Monthly Archives: August 2012

The Pen Literary Awards were announced the other day.   The winner of the Science Writing award was James Gleick for “The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood which I read about in August 2011.  Yes,  it deserves a prize. … Continue reading →

To the End of the Land by David Grossman 2008 / 653 pages Israeli Lit – (translated) Rating  7.5 I have a feeling I would have enjoyed this book a lot more had I not just finished Wish You Were … Continue reading →

Home by Toni Morrison 2012/147 pages genre:  historical fiction (1952) rating:  8 In the pre-dawn hours 24-year old Frank Money, a recently discharged Korea War vet,  manages to feign sleep, escape his cuffs and sneak out of an asylum in … Continue reading →

Wish You Were Here by Graham Swift 2012 / 336 pages Genre – contemp issues-relationships (literary) Rating – 9.5 Graham Swift now has a number of novels to his credit –  I’ve read two,  ”Final Orders” and Waterland,”   prior to Wish … Continue reading →

The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose  (also Who Do You Think You Are?) by Alice Munro 1978 / 224 pages short stories about one young woman, Rose rating – 9 This was first published in 1978 by Canadian … Continue reading →

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham 2012 / 256 pgs genre – relationships – (?) Rating –  7.5 Peter and Rebecca Harris live an upscale life in New York where he is an art dealer with his own gallery while she … Continue reading →

The Better Angels of Our Natures: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker 2011 / 832 pages Read by Arthur Morey – 36h. 43m. Rating – 8.5 I chose to read this because of a recommendation from Bill Gates on his … Continue reading →

Dubliners by James Joyce 1914 / 190 pages Rating 10 I read this collection of 15 short stories several years ago and very much enjoyed it – now another group is reading it and I decided to go for a … Continue reading →

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie 2012/ 625 pages Rating: 7.5 I wanted to read this book since I saw the ads for it – since before it came out.  Well… as usual, there’s a … Continue reading →

Doctor Zhivago – x3 by Boris Pasternak 1958 / 592 pages translated by John Hayward rating – 9.5 Well,  this is the third time I’ve read Doctor Zhivago –  this time was a very slow and thorough read, careful (I … Continue reading →

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 1964 / 211 pages Rating 8 There are two versions of A Moveable Feast, which was a series of unorganized memoir-essays intended for a book at the author’s death.  The first version (1964) was … Continue reading →

The Gods of Gotham by Lindsay Faye 2012 – 432 pages Narrated by Steven Boyer – 12 h. 19 m. Rating:  A- This is a rather literary historical mystery set in New York City in 1845 – the days of … Continue reading →

Father Goriot by Honore Balzac 1835 – Rating 10 Jean-Joachim Goriot, a widowed and retired wheat dealer who sold his business,  lives alone in a pension in Paris.  Since the death of his wife Father Goriot has doted on his … Continue reading →

Gardens of Water by Alan Drew 2008 / 352 pages Rating – 6 In 1999 in a small town near Istanbul there is a devastating earthquake which disrupts an already disrupted community.   Sinan, fundamentalist Muslim and Kurdish shop owner … Continue reading →

From Eternity to Here by Sean Carroll 2010 / 448 pages Rating – 8 Whew!  This could have been a very difficult book –   the concepts are difficult but Connelly writes well,  it’s organized fairly well and so he … Continue reading →

Creole Belle by James Lee Burke 2012 – 544 pages read by Will Patton – 18h 11m rating – 8 /  Patton rating – 10 This is Burke’s 19th novel about detective Dave Robicheaux,  New Orleans area detective in a … Continue reading →

The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje 2011 / 269 pgs Rating – 8.5 An 11-year old boy is sent from family in Ceylon to his mother who is in London.  He travels alone aboard the cruise ship Oronsay,  but there are people he knows … Continue reading →