The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

It’s only his first day of high school, but Arnold “Junior” Spirit has had enough.
His underfunded school is on the Spokane Indian reservation, where Junior’s whole family lives within five miles of where they were born. His mother would have been a teacher, his father would have been a musician, and his sister would have [...]

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Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story, by Leonie Swann

I thought it would be interesting to blog this title because the premise is so bizarre. I wasn’t looking forward to reading it, though. I’m not crazy about the idea of animals as sleuths. I was pleasantly surprised, however. Three Bags Full is not cutesy but quite tongue-in-cheek. The sheep act, for the most part, [...]

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A Rule Against Murder, by Louise Penny

This is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache’s fourth outing in Penny’s Three Pines Mystery series. This time the milieu is not the Village of Three Pines but the Manoir Bellechasse, an isolated, luxurious Quebec country inn. Gamache and his wife are there enjoying a relaxing 30th anniversary vacation, which is rudely interrupted by the murder of [...]

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An Introduction to My Antonia by Willa Cather, written and produced by Dan Stone

Here’s  a recent find by my colleague, Connie:
My book group decided to revisit some of the classics. I picked My Antonia to read. This story by Willa Cather is about a young immigrant girl and her family who settle in the American plains during the Western Expansion a century ago.
While I was [...]

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As Luck Would Have It, by Joshua Piven

Piven’s name may be familiar to anyone who has seen or read the
wildly popular Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook series (co-written with David Borgenicht).
This book is a series of stories about people who have experienced both good and bad luck, and the way that they dealt with their situations, along with some analysis of luck, probability, [...]

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Nation, by Terry Pratchett

In a history resembling but several degrees removed from our own, somewhere in the Greater Pelagic Ocean, young Mau has spent a month living alone on the “boy’s island,” building the canoe he’ll need to sail home. Having proved himself worthy, he’s supposed to be welcomed by family and friends ready to celebrate his transition [...]

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King Dork, by Frank Portman

It’s a mystery, it’s a dark comedy, but most of all it’s King Dork.
Frank Portman’s debut YA novel (up till now Portman has worked as a musician) tells the story of Tom Henderson, a.k.a. King Dork, a.k.a. Chi-Mo, short for child molester, a cruel name given to him by the cruel “normal” kids after a high [...]

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Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris

I don’t watch television. I don’t watch movies. I don’t listen to audiobooks. In related news, I don’t get invited to parties.
Lo these many years ago, however, when I was still living at home, I was in the car with my mother when she was listening to NPR. That’s how I got snookered into listening [...]

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Selected Shorts – Lots of Laughs

The Selected Shorts series is a collection of both older classic and newer short stories read by some talented actors. A good number of the stories have appeared in New Yorker magazine. These dramatic readings were recorded live and aired on public radio nationwide.
I started off the Selected Shorts series by listening to Vol. XVIII, [...]

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Ruby Holler, by Sharon Creech

Florida and Dallas are the “trouble twins” at the Boxton Creek Home – but after reading this book you’ll realize it’s the Trepids, the couple who run the orphanage, who are trouble. They’re “putrid,” as Florida would say.
Florida and Dallas have given up hope that they’ll ever get out of the orphanage, every one of [...]

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