on my bookshelf : late fall/winter

Get ready for some good ones, folks.  These first two books rank VERY high for me.

The Secret Keeper : : Kate Morton

Finally Kate Morton's new book is out!  And the awesome thing about reading on my Kindle app is that I don't have to lug around a hardback book.  Score!  So, we all know how much I love Kate Morton's books.  This one didn't disappoint.  She keeps you guessing until the very end, which I absolutely love (and, my guessing how it would end was right, for the record).  Switching back and forth from present day to 1941, this book is the story of a woman trying to unravel a mystery from her own childhood and the mysterious background of her mother.
Favorite quote:
"The landscape of one's childhood was more vibrant than any other.  It didn't matter where it as or what it looked like, the sights and sounds imprinted differently from those encountered later.  They became a part of a person, inescapable."

 Winter of the World : : Ken Follett

Gaaaaa....I wish this book had never ended.  This book is the 2nd in Follett's Century Trilogy.  (Speaking of, did I ever write about the first book, Fall of Giants? I don't think so -- read it first for SURE!)  This book picks up right were the first left off, with the same characters and their children too.  That's a lot of people to keep up with (in a very good way)!  At the same time fascinating and terrifying, the way most WWII books are, it was hard to put it down.  When I say terrifying, I mean that I really couldn't read some pages.  It's like a scary movie, where you can't watch the screen.  Ack.  But, as always, Follett's characters are way more smart, brave, and heroic than the average person.  Over the top?  Maybe.  But boring characters make boring stories...
Favorite quote:
“Why was it, Lloyd wondered, that the people who wanted to destroy everything good about their country were the quickest to wave the national flag?” 

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter : : Carson McCullers

Speaking of interesting characters, each one in this story will break your heart.  So slightly hard (depressing) to read, but still worth reading.
Favorite Quote:
"Why was it that in cases of real love the one who is left does not more often follow the beloved by suicide?...p\Perhaps, when there is love, the widowed must stay for the resurrection of the beloved--so that the one who has gone is not really dead, but grows and is created for a second time in the soul of the living?

Change of Heart : : Jodi Picoult 

 This one was recommended to me by my auntie Carrie, and it is just as interesting as she said it would be!  A death row inmate wants to donate his heart to the sister of the girl he murdered...could this plot be any more complicated?  I'm still reading this one, so don't tell me what happens. :)
Favorite Quote:
"In the space between yes and no, there's a lifetime.  It's the difference between the path you walk and one you leave behind; it's the gap between who you thought you could be and who you really are; it's the legroom for the lies you'll tell yourself in the future.

Not sure what's up next...any suggestions out there?