by Dorothy Gilman, 1976 Fun mystery set in Zambia in the 1960’s. Mrs. Pollifax is sent on safari to take pictures of all the others on safari in hopes of finding the assassin, Aristotle. She does eventually much more than that and saves the beloved Zambian President from being assassinated. Loved the characters, the setting, […]
Author: bookhound
The DNA of You and Me
by Andrea Rothman, 2019 Our neighbor, Kim (of Kim and Richard), gave me this book to read because it was recommended for people who liked Lab Girl. It was a very quick read, a novel, a love-story, about scientists investigating the DNA of the sense of smell. The author was a research scientist who studied […]
This Beautiful Book
by Steve Green with Bill High Steve Green is the president of Hobby Lobby. This book was recommended by Al. It’s a short, sweet little book about the Bible. You can tell Steve Green loves the Bible. I think it would appeal to brand new Christians. It’s a chronological recap of the most important stories […]
Islands in the Stream
by Ernest Hemingway, 1970 (Ernest Hemingway shot himself in July 1961 with his favorite shotgun in the entryway of his Ketchum, Idaho home. Mary Hemingway, his 4th and final wife, and Charles Scribner, Jr. published this book from Ernest’s original manuscript: “Charles Scribner, Jr. and I worked together preparing this book for publication from Ernest’s […]
The Book of Job
by Stephen Mitchell, 1979, with Introduction 1987 A translation of the book of Job, but he doesn’t include Elihu, saying that it was a later addition and of inferior writing. He also leaves out Chapter 28, the Hymn to Wisdom. He calls God the “Voice in the Whirlwind.” In his Introduction, he talks about the […]
A Hole Is to Dig
by Ruth Krauss, 1952 Adorable little children’s book, full of adorable illustrations and cute definitions like, “A hole is to dig…Hands are to hold…Mashes potatoes are to give everybody enough…The sun is so it can be a great day.” Recommended on the book a day calendar that Christie gave me.
Rough Magic
Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race, by Lara Prior-Palmer, 2019 This was the first book for the 2020-2021 Old Town Library Book Club. It was a fast read, like the 1000-kilometer horse race over the Mongolian Steppe it describes, in which 19 year-old Lara incredibly wins. She competed in it on a whim in the […]
The Giver of Stars
by Jojo Moyes, 2019 Fantastic book about pack-horse librarians in Kentucky during the Depression. This book has everything: Characters you love, characters you hate, a couple of mysteries, well-written, deep sense of place, and a very good ending. Loved this book! It was recommended to me by Christie.
A Tramp Abroad
by Mark Twain, 1880 Delightful tramp through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy with Mark Twain and his mysterious agent, Mr. Harris, in the late 1800’s; funny, beautiful, and educational. The landscapes in Germany and Switzerland are beautiful, except there seem to be some villages in Switzerland that are full of manure (walking through “fertilizer juice.” His […]
Rogue Male
by Geoffrey Household, 1939 Enthralling short novel about a talented spy who gets caught seeing if it would be possible for him to assassinate an evil dictator. He escapes after a fall from a cliff, and the suspense begins. He is badly injured but makes his way out of this country, which may be Poland, […]
Journeys of a Lifetime
500 of the World’s Greatest Trips, National Geographic, Second Edition, 2018 Beautiful “coffee-table” book describing 500 trips by water, road, rail, foot, culture, gourmet, action, flight, or following historical footsteps. I liked the following: Utah: Driving Route 12 from Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef, highlight is hiking slot canyons and below red rock spires on […]
The Road to Little Dribbling
by Bill Bryson, 2015 This book is a hilarious trip through England with the funniest writer alive, Bill Bryson. What a joy! What a great escape! It’s laugh-out-loud funny on every page. I didn’t realize that Wayne would be interested in reading this book, but he was. And what’s more, he’d like to spend a […]
100 Dives of a Lifetime
National Geographic, 2019 Beautiful “coffee table” book listing the 100 best dives in the world. Definitely for scuba diving, not snorkeling–deep and full of sharks. The book is divided into dives for beginners, intermediate, and advanced & all-levels. Here are notable dives that maybe we could do? South Water Caye in Belize Something Special in […]
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston, 1937 This book was our last book selection for the Old Town Library Book Club for 2019-2020. Mandy selected it because it was one of the Great American Read 100 best books. It’s a short book and wasn’t about what I thought it was going to be about. It’s about a […]
The Lake House
by Kate Morton, 2015 Loved this book! Suggested by Christie. Set in Cornwall, England, in WWI, WWII, and modern days (2003). Wonderful setting – a beautiful lake house in Cornwall, near the sea. Interesting characters: a spinster mystery writer and her sisters and mother and father, and a precious baby brother who disappears and is […]
The Complete Guide to Fasting
by Jason Fung, MD, with Jimmy Moore Adam and Danette recommended a documentary about fasting that was by the same author. We weren’t able to get it from the library but the book was available, so that is why I read it. It is causing a paradigm shift for me because I always thought going […]
Just Mercy
by Bryan Stevenson, 2014 Excellent book! I’m not sure where I heard about it but I’m so glad I read it. Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who started the Equal Justice Initiative. We needed him and, unfortunately, we still do. He works tirelessly to free innocent men from death row, to end the death penalty […]
The Devil in the White City
by Erik Larson, 2003 Heard this book mentioned by Karen, our Old Town Library Book Club leader. True story about the building of the World’s Columbian Exposition, a world’s fair, in Chicago in 1893, and a psychopathic serial killer, H. H. Holmes. The fair is completed against all odds: Architects not completing their designs on […]
Long Bright River
by Liz Moore, 2020 Page-turner! So readable! Enthralling characters: 2 sisters; one a cop with a 4-year old son, the other a heroin addict. Set in Philadelphia. The sisters’ mother was a heroin addict, too, and died of an overdose. The mystery: Who is murdering young heroin addicts? Micky (the cop sister) hasn’t seen Kacey […]
The Warmth of Other Suns
by Isabel Wilkerson, 2010 Fantastic book! Heard about it from Karen, the leader of the Old Town Library Book Club, during our discussion of American Prison. It’s long (550 pages) but gripping and eye-opening. We learn about ‘America’s great migration’ through the true stories of 3 black people who left (really, escaped) the South (Ida […]