by Glennon Doyle Melton, 2016 Memoir by a woman who was bulimic starting at age 10, then an alcoholic. She finds out she is pregnant for the 2nd time and decides to have this baby. She marries her boyfriend, they try to make a go of it, having 3 children, moving to Naples, Florida. She […]
Author: bookhound
Love Warrior
Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession
by William Skidelsky, 2015 This book is written by a huge Roger Federer fan, and it’s about life as a Federer fan: the joy of his victories, the agony of his defeats, and despising Rafael Nadal. Being a Roger Federer fan brought him through a dark period of his life. I wonder how he feels […]
Malibu Rising
by Taylor Jenkins Reid, 2021 This was the last book selection for the “Take Me Away” summer book club at the Old Town Library. I don’t know what to think. It was a good story but too much gratuitous sex and drug-taking. It just didn’t need all that garbage. Set in 1950 to 1980 Malibu. […]
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac, 1957 I decided to read this book after Geoff Dyer wrote about it in The Last Days of Roger Federer. I’m glad I read it. It describes road trips across 1940s America twice, and then one down to Mexico. The main characters are Sal Paradise and his dear friend, Dean Moriarty. Dean […]
Red Notice
by Bill Browder, 2015 Eye-opening book about Russia. It details Bill Browder’s experience as a hedge fund manager starting soon after communism fell through his battle for justice for his lawyer, Sergie Magnitsky, who was tortured to death in a Russian prison. Bill fought and fought and fought to keep the truth in the forefront, […]
Tell Everyone on This Train I Love Them
by Maeve Higgins, 2022 I learned a lot from this book. For example, Ireland has been blowing up monuments (to British men) for centuries. If our Black Americans blew up the monuments to slavery, the outcry would never end. Maeve was welcomed to America from Ireland because she is white and young and European. The […]
The Last Days of Roger Federer And Other Endings
by Geoff Dyer, 2022 I finished it! It’s not what I expected. He has never met Roger and Roger is barely mentioned in this book. He loves tennis and he loves Roger, but this book is mostly about dead, or nearly dead, poets, artists, writers, and musicians, and their last works. I have not read […]
A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century
by Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, 2021 I asked neighbor, Nate, what book he was reading currently and he said this one. It sounded intriguing so I checked it out from the library. I scanned it–didn’t read it word-for-word. Their premise is that our modern lives are the opposite of healthy lives. I like what […]
White Sands
by Geoff Dyer, 2016 This is the second book I have read by this author. I learned about him when Christie let me know about his newest book, The Last Days of Roger Federer. The first book I read of his was Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It. That book was […]
Hana Khan Carries On
by Uzma Jalaluddin, 2021 Enjoyable book. This is the first selection for the summer Old Town Library Take Me Away book club – selected by our leader, Librarian Meg Schiel. The characters are very endearing. I like that it was set in Toronto, in a Muslim area called the Golden Crescent. The main character is […]
Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It
by Geoff Dyer, 2003 What a writer! I learned about him from Christie, who sent me info on his newest book, The Last Days of Roger Federer. It wasn’t yet available at our library so I checked out this book by him. I enjoyed it immensely. He’s funny and it took me all over the […]
Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park
by Conor Knighton, 2020 Really fun, and funny, memoir by Conor Knighton on the year he took to visit all 59 National Parks. He started on January 1 in Acadia to watch the sun rise, and he ended at Point Reyes National Seashore to watch the sun set on December 31, 2016. He is trying […]
I Am Malala
by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick, Young Readers Edition, 2014 We thought about getting this book for Isabel, but after reading it, decided against it. Malala is brave and her story is amazing, but the book makes one despise Muslims because of the ignorance and evil of the Taliban. There is no doubt that God’s […]
American Spy
by Lauren Wilkinson, 2018 This was the last book selection for the Old Town Library Book Club 2021-2022 year. It was Jennifer’s selection. She is the one who so disliked Deacon King Kong, which was a most enjoyable, excellent book. She is the one who selected the book, Pachinko, a few years back, which I […]
Gmorning, Gnight: little pep talks for me & you
by Lin-Manuel Miranda, illustrated by Jonny Sun, 2018 Sweet book with inspirational, short, loving messages for the morning and the night. They come from his tweets. He loves Twitter. Here’s an example: “Gmorning. ‘You’ve had too many apps open for too long. ‘Close your eyes. ‘Check all systems. ‘Soft reboot.” “Gnight. ‘Don’t wait until low […]
Inside Outside
by Herman Wouk, 1985 Another EXCELLENT book by Herman Wouk. This one is long, 644 pages, but engrossing. It is set mainly in New York City in the first half of the 1900’s. It’s about a boy, a Jewish boy, who is born in 1915 in Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants. It tells […]
The Master: The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer
by Christopher Clarey, 2021 A full-on immersive trip into the world and life of Roger Federer. There have been about 12 biographies on Roger Federer. This is probably the definitive one. It takes you in-depth from before Roger was born (which was on 8/8/1981) to shortly after his devastating loss to Djokovic in the Wimbledon […]
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, 2015 This is the true story of a young boy, William Kamkwamba, who was born in 1987 in a tiny village near Wimbe, Malawi. He is enthralled with science and just wants to go to school and learn about science. He is the only boy with 6 sisters. His […]
Deacon King Kong
by James McBride, 2020 I LOVED this book! It was the Old Town Library Book Club selection for April 2022. Both Leslie and Mandy picked it. It took me someplace I didn’t want to be – a housing project, the Cause Houses, in NYC – complete with drug pushers, heroin addicts, alcoholics, and criminals. But […]
Don’t Stop the Carnival
by Herman Wouk, 1965 Herman Wouk lived on St. Thomas for 6 years while researching and writing books. A real-life New York press agent bought a hotel in the Virgin Islands and told the story of his many mishaps. Norman advised him to write a book, but the press agent “demurred.” However, he encouraged Norman […]