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 […]
Category: Fiction
The Last of the Plainsmen
by Zane Grey, 1936 Poetic gibberish – about stalking cougars in Grand Canyon country in Mexico.
Jewel
by Bret Lott, 1991 UGH! What a STUPID book! No sympathy for any of the characters. About Jewel, a woman who has a Down’s Syndrome child in the 40’s – then called “Mongolian Idiot” – h husband and other 5 children. Starts off in Mississippi, then moves to L.A., back to Mississippi, then back to […]
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain, 1876 What a fun, exciting book! So many adventures by the mischievous Tom, getting his friends to whitewash the fence, going to the graveyard with Huck and witnessing a murder, getting Muff Potter off on the last day of the trial. Going to Jackson’s Island and playing pirates for a week – […]
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens, 1850 (821 pages) Last line: “Oh Agnes, Oh my soul, so may thy face be by me when I close my life indeed! So may I, when realities are melting from me like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward!” What a tale – what characters […]
Blue Shoes and Happiness
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2006 Beautiful, beautiful book! Mma Ramotswe’s cases include a young chef who catches her boss stealing food for her husband and then is accused of blackmailing the boss. Mma Ramotswe discovers the person blackmailing the boss is Aunty Emang, a Dear Abby-type person who ends up being a tiny, purely evil […]
Tess of the D’urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy, 1891 Tess, beautiful beyond belief, eyes and lips especially, long dark hair. Her mom sends her to the D’urbervilles (fake ones) to maybe make them rich. Instead, she is raped by Alec D’urberville. She goes home, has a baby, which dies at age 1. She goes to work on a dairy farm. […]
1984
by George Orwell, 1949 “Big Brother is Watching You.” Winston Smith works in the Ministry of Truth for Big Brother, the Party of Oceania. He rewrites history constantly – that is his job. He knows that things are not as they want him to believe. He hates Big Brother. He falls in love with Julia, […]
The Woman in White
by Wilkie Collins, published in serial form 1859-1860 Walter Hartright runs into the woman in white on a road at night going towards London. She enters his life again while he is teaching painting to 2 young ladies in Fairlie’s Limmeridge House. Walter falls in love with Laura Fairlie, 1/2 sister of Marian Holcombe. But […]
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2004, Book #6 in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series Moved me to tears! Mma Ramotswe has a man hiding under her bed. He escapes but loses his pants on a mattress spring. Never figure out who he was. The next day, the trousers are gone (she had hung them […]
Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe, 1719 Robinson Crusoe decides to leave his safe, middle-class existence in York, England on 9/1/1651, against the advice of his father and mother and others. He takes a sea voyage to London. But the ship gets hit by a storm. They manage to get on another ship before their’s “founders” – sinks. […]
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883 (1850-1894, died in Samoa) An old pirate shows up at an inn in England. The Admiral Benbow Inn, owned by young Jim Hawkins’ father. The old pirate’s fellow pirates show up to steal his loot but Jim and his Mom get to it first and escape the Inn and hide. […]
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel, 2001 This book was recommended by Sara K. “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” Piscing Molitor Patel – named after a swimming pool – Pondicherry, India. His dad was a zookeeper. He grew up in a zoo. His Mom and Dad, fed up with Mrs. Ghandi, decide […]
The Full Cupboard of Life
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2003 (5th book in the ‘No. 1 Ladies Detective’ series) Mma Ramotswe and Mr. JLB Matakoni finally get married! The orphan mgr, Mma Potokwane arranges it all (a surprise) after the parachute jump event, which she had trapped JLB Matakoni into, but Mma Ramotswe got Charlie, one of the apprentices, to […]
The Surrendered
by Chang-Rae Lee, 2010 Graphic violence & sex, even lesbianism. Why?!! “Gratuitous” sex and violence. June, young Korean girl, loses her entire family one by one in aftermath and during Korean war. She is found by GI, Hector, on the road, follows him to orphanage. They both fall in love with Sylvie Tanner, minister’s wife, […]
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Robin Buss, 1996, 2003, first published 1844-5 1243 pages – WHAT A WONDERFUL BOOK! All human wisdom is contained in these two words: ‘wait’ and ‘hope’! Recommended by Tim Wolsey. Edmond Dantes, a fine young sailor, is thrown into prison in Chateau d’If for 14 long years. He befriends Abbe […]
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert, 1856 Finished 12/25/08 in Belize. Selfish girl, gets married, doesn’t like her life, has 2 affairs, can’t pay her debts, kills herself by eating arsenic.
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Spanish 1985, English 1988 Florentino Aria falls in love with Fermina Daza. She marries Dr. Juvenal Urbino instead. Florentino whores around for 54 years waiting for Dr. Urbino to die. Dr. Urbino dies trying to capture his parrot from a mango tree. Florentino takes Fermina on a riverboat cruise on the […]
Northanger Abbey
by Jane Austen, 1803 but published 1817 (posthumously) Seems so petty – young girls falling in love – but I couldn’t put it down! Catherine Morland, 17, gets to go to Bath with Mr. and Mrs. Allen. She meets the Thorpes – Isabella becomes her dear friend. Isabella is in love (supposedly) with Catherine’s brother, […]
The Time Traveler’s Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger, 2003 Clare waits for Henry, her time-traveling husband, never knowing when he’ll disappear or reappear. Clare always drives because Henry doesn’t-never knows when he’ll disappear. Henry cooks-Clare doesn’t know how since she had a cook, Nell, while growing up (rich girl). Henry recruits Dr. Kendrick, a geneticist, to try and find a […]