Category Archives: books

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 →

The Eye of the Storm by Patrick Whie 1972 / 608 pages rating 10 / 20th cent Aust. Elizabeth Salkeld Hunter is dying. Her children have come to pay their respects to the old lady in her bed in her … Continue reading →

The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World by Margaret Cavendish 1666 / classic fiction (totally unable to rate this) Fascinating, author but this story although short, is difficult to read. Cavendish created a world of sci-fi with talking … Continue reading →

The Blazing World Siri Hustvedt 2013/359 pagesrating  – 9/ contemp US Artists are sometimes quite eccentric but Hustvedt has invented a real corker in the large, red-haired, brilliant and probably mad Harriet Burden, rich widow of Felix Burden the successful … Continue reading →

The Master by Colm Toibin 2003 / 338 pages rating 4/contemp fiction Imo, this is a fictionalized character-driven study of Henry James based on as many letters, diary entries, and other evidence as Toibin was able to find and sometimes … Continue reading →

Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell 1978 / 568 pages rating 8.5/ 20th cent lit In 1937 Walter Blackett is the owner of a large rubber plant and export firm in Singapore where he lives with his wife Sylvia and … Continue reading →

The Hanging Garden by Patrick White 2012- posthumously / 228 pages rating 8.5 / 20th cent fiction This is an unfinished novel by Australia’s Nobel Prize winner. I read and loved Voss but White’s other books seem to be more … Continue reading →

Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramago 2009 / 239 pages rating 5 (out of 10) /contemp fict If an author is too lazy to give characters names and use traditional punctuation and formatting (sentence- paragraph breaks) then I don’rpt see … Continue reading →

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich – 2003/ 355 pages rating – 9 / contemp fiction This is the third book I’ve read by Erdrich which focuses on the Ojibwa Indians of the … Continue reading →