It’s the plain e-ink original version — not the fancy color tablets — and it goes with me everywhere.

I was a voracious reader as a kid but school killed my passion with its dusty old reading list of dry classics. Although I read many magazines through the years I couldn’t get back into books until the nook came along last December.

And I can’t tell you exactly why, but it’s easier to carry my nook than to carry a flimsy paperback or a heavy hardcover. The nook remembers what page I’m on. And, of course, I can carry more than one book at a time.

I have no desire to upgrade to a color reader. We’re getting an iPad in the near future and I don’t need all of the bells and whistles that accompany the new models.

They’d only distract me from reading.

I’m a fan of biographies to begin with, so I knew I’d really enjoy this book. And enjoy I did. This crazy roller-coaster tale of the life of Steve Jobs grabbed me from the first chapter and the only thing that prevented me from finishing this faster was the sheer size of the book. It was too large for me to lug around when I left the house.

(I’d have purchased the Nook version, but I was appalled that the actual hardcover only cost me $5 more than buying the pixels.)

Steve Jobs’s accomplishments are well-known. He was the creative mind (genius? maybe…) behind all of Apple’s successful products and a few of the not-so-great ones. He was one of the men who gave us Pixar’s beautiful and touching movies.

I knew he was impossible to please and a viscous taskmaster of a boss. What I didn’t know was how much of an ass he was.

Stubborn, spoiled and sometimes stinky, Jobs screamed, sulked and cried until he got what he wanted. He screwed over his friends, berated his employees, and blatantly favored his son over his daughters. He even purposely parked in the handicap spot at Apple rather than have his own CEO spot. As he whirled like a manic-depressive Tasmanian devil through Silicon Valley, Hollywood and beyond, Jobs was surrounded by the most indulgent and enabling supporting cast ever assembled. But he possessed some kind of Svengali-type power that kept these people on his side and fully participating in his distorted reality.

The author, Walter Isaacson, kept me reading and more surprisingly, CARING about this gigantic diva, even when he did things like use his wealth and connections to get a new liver sooner in Tennessee rather than wait longer on the California transplant list. Isaacson did a great job explaining what made Apple products so innovative without bogging the text down with tech talk. He also gave a nice peek into the world of the super-wealthy, a world where sitting President Bill Clinton stays in one of Jobs’s houses while he visits Chelsea at Stanford.

The appearances by another Bill, Bill Gates, were my favorite parts of the book. I enjoyed seeing their relationship grow and mellow through the years.

You already know Steve’s rise began in his parent’s garage, and you know it ended prematurely in October of 2011. This book will fill you in on all of the juicy stuff in the middle.

PS: I’m a PC.

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Oh this book…this amazing book. Not only is it completely TRUE, but I think I ran through every emotion possible.

I was sad for Henrietta’s death. I was amazed at all of the progress that came as a result of her (legally taken without consent) cells. I was angry at the culture of abuse, poverty and philandering that surrounded the Lacks family. I cried like a baby when Deborah and Zakariyya looked through that microscope. I was proud of Deborah’s determination to learn about what happened to her mother and her sister. I was puzzled by the ethical questions surrounding the HeLa cells.

And then I donated money to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation because I am one of the biggest bleeding hearts you’ll ever meet.

When does research based on tissues taken without consent cross the line from noble to questionable? Is it when people and/or institutions profit from it? What if the profit is only increased prominence? I have no answers, but I’m glad that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks offered me these questions to think about.

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This is the story of how Howard Schultz, once he became CEO (sorry, Howard, but I capitalize it) of Starbucks again, managed to turn around the company’s finances during the recent recession by modernizing it while remaining true to its mission. “Onward” is how he signs his memos, in case you’re curious.

I enjoy going to Starbucks, so I was predisposed to enjoy the R&D and marketing stories of the various products (Pike Place Roast, VIA, Vivanno) that I’m familiar with. One thing this book proves is that Schultz knows and loves coffee! When he writes about coffee, his words seem to leap off of the pages and take on a life of their own. Make no mistake — this is a CEO book. Victories are loudly and frequently trumpeted and defeats are quickly glossed over. There is frequent name dropping and back-patting.

Oftentimes, the narrative jumped back and forth through time. While I understand that it was to demonstrate how different projects and events came to pass, it was a bit jarring to go from Schultz being 4 months into his CEO post back in time to the meetings he had two months before he decided to take the post. Reading the transcripts from memos, meetings & earning calls grew tiresome. I work for a national corporation and once you’ve read one memo (especially the “shared sacrifice” type) you’ve read them all.

If you don’t like Starbucks, I think this book will annoy you to no end. But if you like real-life stories of corporate derring-do, pick up this grande sized read.

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This is the story of Ginger, a woman in her early 40′s who makes jewelry and lives in an apartment above her eccentric parents’ garage. Her primary income seems to come from watching her older sister Geri’s children. Geri is almost 50 and has the great house, diligent husband, super-important job, company-supplied BlackBerry and three precocious (read: annoying) children.

Ginger pushes her cat (named Boyfriend) around in a stroller and is in turn pushed around by her wacky family and emotionally distant somewhat-boyfriend, Noah.

Ginger’s life gets a huge breath of fresh air and a chance to really change its course when Geri’s son Riley becomes an extra on a movie being shot locally. Ginger watches Riley while he’s on the set and meets a bunch of new people.

Will Ginger find a new life at 41? Disappointingly, not really. The plot loses steam halfway through the book and in an attempt to get it rolling again, the characters all become insufferable.

Things that bugged me about this book:

1. The constant flogging of the Childfree by Choice agenda by Ginger is pretty disingenuous, considering she is more childfree by circumstance. Real Childfree by Choicers will find the ending pretty eye-rolling.

2. Boyfriend Noah was written as a complete jerk and self-centered artist who took Ginger for granted. Gaffer Tim was written as a charming and hard-working man who was genuinely interested in her. Why she didn’t end up with Gaffer Tim is boggling.

3. I ended up hating Ginger’s whole family by the end. Riley became a brat. His sisters were brats from the start. Geri, fired from her high-powered job and having a poor-me crisis about turning 50, ends up shoving her way into Ginger’s jewelry business. Their father went from lovable goofball to crazy hoarder to law-flouting whackjob.

4. Way to go and really not change anything, Ginger.

I picked up this one because it was a Barnes & Noble free Nook ebook. I’m glad I got it for free.

Recommended for: Women who believe that its best to settle into old habits when faced with change. Pushovers.

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This came highly recommended because I was looking for a fizzy beach-type read. Stephanie Plum is a Jersey girl — a REAL one, not a fake-and-bake poser from New York — who is down on her luck. Looking for some quick cash and some revenge she takes a bounty hunter gig. Her target is the old neighborhood sleazeball-turned-cop, Joey Morelli.

The tone of the book is lighthearted and fun which makes the horrific behavior of the bad guy even more jarring.

Will Stephanie make it through the scary world of bounty hunting? Let’s put it this way — there are 16 sequels. And I’ll definitely go for the first of them.

Recommended for: Scrappy chicks who pull themselves up by the brastraps often and REAL Jersey girls

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I finally finished this book after putting it down twice because I never expected to be bored by the furious love story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Once you make it through to the point of their first marriage the book loops over and over. New movie. New gaudy jewel. New place to live. New fights. New movie. She’s always the most beautiful and intelligent woman to ever walk the earth. He’s always wracked with guilt for abandoning family/stage/roots. They were both alcoholics and pill poppers. Shampoo, rinse, repeat.

The most interesting part for me was not their crazy opulent lifestyle, but how much Hollywood changed from their hey-day to the end of their careers.

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This was B&N’s free nook book a few Fridays ago. It’s a funny little book about Millie Brady, a 20-something girl in Cornwall, and her celibate summer that wasn’t. From author Orla Hart to Millie’s sex-crazed roommate Hester to Millie’s nutty mother Adele, the characters are larger than life. And they all keep running into each other.

If you’re looking for a deep thought-provoking story, this isn’t it. If you’re looking for a fun romp where everyone you care about gets a happy ending, grab this one.

This would be a great fizzy beach book.

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Remember Mad Libs? You ask your partner for a list of words (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc) and fill their answers into the blanks in the story. Then you read the story back and the nonsensical words your partner provided without knowing their context makes for a strange and funny story!

Except…not.

This girl was just reading through the story sentence by sentence, and prompting her mother for the words in context.

Girl: “The baker said, ‘I can make an adjective cake for you.’”
Mother: “tasty”
Girl: Okay. “The baker said, ‘I can make a tasty cake for you.’”

I could have cried for this poor [noun] who is going to think that Mad Libs is total [adjective] waste of time and wished she could have had her mother [verb] a Twilight book instead. Team [boy's name] FTW!

Then I was struck with [noun] as I [adverb] realized that the [adjective] mother most likely knew how to [verb] a Mad Libs story. Why didn’t that [noun] correct her daughter? Or at least read the very [adjective] directions that appear on every Mad Libs [noun]?

Although the company was [adjective] at least my [noun] was tasty!