Author Archives: beckylindroos

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma – Nigeria 2015/ 296 pages rating 8 – contemp lit Debut novel explores the ways old superstitions continue to permeate Nigerian families. It took me about 1/3 of the book to get into the swing … Continue reading →

Euphoria by Lily King 2014/ 258 pages Rating: 9 / general fiction Fictionalized story of the relationship between Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune and Gregory Bateson in 1933, Sepik New Guinea.Starring Nell Stone as Margaret Mead – heh  – And Schuyler Fenwick (Fen) as Reo … Continue reading →

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 /  262  pages rating: 8 / cont. fict. Native American (classic) This is the powerful story of a young Laguna man’s return from WWII as a victim of shell-shock or PTSD.  After the war … Continue reading →

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro – English 2015/ 317 pages rating:  6 /   fantasy/allegory An old loving, peaceful and honest Briton couple, Axl and Beatrice, live in a warren  in early medieval England, maybe mid-6th century, shortly after … Continue reading →

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee 2015 (written in the 1950s) / 288 pages rating 7.5 – 20th century lit Newly found manuscript gets hot sales because prior work is iconic and was made into a soul-touching movie. Is … Continue reading →

The Gambler by Fydor Dostoevsky 1867/ 120 pages rating 9 Along the Rhine in the mid-19th century were a number of casinos, attractive to many people including French and Russian nobility as well as a few English, German, Polish and … Continue reading →

“J” by Howard Jacobson 2014/ 342 pages rating:8.5 WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED happened quite a long time ago, probably a couple generations, and now folks are “sorry.” They’re “sorry” all the time. But in a ver small town in … Continue reading →

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough 2015 / pages rating: 8 This is a really enjoyable book, well researched and nicely written. The subject matter is of relatively narrow scope so McCullough’s focus is primarily on the characters, personalities and relationships … Continue reading →

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell 2007 / 277 pages rating – 7.5 / contemp fiction I’m not fond of books without chapter divisions – what is it the reader is supposed to do, read it in … Continue reading →

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson 1980 /219 pages rating: 9 / 20th century fiction I’ve read all of Marilynne Robinson’s novels but this one, Gilead (2004), Home (2008), and Lila (2014) – all terrific. So I was interested in reading this … Continue reading →

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy 1874/ 500 or so pages rating: 10 / classic – 19th century England I’ve read several of Hardy’s novels and enjoy them quite a lot. This is his best according to many … Continue reading →

The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald 1998/ 272 pages Rating: 9 / historical fiction I love the works of Penelope Fitzgerald and have read a good many them.  This one came as a surprise to me though, when it was … Continue reading →

On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks 2015/ 416 pages Rating 8.5 – memoir Fun book, for the most part, quirky and slightly irreverent but mostly . Oliver Sacks is now 80 years old and had had a truly … Continue reading →

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa 2000/405 pages rating: 9- contemp fiction I read this back in 2004 or so, I think, and enjoyed it, certainly remembered it, but one reading left me rather confused as to … Continue reading →

The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy 1889/  184 pages (novella) rating:  9 –  classic Russian This one is a reread – I recently rejoined the 19th Century reading  group to keep reading classics – Most of their choices are books I’ve not … Continue reading →

The Crime Writer by Greg Hurwitz read by Scott Brick  10h 58m 2007/ 324 pages rating: C+  / crime Just for a kick – getting back to my good old suspense novels. I enjoyed You’re Next by Hurwitz well enough, … Continue reading →

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 2014 / 273 pages read by Scott Brick 7h 2m rating: 6 / contemp fiction (read and listened) A.J. Fikry is a bookstore owner, a widower and a budding alcoholic.  One night … Continue reading →