I’m not a fan of tell-all books written by “stars” trying to hang on to their star status.  I was looking for a particular book with “prairie” in the title and “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch:  How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated” is one of the books that came up …

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I have not read a novel by Amy Tan since her first book, “The Joy Luck Club” was published in 1989.  Although that book was long and convoluted, I enjoyed the historical aspects, the exploration of the Chinese-American culture, and especially the portrayal of the complex relationships between mothers and daughters.  So I was anticipating …

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I haven’t written a book review for a while.  I’ve been reading and have read 10 or so books in the last month, but none of them were ones that I wanted to write about.  I read several mystery novels, one very predictable “thriller,” and a couple of biographies.  I thought I might review the …

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I have read travel journals for years, partly to satisfy my wanderlust and partly to see how other folks have done it and what they have found interesting.  I recently ran across “Travels with Charley in Search of America” by John Steinbeck and enjoyed reading it very much. “Travels with Charley” was originally published in …

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I borrowed “Let Your Life Speak:  Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker Palmer from Karen Graham when we were down visiting.  She had mentioned a portion of the book that really spoke to her, and it sounded interesting enough to read the book.  Parker Palmer is an author, teacher, and teacher of teachers. …

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When I was in college, I went through an Elton Trueblood phase, reading many of his books.  I have saved some of these and acquired others over the years, so I decided to bring a few of them along in the RV and read them in between the novels and travel books.  The Common Ventures …

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A parishioner gave me the book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer as a retirement present.  She said that our plans to travel in retirement reminded her of this book.  So now that we are beginning our travels, I decided it would be a good book to read. “Into the Wild” is an older book, …

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Recently I’ve been reading a lot of books by Lawrence Block.  It seems like every third book I read is one that he has written.  As I’ve mentioned before, I like mysteries, and especially series.  Lawrence Block has written over 100 books, and has five mystery series.  He has also written numerous short stories, many …

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One of my favorite authors (I have a lot of them, but then, there are so many books!) is Virginia Lanier.  She wrote a series of mysteries featuring Jo Beth Sidden, the central character who breeds and trains bloodhounds for search and rescue.  Virginia Lanier was a housewife in Georgia who loved to read mysteries …

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I’m always looking for good authors.  I especially like mystery writers who write series.  So I was intrigued by Sally Goldenbaum‘s Seaside Knitters mystery series. I like the ocean.  I like knitting.  I like mysteries – it seems like this series would be a natural. The series is set in the small town of Sea …

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