Books I've Read
Books Listed by Author
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Little Dorrit
All these years I've thought little Dorrit was a kid. Well, she ain't. Mr. Dickens is quite clever with his prose, but I am quite dull. There were times I "got it" (The best of times?), but many times I didn't not. I need an annotated Little Dorrit!
Read:
6/2023
Heartsease
Book Two of the Changes trilogy. Margaret and Jonathan rescue an American spy who has been accused of being a witch. They rescue him and sail off to Ireland in the tugboat of the title name.
Read:
5/2010
The Devil's Children
Nicky finds herself in Book One of the Changes trilogy on the road, alone, her parents having disappeared in a big crowd. She joins up with a group of Sikhs, then makes her way to France.
Read:
5/2010
The Weathermonger
In book three of the Changes trilogy, teen weathermonger Geoffrey and his sister Sally escape to France, but are sent back to England-ish to find out the source of the Changes. Hey, it's Merlin!
Read:
5/2010
Secret Under The Caribbean
Robby Hoenig has an adventure at a marine archaeological site. One a series of juvenile science fiction adventures by Dickson from the early 60s.
Read:
3/2008
How To Be An American Housewife
Some of the action taking place in an area I am relatively familiar with brought this story of a mother and daughter a bit closer to me.
Read:
11/2012
Sisters Of Heart And Snow
I enjoyed reading a book that had stuff to think about, but didn't make my head hurt. I also liked the "local color" from the author's knowledge of the San Diego area.
Read:
2/2017
The Care And Handling Of Roses With Thorns
A teacher with bad kidneys breeds roses. I enjoyed reading this book, it was interesting, and I didn't start crying all THAT much!
Read:
5/2014
Notes From An Accidental Band Geek
As a former member of a high school marching band I enjoyed this story very much. It's the first band novel I've ever seen. I laughed when they assigned her to play the mellophone instead of her French horn. My GF in high school played the bells instead of her oboe. Can you imagine marching oboes?
Read:
10/2012
Swift Justice
Former U.S. Air Force OSI officer "Charlie" Swift has a PI business in Colorado. Her silent partner runs off with his personal trainer, and his wife decides to exercise her share of the partnership to become an investigator. Surprise mention of geocaching.
Read:
4/2011
The Arctic Patrol Mystery
The brothers head off to Iceland to look for an old fisherman who is coming into some money. Chet and eventually Biff are there to help, too. Then there is the missing astronaut...
Read:
12/2024
The Missing Chums
I, of course, read all the Hardy Boys that had been published back when I was a kid, but they are fun to re-visit. I wonder about the differences between the original editions and the "modernized" ones. This one has transistor radios, which I'm sure were not around back in the 1928 original. In fact, I read that the original edition is rather different than the newer one.
Read:
3/2018
The Shortwave Mystery
Stolen stuffed animals, ham radio (on 2 meters?), Chet's new hobby of taxidermy, and industrial sabotage. I first read this back in the 60s, but this edition seems to be different than the one I read. No "Help Hudson", no beating the Lynx with an walkie-talkie antenna!
Read:
2/2010Read:
10/2018
Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom
Good story about "politics" in the Disney World a hundred or so years from now.
Read:
12/2022
Eastern Standard Tribe
An industrial saboteur ends up in the looney bin, but designs a better widget. Chapter 15 may be the shortest chapter I've ever seen!
Read:
9/2009
Little Brother
It only took me 60 pages to get the meaning of the title! Very techy story of teen in San Francisco arrested by the Dept. of Homeland Security after a terrorist bombing of the bridge. Too YA for our middle school library!
Words I Had To Look Up:
pizza...cold and clabbered (pg. 339) -- Of milk or cream : having thickened or curdled.
Quote:
Take it from someone who's read the Wikipedia entry:..." -- (pg. 90)
Read:
4/2009
Overclocked: Stories of the future present
Six pretty darn good stories. And to think I almost didn't check this book out!
I found the word "hoodies" disconcerting in the sort of Asimov sort of parody I,Robot, since Merriam-Webster says that word dates from 1992.
Words I Had To Look Up:
saisoneur (pg. 172) -- I got nothun'. "saison" is French for "season". Maybe it is someone who stays for a long time?
Read:
8/2009
Somone Comes To Town, Somone Leaves Town
Fantasy meets the internet. A great book, but I got a little mixed-up sometimes in the non-sequentially told story. I teared up a bit when Alan's mother died. A lot of sadness, a bit of joy. I don't get the title, though.
Words I Had To Look Up:
counting out a float (pg. 136) -- The sum of money added to a cash register at the beginning of a shift for change-making purposes and subtracted at the end of the shift.
craquelure (pg. 293) -- A network of fine cracks that may appear in applied paint over time for various reasons.
Quote:
"Look, I'm not trying to be cruel here, but you're generation-blind. The Internet is a great, but it's not the last great thing we'll ever invent. My pops was a mainframe guy, he thought PCs were toys. You're a PC guy, so you think my phone is a toy." (pg. 275) Wow, he's talking about ME!Library Quote:
To the librarian, this shelf-reading looked like your garden-variety screwing around, but what really made her nervous were Alan's excursions through the card catalogue, which required constant tending to replace the cards that errant patrons made unauthorized reorderings of. (pg. 71) Several other good library quotes on this page.Read:
8/2009Read:
7/2022
Last Bus To Wisdom
In 1951 a boy travels from Montana to Wisconsin to spend the summer with his aunt while his grandmother mends from an operation. Very good!
Read:
12/2016
The Whistling Season
Not something I would have picked myself, this was recommended to me. Good story of life on a homestead farm in 1909 Montana.
Read:
4/2016
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Aiken] [Aiken - Allinghamc] [Alvarez - Angelou] [Anthony - Atkins] [Atkinson - Backman] [Backman - Balliett] [Balliett - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnes] [Barnhill - Barr] [Barr - Beanton] [Bear - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Berendt] [Berger - Block] [Block - Block] [Block - Bonham] [Bonham - Box] [Boyle - Brown] [Brown - Buckley] [Buffett - Bujold] [Bujold - Cameron] [Cameron - Card] [Card - Carter] [Castle - Chandler] [Chandler - Clancy] [Clancy - Coben] [Coben - Cole] [Cole - Collins] [Collins - Conklin] [Conly - Connelly] [Connelly - Cook] [Cook - Corey] [Corey - Crais] [Crais - Crais] [Creech - Crumley] [Crumley - Cussler] [Cussler - Datlow] [David - Dickens] [Dickens - Doig] [Doohan - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Drake] [Drake - Eggars] [Eland - Emerson] [Emerson - Faherty] [Faherty - Farmer] [Farmer - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flint - Foster] [Foster - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Gailey] [Gailey - Garmus] [Garrigue - Gladwell] [Gladwell - Gormley] [Gould - Granger] [Granger - Greenleaf] [Greenleaf - Grimes] [Grimes - Grisham] [Grisham - Haig] [Haldeman - Hall] [Hall - Hannah] [Hannah - Hawkins] [Haynes - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Herman] [Herman - Hesse] [Hiaasen - Highsmith] [Highsmith - Hobb] [Hobb - Hornibrook] [Hornung - Huff] [Huff - Jacobs] [James - Jones] [Jones - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Kellog] [Kellog - King] [King - Kline] [Klise - Kowal] [Kowal - Lamott] [Lampman - Lawrence] [Lawrence - Lee] [Lee - Lescroart] [Lescroart - Liebster] [Lindsay - London] [Long - Lubar] [Luna - MacLachlan] [Maclean - Mandel] [Mankell - Martin] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McCaffrey - McCrumb] [McCrumb - Medwed] [Meier - Millard] [Miller - Moon] [Moon - Morrison] [Mortimer - Mysterious Press] [Nance - Nimmo] [Niven - Novik] [Novik - O'Brian] [O'Brian - Older] [Oliver - Paolini] [Paolini - Park] [Park - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Paulsen] [Paulsen - Pearson] [Pease - Petry] [Peyton - Pohl] [Pooley - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Quinn] [Quinn - Read] [Readers Digest - Rhodes] [Rich - Roanhorse] [Roberts - Rose] [Rose - Russell] [Russell - Sacks] [Sagan - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Scieszka] [Scieszka - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shea] [Sheinkin - Silverberg] [Silverberg - Smith] [Smith - Spinelli] [Spinelli - Stead] [Steel - Stockett] [Stowell - Stross] [Stross - Taft] [Tapply - Tesh] [Thompson - Turtledove] [Turtledove - Valente] [Van Allsburg - Vanderpool] [Varley - Wambaugh] [Wasdin - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Weyn] [Wheeler - Willis] [Winchester - Wolff] [Wollheim - Zahn] [Zahn - Zusak]