understand. The action is rolling along, Harry is after the horcruxes, everyone is fighting an epic battle, and then bam! Harry looks in the Pensieve and sees something that just pisses you off. But he goes with it, only it doesn’t work out as planned, and the book picks up again. There’s just this strange lull in the middle of the climax and the final showdown is kind of a letdown, in my opinion.

But aside from all the fighting, the book wraps up some other loose ends. I have to give Rowling credit for paying attention and tying things together. We learn a lot about Dumbledore and his family, which is great, because he becomes a lot more human, but he also becomes less likeable, and I can’t decide which version I prefer. Aberforth Dumbledore finally gets introduced, even though we all knew he was the bartender at the Hog’s Head. Bill and Fleur get married. Neville gets his chance to shine; Luna proves she’s not so looney; Kreacher warms up to Harry; the Malfoys are the tiniest bit redeemed; and our heroes get the drop on Bellatrix three times! And at last, we finally learn the truth about Snape, and Harry’s reaction is even stronger than I would have expected. His real opinion about Severus is made clear in the epilogue, which is quirky in itself, and makes me certain that if Rowling ever does revisit Hogwarts, it won’t be Harry she’s writing about.

To sum it up? I love Harry Potter, and I devoured this book in 7 hours! It’s great to know how things happened, but I’m not sure how I feel about the resolution. I think I liked it, but maybe I need to read it again!

Note: did anyone else notice that the book is apparently set in 1997?