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There are one million new books published each year. With so many books and so little time, where do you begin to find your next must-read? There’s the New York Times Bestseller list, the Goodreads app, the Cape Library’s Staff picks shelf and now Martin’s Must-Reads.Every Wednesday at 6:42 and 8:42 a.m., and Sunday at 8:18 a.m., Betty Martin recommends a must read based on her own personal biases for historical fiction, quirky characters and overall well-turned phrases. Her list includes WWII novels, biographies of trailblazers, novels with truly unique individuals and lots more. Reading close to 100 titles a year, Betty has plenty of titles to share.Local support for "Martin's Must Reads" comes from the Cape Girardeau Public Library and the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library.

Martin's Must Reads: 'Where the Grass is Green and the Girls Are Pretty'

For those of you who have children you adore, you’ll understand when I say that I would do just about anything for mine, well, short of breaking the law.

I’m Betty Martin with "Martin’s Must Reads" and that’s the subject of the novel Where the Grass Is Green And the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger. Peyton is a famous newscaster and her generous income makes it easy for her to insure her daughter Max’s admission to Princeton, even though she breaks the law to do it.  And even though she knows better having reported two years ago of parents who went to jail for doing the same thing, she does it anyway and then allows her husband to take the blame. Ironically, Max doesn’t even want to go to Princeton. Peyton’s crime has major repercussions: her husband will serve time in prison, Max is uninvited to Princeton and Peyton’s sister loses a huge donation she needed to open a home for underprivileged girls.

Peyton’s sister Skye is a stay-at-home mom volunteering at her adopted child’s prestigious private school and working on that project. Her crime is that she is a shopaholic who has racked up $30,000 in credit card debt and hasn’t told her husband. But more than a story about white collar crimes, this is a story about relationships: mother/daughter, sister/sister, husband/wife, father/daughter and about a gifted young woman who makes her own way. Weisberger also wrote The Devil Wears Prada.

If you’re looking for a very readable story based on a very real crime, then you must read Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger. 

Betty Martin was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a Lutheran pastor and his organist wife. Betty’s love of books was inspired by her father who read to all four children each night.
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