by Sadie Jones, 2012 LOVED THIS BOOK! What an amazing book! Could not stop after 1/2 way! Kind of a mystery, suspense, comedy, romance. 1912 Old English Manor house called Sterne. Main characters: Mom (Charlotte)–beautiful, vain, immature; Emerald–lovely and loving 19 year-old daughter; Clovis–handsome and spiteful 20 year-old son; Smudge–youngest daughter, forgotten little girl; Housekeeper […]
Category: Favorites
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection
by Alexander McCall Smith (#13 in the series), 2012 Another sweet book where Precious Ramotswe meets her hero, Clovis Andersen, who wrote the Principals of Private Detection. He is visiting Botswana after the death of his beloved wife. He’s from Muncie, Indiana. A lady in Botswana doing charitable work is in love with him. He […]
Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft
by Thor Heyerdahl, 1947 (Skyhorse Publishing 2010) Six men, led by Thor Heyerdahl, build a raft out of Balsa Wood logs and sail from Peru to the South Pacific trying to prove that the Polynesians originated from South America rather than Asia. What an adventure – from getting the logs in the Andes to crash […]
A Voice in the Wind
by Francine Rivers, 1993 Excellent Christian Historical Fiction. Set in Jerusalem, Rome, Ephesus in about 70 A.D. Destruction of Jerusalem. Young Jewish Christian girl, Hadassah, sees her family die, is taken captive to Rome – sold as a house slave to rich Ephesian family in Rome. The Valerians – Decimus (Dad), Phoebe (Mom), Marcus (Son) […]
The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls (author of Half Broke Horses), 2005 This is a memoir of Jeannette Walls’ childhood, born one of 4 children (3 girls, one boy) to Rex and Rose Mary Walls, married in 1956. Rosemary was an artist, Rex was a genius drunk. It starts out when Jeannette is 3 yrs. old, standing on […]
The Golden Impala
by Pamela Ropner, 1958 One of Wayne’s favorite books as a child. Set in Africa (South Africa). Peter lives on a game preserve with his father and mother. He loves Africa, everything about it. He sees a beautiful Golden Impala from his window one night – in the moonlight. Thousands of impala are coming onto […]
The Light of the Western Stars
by Zane Grey, 1914 Very romantic Western set in southern New Mexico in early 1900’s, about a beautiful, rich Eastern girl, Madeline (Majesty) Hammond, and Gene Stuart, the brave and handsome cowboy she loves, although it takes the whole book for her to realize it, and lots of strife. It was good, though. Adventurous and […]
A Game of Thrones
by George RR Martin, 1996 Couldn’t put it down! Like Ken Follett only his evil characters aren’t as evil – or he isn’t as graphic. Loved the children, especially Jon Snow, the bastard of Lord Eddard Stark, who loves his 1/2 brothers and sisters so much, but decides to swear himself to the Night Watch, […]
Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie, 1933 I LOVE Hercule Poirot!!! Who stabbed Ratchett 12 times on the train called the Orient Express? Turns out all 12 of the 13 passengers took a turn! Except for the one who had the biggest motive, the sister of Daisy Armstrong’s mother, who Ratchett (Cassetti) kidnapped and murdered but was “acquitted […]
The Bounty Trilogy: Mutiny on the Bounty (1932), Men Against the Sea (1934), Pitcairn’s Island (1934)
by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall Based on true events starting in 1787 when the Bounty sailed from England to Tahiti to pick up breadfruit trees to bring to the West Indies to provide cheap food for slaves. Mutiny on the Bounty: Captain Bligh was so mean, distrustful, cruel, accusatory, greedy, swindler. He accuses […]
The Prince and the Pilgrim
by Mary Stewart, 1995 A wonderful book about Prince Alexander, the fatherless, and Alice the motherless in King Arthur’s days. Alexander takes off to avenge his father (Prince Baudouin’s) murder at the hands of his brother, King March. On the way he falls under spell of Morgan LaFey and he goes on a quest for […]
Leaf by Niggle
Short story by JRR Tolkien, 1938-39, first published 1945 Niggle was a painter always trying to finish a painting that started as a leaf and grew to be a huge landscape with tree, forest, mountains in the distance. He loved thinking about the painting and working on it – in his shed – but hated […]
The Language of Flowers
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, 2011, First novel What a fantastic book! I could not put it down! Had to keep reading to see what was going to happen to Victoria! She had a horrendous childhood – in and out of foster homes and then group homes, with only one good experience in her entire life, but […]
Radical
by David Platt, 2010 The American Church has lost its way in the American Dream. “We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.” Christian news publication, 2 headlines side-by-side: “First Baptist Church Celebrates New $23 Million Building.” On the right […]
Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese, 2009 Amazingly original story! Twin boys, Marion and Shiva, born at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to a nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, who died in childbirth. Their father, a gifted surgeon, Thomas Stone, abandons them at their birth. The twins are raised by Hema and Ghosh, 2 doctors at Missing. […]
Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion
by Sara Miles, 2007 “The spiritual memoir of a twenty-first century Christian” Written by Sara Miles, a lesbian raised by atheists who wanders into St. Gregory’s Episcopalian Church (in S.F.) one day and is served communion and cries and cries and can’t stop thinking about Jesus. She becomes a believer and eventually opens up a […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]