• The Rev. Jeannette Thomas Shegog, Senior pastor, Mount. Zion United Methodist Church; Group leader, Cincinnati police community relations advisory panel:

        Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothy Sterling (Scholastic; $4.50).

        “It's about her contributions to the human race . . . her theories and theology. She believed that God created men to be free . . . and (as the) first woman scout in the Civil War, she made 19 trips into slavery and freed over 350 slaves.”

        • Brenda Banks, President, Four Seasons Travel:

        Madman's Diary by Thom Racina (Signet; $6.99).

        “I'm a reader, and this is the best I've read recently. Every time the central character (an interior designer) falls in love, her fiance gets killed or dies. It's really, really good . . . with a real surprise ending.”

        • Catherine Barrett, Member, Ohio House of Representatives:

        Chicken Soup for the . . . Soul (various titles) by Jack Canfield (Health Communications; $12.95); The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (Doubleday; $7.99) and How to Know God: The Soul's Journey Into the Mystery of Mysteries by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers; $14).

        “I just read the Chicken Soup books because they're short stories . . . The last book I read was The Hot Zone, about a disease outbreak (Ebola virus) from a Third World country. It was very good, but I didn't get to finish it . .. In the car, I like to listen to educational and motivational tapes and CDs, especially Deepak Chopra. He takes you deep in your spiritual soul . . .”

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