There is nothing more seductive than a good book that pulls you in from the very first sentence, the kind that calls to you when you're off, mired in the busy-ness of life. It's an invitation to stop, sit down, and reconnect with our imaginations for a little while.

Here, then, is a list of some favorite books from the folks at CREATIVE SOUP...

Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture
by Ellen Ruppel Shell
(suggested by Jen Payne)

"That cycle of consumption seems harmless enough, particularly since we live in a country where there are plenty of cheap goods to go around. But in her lively and terrifying book "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture," Ellen Ruppel Shell pulls back the shimmery, seductive curtain of low-priced goods to reveal their insidious hidden costs. "Cheap" really is about us, meaning not just Americans, but citizens of the world, and about what we stand to lose in a global economic environment that threatens the very nature of meaningful work, work we can take pride in and build a career on -- or even at which we can just make a living." -Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Stories from the Other Side: Thematic Memoirs
This anthology says "YES!" to life in New Haven, CT; Tucson, AZ; and around the world in 35 short narratives and poems with stops in Haiti, West Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq, Argentina, Venezuela, Costa Rica and back; moreover, we travel back in time, too, stopping in Viet-Nam and the deep South during the American Civil War. Edited by Creative Soup contributor Francis Edward Crowley, Ph.D.

6S, Volume 2
Check out the second print anthology of the New York Times recommended writing site "Six Sentences," with hundreds of original sixes by a talented lineup of international authors including Creative Soup contributor Doug Mathewson.

Unpacking the Boxes
by Donald Hull

A fascinating memoir with many local references.  Hall grew up in Hamden, CT as a member of the well-known Brock-Hall Dairy family and was educated at Exeter and Harvard.  He was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2006-2007 and was married to the late Jane Kenyon, also a well-known poet. (recommended by Margaret Iacobellis)

Installations and Self-Portraits
by Anne Arden McDonald

(Suggested by Jen Payne)

Sarah's Key
by Tatiana De Rosnay
(Suggested by Mary O'Connor)

"Well, having read quite a few books while away the past two months, the least I can do is give you a book recommendation! My favorite of all that I read was Sarah's Key. In the words of Publishers Weekly, Tatiana De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Velodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tezac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers--especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive--the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down."

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

(Suggested by Martha Link Walsh)

One Thousand White Women
by Jim Fergus

(Suggested by Martha Link Walsh)

Clearout Sale poems and stories
by Mark Edwards
(Reviewed by Doug Mathewson)

Before the very first page of Clearout Sale author Mark Edwards tells us his purpose. The dedication page simply states, “for my mates.” I for one am glad Mr. Edwards has kindly included the reader within this circle. Clearout Sale (Andromache Books London UK,146 pages. 2008) is a love story. Not romantic love, though romance does appear more than once as a topic with in these pages. Rather love of place and people, love of language and the interplay of conversation. The title may suggest a clearance of odd remainders, a clearing out of mismatched bits and pieces the author has yet to find homes for, but this notion would be both untrue and a disservice to the author. What he done in fact is carefully assemble a fascinating and delightful collection of brief prose poems and equally brief fiction pieces.

The first section of the book is poetry. Short prose poems that are the strongest work featured in this volume. Our setting is contemporary urban Scotland, our cast an assemblage or well crafted everyday working people. Friends and neighbors of the author one assumes. The prose, the actual language is fascinating and exotic you my American ears. Read these poems aloud for a real treat. More than the accent Mr. Edwards conveys to us with his fanciful spelling is the cadence, the rhythm of his characters speech. Among my many favorites a few are exceptional. In “kev” the author beautifully captures a man tell us a bit of his life. “CV -Promises” provides lasting images of high-rise life. My favorite “yir all shite” is simply brilliant. For anyone who is a poet, knows a poet, or has every attended a live poetry event this poem alone justifies the volume’s purchase. A drunken poet tells all assembled, in no uncertain terms, of his might and prowess. At a recent University open mic event I was sorely tempted to rise from my seat and read this piece aloud. If only I could manage the accent.

Short fiction, very short fiction that fits the ever changing description of flash fiction comprises the second half of Clearout Sale. While the language and characters remain just as captivating the selections themselves are not as strong or as lasting. Fiction that comes to us as “a slice of life” is often quite good. Tasty and memorable. When the “slices” are very small, as in all forms of micro-fiction, two problems arise. Which tiny slice to pick, and does it leave the reader satisfied? Mr. Edwards has mixed results in this area. Several stories are good. One that stands out is “Drama.” This short piece, too long for current flash fiction guidelines, tells a complete story well rounded between our central character’s internal dialogue and the well written dialogue he has with friends. “Holiday” is memorable as well. This first person narrative memory of childhood is done with just the right mixture of innocence, desperation, and humor.

I for one was glad to have read this book, and happy to recommend it. Being both poetry and fiction may work against it. Perhaps a future edit might intersperse the two, arranging the work more by topic or theme. Happily would I read future works by Mr. Edwards, and look forward to additional offerings from Andromache Books.

Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson and Anne Born

(Suggested by Denise Meyer)

Double Decker Book Review
The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts
The Circus In Winter by Cathy Day
(Reviewed by Doug Mathewson)

Cold and flu season soon will be upon us. Everyone treasures "snow-days" to stay warm and cozy, catching up with a great book. But what of "sick-days"? Seemingly near death days of jumbled thoughts, muddled actions, and CVS generic tonics. Days you are too sick to even follow day-time TV. What do you read then? A fortunate few who may still have their Archie and Veronica comics, but for everyone else may I suggest the following two short novels. Read them in simultaneously or individually, it matters not. The flat characters are so lacking in dimension the reader can shuffle them like two pinochle decks. A slipstream merger of these two tales might well produce a more intricate, and interesting story.

The Honk and Holler Opening Soon (Guilford Library Book Sale $3.00) is without question the better of the two books. Plot and style are both enjoyable. Our story centers around a small diner owned by a disabled Vietnam Veteran. Life is quiet till a mysterious woman in a short skirt, carrying a three legged dog, emerges from the night. The characters are predictable and cartoonish as they pass from front cover to last page, but, I liked them. The reader should not hang big expectations on these good folks, the humorous parts are entertaining and that is enough.

The Circus In Winter (Broad Street Books, Middletown, Final Clearance Table $1.98) outlines the history of the Great Porter Circus. A lesser know big-tent show that toured smaller mid-western towns in the late nineteenth century. The snapped chalk-line of a linear plot does not allow the reader to stray far as they get increasingly bored. How can a circus book be dull? The images of life behind the scenes were very interesting. Details of a post Civil War circus touring America are revealed through biographies of the performers and their families. This information redeemed the book for me. I found the side-show people much more interesting than the star performers.

My favorite chapter follows a young man hired to portray a "Pin-Head." He marries a delightful woman who performs as both the circus Fat Lady, and "The Zulu Queen." They and their children to follow establish a "Lost-Tribe," (discovered apparently by the shows promoter), and toured for three generations. During long winters, when the show would not tour, the performers who appeared so exotic are shown to be everyday people, just with unusual employment. Each short chapter follows a different performer, making finding your place easy after dozing off in a Day-Quil haze.

Those among us who love books regard an unread stack as "money in the bank." These two books are more akin to extra boxes of kleenex, great to have on hand when needed, but only pick them up when on sale.

The Tender Bar
a memoir by J.R. Moehringer

"I'm caught up at the moment in The Tender Bar, a NY Times bestseller memoir by J.R. Moehringer. Have never before found memoirs to be page turners, especially when it's about someone you don't really know of, but this one has me." (Suggested by Mary O'Connor)

Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
by E. F. Schumacher

Oh, boy, I am reading ALL KINDS OF GREAT STUFF! You couldn't have inquired at a richer time in my Reading Life! It's all non-fiction, and most of it is about Buddhism, "alternate economics," ecology...and gardening. And not one is "dry" or off-putting. In fact, I could hardly put each one down, and wouldn't have…except that I had the next one waiting in line!

The possibly best is a throwback to my "hippie days," which have returned to me in force recently. It's Small Is Beautiful, by E.F. Schumacher, originally published in the mid-seventies. And more relevant now than ever! Can't recommend it highly enough.

Other recent favorites are:

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken

Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben

The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry

The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield

And last, but by no means least, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust

(All suggested by Carol Nicklaus)

Sciousness
edited by Jonathan Bricklin

(Suggested by Denise Meyer)

The Spell of the Sensuous
by David Abrams

(Suggested by Denise Meyer)

Evidence of Things Unseen
by Marianne Wiggins

(Suggested by Denise Meyer)

Personal Village: How to Have People in Your Life by Choice Not by Chance
by Marvin Thomas, MSW

"Too much is written about how to make money...too little is written about how to strengthen our personal communities," writes Thomas. In this approachable and action-provoking book, Thomas explains how to add real value to your life by forming deeper, more meaningful relationships with the people in your life that matter most. (Suggested by Jen Payne)