Monthly Archives: December 2014

The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson 2014 / 560 pages Rating 9.25 / nonfiction – science Very interesting book on how the computer, as we know it, came to be … Continue reading →

  12/31/14- This year I read 142 books,  102 fiction and 40 nonfiction. (I hope I counted that right.) These are the best of the year.  I’m not counting classics or books I read for the second time in the “best of” list, … Continue reading →

Broken Harbor by Tana French 2012 / 456 pages read by Stephen Hogan 19h 56m Rating:  A+ /  crime (4th in the Dublin Murder Squad series) In this 4th book of the Dublin Murder Squad the featured detective is  Mick … Continue reading →

The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Danish / translated) 2008 (2012 US) / 402 pages Read by Stephen Pacey 14h 13m Rating: B / crime (2nd in Department Q series) The serial picks up again with lead detective Carl Mørek who heads up Department … Continue reading →

I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty 2013 / 320 pages Read by Gerard Doyle 9h 40m Rating:  A  / crime (historical) I wasn’t going to read this although it was for a group (4_Mystery_Addicts) and available … Continue reading →

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller 2014 / 336 pages read by Mark Deakins 10h 41m Rating:  8/ sci-fi  (literary) … life as we on earth know it ended nine years ago and the first sentence reads “In the beginning … Continue reading →

An Evil Eye by Jason Goodwin 2011  /301 pages Read by Stephen Hoye 9h 34m Rating:  B- /historical crime (Yashim the Eunuch Series, Book 4) I’ve been reading along in the Yashim series ever since The Janissary Tree (2007) and have to say … Continue reading →

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn 2012 / 384 pages Read by Simon Prebble 9h 33m Rating:  8 / fun fiction Okay – in part because William Kuhn, the author,  is going to be (is/was) available at the … Continue reading →

The Drowning Spool by Monica Ferris 2014 / 304 pages read by Betsy Bronson 7h 31m rating A- / crime #17 in the Betsy Devonshire series I started reading the Betsy Devonshire a couple years ago at Christmas time with Crewel … Continue reading →

The Children Act by Ian McEwan 2013 / 221 pages Rating:  8/ fiction When a court determines any question with respect to … the upbringing of a child … the child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount consideration. —SECTION 1( … Continue reading →

The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne 2013 / 30 pages Read by Stephen R. Thorne 8h 34m Rating: 7/ memoir Funny.  Funny, funny, funny and with a very … Continue reading →

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn 2012 / 384 pages Read by Simon Prebble 9h 33m Rating:  7.5 / fun fiction This is coming up on a reading group (BookGroupList) and I’m reading it a bit early because … Continue reading →

The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin 2013 / 97 pages (novella) Rating:  7.5 / historical fiction What Tóibín has tried to do is imagine the life of Mary,  the mother of Jesus, and have her tell what she knows about … Continue reading →

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr *2014 / 531 pages (Kindle) *Read by Zach Appelman / 16h 2m Rating: 8 / historical fiction (WWII) (both listened and read) Opening Doerr’s second novel which one of my reading groups (BookiesToo) … Continue reading →

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine 2014 / 306 pages read by Suzanne Toren 10h 28m rating 9+ / fiction – “A love letter to literature and its power to define who we are, the prodigiously gifted Rabih Alameddine has given us … Continue reading →

Gospel Truth: The New Image of Jesus Emerging from Science and History, and Why It Matters by Russell Shorto 1997 (2012) / 305 pages Rating:  7.5 / history- New Testament Having enjoyed Shorto’s much more recent book, Amsterdam:A History of the … Continue reading →