by Bryan Stevenson, 2014 Excellent book! I’m not sure where I heard about it but I’m so glad I read it. Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who started the Equal Justice Initiative. We needed him and, unfortunately, we still do. He works tirelessly to free innocent men from death row, to end the death penalty […]
by Isabel Wilkerson, 2010 Fantastic book! Heard about it from Karen, the leader of the Old Town Library Book Club, during our discussion of American Prison. It’s long (550 pages) but gripping and eye-opening. We learn about ‘America’s great migration’ through the true stories of 3 black people who left (really, escaped) the South (Ida […]
by Mary Stewart, 1958 Wonderful book! Suspense, mystery, interesting characters and setting. Loved it! Set in the forest of France near Geneva, Switzerland, and involving a very wealthy family, the Valmy’s, and their beautiful chateau. A young English girl comes to live there and be the governess of 9 year-old Philippe, the rightful heir to […]
by Roxana Robinson, 2008 One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. Excellent but harrowing. So painful and scary. If anyone is thinking about taking heroin, read this first. Through the character of 22 year-old Jack, you learn what it is like to be an addict. The dark, awful, soul-consuming world of a heroin […]
by Hope Jahren, 2016 I loved this book! I love its author, Hope Jahren! It’s a memoir about how she became a scientist with her very own lab, and her deep, deep friendship with a guy named Bill, who has been with her since the beginning of her journey. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, informative, uplifting and […]
by Cheryl Mendelson, 1999 What an amazing book! Everything you could ever want to know about keeping a home in 837 pages! She gives instructions on EVERYTHING – cleaning, what to do in what order and with what products, the actual chemistry behind cleaning products, how to set a table, stock a kitchen, clean anything […]
by John Bunyan, Part I-1678, Part II-1684 Lora Lee told me about this book and the movie. The book has never been out of print and, second to the Bible, is the most popular book in the world. The writing style is Old English, of course, since it was written 350 years ago. At first […]
by Sy Montgomery, 2015 Who would have thought an octopus had a soul? But after reading this book, you can’t help but believe it! How sweet and precious this story is! She spends most of the book with octopuses in the New England Aquarium, and with the people who work and volunteer there. Through her […]
by Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D., 2010 Fantastic book about the history of cancer. The hundreds of years of unnecessary, radical mastectomies, and the evilness of Big Tobacco stand out. Also, the futility of trying to cure cancer. There are only a few cancers for which we’ve discovered what might be termed cures: CML, Hodgkin’s, breast cancer […]
The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, Jr., 1991 In-depth memoir by a Vietnam veteran who lost both legs and most of his hands after tripping a booby trap running from enemy soldiers after his gun jammed. He is the son of a decorated Marine General, a good father but such a decorated war hero that […]
by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1854-5 Classic recommended by Kindra, a librarian at the Old Town Library. At first, I thought it would be hard to read because of the old-style language, but after only a couple of pages, it was imminently readable and I couldn’t put it down! The story centers on 19 year-old Margaret Hale, […]
by Gerald Durrell, 1969 A second beautiful book about his time in Corfu in the late 1930’s. What a treasure his books are! His writing brings me to a place and time and among people I love. This book covered stories about a wedding party, Gerry’s surprise birthday present of a goat, Gerry witnessing the […]
by Delia Owens, 2018 What a fantastic book! Once the murder trial started, I could not put it down. I tried to go to sleep at 10:00 p.m. but got up at 10:45 p.m. and finished this book by 1:45 a.m.! It was so good! So well-written and what a plot and characters! The main […]
2012 Lygon Stevens died in an avalanche on January 10, 2008, while climbing Little Bear Peak in the Sangre de Cristos in Colorado. She was 20 years old. “Swept downhill over 1000 feet and buried under a mass of snow, she would not be recovered until late June when the snows melted.” (This written by […]
by Laurie Frankel, 2017 What a fantastic book! What a fantastic writer! I didn’t want to read this book, but my friend, Christie, read it and said she couldn’t put it down – it was so good! So, I read it and felt the same way, even though the topic, a transgender child, is not […]
by Gary Sinise with Marcus Brotherton, 2019 After reading this fantastic memoir, I wish Gary Sinise would run for president. I’d vote for him! What a beautiful American he is, and his book is a beautiful message for us all. He thanks God he was in the right place at the right time during high […]
by Lysa TerKeurst, 2018 Very helpful book about coping when your life is shattered into dust by heartbreak. The title is so fitting — when I experience major heartbreaks and disappointments, I wonder if God has forgotten me and even if He is a good God. This book offers solid, grounded, biblical reassurance that God […]
by Yangsze Choo, 2019 What a fun romp through British-colonial Malaya (Malaysia) in 1931! Delightful characters (11 year-old houseboy Ren; beautiful Ji Lin, handsome Shin) and mystery (why do these people keep dying and where is that finger) and sumptuous descriptions of Malaysian food and the flora and fauna of the tropics. I loved it!
by Gerald Durrell, 1956 How I adored this book! He tells of his time on the Greek isle of Corfu in the 1930s. His family moved there from England when oldest brother, Larry, finds out from a friend how warm and sunny it is there. It is laugh-out-loud funny and wonderfully written. It takes you […]
by Betty Smith, 1943 A gift from Christie for my birthday last year, I finally read it and absolutely loved it. All of the characters are so lovable and endearing, and the setting and time (1912-1919 Brooklyn) are captivating. It’s 481 pages long but so well-written and engrossing, it was enjoyable and hard to put […]