As I write this, of course I am assailed with the soothing sounds of Lin Manuel Miranda singing, “Alexander Hamilton, my name is Alexander Hamilton.” I read this book previous to the musical being the hit that it turned out to be, and was skeptical about it because a reader friend of mine had read it and not loved it, but what can one do? It looked big and bulky, and hey, I like history as much as the next gal, so I knew I’d give it a try. Read More »
I Read a Lot of Books
I read a lot of books. Sometimes I review them.
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer by Kate Summerscale
Another book that I wanted to love, but just didn’t. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher , written by Summerscale, is one of my favorite true crime books, and a book by which I judge other books a lot of the time. This one was a disappointment. Read More »
The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston
Full disclosure, I struggled to read this one. I kept picking it up and putting it down, though the subject matter is something I typically enjoy. Searching for lost civilisations in the jungle? Yes, please? A potential curse involved? Even better! But no, Preston managed to make it more boring than it needed to be, or perhaps I was expecting something other than the book that I read. Read More »
Confessions of an Unlikely Runner by Dana L. Ayers
Back to my task of reading one running book a month until I am running again. Good news on that front, I have started shuffling (it would not be fair to call it running) again, but I’ve been doing this weekly and while my mileage and speed are nothing to brag about, well, I am doing it, and perhaps one day I will brag again. Confessions of an Unlikely Runner was a great addition to my running library. I feel like Ayers and I could be friends if we met in real life because we are both unlikely runners. In Ayers case, the very first sentence of the very first chapter I’m not naturally athletic is basically my rallying cry, and when she continues that she was more of a book nerd growing up… well, lets let this website speak to that, shall we? Read More »
Of Time and Memory: A Mother’s Story by Don J. Snyder
Folks, this is a sad one. A truly sad one. This book first came to my consciousness when I was watching a film that used a quotation from the text “Let us hope that we are all preceded in this world by a love story”. I furiously tried to copy the reference because it sounded like a book I needed to have in my life. I was right. Of Time and Memory (I’ve also found the same book with A Parents’ Love Story) tells the story of a man trying to piece together the story of his mother’s life. Read More »
Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones
I was not, like so many of my peers, brought up on the muppets. Sure, I remember Kermit singing, Rainbow Connection, and quite liked it, but I never watched the movies or the tv show. I also didn’t enjoy Sesame Street. I didn’t like Fraggle Rock. My biggest exposure to Jim Henson was through the puppets on Star Wars or The Dark Crystal, which I genuinely thought was one of the most amazing things ever. My seven year old self spent a long time playing the Dark Crystal, and I’ve been tempted to re-watch it as an adult, but I fear that I’ll dislike it and have no desire to destroy the nostalgia. Read More »
Assisted: An Autobiography by John Stockton with Kerry L. Pickett
Full disclosure. I care less than not at all about professional sports. Well, perhaps that isn’t entirely accurate. I am an only girl, raised with boys who LOVE sports. Though football is the big one in my family, all other sports are also welcomed. And local teams… well, mostly they love the local teams. I am from Utah and was a teenager in the glory days of the Utah Jazz when Stockton and Malone were making playoffs left and right and losing championships to the Chicago Bulls. Read More »
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden
Unlike most of my peers, I didn’t grow up watching The Princess Bride as a kid. I vaguely remember my 4th grade best friend, Katy, raving about it and arranging for me to watch it at her house. I have no idea why that never happened but it didn’t. Instead, I watched it for the first time as a freshman in college, and I LOVED it! I am glad I came to it later than a lot of my friends because some of the subtle humor is really best observed by older teens or adults. Read More »
David Spade is Almost Interesting by David Spade
Let us take a moment to talk audiobooks. This is not the first audiobook I listened to… no that honor goes to a horrible Star Wars audiobook which I will be reviewing shortly (and when I say shortly, I actually have no idea when I will get to it… I used to do these things in order, but I’ve given that up). Read More »
The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich by Robert K Wittman and David Kinney
Back to reading WWII books, I see. Yes, I am. I genuinely can’t help myself no matter how hard I try. I feel as though I am not entirely to blame because of each book published every year, I’d wager a high percentage are about WWII. Like how I kept it vague without any real statistics? Read More »
Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and The University of Colorado Men’s Cross Country Team by Chris Lear
If you read this website regularly (and there is no guarantee that you do… I’ve seen my web page analytics), you know that I like to read running books as I consider myself a runner on sabbatical just waiting for that magical day when I am no longer birthing or breastfeeding humans and can devote time back to running. Read More »
It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool Too) by Nora McInerny Purmort
Sigh… where to begin? Reviewing a book like this is a bit of a challenge. Purmort’s biggest claim to fame, and her reason for writing a memoir in the first place, is that her husband died of cancer. So, if you criticize a book like this, you come across as a jerk… So with that understanding, I am going into this immediately letting you know that I DISLIKED this book. Read More »
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
I’d heard a lot about this book and had always wanted to read it. I’d read excerpts of a few of her other books and it looked like Battle Hymn was a bit of a departure, but exciting none the less. Then I had the opportunity to hear Chua speak at my brother’s law school graduation and enjoyed what she had to say. She spoke a lot about the backlash she received after writing the book and the controversy surrounding it. Which goes to show you, people who don’t read books shouldn’t get to make talking points on morning shows. Read More »
A Long Way Home: A Boy’s Incredible Journey from India to Australia and Back Again by Saroo Brierly
By now everyone has heard this story as the movie based on this book, Lion, was nominated for all sorts of awards. My husband got this for me before the movie was a thing, and so the first time I saw the trailer for the movie I’d already read the book and therefore had a bunch of pre conceived notions about what it should be, but that is another story for another time. You all know my thoughts on movies based on books. Read More »
Run Gently Out There: Trials, Trails, and Tribulations of Running Ultramarathons by John Morelock
Ah, the book that single-handedly killed my love of running. Just kidding. I’m being a bit dramatic, but in a running book my bar is reasonably low: Does this book make me want to run? If the answer is no, then it isn’t a great running book. But I get ahead of myself. Read More »
Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins
Help me out there book-lovers: Do you find yourselves getting sucked into reading books about books? That is how Sixpence House came into my hands. Read More »
Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History by Hampton Sides
I’m a fan of Hampton Sides, if he writes it, I’m going to read it. (I’m currently reading Amercana: Dispatches from the New Frontier and loving it) I read this book at a challenging time which made it a very heavy read. Read More »
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
So, apparently Jenny Lawson writes a beloved blog. I did not know that when I put this on my Christmas wishlist. I thought the description was intriguing enough and at this point in my life various people I know have suddenly become depressed, are seeking help for depression, or are recovering from depression. I was hoping to get a humorous insight into the disordered or depressed mind… that isn’t exactly what I got. Read More »
An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-year-old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski
Get ready with the tissues because this book is full of big feelings. In this day and age negative race relations is big money as it sells newspapers, has splashy headlines, and evokes strong emotions. Unfortunately the media has seized on the negativity in a way the early yellow journalists manufactured threats, wars, and published rumor as fact. Read More »
The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower
Congrats to Stashower for introducing me to a true crime that I knew next to nothing about. Sometime, somewhere, in some article or book or other I knew that Edgar Allan Poe had based one of his stories on the murder of Mary Rogers, but that is about it. I looked forward to learning a bit more about the whole affair. And MAN, affair it was. Really this book tells two stories. The first is of Edgar Allan Poe, a lonely, kind of ungratious, impetuous writer. The second is of Mary Rogers, a young girl with secrets who happens to get killed and to this day no one knows exactly who did it. I hate to admit it, but the Poe stuff was very secondary and when the story switched to follow him it always took me a couple paragraphs (or pages!) to actually care again. Not a good sign, but overall, I enjoyed the book.
Bastards by Mary Anna King
I come from a stable home. Two parents who are still together and just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. Four kids. A few regular ups and downs but certainly my childhood was filled with a sense of security and well-being if not full of ponies and sweet sixteen parties. My life could not be more different than King’s but I enjoyed reading an account of someone who was able to reconcile a tumultuous childhood and examine it in front of the world. Read More »
The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-map Dealer who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding
I love maps. I do. In all my dreams of having the “perfect” room (you can go ahead and imagine a library because all my perfect rooms are library dreams) it has maps all over the place. We moved into our current home about 4 years ago (wow, time flies! I remember unpacking all those books when we got here just like it was yesterday) and I am finally getting around to decorating our bedroom. I found the most amazing map printed on glass over some translucent turquoise painting. It is awesome. I keep waiting for it to go down in price to something remotely reasonable, and one day IT WILL BE MINE. What I’m saying is, I get a guy wanting to steal maps. I understand why people would collect them and preserve them. In short, I get this book. Read More »
The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
Does the world need another book about the Romanovs? That is the question. I’m not exactly sure that it does, but then again I’m not sure that it doesn’t. Helpful, no? There are a slew of nonfiction books about Czarist Russia, Rasputin, the October Revolution, etc and a book has to be unique to add something new to a discourse that has been hashed over to the point of animated musical fodder. Read More »
House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family by Paul Fisher
I’ve been wanting to read this book since it came out. I’ve kept my eye on it and put it on my amazon wish list in hopes my husband would get it for me for Christmas of my birthday. I am VERY easy to shop for. Books, chocolate, and running shoes, in that order. Easy.
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Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked by Chris Matthews
No secret. I LOVED Reagan. Loved. Him. Sure I was about a month old when he was elected to office, but he was my first president. I always had an interest (some would say unnatural) in politics. I remember watching the Oliver North trials by choice! Not the average activity of choice for a little kid. Whenever I see that there is a new book out featuring the Reagan presidency, I gobble it up. I was a bit skeptical because Chris Matthews is not well known for fair minded political reporting, but it had REAGAN on the cover so I couldn’t resist.
Women of Faith in the Latter Days: Volume One, 1775-1820 edited by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman
I’d actually read several excerpts of this book and following volumes and had wanted to sit down and read the entire book. I also hope to get to the rest of the volumes when time permits. Read More »
Farewell: The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century by Sergie Kostin and Eric Raynaud translated by Catherine Cauvin-Higgins
This book was so disappointing. So. Disappointing. I don’t know how you can make such an interesting story boring, but the writers managed to make this book an actual snoozefest if such a thing exists.
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The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
How to review a book of this nature? It is basically like casting judgment on someone’s life and what they have gone through. I’m in a memoir phase lately, which in and of itself is a bit of a surprise. I’ve always maintained that if you write an entire book about yourself you should definitely have done something mildly noteworthy. Is having a crappy childhood, and equally crappy adolescence noteworthy?
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A Moment of War by Laurie Lee
This is the final of autobiographical work of Laurie Lee, a British dude who enjoyed romping around Europe. A Moment of War follows him as he decides to go battle against Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War. As you can imagine, it didn’t go well. Read More »
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
In 2005 (?) my mom had cancer. She told us that she had to go in for surgery. I visited her in the hospital. She came home. My youngest brother and I called her surgery “the incision” and would make fun of her Pre Incision and Post Incision dancing. I wasn’t living at home and the whole thing seemed to pass rather quickly and then it was over. My mom was okay… then I read The Emperor of All Maladies… so I called to hear what really happened, because if Mukherjee taught me one thing, it is that cancer is never that simple.