Hiking Oregon’s History by William L. Sullivan: Book Review

Hiking Oregon's History by William L. Sullivan Book Cover

4 stars. I know this book probably won’t have much appeal to a broad audience but it was so engaging, I felt that I needed to review it. When my husband and I first arrived in Oregon in April of 2020 for his work assignment at a hospital outside Portland, my aunt put me in touch with one of her friends who owns a summer home on […]

Continue Reading

Out of the Silence by Eduardo Strauch: Book Review

Out of the Silence by Eduardo Strauch Urioste Book Cover

3 Stars. I didn’t know much about this event other than the bare minimum prior to reading this book: a plane crashed in South America in the ’70s; the passengers survived by cannibalism; and the movie Alive, which I haven’t seen, is based on it. So I expected to get more of a straightforward recounting of the facts. What I got […]

Continue Reading

Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge: Book Review

Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge Book Cover

2 Stars. I just couldn’t click with this book. Kittredge does write beautifully and he writes of a way of life that seems to be disappearing. He writes fondly of the hands who worked the ranch, some of them for years and years for little more than room and board. He describes the difficult land in the salt flats of eastern […]

Continue Reading

The Unidentified by Colin Dickey: Book Review

The Unidentified by Colin Dickey Book Cover

4 Stars. I’m not quite sure what I expected when I downloaded this book from the library but it’s not exactly what I got. Not that I’m complaining; this book is absorbing. My review keeps turning into a book report because I want to discuss so many of the ideas I just read! I knew this was nonfiction about the worlds of […]

Continue Reading

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen Book Cover

Hmmm…. Where to start? I mostly found this book fascinating and the inaccurate history we are taught infuriating but I also had problems with the tone. I’ll start with the positives…. Loewen’s main complaint is that our American history textbooks invariably teach from the point of view of White males of European descent. The […]

Continue Reading

The Soul of America by Jon Meacham: Book Review

The Soul of America by Jon Meacham Book Cover

I almost always have one nonfiction book on the go that I read exclusively before bed. I’m primarily a fiction reader so I don’t usually fall into the “one more chapter” trap that keeps me awake way past my bedtime if I follow this plan. This was not a great book for that. It’s intelligently written, presented, and argued, but […]

Continue Reading

Get Well Soon by Jennifer Wright: Book Review

5 Stars. This book fascinated me from the moment I started reading. I made heavy use of the highlight function on my Kindle, highlighting 53 passages. 53! I would like to share them all here but I believe that would get me in trouble for copyright infringement. This book about plagues was somehow hilarious! I’ve worked healthcare for […]

Continue Reading

Gil’s All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez: Book Review

Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez Book Cover

This book cracked me up! My best description is that it’s a version of Tucker and Dale vs Evil if Tucker was a werewolf and Dale was a vampire. I can’t watch many horror movies but that one made me laugh, just like this book did. Earl and Duke aren’t quite as hapless as Tucker and Dale since they’re very aware of their own […]

Continue Reading

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix: Book Review

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix Book Cover

This is my third Grady Hendrix novel this year and with every single one of them, I think the premise sounds like fun and then I’m surprised by how dark the book gets. You would think I’d learn, wouldn’t you? The books do start off amusingly enough but the dread and the creep factor slowly ratchet up until I’m practically […]

Continue Reading

Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore: Book Review

Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore Book Cover

I finished this back on July 27 but I’ve already forgotten everything about it. Ugh. But that’s typically what happens with my three-star books so at least I know I rated it accurately. Christopher Moore’s brand of humor is not for everyone. I think it varies wildly from book to book so it’s not even reliably to my taste. This […]

Continue Reading
1 3 4 5 6 7 43