Monthly Archives: January 2016

Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving 2015 / 480 pages read by Armando Duran  20h 50m rating: 7.5 /  general fiction – humorous I started listening to the sample and it sounded so good – wonderful – two kids in … Continue reading →

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson 2016 / 498 pages  (ARC – Kindle) rating: 9.25  /  historical fiction (With thanks to Random House via Netgalley for the advance reader copy!) Good read – quite enjoyable but a warning – although … Continue reading →

The Fear Artist by Timothy Hallinan 2012/ 342 pages read by Victor Bovine – 12h 2m rating:   A / crime Poke Rafferty – a travel writer living in Bangkok with his Thai wife, Rose,  and their adopted daughter, Miao. … Continue reading →

Tell No Lies by Greg Hurwitz 2013/ 382 pages read by Scot Brick  12h 39m rating:   B+  /  crime thriller I finally got around to this book which has been on my wish list for eons –  I guess because … Continue reading →

Safe House by Chris Ewan (Brit) 2011 / 448 pages read by Simon Vance  10h 53m rating B+  / crime The story starts out with a bang and Rob Hale,  our 1st person protagonist,  finds himself in the hospital following … Continue reading →

Falling in Love by  Donna Leon 2015 /  256 pages read by David Colacci 8h 23m Commissario Guido Brunetti series #24 rating:   C+  / crime – I think this is my first Guido Brunetti books and I enjoyed the first … Continue reading →

Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald 1990 / 178 pages rating – 9 (2nd reading) I forgot a bunch so I had to reread – I knew what was going on and what was coming up,  so it was deeper than … Continue reading →

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker  (Swiss) 2012 (US 2014) – 656 pages read by Pierce Cravens – 17h 54m rating  9.25  / literary crime It’s a rare book which can come off as both a … Continue reading →

The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan 2010 / 320 pages read by Victor Bevine –  11h 50m rating –  A+  – literary crime (#4 in Poke Rafferty series) One night while Poke, Rose and Miao Rafferty are eating dinner in … Continue reading →

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman 2013 / 385 pages read by Joan Walker – 11h 02m rating:  6  / contemp fiction – fantasy (I think) “There is no such thing as coincidence in … Continue reading →

The Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons 2015 /  395 pages read by James Patrick Cronin –  11h 54m rating:  A++  /   thriller crime – political/techie Ahhhh!   🙂 Ten years prior to the main story line Senator Benjamin Lombard’s daughter … Continue reading →

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín 2009 / 282 pages read by KIrsten Potter 7h 37m rating – 8  / contemp fiction This is the reread of a book I first read probably in about 2010,  when the paperback  was first published.  I … Continue reading →

The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard by Anatole France 1881 / 234 pages (Kindle) rating:  7.5  ? “The poor man who has no desires possesses the greatest of riches; he possesses himself. The rich man who desires something is only a … Continue reading →

Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector – (Tr: Giovanni Pontiero) 1943 / 192 pages (new trans 2012) rating – 8.5  / existential lit? This came up in a reading group and because I’ve never read anything by Lispector and … Continue reading →

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick 2011 / 416 pages read by Alan Sklar – 10h 7m rating 7  / history of science/math I should have finished this before … Continue reading →

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens 2014/  303 pages read by Zack Villa  8h 24m rating – A / crime – amateur detective When Joe Talbert is given a biographical writing assignment for a college class he chooses  Carl … Continue reading →

Losing Faith * by Adam Mitzner * 2015 / 369 pages * read by David Colacci * rating:  A+  / legal thriller * AHHHH …the year is off to a good start with an excellent legal thriller, my favorite kind … Continue reading →