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, […]
Category: Fiction
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The DNA of You and Me
by Andrea Rothman, 2019 Our neighbor, Kim (of Kim and Richard), gave me this book to read because it was recommended for people who liked Lab Girl. It was a very quick read, a novel, a love-story, about scientists investigating the DNA of the sense of smell. The author was a research scientist who studied […]
Islands in the Stream
by Ernest Hemingway, 1970 (Ernest Hemingway shot himself in July 1961 with his favorite shotgun in the entryway of his Ketchum, Idaho home. Mary Hemingway, his 4th and final wife, and Charles Scribner, Jr. published this book from Ernest’s original manuscript: “Charles Scribner, Jr. and I worked together preparing this book for publication from Ernest’s […]
A Hole Is to Dig
by Ruth Krauss, 1952 Adorable little children’s book, full of adorable illustrations and cute definitions like, “A hole is to dig…Hands are to hold…Mashes potatoes are to give everybody enough…The sun is so it can be a great day.” Recommended on the book a day calendar that Christie gave me.
The Giver of Stars
by Jojo Moyes, 2019 Fantastic book about pack-horse librarians in Kentucky during the Depression. This book has everything: Characters you love, characters you hate, a couple of mysteries, well-written, deep sense of place, and a very good ending. Loved this book! It was recommended to me by Christie.
Rogue Male
by Geoffrey Household, 1939 Enthralling short novel about a talented spy who gets caught seeing if it would be possible for him to assassinate an evil dictator. He escapes after a fall from a cliff, and the suspense begins. He is badly injured but makes his way out of this country, which may be Poland, […]
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston, 1937 This book was our last book selection for the Old Town Library Book Club for 2019-2020. Mandy selected it because it was one of the Great American Read 100 best books. It’s a short book and wasn’t about what I thought it was going to be about. It’s about a […]
Long Bright River
by Liz Moore, 2020 Page-turner! So readable! Enthralling characters: 2 sisters; one a cop with a 4-year old son, the other a heroin addict. Set in Philadelphia. The sisters’ mother was a heroin addict, too, and died of an overdose. The mystery: Who is murdering young heroin addicts? Micky (the cop sister) hasn’t seen Kacey […]
Nine Coaches Waiting
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 […]
Cost
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 […]
The Overstory
by Richard Powers, 2018 I cannot believe this book won the Pulitzer Prize! I got so tired of it half-way through and am so glad I finally finished it and can return it to the library. It was 502 pages of new-age gobbledygook about trees and 5 humans that try to save them. I don’t […]
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift, 1726 What a strange book! I didn’t like it! It is about a LOT more than just his journey to Lilliput. In fact, that is only a short portion at the very beginning. He ends up going to many other places – a land of giants, another place governed by a floating […]
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, 1843 Loved reading this after enjoying the movie with George C. Scott every year for many, many years! I was surprised at how closely the movie follows the book, in most places word-for-word. I like the way he describes the ghosts better in the book than the way they are portrayed in […]
The Stationery Shop
by Marjan Kamali, 2019 Recommended by Christie, this is a sweet book about two young lovers in 1953 Tehran, Iran. They meet in the Stationery Shop, a shop filled with beautiful pens, papers, journals, books, etc. They decide to marry, despite the young man’s mother’s objections, and arrange to meet in the square at a […]
The Pilgrim’s Progress
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 […]