Becky's Books –

A Nail Through the Heart
by Timothy Hallinan
2007/336 pages
narrated by Victor Bevine 10h 52m
rating:  7 (top for crime)

How can a story break and warm your heart at the same time?  Set in post-tsunami Thailan,  Hallinan’s first of a series does just that.   Travel writer Poke Rafferty is settling in there with his girlfriend Rose, an ex-bar girl,  and an 8-year old girl he found on the streets, Miaow.  But while he’s dealing with >>> MORE >>> 

The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing
by Tarquin Hall
read by Sam Dastor 8h 25m
Rating – 6.5

Visha Puri is a highly respected detective who one day gets called to investigate the death of  a Dr. Jha  who died while participating in the activities of the laughing club – a health practice.   It seems that during the laughing session  a Hindu goddess appeared from the heavenly   >>>>MORE >>>>  

Open City
by Teju Cole
2011/ 272 pages
rating – 8.5

Teju Cole is an amazing author and this is his first full length novel.   It’s generally about an almost unnamed 1st person narrator,  a single, 30-something year-old immigrant from Nigeria, who works as a psychiatrist in Manhattan.   As he walks around the city’s neighborhoods, in and out of parks and museums we are privy to his thoughts about immigration,  “brothers,”  history, art, music,  and a whole host of other things.  He travels to Belgium to see if he can’t locate his old Oma and meets >>>> MORE >>>>  **  >>>NOTES>>> 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle
by Shirley Jackson
1962 / 160 pages
read by Bernadette Dunne 5h 32m
rating 9

Reread – I do enjoy this book – I read it for a holiday challenge several years ago – this time for another reading group.  I wonder why I didn’t come across Jackson’s books in high school >>> MORE >>> 

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth
of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
by Deborah Blum
2011/ 334 pages (Kindle)
Rating:

I didn’t know if I’d be interested in this book or not – it seemed rather gruesome or sensationalist or perhaps a combination. But it turned out to be mostly historical (a great thing) with some light but interesting chemistry and forensics thrown in. >>> MORE >>>

Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
2010 / 627 pages
Rating 10

This is really an amazing book!  I accidentally bought it months ago when it was still a new release and rather than return it,  I kept it even though I’m not even fond of hard cover books anymore.   It sat on my tbr shelf – and sat – and sat.  I  just wasn’t   >>>>MORE>>>> 

A Stitch in TIme
by Monica Ferris
2000 / 256 pages
Read by Susan Boyce 8h
Rating – 7 (top for cozies)

Last December I read  Monica Ferris’ Crewel Yule as part of a holiday reading challenge.  Oddly enough,  I really enjoyed it and knew I’d be back for more.  This is my fourth in the Needlework series in which there  >>>> MORE >>>> 

Doctor Zhivago: A Critical Companion
by Edith W. Clowes
Northwestern Critical Companions to Russian Literature
1995 – 169 pages
Rating 8.5

An examination of several issues which come into play for the post-Soviet Western reader of Doctor Zhivago. Included are essays on literary reception within the novel, characterization (Lara and Tonya), the nature of physical love, temporal counterpoint and structure, and lyrical and narrative plot.  >>>> MORE >>>> 

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 relaxing to listen to Boyle read but choosing an avocado and laughing out loud will get looks at the grocery story.   There are funny parts.  Definitely of the “who-dun-it”  >>> MORE >>> 

Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey,Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel
1988/288 pages
rating –  8

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 trial it reports about – either that or the narrator,  Dufris,  presents it that way.   But it was a grisly murder – the victim’s head was chopped off and only  >>>> MORE >>>> 

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 a Young Man.

My favorite is probably Finnegans Wake followed by Dubliners.

Today they have been set free in Ireland –  How long for the US to catch up?

“End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee!  Till thousandsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.”
Finnegans Wake

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 bubbles I had to check.  Had this NOT been a male author,  I was thinking how the heck would she know?   A male author >>>> MORE >>>> 

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 mine,  I saw his point of view.   I was kind of fascinated by his family and his death.  And I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X  as told to Alex Haley years and years ago and it was pretty interesting, well   >>> MORE >>>>

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 I’ve ever had any use for was Heart of  Darkness so I didn’t approach the   >>>>MORE>>>>>

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 is about a group of winos who band together for protection and  >>> MORE >>>>

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 >>>