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.   I really did NOT enjoy Vreeland’s book but I was curious how much was true >>>> MORE >>>>>

The Yacoubian Building
by Al Awaa  Aswny
2003 / 246 pages

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 when something (maybe a >>>> MORE >>>> 

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 quite readable and although really long,  very rarely got boring.  It won the National Book Award and was  >>>> MORE >>>> 

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 pioneers, completely fictional although it’s based on >>> MORE >>> 

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 and the Agency were above the law.   There’s nothing really “new” here,  but it’s >>>> MORE >>>>

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 what.  Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers enjoys that sort of thing and >>>> MORE>>>> 

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 just before 1795 and ends several years later and is set in the Northwest Territory of Ohio just west and south of Pennsylvania.  >>>> MORE >>>> 

The House of Blue Mangoes
by David Davidar
2002 / 421 pages
rating – 7.5

I was disappointed in what could have been such a great novel.  This is the saga of three generations of the Dorais, a non-Brahmin, land-owning family of southernmost India.  The time frame is 1899 – 1948,   >>>> MORE>>>>

A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L’Engle
1973/  Kindle/ 211 pages
Rating – 6 (for adults – 9 for kids)

This is an older children’s book – ages 10 and up,  I suppose – and although I’d heard plenty about it,   I never got around to reading it.   I might have really enjoyed this as a child but I  >>>> MORE >>>> 

A Drop of the Hard Stuff
by Lawrence Block
2011 / 352 pages
narrated by Tom Stechschulte  8h/30m
rating – 6.5

Matthew Scudder has almost a year sober and his friend, Jack Ellery, also sober in AA is found dead.  Jack had been doing his amends and had been talking to some rough characters from his past.   This is a pretty fun series – it’s been a long time – especially if you have some background in AA practices.

Crewel World
by Monica Ferris
1999/256 pages
read by Susan Boyce – 7h 51m
(1st in Needlecraft Mysteries series – cozy)
rating – 6 (this is a guilty pleasure book)

Betsy Davenport moves to Excelsior, Minnesota after her latest divorce.   Her sister, Margot. a widow,  owns a small but successful needlecraft shop there and welcomes her.  But although it appears as though Margot is loved by one and all in the small town,  she apparently has at least one serious enemy – she’s found murdered.  Betsy and her new friend Julie,  a police officer,  work on solving the crime.

Doctor Zhivago
1958 – translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky in 2010
673 pages
Rating 9.5

I’m doing a second review on this book because I read both versions.  There’s not much difference – where Hayward would sometimes simplify things by using a phrase to describe a Russian word,  Pevear uses the word where he can get away with it. >>>>MORE>>>>

Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak
1958 – translated by Max Hayward
Introduction by John Bailey
559 pgs
Rating 9.5

This book could be War and Peace circa 1917 except that there’s not much peace in it – maybe the first 25 pages.  It could be called War and People instead.   And it’s not really historical fiction in that Pasternak didn’t have to do any research – he lived it.  But it is historical literature because it’s well over 50 years old now – of a time gone by.  That said,  it’s quite accurate historically. >>>>MORE >>>> 

God on the Rocks
by Jane Gardham
1978/  195 pages
rating 8

Margaret is an 8-year old girl living in a coastal resort community with her mother,  a very nice but apparently conflicted woman, and her father, a very stern preacher.  Also in the household is  >>> MORE>>>

Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski
2011 / 304 pages
read by Pete Larkin 7h 37m
rating 5

This book isn’t totally serious although it started out that way. Charile Hardy is an ex-cop who now house sits but when he arrives at his newest job someone is already there before him. Lane ? is a B-grade actress on the run from some “accident people” who want her dead. Charlie sees a chance at redemption.

Defending Jacob
by William Landay
2012/432 pages
narrated by Grover Gardener
rating 8 (high for crime)

Andy Barber is a district attorney in a small suburban town where a teen-age boy is killed in the park. .  Jacob,  Andy’s 14 year-old son,  seems to have some social and behavioral problems – and a knife.  When it looks like Jacob is in big time trouble with the law,  what is  Andy’s place?