Monthly Archives: July 2014

Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspirational Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben 2014 / 266 pages Rating 8 / non-fiction -biography Back in 1955 a 67-year old woman from Ohio named Emma Gatewood decided to hike … Continue reading →

The Reef by Edith Wharton 1912/ 162 pages rating – 8.5  classic US lit I’ve read maybe a half dozen of Wharton’s novels and novellas and generally enjoy them – especially those with the pointed criticism of “society” in her … Continue reading →

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone 2013/ 373 pages rating 9 / nonfiction – business I would never make much of a business person, but I love the books – they’re like reading … Continue reading →

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story by Dan Harris 2014 / 237 pages rating 8 / nonfiction: self-help Part memoir, part expose … Continue reading →

The White Hotelby D.M. Thomas1981/274 pagesrating 8.5 / 20th century fiction Totally pandering and gratuitous in every sense to start out, bolstered by the inclusion of Freud – not terribly laudatory,  the narrative in general is a very stylish, literary type … Continue reading →

That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott 2010 / 355 pages rating 9 / contemp Aust. Thanks to the blogs of Sue Terry and Lisa Hill (see below) in which they recognized and hosted Indigenous Aussie Literature week I came up … Continue reading →

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick 2013 309 pages rating 9.5 / nonfiction North Korea is a bad place / it’s been a bad place for some time now and it’s apparently getting worse. One … Continue reading →

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King 2013 / 361 pages rating 9.5 / nonfiction- crime In suspense driven, True Crime mode King tells the story of Thurgood … Continue reading →

The Eye of the Storm by Patrick Whie 1972 / 608 pages rating 10 / 20th cent Aust. Elizabeth Salkeld Hunter is dying. Her children have come to pay their respects to the old lady in her bed in her … Continue reading →

The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World by Margaret Cavendish 1666 / classic fiction (totally unable to rate this) Fascinating, author but this story although short, is difficult to read. Cavendish created a world of sci-fi with talking … Continue reading →

The Blazing World Siri Hustvedt 2013/359 pagesrating  – 9/ contemp US Artists are sometimes quite eccentric but Hustvedt has invented a real corker in the large, red-haired, brilliant and probably mad Harriet Burden, rich widow of Felix Burden the successful … Continue reading →

The Master by Colm Toibin 2003 / 338 pages rating 4/contemp fiction Imo, this is a fictionalized character-driven study of Henry James based on as many letters, diary entries, and other evidence as Toibin was able to find and sometimes … Continue reading →