by John Fox, Jr., 1908 Sweet, romantic book about an older man, John “Jack” Hale, and a “little girl,” June Tolliver, who meet in the Lonesome Cove up in the hills of Virginia, near the giant pine, the “Lonesome Pine.” They fall in love. Incredibly romantic. Set in the early 1900’s, when the railroad and […]
Author: bookhound
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
by J.D. Vance, 2016 I wanted to read this book for a long time. I once had it from a Little Free Library but redistributed it before I read it. Once Trump selected him as his Vice Presidential running mate, I put it on hold at the library. Fantastic book! True story about his life […]
Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons, 1932 I ADORED THIS BOOK!!!! I learned about it from my British Classics puzzle. It was one of the classics in that puzzle, and the cover had a little blurb, “Very probably the funniest book ever written.” It was a delight from start to finish. Set in 1930’s England. The main character […]
The Mayor of Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy, 1886 This book was suggested to me as his favorite classic during the FAC at Susan and Doug’s, by the retired cancer doctor from Indiana who lives in the new MCM house on E. Myrtle Street. I think his name is Jim. This was a soap opera! Main character, Michael Henchard, gets […]
Wind, Sand and Stars
by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, 1939 This is an autobiography of the author of The Little Prince. He was a French pilot in the 1930’s and 1940’s, flying the mail from France to Africa and then in South America over the Andes. He writes about the dangers of flying – mountains, storms, sand, sometimes the planes […]
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt, 1992 I read this book because it is by the author of The Goldfinch, which I loved, and which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. This was a page-turner, very dark in personalities and setting and plot. Six college-aged students, most very wealthy, are the sole students in a professor’s Greek class. […]
The Little Prince
by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, 1943 This book has been translated from the original French into 505 different languages, second only to the Bible. I was intrigued by it so checked it out from the library. It’s about a “little prince” from a tiny planet who makes his way to earth, where he meets the narrator […]
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson, 2004 Found this book in the Little Free Library on Locust Street. It is on several best books lists. It’s about a sweet, old pastor (77 years old) who is going to die soon, writing a very long letter to his 7 year-old son. He married (for the 2nd time) late in […]
Yellowface
by R. F. Kuang, 2023 A page-turner! What an original tale! Spellbinding! This is the Fort Collins Reads book for 2024. The author comes Sunday, October 27th at 2 p.m. to the Fort Collins Marriott. It is also our first selection for the 2024-2025 season of the Old Town Library’s Book Club. An unsuccessful author, […]
Unruly Saint: Dorothy Day’s Radical Vision and Its Challenge for Our Times
by D.L. Mayfield, 2022 I learned about this book from the library’s monthly biographies email. It’s a short, very well-written, and easy to read biography of Dorothy Day, the woman who started the Catholic Worker newspaper and Hospitality Houses for the poor. I had never heard of her, but Pope Francis in 2015 said to […]
Firekeeper’s Daughter
by Angeline Boulley, 2021 Engrossing mystery recommended to me by Cousin Gretchen. It’s YA, but well-written and a page-turner. I loved the setting (Ojibwe community of the Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians and Sault Ste. Marie, in upper Michigan). I loved the main character (Daunis, 1/2 Indian, 1/2 rich white girl). It’s modern […]
Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds, 2017 A very unusual book. Written in verse style so, although it is 306 pages long, I read it in just an hour or so. A 15 year-old black child, Will, is following the rules after his beloved brother, Shawn, is murdered. The rules are: Don’t cry, Don’t Snitch, Get revenge. He […]
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
by David Grann, 2023 Good, fast read by the author of Killers of the Flower Moon. Tells the true story of the ship, the Wager, a British warship that took off in 1740 for an ill-fated voyage with 4 other ships, to go around Cape Horn (the tip of South America) and capture a Spanish […]
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, 2005 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Mesmerizing, enthralling book. I read it because the movie, Oppenheimer, was based on this book. The book is 591 pages long. It took me almost 6 weeks to read it. The movie follows the book closely, but the book is so much […]
Abroad in Japan
by Chris Broad, 2023 I LOVED this book! It’s funny and informative! Written by a young British man who went to Japan in 2012 at the age of 22 to teach English through the JET program. He ended up spending 10 years there (and maybe is still there), becoming a YouTube sensation, and loving Japan. […]
Band of Sisters
by Lauren Willig, 2021 Pat loaned this book to me. It was about the Smith College Relief Unit, a group of American women, graduates of Smith College, who volunteered in WWI to help French villagers devastated by the Germans (1917 – 1919, in villages near the Somme). They had no idea what they were getting […]
Remarkably Bright Creatures
by Shelby Van Pelt, 2022 A very fun novel! This book is the last book selected for the 2023-2024 Old Town Library Book Club. I loved the characters: Tova, an elderly Swedish lady who cleans the aquarium; Marcellus, a remarkably bright Giant Pacific Octopus who lives in the aquarium and knows what happened to Erik, […]
Returning: A Spiritual Journey
by Dan Wakefield, 1984, 1985, 1988 Learned about this book from the New York Times Morning Report (I think) talking about Dan Wakefield and his books on the day he died in March 2024 at age 91. He was born in Indianapolis in 1932 and grew up an only child, to unhappily married parents. His […]
West with Giraffes
by Lynda Rutledge, 2021 Wonderful book, recommended by neighbor, Pat. It’s historical fiction about a true life 1938 pair of giraffes that survived the hurricane out to sea near NYC in 1938, and then the journey across country to the San Diego Zoo, to become the first giraffes in a zoo in America.
The Fearless Mind
by Dr. Craig L. Manning, 2009, 2017 Adam sent me this book. Danette read it and liked it. It’s by a tennis player turned sports psychologist consultant. It’s like a thesis on how to control your mind, mainly, in order to become a peak performer. I like how he talks about thinking about the past […]