Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand follows the journey of horse, jockey, owner and trainer and they together show the world what true spirit is. I learned so much about the racing world of the 1920's - 1940's. Plus it takes place mostly around Southern California so how can it go wrong? I think the hardest thing was listening to the horrible accidents that jockeys and horses went through just to win a race. Makes me shrudder... I listened to this on tape and it was very engrossing. I'm not sure I could have read it as I would have probably skimmed a lot of it. But listening to it made me keep going.

Repo by Bill Eidson Ex-DEA Agent Jack Merchant is living out his precarious retirement on the docks of Charlestown, Mass., surrounded by the revenge-minded dealers and punks he used to put away. All he's got is his sloop, the Lila, but soon enough he gets a visit from the repo man. Except the repo man's a woman, Sarah Ballard. Her proposition: they've got a week to track down a spoiled rich couple who've disappeared with their yacht. Find it, and Merchant can keep the Lila. The trouble is, they're not the only ones looking... While I enjoyed the relationship between Jack & Sarah, I found the actual plot not so plausable and more violent than I like. S & M, embezzlement, while I'm sure is prevelent I just don't want to read about it. I don't know if I'll read another book by this author.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire is the retelling of Cinderella. Maguire sets the familiar tale in an unexpected setting, making the story of the stepmother's family a paradigm for the rise of the middle class in seventeenth century Holland. While the trappings of magic are always just around the corner—the fairy godmother, the pumpkin coach, the beautiful gown—Maguire resists making a fairy tale out of what is really a story of economic distress and the threat of starvation.