Author Archives: beckylindroos

White Dog Fell From the Sky by Eleanor Morse 2013 / 352 pages rating 8 / contemp Africa-US Although this book is laden with flaws, by the time it ended I really rather liked it. I think it must have … Continue reading →

Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian 2013/ 362 pages rating 4 / contemp fiction – crime Read for a group. Not impressed although the plot line was kind of interesting for a who-done-it. There was an awful lot of padding … Continue reading →

Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City by Russell Shorto  2013 / 315 pagesrating – 8.5 / history-travel Shorto’s books are geared toward the layman reader of history and they are packed with information while written in an … Continue reading →

Harvest by Jim Croce 2013/ 245 pages rating 8 / contemp fiction Is Croce a poet? This novel reads like poetry in terms of the sometimes archaic vocabulary and the heavy rhythm. This was to the point I was looking … Continue reading →

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 1985 / 310 pages Rating- 7 / speculative fiction I finally read this. I enjoy Atwood and have read maybe a half-dozen of her books but I just never got around to this one … Continue reading →

In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman 2014/ 499 pages rating 9 / contemp lit In the Light of What We Know” is a book about ideas (think Gödel and the title), mathematics, philosophy, perception, psychological … Continue reading →

The Ghost Map The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic … and How It Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Johnson 2013 / 307 pages rating – 8.5 London’s Broad Street epidemic of cholera in September of … Continue reading →

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline 2013/ 273 pages rating 7/ YA? –  hist. fict. I’d say this book is mostly for folks ages 16 and older because it’s not really action based (for younger people)  and it weaves a … Continue reading →

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis 2013 / 274 pages Rating 8.5 / nonfiction- business This is a very informative book on a very confusing subject and although I think Lewis does his best, the complexities of … Continue reading →

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 →