book review

  • Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure

    Imagine you are a highway patrolman in 1953, somewhere back east. You see a slow moving Chrysler ahead, older people at the helm, blocking traffic in the left lane of the highway. You pull the car over and inside—why, there’s former President Harry Truman and his wife, Bess. No security. No motorcade. No Press. Just… Continue reading

  • Book review: I Am Not a Serial Killer

    I’m not a big reader. I like books, but I simply don’t have the attention span to sit down for hours at a time, plowing through hundreds of pages, when I could be baking, sewing, or casually surfing the internet. However, I recently read a book so exciting and suspenseful that I not only read… Continue reading

  • Amar a Frank de Nancy Horan

    Our library serves people speaking many languages. Here is one of them. Below is a review of Amar a Frank, the Spanish-language translation of the novel Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Frank Lloyd Wright es un arquitecto que es contratado por Edwin y Mamah Cheney para construir su casa. Al cabo de unos años se vuelven a… Continue reading

  • Book Review: Changes by Jim Butcher

    In Changes, the newest novel by Jim Butcher, wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden learns that he has an eight-year-old daughter who has been kidnapped by some seriously evil vampires.  In the race to save the girl, Harry faces dangerous old enemies and makes some hard decisions that will irrevocably alter his fate — and even change the… Continue reading

  • Seeing Ourselves in Chaucer’s Mirror.

    Can we really relate to people from 700 years ago? Thanks to Peter Ackroyd, it’s easier than ever. In our iPod, iPad, texting and tweeting world, you’d think there is not too much in common with the lives of 14th century pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, but, in fact, there is. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales… Continue reading

  • The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

    Editor’s note: Susan Hildreth, our City Librarian, will be checking in with us from time to time to let us know what she’s been reading. I had never read this 1961 novel that won the National Book Award in 1962. It was being read by my book group so I was enthusiastic about reading an award… Continue reading

  • Magic in the Blood – still magic?

    Magic in the Blood is the second book in Devon Monk’s Allie Beckstrom series (after Magic to the Bone). This time around, there are ghosts causing trouble in Portland, OR and Allie keeps running into them as she tries to track down a couple missing girls for the police. Although this second installment in the series isn’t quite… Continue reading

  • Trying to get back a stolen life

    Editor’s note: Susan Hildreth, our City Librarian, will be checking in with us from time to time to let us know what she’s been reading. I just finished reading The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano. This is the story of Melody Grace McCartney who has been in the Federal Witness Protection Program for… Continue reading

  • El Lector

    Our library serves people speaking many languages. Here is one of them. En El Lector de Bernhard Schlink; Michael es un adolescente enfermo de hepatitis, un día al volver a casa se siente mal y una señora lo ayuda. Siguiendo los consejos de su madre va a buscarla y agradecerle lo que hizo por él.… Continue reading

  • A la sombra del ángel de Kathryn Skidmore Blair

    Our library serves people speaking many languages. Here is one of them. Antonia Rivas Mercado nació en los albores de 1900 en el seno de una acomodada familia mejicana. Desde muy tierna edad sufrió el rechazo de su madre por su color oscuro. A los 12 años su madre abandona la familia para correr a… Continue reading