[FirstAndFinest]

The Wonder Spot, by Melissa Bank, author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing. Hadn't read the latter, but my DH read the WS review and told me I must buy it. I did and it took me just 2 weekends to read it!!!

The Island at the Center of the World is the most wonderful book I've read EVER! It is a history of the island of Manhattan's near-forgotten Dutch Colony. I was an American History minor, so the topic appealed to me. I was BLOWN AWAY by how read-able it is - I could not put it down!! See, several years ago, about 12,000 pages of previously un-translated Dutch documents were discovered in Albany (formerly Fort Orange) and this book is the result of the translations. Perhaps I am biased, living my life in NJ (also part of the former Dutch Colony), but I was fascinated to learn the Dutch origins of place-names (Pavonia was named for De Pauw, the Bronx was named for Jonas Broenck who had a farm there, the Bowery, Yonkers, Gravesend, Hempstead, Saw Mill River, Hutchinson River - and Swede's Landing and Christiana in DE.....) and other things (like cole slaw). It was so interesting (to me) to read about the non-Puritan point of view - we hear about Plymouth and the New England settlements but rarely do we learn about the non-English settlements!