Category Archives: books

Framed In Lace by Monica Ferris 1999 /  256 pages narrated by Susan Boyce 7:20 Needlecraft Mysteries, Book 2 My guilty pleasure –  cozy mysteries.  Ferris is pretty good at creating a small town atmosphere with plenty of characters.  It’s … Continue reading →

Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey,Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel 1988/288 pages rating –  8 Many years ago it was hypothesized that women may have had a different perspective of the westward journey across the great plains to … Continue reading →

The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars by Paul Collins 2011/336 pages narrated by William Dufris / 9:43 Rating: 7.5 I think this book is no less sensationalist than the murder investigation and … Continue reading →

Oh I almost forgot –  Happy Birthday Mr. Leopold Bloom – born this day  (6/16) in the mind of James Joyce on the streets of Dublin-town! I’ve read (from left)  Dubliners,  Ulysses,  Finnegans Wake, and Portrait of the Artist as … Continue reading →

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman 2011/263 p. / Kindle Rating –  ? I am sooo glad that the author and protagonist of this fine debut novel are both male.  When Harrison, the main  character, age 11,  talks about urinating on the cleaning … Continue reading →

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention By Manning Maribol 2011/608 pages Read by G. Valmont Thomas – 22h 7m Rating – 9 I remember when Malcolm X lived and how he died and although he was never a hero of … Continue reading →

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad 1907/ 172 – Kindle Rating –  9 I had no idea what this novel was going to be about when I first started.  It was chosen by a group and the only Conrad book … Continue reading →

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck 1935/ 207 pages Rating – 10 How does one review a book like Tortilla Flat? A book so full of life and love and joy that it almost makes you weep?  And yet the book … Continue reading →

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi read by Jonathan Davis 2009/361 pages / 29h 34m Rating – 8.5 It takes quite a writer to come out with debut novel which  is then “named as the ninth best fiction book of >>>MORE … Continue reading →

A New Light on Tiffany by Martin Eidelberg, Nina Gray and Margaret K. Hofer 2007 / 200 pages Rating – 7 I read this entirely because I was curious about the book Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.   … Continue reading →

The Yacoubian Building by Al Awaa  Aswny 2003 / 246 pages The basic setting for Aswany’s 2003 book is Cairo circa 1985 and the troubles which were being evidenced there at that time.   The Yacoubian Building fictionalizes a real … Continue reading →

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland 2011 / 448 pages narrated by Kimberly Farr / 15h.15m rating – 4 (and that’s generous) As far as I was concerned this book was really,  really 100% STUPID until the second half … Continue reading →

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer 1960 / 1280 pages narrated by Grover Garner – 57h 13m This is a comprehensive but perhaps not “definitive” study of the Nazi regime under Hitler.   It’s … Continue reading →

The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev 1988 / 377 pages Rating  10 This is a totally mesmerizing book.  It’s  beautifully written and historically evocative, if not literally “true.”  The subject is a small group of very early 20th century Russian … Continue reading →

Enemies: A History of the FBI By Tim Wiener 2012/ 560 pages Narrator Stefan Rudniki – 18:37 Rating:  8 This book is s pretty solid indictment of the FBI – especially J.Edgar Hoover and the presidents who somehow thought they … Continue reading →

The Best of Science and Nature Writing ed by Mary Roach and Tim Folger 2011 / 350 pages rating – 8 Science writing is not my forte – it’s okay but I can be squeamish about body fluids and such … Continue reading →

The Trees by Conrad Richter 1940 / 167 pages rating – 8 I’ve rarely read historical fiction about the time period just following the American Revolution.  This book,  the first in a trilogy called The Awakening Land,  starts out in or … Continue reading →