3 Stars. I’m exhausted. Emotionally and physically exhausted. Because of my library’s policies, I had two weeks to listen to a 21-part audio book, when it normally takes me that long to listen to about 10 parts. Because I love this series, I buckled down and did it. This can’t have been good for my blood pressure. I only thought […]
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett: Book Review
I was looking for a book featuring a private investigator to complete a reading challenge, so when I saw this was available (and that it was short–it’s the end of the year and time was running out), I jumped on it. I’ve never seen the movie and didn’t really have any idea what it was […]
Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach: Book Review
3 Stars. I loved Without Reservations, Steinbach’s first book. I admired her courage in packing up and traveling solo. I liked her thoughts and observations and felt that she is someone that I’d like to know and befriend in real life. I didn’t like Educating Alice quite as much. I felt that the author was trying a little too hard […]
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts: Book Review
3 Stars. I’m having the hardest time writing this review! I’ve scrapped it once already. Ack! It took me about seven weeks to read Shantaram, mostly because I was busy and didn’t have much time to devote to it. I think having that much time to think about what I was reading allowed me to read more objectively than I otherwise […]
Armada by Ernest Cline: Book Review
3 Stars. I didn’t even realize Ernest Cline had published a new book until I saw Sheila over at Book Journey mention it. I knew I had to get my hands on the audio. I loved Cline’s first book, Ready Player One, but didn’t realize that Wil Wheaton narrated the audio version until after I’d read it in print. I wasn’t going to miss […]
Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham
3 Stars. Eh. Three years have gone by since I read this and I just got around to reading Volume 3. I remember that I do like this world and concept a lot, and I enjoy the artwork, but I did not like this retelling of Animal Farm. I somehow missed the classic novel […]
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose: Book Review
So, we all learned something about the Lewis & Clark expedition in school, right? They were the first official group to travel all the way to the Pacific coast and back, with brave Sacagawea leading the way, papoose strapped to her back. That’s honestly pretty much all I knew. But there’s got to be so Continue Reading…
The Places in Between by Rory Stewart: Book Review
Rory Stewart walked through India, Pakistan and Nepal in 2002, a time that was very unstable given the events of 2001 and the subsequent war. He decided that he wanted to walk through the heart of Afghanistan as well. He met with a lot of bureaucracy, but he was eventually given permission to undertake his Continue Reading…
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George: Book Review
Jean Perdu is a broken man, not really living his life but only existing. His one great love left him twenty years ago and he’s never moved on. He puts together gigantic puzzles in his spartan apartment and sells books on his book barge, The Literary Apothecary. He knows exactly the right book to sell Continue Reading…
Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann: Book Review
I walked into the library on my lunch break to pick up a nonfiction book for my before-bed reading. I have enough unread novels at home. I was not going to check out any fiction. I grabbed the book I was there for and then started wandering the fiction stacks. It couldn’t hurt to just Continue Reading…
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker: Book Review
Tin Win is a successful lawyer who simply walks out of his life one day. His children have both graduated from college so he apparently has decided that he’s a free man. There’s a search but it quickly comes to a dead end in Bangkok. His daughter Julia decides several years later to go looking Continue Reading…