The Mammy, by Brendan O’Carroll

First off, my book group has been having an argument over how to pronounce the title—is it the short ‘a’ or the jaw-drop ‘a’ that sounds like ‘Mommy’?  I vote for the second, mostly because the children also call the title character ‘Ma’, and that would carry over, I think, to ‘Mommy’.  If anyone knows [...]

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Annie Dunne, by Sebastian Barry

As I wrote in an earlier post, I’m lucky in that I get to look at lots of books in my quest to buy titles for the Library book groups.  Some have been terrific, almost all have given us good discussions, and a few have been real dogs.  Every once in a while I come [...]

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Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes

A number of people, including several Vietnam veterans, recommended Matterhorn as the best book they’d read on the experience of the troops (in this case Marines) on the ground in Vietnam.  Without that experience, I can’t testify to its accuracy—but I know that I haven’t read any war novel that so effectively captures the sensory [...]

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Pane e tulipani

Have you ever wished you could shed your life and do something completely out of character?  If so, take a look at this marvelous Italian film (English title Bread and Tulips), and see how that impulse affects Rosalba Barletta and the people around her.  You might not catch the bus home tonight. Rosalba is married [...]

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The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright

In the flap over the Park51/Cordoba House building project, most Americans continue to assume that the Muslim world is a single entity, a monolith stretching from Israel to Indonesia with a single opinion given to them by Osama bin Laden.  In his meticulous reconstruction of the history of al Qaeda, Lawrence Wright also manages to [...]

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God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours, by Regina Brett

Connie from Outreach Services ends the week with this review: I think just about everyone has had Regina Brett’s list of “50 life lessons” forwarded to them on the Internet.  But in case you haven’t (and even if you did), you should check out this wonderful little inspirational book. You, like me, will be hooked [...]

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Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School

Youth Services Director Noreen Bernstein recommended this movie, and I’m glad she did.  I had missed hearing about this 2005 film, and probably would have skipped over the unwieldy title if I was scanning the shelves for something to watch.  But this movie is a gem. Frank Keane (played by The Full Monty‘s Robert Carlyle) [...]

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American Vampire, by Scott Snyder and Stephen King

Yes, that Stephen King.  And someone I hadn’t heard of before — but I’m willing to follow Scott Snyder down whichever dark alley he heads next. American Vampire combines western adventure and the golden age of Hollywood with vampires in the tradition of Nosferatu and Bram Stoker. These vamps bear no resemblance to the creatures [...]

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My Wicked, Wicked Ways, by Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn was born in 1909.  His first big break in Hollywood came in 1935 with the starring role in Captain Blood — but don’t assume he waited until he was a star to begin building his reputation as a ladies’ man and thrill-seeker. After being kicked out of many schools,  Flynn decided to seek [...]

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A Perfect Getaway

Elisabeth Murray of Circulation Services starts this week with a movie review: Eleven miles.  That is the distance from the start of the Kalalau Trail on the island of Kauai until its terminus at a beach paradise.  The trail is narrow and at times nothing separates you from a 200-foot plunge into the Pacific Ocean. [...]

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The List: Zombie Fiction

Lately, zombie fiction has been multiplying faster than a gang of the shufflers and shamblers themselves could spread in a major city. Unfortunately, most of this fiction stinks worse than a rotting corpse and will eat your brain just as thoroughly. Although there may be exceptions I haven’t yet discovered, I’d generally stay away from [...]

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Mountain Time, by Ivan Doig

Ivan Doig is a masterful chronicler of life in the northern Rockies. In his McCaskill Family series, Doig tells the stories of various residents of Montana’s Two Medicine country from the late 1880s to the present. Although his characters wander far from home in the course of the books, from New York to San Francisco [...]

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The Life of the Skies, by Jonathan Rosen

I find that a lot of nature writing is as enjoyable on rereading as it was the first time. Both essay collections and longer nonfiction offer the re-reader a chance to rethink previously held positions or to revisit interesting places. Jonathan Rosen’s book The Life of the Skies is one that is on my to [...]

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Fly By Night, by Frances Hardinge

Having just sent my daughter off to college this past month, I was doing some straightening up of bookshelves and came across a number of titles that I had picked up for her over the years at library conferences. My daughter and I have always shared a delight in fantasy novels, and I enjoyed recalling [...]

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Straight Man, by Richard Russo

Richard Russo is a writer whose affection for his characters and whose blend of compassion and humor draw me in on every reading. Russo populates all of his stories with people whom you would like to know, and there are no stereotypes here. Each person is fully realized and the humanness of the characters is [...]

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Tempest-Tost, by Robertson Davies

Despite the seemingly endless flow of new books that call out to be read, I still feel compelled to devote some of my reading time to re-exploring authors and titles that I have read in the past. In part, re-reading reminds me that we never experience a book in the same way. The situations of [...]

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Happy 1,000 posts, BFGB!

Our baby turns 1,000 posts old today! Since launching in April of 2007, Blogging for a Good Book has delivered a review every day, Monday through Friday, with the occasional Saturday booklist or author obituary cropping up now and again. Most of the featured items are books, but movies and music show up, too, depending [...]

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Skinny Dip, by Carl Hiaasen

It was the husband who dunnit. Mystery solved. He was the one who pushed his wife over the edge of a cruise liner. (Don’t worry, these aren’t plot spoilers. This is all revealed on the first page.) What is not immediately clear to the victim, Joey, is why her husband dunnit. Joey is in a [...]

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