Author: bookhound

Believe Me

The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump by John Fea, 2018 Excellent book by an Evangelical who is an American history professor and chair of the history department at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He dedicates the book, “To the 19 percent.” He seeks to explain how 81% of evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump. He […]

Everybody Always

by Bob Goff, 2018 Al H. recommended this book. Redeemer Lutheran was reading it. It’s about loving everyone always, even your most despised enemies. It’s full of stories about the creative ways in which he has loved others. There’s a chapter about not telling people about the good you have done because you’ve done it […]

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas, 2017 This book takes you into the world of 16-year-old Starr; I hated the world but fell in love with her and her precious family. They live in the ghetto and Starr witnesses her childhood best friend, Khalil, get shot and killed by a white cop. She has brothers (Seven and Sekani), […]

Hiding in the Light

By Rifqa Bary, 2015 True story about a young Muslim girl who converts to Christianity and has to run away from home for her life and safety. This book demonstrates many things but to me, it mainly shows how we Americans take for granted our religious freedom; we are free to worship who we want, […]

Boys in The Trees, A Memoir

by Carly Simon, 2015 Carly started out life as a rich girl in NYC. Her dad was Dick Simon, founder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster. She was their third daughter and they were hoping for a boy to name “Carl” so they added a “y” and that’s how she became Carly. Music was a […]

Fortunate Son

The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, Jr., 1991 In-depth memoir by a Vietnam veteran who lost both legs and most of his hands after tripping a booby trap running from enemy soldiers after his gun jammed. He is the son of a decorated Marine General, a good father but such a decorated war hero that […]

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine

by Gail Honeyman, 2017 A most-interesting novel! It’s about a 30-year old girl, living a very lonely life in Glasgow. She has a boring office job that pays the bills, but her co-workers don’t like her and often gossip about her. She buys vodka every Friday and stays drunk through the weekend. She has a […]

North and South

by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1854-5 Classic recommended by Kindra, a librarian at the Old Town Library. At first, I thought it would be hard to read because of the old-style language, but after only a couple of pages, it was imminently readable and I couldn’t put it down! The story centers on 19 year-old Margaret Hale, […]

Birds, Beasts, and Relatives

by Gerald Durrell, 1969 A second beautiful book about his time in Corfu in the late 1930’s. What a treasure his books are! His writing brings me to a place and time and among people I love. This book covered stories about a wedding party, Gerry’s surprise birthday present of a goat, Gerry witnessing the […]

The River

by Peter Heller, 2019 What a disappointing book! Can’t believe it is by the same author who wrote The Dog Stars! Two young men, best friends, decide to canoe a river in Canada. They run into 1. A huge wildfire, 2. A lunatic who tried to murder his wife, and after the young men go […]

Where the Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens, 2018 What a fantastic book! Once the murder trial started, I could not put it down. I tried to go to sleep at 10:00 p.m. but got up at 10:45 p.m. and finished this book by 1:45 a.m.! It was so good! So well-written and what a plot and characters! The main […]

The Huntress

by Kate Quinn, 2019 Action-packed historical fiction about Nazi hunters in the 1950s. Characters are very appealing, except for the Huntress – die Jagerin. There are 6 main characters: Jordan McBride, young American girl who wants to be a photographer; Ian Graham, Englishman and former WWII war correspondent, who wants to catch the Huntress because […]

This Is How It Always Is

by Laurie Frankel, 2017 What a fantastic book! What a fantastic writer! I didn’t want to read this book, but my friend, Christie, read it and said she couldn’t put it down – it was so good! So, I read it and felt the same way, even though the topic, a transgender child, is not […]

It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way

by Lysa TerKeurst, 2018 Very helpful book about coping when your life is shattered into dust by heartbreak. The title is so fitting — when I experience major heartbreaks and disappointments, I wonder if God has forgotten me and even if He is a good God. This book offers solid, grounded, biblical reassurance that God […]

The Night Tiger

by Yangsze Choo, 2019 What a fun romp through British-colonial Malaya (Malaysia) in 1931! Delightful characters (11 year-old houseboy Ren; beautiful Ji Lin, handsome Shin) and mystery (why do these people keep dying and where is that finger) and sumptuous descriptions of Malaysian food and the flora and fauna of the tropics. I loved it!

My Family and Other Animals

by Gerald Durrell, 1956 How I adored this book! He tells of his time on the Greek isle of Corfu in the 1930s. His family moved there from England when oldest brother, Larry, finds out from a friend how warm and sunny it is there. It is laugh-out-loud funny and wonderfully written. It takes you […]