Eighty-six-year-old Hennie Comfort meets 17-year-old Nit Spindle when she sees the young woman standing outside one day, contemplating an old sign hanging on her fence advertising “Prayers for Sale.” Hennie takes the newly-arrived woman under her wing, showing her how to survive in a Colorado mining town in the ’30s and passing on her vast […]
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston: Book Review
I find it hard to describe this book without making it sound dull and boring. I’ve tried to tell my husband and he just looks at me blankly. “It’s about trees?” “Well, yes, but it’s interesting and it’s about…trees.” Sometime in the late ’80’s, a few people who didn’t even know each other decided to […]
The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew: Book Review
June Bentley “Jubie” Watts is 13 years old in 1954 when her mother decides to take all four of her children to visit her brother in Pensacola, Florida. As any affluent housewife of the time would do, she asks the maid to come along on the trip to help take care of them. Jubie does […]
White Indian by Donald Clayton Porter: Book Review
The Great Sachem of the Seneca tribe has lost his infant son. In grief, he joins an alliance of tribes in making war on other tribes and an English settlement. In the settlement, he finds a baby boy, only a few days old, who looks at him fearlessly even though the mother has just been […]
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand: Book Review
Louie Zamperini was a little bit of a punk as a young teen, staying in trouble all the time. But then he discovered running and pretty much turned his life around. People were taking notice of his times and the Olympics were in his future. He made it to the Berlin Olympics in a distance […]
Don’t Know Much About Mythology by Kenneth C. Davis: Book Review
Author Kenneth C. Davis sets out to fill in the gaps of the average reader’s knowledge of mythology. Don’t expect a book of stories about Zeus and Hera; they’re here but so are gods from Egypt, Celtic lands, Africa, the Americas, Asia, India, and just about every culture you can think of. This was not […]
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls: Book Review
This is the story of Jeannette Walls’s childhood growing up with a father who adored his children but who also neglected them shamefully and became downright scary when he drank. Her mother was a carefree spirit who couldn’t be bothered to take care of her children. She thought it was good for them to learn […]
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty: Book Review
Captains Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call have retired from active duty in the Texas Rangers and tried to settle in to life as ranchers. When an old buddy shows up talking about how beautiful Montana is and how much land is available for ranching, Captain Call is seized with the idea of being the first […]
Coldwater by Mardi McConnochie: Book Review
Author Mardi McConnochie imagines what the lives of the Brontë sisters would have been like if they had grown up on a remote island/penal colony off the coast of Australia. In this fictional tale, their father is the warden of the colony, paranoid to the point of madness and with a giant God-complex. He makes […]
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield: Book Review
Vida Winter is called the Charles Dickens of her age. No one has ever been able to find out the story of her life. Any reporter who tries gets a beautiful story, but still, it’s only a story. But now Vida is old and sick and she must share her story with the world. She […]
Dog On It by Spencer Quinn: Book Review
Chet and his human, Bernie, are a private investigating team. When a missing teen case comes their way, Bernie is initially reluctant to take it. He eventually does and the girl shows up under her own steam hours later. But then she goes missing for real. Bernie can just feel that something is really wrong […]