by Laurie Lee, 1959 First of all, Laurie Lee is a male! This is his story of growing up in a Cotswold village in the 1920s. He transports you there. You can feel the summer heat, the icy winter, the mud, the grass, the trees, the cottage he grew up in with his 6 siblings […]
Author: bookhound
Cider with Rosie
Counterfeit Gods
The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters by Timothy Keller, 2009 Another EXCELLENT book by Tim Keller! All of us replace loving God first and most with idols like money, sex, and power, but also approval, acceptance, love, success, security, comfort, and control. Worshiping idols rather than God […]
Searching for Sunday
by Rachel Held Evans, 2015 I heard about this author on NPR, Fresh Air (I think), when another author was being interviewed and he mentioned how influential Rachel Held Evans was in his life. She died at the age of 37 on May 4, 2019 from an allergic reaction to medication for an infection that […]
Born a Crime
by Trevor Noah, 2016 Fantastic book! Remarkable man! Amazing Mom! This was one of our book selections for the Old Town Library Book Club, 2021-2022 season. Trevor Noah, a famous comedian now, was born under Apartheid in South Africa, to a Xhosa mother and a Swiss father. She never asked to marry his Swiss father […]
Sabrina & Corina
by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, 2019 A group of short stories, each centered around a female Latina or Indigenous or mixed-race and mostly set in Denver or the fictional town of Saguarita in Southwestern Colorado. Beautifully written; powerful sense of place and characters, but oh so sad. All poor, all making decisions that ultimately hurt them. The […]
Willie Nelson’s Letters to America
by Willie Nelson with Turk Pipkin, 2021 Heartwarming letters from Willie Nelson to all sorts of folks, and even a scathing letter to the COVID-19 virus. He wrote this while at home under lock-down in Texas, and you can tell, he doesn’t like having to stay home, not being able to tour. He’s 88 years […]
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood, 2003 This was the first book selection of the Old Town Library Book Club for 2021-2022. I never would have read this book otherwise, and I almost stopped reading it when she describes the childhood of Oryx, a young girl sold into child pornography (“HottTotts”). Mandy selected this book and she did […]
God & Churchill
by Jonathan Sandys & Wallace Henley, 2015 Jonathan Sandys is the great-grandson of Winston Churchill. Along with Wallace Henley, a Christian who has served in the White House and is a columnist for the Christian Post, he writes about Winston Churchill’s conversation with a fellow Harrow student named Murland de Grasse Evans, at age 16 […]
The Bogey Man: A Month on the PGA Tour
by George Plimpton, 1968 A wonderfully funny book recommended by the Book-A-Day calendar from Christie. George Plimpton spends a month on the PGA tour at three courses in California, and writes about it. It is just delightful! He is a very good writer, especially when it comes to conversations. He gets you into the game […]
Hotel Pastis: A Novel of Provence
by Peter Mayle, 1993 Delightful book! Recommended on my Christie book-a-day calendar. Takes you from dreary England and back-biting advertising world to sunny France. The main character, Simon Shaw, is a wealthy advertising executive who is hassled by an ex-wife who just wants more and more of his money. He takes a much-needed vacation to […]
Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the 21st Century
by Josh Rogin, 2021 Nate told me about this book. It’s about what went on with China during Trump’s presidency. It’s written by Josh Rogin, a columnist for the Washington Post and an analyst for CNN. He knows of what he speaks (writes). He’s meticulously detailed. He is not partisan. I’m glad I read this […]
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
by Kim Michele Richardson, 2019 Wonderful book recommended by neighbor, Pat. Historical fiction, 1930s, a “Blue” horse pack librarian (Cussy Mary), who faces hardship, tragedy, racism, but finds true love in the Kentucky mountains. There were really blue-skinned people, who had congenital methemoglobinemia, but were considered “coloreds” and discriminated against. This is a fictional account […]
The Next Everest
by Jim Davidson, 2021 Excellent memoir by a mountain climber who lives in Fort Collins. The Library recommended this book on their monthly “Biographies” e-mail. It was about his two trips to Nepal to climb Mount Everest; the first in 2015 when the deadly 7.8 Gorkha earthquake struck Nepal and caused an avalanche on Mount […]
Crossing the Line
by Kareem Rosser, 2021 Excellent book! Learned about it from the Library’s monthly Biographies email. As I was reading their description of the book, about a young black man who learned to play polo in inner-city Philadelphia, and came to CSU for college, I realized I had read his scholarship application! I made sure he […]
Ender’s Game
by Orson Scott Card, 1977, 1985, 1991 Fast, easy read, recommended on Book-A-Day calendar. Science fiction tale about a little boy, Ender Wiggin, who is sent to battle school at the age of 6 and trained to be the Commander who will save the world from the buggers. He does after 5 years of brutal […]
Anthem
by Ayn Rand, 1937 Wayne read this in high school. He’s also read, Atlas Shrugged. This was a very short book; 105 pages–I read it in 2 days. It’s about a man, Equality 7-2521, who is unhappy in his life as a street sweeper. In this world, there is no “I,” only “We.” He knows […]
Swallows and Amazons
by Arthur Ransome, 1930 Precious, beautiful, sweet book about 4 children in 1930s England whose mother (and father, by telegram from a destroyer on the China Seas) allow them to sail away and camp on an island in the lake, and all the wonderful adventures they have. They meet pirates, 2 girls their age who […]
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates, 2021 Everything you need to know about climate change and what to do about it. We add 51 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere every year. We need to reduce that to 0 or there will be floods, famines, droughts, […]
A Framework for Understanding Poverty
by Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D. Revised edition 2005 Interesting book! Shines a light on how and why students who live in poverty think and behave the way they do; and how teachers, counselors, and administrators can provide the necessary supports which would enable them to move out of poverty. Schools are almost the only hope […]
The Rainbabies
by Laura Krauss Melmed, Illustrated by Jim LaMarche, 1992 Children’s book about a sweet old couple who lack nothing except a child. They go out on a moonlit night after a rain and find 12 babies. They care for them and save them through flood, fire, and wild animal dangers. Then a messenger comes with […]