Invention of Wings; Toxic

Sue Monk Kidd's "The Invention of Wings" was a heartbreaking story loosely based on the lives of Sarah and Angelina Grimké. In the early 1800s, Sarah lived in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of a prominent judge who owned a plantation. The judge always encouraged her to think for herself, but when Sarah refuses the birthday gift of a slave named Hetty and declares her intent to become a lawyer someday like her father, she has gone too far. Defiant, she teaches Hetty how to read and when they are caught they are both punished. Sarah's youngest sister, Angelina, follows in her footsteps, becoming an outspoken critic of slavery. Sarah eventually moves to Philadelphia and becomes a Quaker, and Angelina follows her. Both women become abolitionists and supporters of women's rights. It's amazing to think how awful things must have been back then. Kidd does a nice job of capturing a moment in time and making us care about these people.

Supposedly the next to the last Pretty Little Liars book (I've heard that one before) Sara Shepard's "Toxic" finds the girls' luck seemingly turned 180 degrees: Spencer starts an anti-bullying blog and gets a book deal; a prominent wealthy art dealer buys one of Aria's paintings, starting a firestorm of interest in her with shows and interviews for blogs; Hanna is offered the starring role in a movie based on the girls' lives. Poor Emily, though. Her girlfriend, Jordan, is murdered in prison and she knows Ali is behind it. Ali has cultivated a group of admirers known as Ali Cats, who do her bidding. The girls find a pool house they think Ali might be hiding out in and set up surveillance cameras, hoping to catch her. Of course Ali is too smart for that. The girls rush into the house, finding blood everywhere. They know Ali has killed somebody, so they call in an anonymous tip to the police. The next day, cops swarm them, demanding to know where Ali's body is. Turns out it was *her* blood all over the pool house, and so are the girls' fingerprints. Looks like Ali set them up to take the fall for her murder! It'll be interesting to see how it all ends, but I will miss this series. It's just been so much fun.