Okay, I promised some non-fiction summer reads, so here they area.

Seabiscuitby Laura Hillenbrand. Did you see the movie? The book is ten times better. Hands down the best non-fiction book I've EVER read (no kidding!). Incredibly well researched, every paragraph is loaded with good stuff. Plus, the story is just so remarkable; even more so because every bit is true! I confess, I cried through the last pages (I dare you not to!). It was so astonishingly touching how the pieces fell together around an unassuming horse with barely a spark of promise. You feel the hand of God in the particulars of this story, and you can't help but to be moved at how so many broken spirits came together to heal the whole. You gotta read it! (p.s., be sure to read all about the author-an equally amazing story that just adds another extraordinary layer!) Clearly, I must stop-I've used up my allowance of adverbs and adjectives!

First paragraph!:In 1938, near the end of a decade of monumental turmoil, the year's number-one newsmaker was not Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hitler, or Mussolini. It wasn't Pope Pius XI, nor was it Lou Gehrig, Howard Hughes, or Clark Gable. The subject of the most newspaper column inches in 1938 wasn't even a person. It was an undersized, crooked-legged racehorse name Seabiscuit.

Hungry for more? Seek out The Apprentice: My life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin. What a story! What a life! The first half is really better than the second, because following the path that made him the chef he is today is so entertaining, beginning with a childhood spent in wartime France. Once he finds fame and success, it's more about cooking than the man, but really, the whole story is great. Warning: it WILL make you hungry!

First line...or so...: My mother made it sound like a great adventure. "Tati," she said, using the nickname my brother had given me as a toddler, "you are going to a marvelous place. A farm. A real farm.

Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson, who also wrote Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck (both on my to-read reading list). There's no denying Katrina was a terrible and deadly hurricane, but this book will give you an up-close and personal look at just how much worse it could have been--and once was, in Galveston, Texas. In the days before they named hurricanes, when meteorology was in its infancy and taken at times for granted, and at other times too lightly, the days leading up to September 8, 1900 are a textbook case of how to do it all wrong. While the growing science is fascinating, it's the heart wrenching stories of the victims and the survivors that will keep you turning pages. As with the movie Titanic, we know this ship is going down, but we simply can't turn away.

First line: Throughout the night of Friday, September 7, 1900, Isaac Monroe Cline found himself waking to a persistent sense of something gone wrong.

Now for a couple from my favorite time period, the Revolutionary War. The book that started it all for me was Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation) by Cokie Roberts. This is the story of the women behind the men who are synonymous with the American Revolution. Abigail Adams and Martha Washington really come alive when their stories are told from a woman's perspective.

These were women of strength, and of strong emotions, too. Like many others, Martha wintered with her husband and the troops, under difficult conditions, and like an early version of the USO, she boosted morale by caring for the soldiers, mending clothes, organizing social gatherings and using her influence far and wide to gather necessities for the hard worn men. Amanda, meanwhile, ran the family businesses while John spent years abroad negotiating funds and support for the rebel cause. Their letters were many, and, for the period, quite personal. Clearly, they cared a great deal for each other and absences were deeply felt.

But you'll also discover other women of the Revolution who were far more influential than history ever lets on, women like Mercy Otis Warren, whose letters and friendships went all the way to the top, and Deborah Read Franklin, who stayed home and did the dirty work while good old Ben partied in France for 16 years!

First line: When you hear of a family with two brothers who fought heroically in the Revolutionary War, served their state in high office, and emerged as key figures in the new American nation, don't you immediately think, "They must have had a remarkable mother"?

If you find yourself wanting a deeper glimpse and greater knowledge of the war, there are several I'd recommend. David McCullough's John Adams didn't win the Pulitzer for nothing. It's big, but it's a page turner. McCullough really knows how to serve us up all the important details (and there are many, this is big-time history, you know!) with just enough spice to make the dish irresistible. After you read it, you'll wonder why Adams isn't considered the Father of our Country...or at least doesn't share the title. (My only complaint: more maps, please!)

First line: In the cold, nearly colorless light of a New England winter, two men on horseback traveled the coast road below Boston, heading north.

McCullough's latest, 1776 (another Pulitzer! what's with this guy?!), is a great A to Z read of a pivotal year in our history. You'll get all the major players and a real feel for how very close we came to loosing. Lots of folks thought the dream of independence was folly, and if you think petty political posturing is something new, you will soon discover that there's nothing new in politics except the players.

First line: On the afternoon of Thursday, October 26, 1775, His Royal Majesty George III, King of England, rode in royal splendor from St. James's Palace to the Palace of Westminster, there to address the opening of Parliament on the increasingly distressing issue of war in America.

Want one more? His Excellency George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis gives an incredibly thorough picture of the man behind the icon. You'll find out what made him the only man who could lead the country, and also the sort of man who shunned glory. When called by the country that needed him, his loyalty to the ideals of independence denied him the quiet, country life he preferred. Like Adams, they couldn't have done it without him. Washington seemed born to be the leader of the Revolution, as if touched by a higher hand that lead him through many storms.

First line: History first noticed George Washington in 1753, as a daring and resourceful twenty-one-year-old messenger sent on a dangerous into the American wilderness.

Yes, I know, this list is heavy on one period...and if I ever get around to recommending more non-fiction, I'll give you a little more variety...though odds are there will be at least one from this period (I can't help myself!) Happy summer reading!