by John Steinbeck, 1945 Finished in 2 days. Exquisite, painful story about Kino, Juana, and little baby boy, Coyotito. Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion – that Kino, his father, couldn’t catch in time. Jauna, Coyotito’s mother, sucks out the poison but decides they must see the doctor. The rich doctor won’t see them because […]
Category: Fiction
The Pearl
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens, 1861 Pip as a young boy meets an escaped convict in a church cemetery. The convict scares him into bringing him food and a file to cut off his leg iron. Pip does this. Pip lives with a much older sister and her blacksmith husband, a saint of a man, Joe Gargery. […]
The Arabian Nights
Translated by Husain Haddawy “This translation is of the complete text of the Mahdi edition, the definitive Arabic edition of a 14th century Syrian manuscript, which is the oldest surviving version of the tales and considered to be the most authentic.” Shahrazad marries the King Shahrayar who typically puts his wives to death after one […]
The Prince and the Pauper
by Mark Twain, 1882 Fabulous book! Set in 1500’s in England. Two little boys; one the prince, the other a pauper (Tom Canty) change places. The real prince learns what it feels like to be poor and downcast and to see his laws in action (such unfairness!). The pauper becomes rich and catered to. In […]
Of Love and Evil
by Anne Rice, 2010 Book “lite” about assassin turned true believer who works for the Angels now. Is sent back to Rome in 1500’s to save a young Jewish scholar and put a ghost to rest. Not much depth to her writing; “fluff.”
The Help
by Kathryn Stockett, 2009 Another fantastic modern novel! A real page-turner, set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960’s. Three heroes: 1. Miss Skeeter, the young white girl who just graduated from college and wants to be a writer. 2. Aibileen, the black maid who takes care of Mae Mobley, little 2 yr old white […]
Sleeping Tiger
by Rosamunde Pilcher, 1967 Sweet little romance about 20 yr old English girl (Selina) who goes to a Spanish island in search of her father and finds her true love (George, 37 yrs old) instead. She has to dump her lawyer fiance who is only marrying her for her money and George has to dump […]
The Pickwick Papers
by Charles Dickens, 1837 Finished on the way up to Adam and Danette’s wedding. Fell in love with Charles Dickens again! Wow! Fell in love with Mr. Pickwick – a fine old Gentleman, and Sam, his servant, who says ‘W’ as ‘V’ and ‘V’ as ‘W.” “Wictim, Wery, Vay, Vith, Vot, Vos.” Sam’s Dad, Mr. […]
New Mercies
by Sandra Dallas, 2006 (Author of The Persian Pickle Club) Pretty good book. Nora Bondurant of Denver gets called to Natchez, Mississippi, because her Aunt Amalia was murdered and she is the sole heir. Turns out the Aunt was really her grandma and she was murdered by Bayard Lott, a white man who loved her […]
The Yearling
by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer Prize Winner, 1939 BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! The Baxter’s, Penny (Dad), Ma, Jody-son, live in a clearing on high ground in Florida. They farm and raise or hunt all their food. Tote water from the sink hole. Nearest neighbors are the Forrester’s, typical moonshiners. They are bothered by a bear – Ol’ […]
Tinkers
by Paul Harding, 2009 Finished as fast as I could – like abstract art – all over the place, written like his notes of nature while on acid. It did have a main story in between the “trips.” A man is dying of cancer – laying in his living room – memories of his father, […]
Lorna Doone
by R.D. Blackmore, 1869 LOVED THIS BOOK! Wonderful hero of heroes, John Ridd, falls in love with Lorna Doone, even though her people killed his father. He rescues her from the wicked Doone’s and she is restored as Lady Lorna Dugal, because the Doone’s had kidnapped her and killed her parents and brother. John loves […]
One of Ours
by Willa Cather, Pulitzer Prize 1923 Claude Wheeler – “Now he dismissed all Christian Theology as something too full of evasions and sophistries to be reasoned about.” Sophistry – A subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning. Fallacious – deceptive, misleading, containing a fallacy, logically unsound What a beautiful book! What a […]
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866 Wow – what a book – what a writer! Took you to such depths of anguish to the last page when all is redeemed and love conquers evil.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain, 1885 Finished 2/15/10 – the day I found out I needed a root canal! Wonderful book!!!! Non-stop adventure!!!! Huck escapes his drunk father, meets up with Jim on Jackson’s Island. They go down river on a raft and have many adventures, including running into 2 rapscallions, the King and the Duke, who […]
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton, 1921 Pulitzer Prize Unrequited love – New York society, late 1800s Newland Archer marries May Welland but is in love with Countess Olenska. She bucks the trends but refuses to lead him astray. He remains faithful to his wife. After her death, he and son go to Europe and he can visit […]
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2007 2007 installment of #1 Ladies Detective Series. They just get better and better! LOVE these books. In this one, Mr. JLB Matekoni takes a case- follows the wrong guy – but it actually turns out better than if he’d followed the right guy! (2 men in red cars) Mma Makutsi […]
Hannah Coulter
by Wendell Berry, 2004 Great, sweet book about a woman in rural Kentucky, 1940’s to 2000. Her life on the farm. First husband dies in WWII, marries Nathan Coulter. Their life, love, children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors. Hard work, goodness, kindness, beauty in nature, sticking with one another.
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen, 1813 LOVED THIS BOOK! Could not put it down! Elizabeth ends up marrying Darcy, but not until about a year of misconception about him. He still wants her even after she rejects him. Then she finds out what a nice guy he really is. He forgives her rejection and they end up […]
The Rule of Four
by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, 2004 Good read. Four roommates at Princeton, two are researching the Hypnerotomachia, a 500-year old book which is a mystery. Paul figures it out – you think he is dead. Tom is whiling away his life as a software analyst in Texas when an ancient painting shows up in […]