Monthly Archives: June 2012

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson 1962 / 160 pages read by Bernadette Dunne 5h 32m rating 9 Reread – I do enjoy this book – I read it for a holiday challenge several years ago … Continue reading →

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum 2011/ 334 pages (Kindle) Rating: I didn’t know if I’d be interested in this book or not – it seemed rather gruesome … Continue reading →

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson 2010 / 627 pages Rating 10 This is really an amazing book!  I accidentally bought it months ago when it was still a new release and rather than return it,  I kept it even though … Continue reading →

A Stitch in TIme by Monica Ferris 2000 / 256 pages Read by Susan Boyce 8h Rating – 7 (top for cozies) Last December I read  Monica Ferris’ Crewel Yule as part of a holiday reading challenge.  Oddly enough,  I … Continue reading →

Doctor Zhivago: A Critical Companion by Edith W. Clowes Northwestern Critical Companions to Russian Literature 1995 – 169 pages Rating 8.5 An examination of several issues which come into play for the post-Soviet Western reader of Doctor Zhivago. Included are … Continue reading →

Framed In Lace by Monica Ferris 1999 /  256 pages narrated by Susan Boyce 7:20 Needlecraft Mysteries, Book 2 My guilty pleasure –  cozy mysteries.  Ferris is pretty good at creating a small town atmosphere with plenty of characters.  It’s … Continue reading →

Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey,Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel 1988/288 pages rating –  8 Many years ago it was hypothesized that women may have had a different perspective of the westward journey across the great plains to … Continue reading →

The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars by Paul Collins 2011/336 pages narrated by William Dufris / 9:43 Rating: 7.5 I think this book is no less sensationalist than the murder investigation and … Continue reading →

Oh I almost forgot –  Happy Birthday Mr. Leopold Bloom – born this day  (6/16) in the mind of James Joyce on the streets of Dublin-town! I’ve read (from left)  Dubliners,  Ulysses,  Finnegans Wake, and Portrait of the Artist as … Continue reading →

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman 2011/263 p. / Kindle Rating –  ? I am sooo glad that the author and protagonist of this fine debut novel are both male.  When Harrison, the main  character, age 11,  talks about urinating on the cleaning … Continue reading →

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention By Manning Maribol 2011/608 pages Read by G. Valmont Thomas – 22h 7m Rating – 9 I remember when Malcolm X lived and how he died and although he was never a hero of … Continue reading →

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad 1907/ 172 – Kindle Rating –  9 I had no idea what this novel was going to be about when I first started.  It was chosen by a group and the only Conrad book … Continue reading →

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck 1935/ 207 pages Rating – 10 How does one review a book like Tortilla Flat? A book so full of life and love and joy that it almost makes you weep?  And yet the book … Continue reading →

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi read by Jonathan Davis 2009/361 pages / 29h 34m Rating – 8.5 It takes quite a writer to come out with debut novel which  is then “named as the ninth best fiction book of >>>MORE … Continue reading →

A New Light on Tiffany by Martin Eidelberg, Nina Gray and Margaret K. Hofer 2007 / 200 pages Rating – 7 I read this entirely because I was curious about the book Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.   … Continue reading →