Books I've Read
Books Listed by Author
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
Night Boat
Seven stories in the Tod Moran Mystery series. Tod is third mate on the steamer Araby. Good stories, for what they are. The last story, Black Out, takes place in San Francisco during a blackout in WWII. I thought it interesting that prejudice and discrimination against Americans of Japanese and Italian heritage is mentioned, since this was copyright 1942.
Read:
5/2007
A Long Way From Chicago
Each summer Mary Alice and her brother visit their grandmother in Ohio. Charming, a weep at the end, for me.
Read:
1/2012
A season of gifts
Bob moves into the house next to Mrs. Dowdel. Good Christmas story.
Read:
12/2009
A Year Down Under
A city girl spends a year with her country grandmother. A most excellent book.
Read:
4/2005
Fair Weather
Three children and their irascible grandfather travel to Chicago for the 1893 exposition. Good and funny! Some nifty pictures of the White City.
Read:
11/2009
The Teachers funeral
Russell plans to run away to South Dakota to harvest wheat, but his father and sister Tansy have other plans. A very enjoyable story of life in rural Indiana in 1904.
Read:
3/2007
A Marriage Made At Woodstock
Hippie wife Chandra leaves accountant husband Frederick.
Read:
3/2001
The Bubble Reputation
Woman copes with suicide of sig. other., amidst her bizarre relatives. Very funny!
QUOTE:
"Another metaphor, Miriam," he said sweetly. "How many does that make now, in these forty years? Two? Three?"Read:
3/2001
Better Than Life
Read out loud to people, then they will want to read. Includes the Bill Of Rights for Reader's. Looks good. .
Read:
8/2000
Penryn Boys
Growing up in the town of Penryn, not all that far from Folsum, California, back in the 1970s.
Read:
6/2013
Still Life
Chief Inspector Gamache heads to a small village south of Montreal to investigate a murder. OK story. I inferred from the story that Robin Hood used a recurve bow, which ain't right, but upon re-reading the passage I may have mis-inferred that.
Read:
3/2017
The Fencing Master
A teacher of fencing in the 1800's is confronted with a perplexing quandry. Good story, in the style of the author. Better (and shorter) than The Nautical Chart, I thought.
Read:
1/2002
The Nautical Chart
Search for a sunken treasure of emeralds. Lots of nautical lore. Reviewed in Booklist July 2001 pg. 1951.
Read:
12/2001
All Alone in the Universe
A teenage girl has relationship problems with her best friend. A excellent little book. Interesting reader comments on Amazon.com
Read:
1/2006
Execution Dock
Mystery takes place in London in the 1860s or so. Monk of the River Police chases after child (male)pornographer and probably (male) pedophile Jericho Phillips. Because while it is immoral to be a pedophile of females, it's illegal to be a pedophile of males.
Read:
8/2011
Population: 485
The author is a volunteer fireman in his hometown. Lots of interesting anecdotes, not so much philosophical stuff as Truck.
Words I Had To Look Up:
Elegiac (pg. 44 ) -- expressing sorrow often for something now past.
Otiose (pg. 116 ) -- 1. being at leisure; idle; indolent. 2. ineffective or futile. 3. superfluous or useless.
Plangent (pg. 176 ) -- Having an expressive and especially plaintive quality.
MIke Magnuson (pg. ) -- Author of Lummox.
Valsalvian reaction (pg. ) -- "When a person forcefully expires against a closed glottis, changes occur in intrathoracic pressure that dramatically affect venous return, cardiac output, arterial pressure, and heart rate. This forced expiratory effort is called a Valsalva maneuver." From Cardiovascular Physiology Concepts by Richard E. Klabunde, Ph.D.
Thurls (pg. ) -- The hip joint in cattle.
Read:
1/2009
Truck : A Love Story
Pretty philosophical story of the rebuilding of the author's International truck. Except that it is mostly NOT about that, it's about his love life, friends, gardening, cooking, and family. But it's about the truck, too.
Words I Had To Look Up:
Baudelaire (pg. 233) -- French poet/writer, symbol of literary decadence.
Derrida (pg. 242) -- French philosopher, founder of deconstruction. Died 2004.
Ameliorism (pg. 251) -- "Meliorism" is the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment, so adding an "a" must make it the opposite.
Sequelae (pg. 254) -- A secondary result, sequel.
Smoked redhorse (pg. 273) -- A kind of fish.
Read:
1/2009
The Complete Idiots Guide To Geocaching
Very informative book about geocaching. Learned a couple of things, esp., there is a cache on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Cool!
Read:
6/2010
Gifts Of Blood
Finally bought this book. Seven stories from the Varkela series. My favorite has always been Leechcraft. Two other stories included, one of which is about a spider that lives in a lute.
Read:
5/2010Read:
5/2012
Flambards
Christina, an orphan, is sent to live with her uncle Russell and his boys at their country place, Flambards. Son Mark loves the hunt, William dreams of flying. Loved the Masterpiece Theater adaption, enjoyed the series when I read it years ago, and enjoy this coming-of-age tale again.
Read:
6/2011
20 books displayed
[Palacio - Park] [Park - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Paulsen] [Paulsen - Pease] [Pease - Peyton] [Peyton - Pope] [Porter - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Pullman] [Pullman - Pynchon]