Category Archives: books

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen 1938 – 418 pages Rating – 9 A sensitive and subtle classic coming-of-age story about Portia Quayne, a 16 year-old girl who has to live with her brother and his wife after … Continue reading →

A Vine in the Blood by Leighton Gage 2011 / 289 pages narrated by Peter Berkrot – 7:44 Rating – 5 I finished this several days ago but forgot to enter it. The mother of Brazilian soccer star Tico Santos … Continue reading →

The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition by Stephen King 1990 / 1185 pages Narrated by Grover Gardner 47h 46m Rating 6 Yup – I listened to the whole 48 hours worth. When a super-powerful virus is accidentally released into the … Continue reading →

Snowdrops by A.D. Miller 2011 / 272 pages narrated by  Kevin Howard 6h 12m rating – ? I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed this after hearing a couple rather negative reviews.  Part of that may be due to … Continue reading →

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith 13th in the “Ladies’ #1 Detective Agency” series 4/2012 – 278 pages narrated by Leslie Lecat rating – 10  (because I love these books – it’s a soft spot) Oh I … Continue reading →

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian 1990 / 232 pgs rating  –  ? I didn’t really go into this book with an open mind.  I don’t like war stories,  I especially don’t like Vietnam stories – probably because it … Continue reading →

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach 2011 / 515 pages rating 9 This is one lovely and finely crafted  novel – spellbinding might be a good word.   But it’s thematically very complex with themes layered and marbled through … Continue reading →

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow 2010 / 928 pages rating 9.5 (about as high as I’ll give a biography) The life of George Washington has been mythologized almost to the point of fiction over the centuries and it is … Continue reading →

Zuleika Dobson by Max Beirbohm 1919 / 170 pages rating – 8   (in large part for originality) When the Oxford College Warden’s granddaughter comes to visit him at school all the men fall in love with her at first … Continue reading →

The Drop by Michael Connelly 2011/ Audio read by Peter Giles rating 7 (very good for a detective novel) Reading three Connelle books virtually back-to-back is amazing.  I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.  I did take … Continue reading →

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward 2011 – 272 pages Rating 1 Okay –  I really disliked the book – actively.   I should go answer the questions about why people finish books.  I guess I finished because I was curious … Continue reading →

The Reversal by Michael Connelly audio – 2010 detective – rating 7 When Mickey Haller, defense attorney,  gets a call to join the prosecution and  retry an old murder case he is doubtful.  But as he joins his ex-wife on … Continue reading →

Nine Dragons Michael Connelly detective fiction 2010 – audio rating 7 ( high for detective) Harry Bosch strikes again (for the umpteenth time).  This time he’s after a man who shot and killed a small grocery owner but who might … Continue reading →

Reconstruction:  America’s Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner 1988 (2003) –  736 pages Rating 9.5 Wow – what a definitive book – more about Reconstruction and that era than I really thought I ever wanted to know.  It’s good though – … Continue reading →

Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner 1988 / 690 pages I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time.  Now I am – it may take awhile though – a week or two.  I’d like to just take … Continue reading →

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka 2003 – 148 pgs – Kindle rating 9.25 “When the Emperor Was Divine” starts with the day of the Japanese departure for the camps and ends several years later.   It’s every … Continue reading →

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds 2009 / 259 pages Rating 9.5   (upped that on second reading) Fascinating fiction dealing with Alfred Lord Tennyson’s relationship with Doctor Matthew Allen and his sanitorium in Epping Fields where John Clare stayed, … Continue reading →