by Rudyard Kipling, 1894 Wayne read a copy of The Jungle Book at the condo in Palm Springs, so I checked out this version from the Library. It has 3 of the 7 stories and was illustrated by Nicola Bayley. The three stories are: Mowgli’s Brothers, Kaa’s Hunting, and Tiger! Tiger!. In Mowgli’s Brothers, a […]
Category: Fiction
The Jungle Book
my grandmother asked me to tell you she’s sorry
by Fredrik Backman, 2013 Translation, 2015, by Henning Koch Sweet story by the author of A Man Called Ove. It’s about a 7-year old girl, Elsa, and her granny. Granny is a real character but she loves and protects Elsa and is Elsa’s only friend. But then she dies of cancer and leaves Elsa alone, […]
September
by Rosamunde Pilcher, 1990 Delightful soap opera set in mid-1970s Scotland. It’s 613 pages long. I got the book from a little-free library. First, Mom read it and loved it. Then, Carol read it and loved it. She said it takes you away to Scotland, and it certainly does. A rural village in Scotland with […]
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong, 2019 Eew. Yuck. I hated this book. Too dark, too depressing, too sad, too hopeless, too graphic, too filthy. No goodness and light whatsoever. Set in Hartford, Connecticut, it’s about “Little Dog,” a Vietnamese boy who is beaten by his mother, who was beaten by her husband. He falls in love with […]
Garden of Eden
by Ernest Hemingway, posthumously 1986 What a strange book! It was the September 2022 selection for the Classic Book Club. I gave it to Mom to read first and asked her if she wanted to go to this book club and discuss it. She at first said yes, but then she said no. I finally […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Santa Calls
by William Joyce, 1993 Children’s book recommended on the Book-A-Day calendar from Christie. Here’s what they said: “North Pole Adventure: In William Joyce’s picture book, Santa Calls, young Art Atchinson Aimesworth–inventor, crime fighter, and all- around whiz kid–is summoned by Santa Claus to the North Pole. There he invents, fights crime, whizzes all around, and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley, 1932 I didn’t read this, but Wayne did, twice; once in high school and then, again, just recently. He said not to bother with it, but there are warnings for us. They used genetic engineering focusing on cognitive abilities, to mass-produce humans in test-tubes, some created to be slaves, others higher caste. […]
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 […]
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 […]