Monthly Archives: April 2013

The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna 1975 / 194 pages rating: 9.0 One day whilst on vacation a middle-aged man named Kaarlo Vaatenen  and his photographer buddy (who was driving) ran over a hare in the road.  The … Continue reading →

Black Fridays by Michael Sears 2012 / 352 pages read by Erik Bergmann 11h 1m Rating:  A- This great book has a couple of major problems and that’s really a shame because there is so much to enjoy. Jason Stafford … Continue reading →

Angel by Elizabeth Taylor 2012 by NYRB Classics 272 pages / orig. 1957 Rating:  9 Although Angel is an interesting book,  I was somewhat disappointed because I really enjoyed Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and had read that this was Taylor’s best work … Continue reading →

The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People,  Nations and Business by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen 2013/336 pages read by Roger Wayne 10h 48m Rating:  8.5 This book is not about the future of gadgetry – although there is a bit … Continue reading →

Canada by Richard Ford 2012 / 432 pages rating: 8 “FIRST, I’LL TELL ABOUT THE ROBBERY OUR PARENTS committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.”    (Kindle Locations 122-124) Now if that’s not enough to hook a reader of fiction … Continue reading →

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh 1944 / 432 pages read by Jeremy Irons 11h. 33m. rating:  (cs) How did I ever miss (or avoid) this?  I not only missed the book but I missed all the movies and mini-series and … Continue reading →

Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry 2011 / 304 pages read by Suzanne Torin 11h 1m rating: A+ This was highly recommended so always in search of a juicy crime novel (procedural,  cozy, legal, whatever) I listened to and … Continue reading →

House of Earth by Woodie Guthrie 2013 (written in 1947)  288 pages read by Will Patton  6h 36m rating:  8.5 A long introduction written by Johnny Depp and Douglas Brinkley (also read by them) prefaces the actual novel.  It’s an … Continue reading →

The Dead by James Joyce 1914? / 40 pages rating 10 (reread) Another group chose this for their reading selection and although I wasn’t going to reread it I got tempted and pulled  Dubliners off the shelf and started in. … Continue reading →

Suspect by Robert Crais 2012 / 320 pages read by MacLeod Andrews 8h 30m rating: C- I think Crais wrote this one as an honorarium to the Canine units and their dogs – just the way it feels at about … Continue reading →

The Mercy Rule (#5 of Dismas Hardy) by John Lescroart 1998 – 640 pages read by David Colacci 18h 3m rating – B+ I was smitten by the reviews of another group member and wanted to get back to the Dismas … Continue reading →

The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates 2004 / 481 pages rating: 7.5 I’ve not read a whole lot in the oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates – she’s so prolific and what few I have read have not really totally satisfied.  Don’t get … Continue reading →

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy 1895 / Kindle – 455 pages rating: 9 I think I’ve mentioned before that one reason I enjoy classics is because they give an historical peek into the era in which they were written. … Continue reading →

Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje 2000 / 303 pgs (Kindle) Rating:  8 I usually totally enjoy Michael Ondaatje‘s work – especially Divisadero and Cat’s Table, but The English Patient was also quite good.  Imo,  he seems to have been improving as he’s … Continue reading →

The Cruelest Month (Det. Garmache #4) by Louise Penny 2008 / 320 pages Read by Ralph Cosham – 11h 46m Rating:   B+ Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Three Pines in the Province of Quebec,  is called on to investigate death … Continue reading →

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil 2012 / 288 pgs ( Kindle) rating:  8.5 This book started out so lovely,  so real, so refreshing.  I’d say the first half was like that. Then,  probably like the addicts themselves,  it just went downhill … Continue reading →

The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg 2005 (US 2013 / 528 pgs read by David Thorn 16h 58m Scandi-crime Rating:  A- A Fjällbacka lobster fisherman has hauled in a rather different catch – a small girl child – dead.  He notifies the … Continue reading →