Author: bookhound

Lorna Doone

by R.D. Blackmore, 1869 LOVED THIS BOOK! Wonderful hero of heroes, John Ridd, falls in love with Lorna Doone, even though her people killed his father. He rescues her from the wicked Doone’s and she is restored as Lady Lorna Dugal, because the Doone’s had kidnapped her and killed her parents and brother. John loves […]

Arrowsmith

by Sinclair Lewis, Pulitzer Prize winner, 1925 Martin Arrowsmith comes from Elk Mills in the state of Winnemac. Goes to medical school in early 1900’s. Falls in love with research with Dr. Gottlieb. Marries Leora, a wonderful girl who adores him. They move to her hometown, Wheatsylvania (North Dakota) but can’t get on with the […]

The Man from Beijing

by Henning Mankell, 2010 Rich, powerful Chinese man (Ya Ru) takes revenge on 19 Swedish people living in a remote village in Sweden. Their ancestor was cruel and brutal to his Chinese ancestor, San, on the railroad, and then again back in China at a Christian mission. Story of revenge taken way too far. Birgitta […]

Death in Kenya

by M.M. Kaye, 1958 Great mystery set in Kenya right after the Mau Mau revolt. Flamingo, the estate owned by Aunt Em, in Kenya. Her niece, Victoria, comes to live there. First, Alice is murdered, the wife of Em’s grandson, Eden. Then, Kamau disappears, then Gilly Markham is murdered. Then an attempt on Victoria. It […]

One of Ours

by Willa Cather, Pulitzer Prize 1923 Claude Wheeler – “Now he dismissed all Christian Theology as something too full of evasions and sophistries to be reasoned about.” Sophistry – A subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning. Fallacious – deceptive, misleading, containing a fallacy, logically unsound What a beautiful book! What a […]

God is Closer Than You Think

by John Ortberg, 2005 Great book. First Pres Lenten Study 2010. Wayne led small group: Dave and Norma Brown, Roger and Elizabeth Heins, Al & Rosemary Habernicht, Jim and Linda Wagner, Patrice Quadrel. Started out with a bad attitude because it’s not “The Hole in Our Gospel,” but ended up liking it very much. Especially […]

Tales of the South Pacific

by James A. Michener, 1946 (won Pullitzer Prize in 1948) Norfolk Island: an island in the South Pacific near Australia and New Zealand. The Norfolk Pines were planted by the Mutiny of the Bounty people who ended up there. They had to cut them all down to make a landing strip during WWII. Bill Harbison-yuck! […]

Merle’s Door, Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

by Ted Kerasote, 2007 “This sort of analysis has led geneticists to conclude that everyone alive today is related to one woman-dubbed “mitochondrial Eve”-who lived in Africa about 150,000 to 175,000 years ago.” “…every domestic dog alive today, during the last century, and going back for thousands upon thousands of years, from the smallest Pekingese […]

One Minute Manager

by Stephen Blanchard, PhD; Spencer Johnson, MD, 2003 Carolyn Worden’s notes: Front inside cover, “Help people reach their full potential, catch them doing something right.“ P. 61: You set one minute goals with your people to make sure they know what they are being held accountable for and what good performance looks like. You then […]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain, 1885 Finished 2/15/10 – the day I found out I needed a root canal! Wonderful book!!!! Non-stop adventure!!!! Huck escapes his drunk father, meets up with Jim on Jackson’s Island. They go down river on a raft and have many adventures, including running into 2 rapscallions, the King and the Duke, who […]

The Age of Innocence

by Edith Wharton, 1921 Pulitzer Prize Unrequited love – New York society, late 1800s Newland Archer marries May Welland but is in love with Countess Olenska. She bucks the trends but refuses to lead him astray. He remains faithful to his wife. After her death, he and son go to Europe and he can visit […]

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

by Alexander McCall Smith, 2007 2007 installment of #1 Ladies Detective Series. They just get better and better! LOVE these books. In this one, Mr. JLB Matekoni takes a case- follows the wrong guy – but it actually turns out better than if he’d followed the right guy! (2 men in red cars) Mma Makutsi […]

Hannah Coulter

by Wendell Berry, 2004 Great, sweet book about a woman in rural Kentucky, 1940’s to 2000. Her life on the farm. First husband dies in WWII, marries Nathan Coulter. Their life, love, children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors. Hard work, goodness, kindness, beauty in nature, sticking with one another.

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen, 1813 LOVED THIS BOOK! Could not put it down! Elizabeth ends up marrying Darcy, but not until about a year of misconception about him. He still wants her even after she rejects him. Then she finds out what a nice guy he really is. He forgives her rejection and they end up […]

The Rule of Four

by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, 2004 Good read. Four roommates at Princeton, two are researching the Hypnerotomachia, a 500-year old book which is a mystery. Paul figures it out – you think he is dead. Tom is whiling away his life as a software analyst in Texas when an ancient painting shows up in […]

The Hole in Our Gospel

by Richard Stearns, 2009 Inspirational! A call to arms!! (Wayne’s book) FANTASTIC BOOK! Biblical truths, stories of the gospel in action, God’s heart for the poor. Everything you ever need to know about what God expects of His people. Full of the truth in plain statistics but also full of hope for what we can […]

Jewel

by Bret Lott, 1991 UGH! What a STUPID book! No sympathy for any of the characters. About Jewel, a woman who has a Down’s Syndrome child in the 40’s – then called “Mongolian Idiot” – h husband and other 5 children. Starts off in Mississippi, then moves to L.A., back to Mississippi, then back to […]