Fiction & Poetry

Bridge of Sighs (Richard Russo) novel

Unaccustomed Earth (Jhumpa Lahiri) novel

broken symmetry (Jack Ridl) poetry

Death in the Garden (Elizabeth Ironside) mystery novel

Edgar Sawtelle (David Wroblewski) novel

Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout) novel

On Beauty (Zadie Smith) novel

One Good Turn (Kate Atkinson) novel

Out Stealling Horses (Per Petterson) novel

The Cave (Jose Saramango) no

The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery) novel

The Guernsey LIterary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows) novel

The History of Love (Nicole Krauss) novel

The Maytrees (Annie Dillard) novel

The Wife (Meg Wolitzer) novel

 
Non-fiction & Creative Non-fiction

A Complaint Free World (Will Bowen) psychology

About Alice (Calvin Trilin) memoir

Audacity of Hope/ Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Barack Obama) politics

Crucial Conversations (Patterson,Grenny, McMillan, Switzler) psychology

Don't Think of an Elephant (George Lakoff) politics

For the Time Being (Annie Dillard) essay/philosophy/ spirituality

For the Time Being (Annie Dillard) personal essay

Hot Flat and Crowded (Thomas L. Friedman) environment

Leaving Church (Barbara Brown Taylor) religion

One Writer's Beginnings (Eudora Welty) writing

Poetry as Survival (Gregory Orr) writing

Pulling Down the Barn (Anne-Marie Oomen) memoir

The Culture Code (Clotaire Rapaille) psychology

The Left-handed Story (Nancy Willard) writing

The Political Brain (Drew Westin) politics

The Post-American World (Farheed Zakaria) foreign affairs

The World is Flat (Thomas L. Friedman) business/politics

The Worst Hard time (Timothy Eagan) History

The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion) memoir

Three Cups of Tea (Greg Morenson and David Oliver Relin) compassion

Writing Life Stories (Bill Roorbach) writing

Writing to Change the World (Mary Pipher) writing

archived reviews>


I list recent postings here.  Check archived books for previous reviews.  And scroll down for titles suggested by family and friends.

Under Fiction & Poetry
Olive Kitteridge - novel
The Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Peel Pie Society  - novel
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - novel
Bridge of Sights - novel
Edgar Sawtell - novel
The Gathering - novel


Under Non-Fiction & Creative Non-Fiction
The Worst Hard Time - history
Hot Flat and Crowded - geopolitical
Writing to Change the World - writing
The Left-handed story - writing
Poetry as Survival - writing
The Post-American World - foreign affairs
Pulling Down the Barn - memoir
One Writer's Beginnings - writing
A Complaint Free World - psychology/spirituality


For other titles, reviewed in the past, click on a"show archived reviews" above.

Books I hope to read that you have recommended:

FROM THE FAMILY –

From Chris Taylor:
He’s winning by the way! His new job has him on airplanes a good share of the time. I envy him his reading time! I’m going to start listing his most recent ones first…

The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth (Friedman)economics/political - skim he says, it’s long but important!
Three Billion New Capitalists (Prestowitzeconomics/political skim this one too he says!
The End of Oil (Paul Roberts)economics/political
The Innovator’s Dilemma (Clayton M. Christensen)business
Everything Bad Is Good For You (Steven Johnson) cognitive thinking / parenting

From Nicole DeNooyer:
In the Time of the Butterflies (Julia Alvarez) novel
Purple Hibiscus (Chimananda Ngozi Adichie) novel

From Dominique DeNooyer: Audio Books! Dominique likes to listen to his books!
Outliers (Malcom Gladwell) psychology/sociology
Ascent of Money
(Niall Ferguson) economics
The Tipping Point(Malcom Gladwell) psychology/business
Freakonomics (Steven Levitt) psychology/business
Blink(Malcom Gladwell) psychology/business
Nickel and Dimed(Barbara Ehrenreich) contemporary culture/sociology

From Craig Hoeksema
The Way We Eat (Peter Singer) contemporary culture/sociology
The End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs ) contemporary culture/sociology
Pathologies of Power  (Paul Farmer) politics/sociology
The History of Love (Nicole Krauss) novel (I recommend too, see review)

From Meredith Volkema
The Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan) - ethics & enviornmental food issues
 
AND FRIENDS –

From Marge DuBois
Cage of Stars (Jacquelyn Mitchard) novel

From Joy Gaines-Freidler
Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to a Young Poet - translated and with a foreword by Stephen Mitchell.
Breaking the Alabaster Jar - interviews with the poet Li-Young Lee

From Mary Haab:
The Little Locksmith (Kate Butler Hathaway) (pub.ished 1943) novel
Dreams of My Russian Summer (Andrei Makine) novel
The Sea (John Banville) novel
All the Names (Jose Saramago) Saramago won the Nobel in 1998
Yo (Julia Alverez) novel
Feast of the Goat (Mario Vargas Llosa) novel
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (ZZ Packer) short stories
Heart is a Lonely Hunter(McCullers) novel
Will in the World (Greenblatt) novel

From Peter Haab:
Suite Francaise (Irene Nemirosky) novel
The Cave (Jose Saramago)novel

From Diane Kalusniah:
A Thousand Spendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini author of The Kite Runner). novel
The Book Theif (Marcus Zusak) novel
The Zahir/ A Novel of Obsession (Paulo Coelho) novel
One Thousand White Women (
Jim Fergus) novel

From Melissa Kruse:
Buffalo Girls (Larry McMurtry) novel

From Leon Midgett
Castle in the Forest (Norman Mailer) novel
World wihtout End (Ken Follett - sequel to Pillars of the Earth) novel

From Sally Mulder
Moloka'i (Alan Brennert) novel

From Kym Reinstadler
The Memory Keeper's Daughter (Kim Edwards) novel
Three Junes (Julia Glass) novel
The Inheritance of Loss (
Kiran Desai) novel (the 2006 Man Booker Prize Winner)

From Barbara Saunier
The Mozart Effect (
Don Campbell) (nonfiction, music and creative expression)

from Mary Tigner - Rasanen
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name
(Vendela Vida) novel
The Sacred Depths of Nature  (Ursula Goodenough) nonfiction
The History of Love  (
Nicole Krauss) novel