by Stephanie Barron, 2002 Being the sixth Jane Austen mystery. Not well-written! Contradictions – started out with tea and then “finished my chocolate.” Hard to follow. Story about Jane and her brother, Frank, a Navy captain, and the Navy and someone (a Navy captain, Thomas Seagrave) being wrongly accused of murder. A French gentleman posing […]
Author: bookhound
Started Early, Took My Dog
by Kate Atkinson, 2011 Interesting novel, set in England, about a retired police superintendent, Tracy Waterhouse, who purchases a little girl, Courtney, from a drug-crazed, abusive prostitute, Kelly Cross, at a bus stop. At the same time, Jackson Brodie, a private investigator, saves a little dog beaten by a thug. Their lives intertwine while Jackson […]
An Altar in the World
by Barbara Brown Taylor, 2009 Her philosophy on how to find God in the everyday world. I think Danette recommended this book.
People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks, 2008 Fictional tale of the true “Sarajevo Haggadah,” an ancient (1350) Jewish prayer book beautifully illustrated — “Illuminations.” It is now in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, valued at $700 million in 1991 – most valuable book in the world. She goes back in time from Hanna Heath, […]
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, 2011 A true story about Kamila Sidiqi and her 5 sisters and how they survived under the Taliban. Very similar to My Forbidden Face. Khair Khana is the neighborhood in Kabul in which they lived. When the Taliban took over, they could no longer leave the house, unless accompanied by male […]
My Forbidden Face
by Latifa, 2001 Sept. 27, 1996, Taliban take over Kabul, Afghanistan. No longer can women go to school or work – must cover themselves entirely. Also, no music, etc. No whistling, no TV, no pets, no kites, no weddings, not allowed to laugh in streets, no photos. “One thing and one thing only, unites Afghans […]
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2011 12th book in the #1 Ladies Detective Agency Wonderful, wonderful book! Mma Ramotswe solves the mystery of the cattle maulings – not really – but everyone else is satisfied; the kind neighbor who just wants to be friends buys the unkind Mr. Botsalo Moeti salt lick and offers to fix […]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson, 2005 Intriguing characters but poorly written and very ugly – lots of perverse sick dark sexual crime and a serial murderer. Why is this an international best seller? Lisbeth Salander – 24 yr. old – tattoos, piercing, ward of state (Sweden) – genius computer hacker, very unemotional, loves her mother, though – […]
Half Broke Horses
by Jeanette Walls, 2009 “A True-Life Novel” Jeannette Walls tells the life story of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who grew up on a ranch in Texas and then New Mexico. Her dad taught her how to break horses and work on the ranch. She was the oldest of 3 children-smart, hard-working, fearless. She really […]
The Red Pony
by John Steinbeck, 1937 Strange, unsatisfying little book about a little boy (Jody) who lives on a ranch with his mom, dad, and a ranch-hand, Billy Buck. His mean dad brings home a little red pony, a treasure, for Jody, to raise and train and have as his own. One day the pony is left […]
The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins, 2008 Teen fiction-fast moving. Set in futuristic North America where the “Capitol” holds the Hunger Games annually as a reminder to the Districts, twelve of them, not to ever rebel again. Two teens from each of 12 districts are drawn in a lottery. These 24 youths are sent to an arena in […]
Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand, 2010 (she wrote Seabiscuit) “A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” Louis Zamperini, from Torrance, CA, grows from a delinquent to an Olympic runner. Then a bombardier for the Army Air Force in WWII. He flies in B-24 bombers and they participate in the bombing of Nauru in the Pacific. On […]
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
by Mark Twain, 2010 He requested that much of his autobiography be unpublished until 100 years after his death. Introduction = 58 pages Preliminary Manuscripts and Dictations, 1870-1905, Pgs. 59-199 Autobiography of Mark Twain, pgs. 203-467 Explanatory Notes, pgs. 469-650 Appendixes, pgs. 651-667 Note on the Text, pgs. 669-679 Word Division in this Volume, pg. […]
The Way West
by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. 1949, won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1950 Lije Evans, his wife, Becky, and son, Brownie, decide to go to Oregon with a wagon train. 1840’s, I think. Lije convinces Dick Summers to be the pilot. They leave Independence, MO with about 12 other families in wagons. At first, a […]
The Pearl
by John Steinbeck, 1945 Finished in 2 days. Exquisite, painful story about Kino, Juana, and little baby boy, Coyotito. Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion – that Kino, his father, couldn’t catch in time. Jauna, Coyotito’s mother, sucks out the poison but decides they must see the doctor. The rich doctor won’t see them because […]
Cleopatra, A Life
by Stacy Schiff, 2010 I read 2 chapters – gave up – too speculative – Ptolemy and on and on – couldn’t finish – Thanks to Wayne – No time for bad books.
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens, 1861 Pip as a young boy meets an escaped convict in a church cemetery. The convict scares him into bringing him food and a file to cut off his leg iron. Pip does this. Pip lives with a much older sister and her blacksmith husband, a saint of a man, Joe Gargery. […]
The Arabian Nights
Translated by Husain Haddawy “This translation is of the complete text of the Mahdi edition, the definitive Arabic edition of a 14th century Syrian manuscript, which is the oldest surviving version of the tales and considered to be the most authentic.” Shahrazad marries the King Shahrayar who typically puts his wives to death after one […]
The Prince and the Pauper
by Mark Twain, 1882 Fabulous book! Set in 1500’s in England. Two little boys; one the prince, the other a pauper (Tom Canty) change places. The real prince learns what it feels like to be poor and downcast and to see his laws in action (such unfairness!). The pauper becomes rich and catered to. In […]
Of Love and Evil
by Anne Rice, 2010 Book “lite” about assassin turned true believer who works for the Angels now. Is sent back to Rome in 1500’s to save a young Jewish scholar and put a ghost to rest. Not much depth to her writing; “fluff.”