by Nicolas Freeling, 1965 This was a Christie book-of-the-day calendar recommendation. I liked it but it mentioned many things, people, ideas, and places I had never heard of, I would have spent too much time looking things up. I didn’t look anything up so I only understood enough to keep up. It was about a […]
Author: bookhound
The Enchanted April
by Elizabeth Von Arnim, 1922 This book was recommended on the “Page-a-Day” book calendar Christie gave me. I loved it. It was a wonderful escape to Italy in the 1920s. Four English ladies, strangers to one another, share an old castle on the coast of Italy near Genoa for the month of April. Each one […]
Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire
by Rebecca Henderson, 2020 I heard about this book from an interview with the author on NPR. She was talking about Walmart and how it changed practices after Hurricane Katrina and became more caring about the environment and their employees, but they did it almost secretly because they didn’t want people to think they would […]
The Reason for God
Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller, 2008 Another excellent book by Tim Keller. This one explains logically, thoroughly, and beautifully how the God of the Bible exists and is real. In Part 1: The Leap of Doubt, the arguments against God are presented and examined. Chapter titles are: There Can’t Be Just […]
The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy, 1997 Excellent writer but such a tragic tale, and no redemption in the end. Seven year-old twins (“two-egg twins”) and their beautiful mother, Ammu, live with their Uncle Chacko, their grandaunt Baby Kochamma, and their grandmother, Mammachi, in their beautiful home and Paradise Pickle factory by the river in Ayemenem, India. Something […]
Forgotten God
Reversing our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan with Danae Yakoski, 2009 Good book about how we have ignored the Holy Spirit in our American churches and as a result, it’s become irrelevant and is dying. We’ve become consumers of religion an hour or two a week, looking for the best entertainment. […]
Pigeon Pie
by Nancy Mitford, 1940 I hope that anybody who is kind enough to read it will remember that it was written before Christmas 1939. Published on 6th May 1940 it was an early and unimportant casualty of the real war which was then beginning. NANCY MITFORD Paris, 1951 from the dedication page Fun little mystery […]
Fly Girls
by Keith O’Brien, 2018 Suspenseful non-fiction about 5 women who flew airplanes in the 1920s and 1930s. They battled against much prejudice but held fast to their dreams. The only one I’d heard about, of course, was Amelia Earhart. But there were 4 other women who should have been household names as well: Frances Grayson, […]
Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng, 2017 Interesting and well-written novel, although I didn’t like the setting, the characters, or the plot. Set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, an affluent community, where they planned everything down to the last detail (grassy areas, trees, schools, parks, where trash cans are kept, where rental homes are built, etc.) This is an […]
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
by Paul Torday, 2007 Entertaining and educational novel about a Sheikh from the Yemen who loves fly fishing for salmon and decides to try and introduce salmon fishing in the Yemen. Money is no object. He hires a British fisheries scientist, Dr. Alfred Jones, who is at first completely against the idea. (Of course!) Harriet, […]
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett, 2020 Interesting novel, interesting premise: twin light-skinned black girls (Desiree and Stella) go their separate ways, one to live as a white woman (Stella), the other remains a black woman (Desiree). Desiree is definitely the more likable character. She ends up with a daughter (Jude) black as coal and returns with her […]
The Book of Eels
by Patrick Svensson, 2019, translated from the Swedish by Agnes Broome 2020 Surprising that a book about eels would be so interesting, but it was! Every other chapter is his personal experience fishing for eels with his Dad in Sweden. I liked those chapters the best. He loved fishing for eels with his Dad. What […]
Walking with God through Pain and Suffering
by Timothy Keller, 2013 The definitive book on pain and suffering and God. Why suffering exists (why does God allow evil), the different types of suffering, suffering in history, how to suffer, where is God in the suffering. It used to be that people did not find suffering such a shock or something to be […]
The Family Clause
by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, 2018 (English translation from the Swedish by Alice Menzies, 2020) This was one of the books Fredrik Backman, the author of Anxious People, recommended. The whole time I was reading it, I thought the title was ‘The Father Clause,’ but now see that it is called, ‘The Family Clause.’ It’s about […]
Rock Crystal
by Adalbert Stifter, translation copy 1945, originally published 1845 Novella about two children, brother (Conrad) and sister (Sanna), from the village of Gschaid, who walk through the Alps to their Grandparent’s home in a neighboring village (Millsford) on Christmas Eve. Grandmother sends them home early and they get caught in a snowstorm on the way […]
More Than Meets the Eye
Fascinating Glimpses of God’s Power and Design, by Richard A. Swenson, M.D., 2000 The intricacies of our bodies and the cosmos all point to an amazingly powerful and wonderful Creator. All of the things scientists discover after painstaking research and years and years of study, God spoke into being out of nothing. And it is […]
She Come By It Natural
Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh, 2020 Short biography of Dolly Parton written by a young feminist who grew up poor in Kansas and likened her grandmother, Betty, to be the real Dolly Parton. In the acknowledgements, she writes: “Thanks especially to the real Dolly Parton, my grandmother Betty.” […]
Anxious People
by Fredrik Backman, 2019 (translation to English by Neil Smith, 2020) I LOVED this book! I started out not liking it at all – not liking the characters except for Jack, the young policeman, and his father, Jim, also a policeman. But then, you gradually come to love each of the characters: Jack and his […]
The New Map
Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations, by Daniel Yergin, 2020 Informative book. Learned that we’ve gone from being worried about running out of oil to being a major exporter of it, mainly as Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). We are one of the big 3 oil producers: USA, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Also learned that […]
Virgil Wander
by Leif Enger, 2018 Very disappointing book. It’s set in small-town Minnesota along Lake Superior. The main character drives off a cliff into Lake Superior and is rescued by Marcus Jetty, an old junk collector. Virgil’s life changes drastically after the accident. He meets a Norwegian kite flyer, Rune, who is the long lost father […]