Monthly Archives: September 2015

Taking my cue from Dagny who posted an update on her 2015 Reading Challenges on her Madame Vauquer site I’m hereby posting mine.   I did better than I thought.  The method to my madness is that I don’t usually go out … Continue reading →

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood  (Canadian) 2015/ 320 pages read by Cassandra Campbell & Mark Deakins 12h 10m rating 5  / dystopian fiction I’ve read 8 of Atwood’s 16 novels – the ones I’ve read are all different and range … Continue reading →

Flood of Fire (3rd book of Ibis Trilogy) by Amitov Ghosh 2015/616 pages read by Raj Ghatak 23h 10m rating 8 / historical fiction (read and listened) I loved Ghosh’s first books in this trilogy – Sea of Poppies (2008) and  River … Continue reading →

The Rise of Silas Latham by William D. Howells 1895 / 286 pages read by Grover Gardner / 12h 2m rating  / classic American – 19th century William Dean Howells is often called  the “father of American Realism” which basically means … Continue reading →

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie 2015 / 304 pages read by Robert G. Slade 11h 26m rating -8.25  / literary fantasy (read and listened) I really enjoy some of Salman Rushdie’s works,  The Satanic Verses is one … Continue reading →

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin 2015 / 374 pages (Kindle) rating – 9 / contemp. fiction Compellingly set in a rural area southwest of Dublin, Ireland between 1969 and 1972, Toibin’s novel is full of interconnected families and lives.  This is a wonderfully … Continue reading →

A Brief History of the Soul by Stewart Goetz  & Charles Taliaferro  2011/ 248 pages read by Michael Scherer  8h 1m rating – 8.5 / nonfiction – philosophy (both read and listened) It’s been a long, long time since I read a … Continue reading →

Death on a High Floor by Charles Rosenberg 2014 / 562 pages print read by Christopher Lane  16h 25m rating A- / legal thriller – Robert Tarza is a very high level attorney working for the upscale firm of Marbury … Continue reading →

Raven Black (Book One of the Shetland Island Quartet) by Anne Cleeeves 2008/ 384 pages read by Gordon Griffin 11h 20m rating – A-  / contemp detective Selected by a reading group of mystery readers – I nominated it because it … Continue reading →

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Trembly 2015 / 304 pages read by Joy Osmanski rating 8.5  / literary horror (?) Literary horror?  Oh no!  What?  – oh yeah – remember House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and We Have Always Lived … Continue reading →

The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton 2015 / 480 pages read by Robert Petcoff – 13h 32m rating 7 / contemp fiction A reading group buddy with very similar tastes in books enthusiastically recommended this book a few weeks ago … Continue reading →

Well, I got 3 out of 6 and 1 of the 6 is not available here but has had a lot of good chatter elsewhere –  Maybe I got 3 out of 5?  –  Whatever.  I’ll look forward to reading The Year … Continue reading →

The Riders by Tim Winton 1994 / 388 pages read by Stanley McGeagh 10h 9m rating 8.5 / literary suspense/thriller (read and listened) I read this back in 2008 or something and my reaction was kind of “meh.”   So when … Continue reading →

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf 2015 / 188 pages rating –  8.5 /  contemp lit (US) Kent Haruf has done it again – a gentle story about life in a small town in Wyoming – the same place Plainsong and his … Continue reading →

The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz 2015 / 416 pages read by Simon Vance – 13h 22m rating A   / techno-thriller Stieg Larsson was no literary giant,  but with Lisbeth Salender in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo he created … Continue reading →

The Neapolitan Quartet  (4) by Elena Ferrante 2012 – 2015 / 4 volumes rating – 10 (overall) From what I understand, the series of books  was  conceived and written as one book but Ferrante’s publisher advised Ferrante to divide it into three volumes. … Continue reading →

California Fire and Life by Don Winslow 1999 / 352 pages read by Jon Lindstrom (2015) 12h 49m rating B+ I usually enjoy Winslow but because this is a stand-alone it’s a bit different.  The 1st person protagonist is a Jack Wade, a former … Continue reading →