GREAT READS

"There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard."

Jamie Mason's debut novel Three Graves Full is a character-driven thriller full of sharp humor. After reading that fans of the Coen brothers' films would enjoy this book, I c...

I love to cook and bake and I love a good cook book. Maya Angelou's, "Hallelujah! The Welcome Table" Angelou shares a lifetime of memories, the good times along with the sad ones. Whatever the situation, food played an important part in her life. Whe...

The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first book written for adults. Rowling's various characters and plots kept me entertained. Krystal is a teenage girl raising her four-year-old brother while living with a drug-addicted mother. She sees her mother ...

Calling all men who crave the outrageous, are a Baltimore Raven Fan or a fan of the DIY cable channel show Man Caves. I just read a book that you might really enjoy. Goose: The Outrageous Life & Times of a Football Guy is the autobiography of Ton...

According to the Mayan calendar the end of the world will take place on December 21, 2012. With that in mind, I decided to check out an audio book about just that situation. The Dog Stars, the first novel written by Peter Weller, is a post-apocalypti...

Justin Townes Earle is the son of Steve Earle, a famous singer and songwriter, and named after Townes Van Zandt, also know for his songwriting. I am a big fan of what I like to call "Alternative Country," which to me is exceptionally written and perf...

This is hands down one of my favorite biographies. Walter Isaacson does an amazing job writing about Steve Jobs, a very complex and creative man and a bit crazy. When Isaacson was first approached by Jobs to write his biography, he wasn't interested...

I lLoved this book. In Quiet, Susan Cain explains the obvious and not-so-obvious differences between introverts and extroverts. Introverts prefer listening to speaking, like to be creative, but dislike self-promotion, and enjoy working alone versus b...

HBO's popular hit series "Big Love" tells the story of a polygamist family. I admit that I had preconceived ideas about this alternative life style and was intrigued when I came upon "The Lonely Polygamist." The author Brady Udall grew up in a large ...

I am not a big fan of the horror genre and Stephen King, even though I have read and enjoyed several of his books. "11/22/63" is unlike anything he has ever written.

If you could go back in time and change the past would you? Jake Epping, a recentl...

I loved "Full Dark, No Stars," a collection of four stories by Stephen King. I listened to the audio book version and found that I wanted to keep listening, much in the way you just don't want to put down a fantastic book. The engrossing stories have...

I really enjoyed Elizabeth Berg's The Art of Mending, a story about a family reunion where three siblings - Caroline, Laura, and Steve - reunite with their parents. The five of them go to the annual local fair that they have enjoyed over the years. T...

I am a big fan of Swedish author Henning Mankell. His atmospheric and suspenseful mysteries were so good that I read them all. After exhausting his works, I started looking for other European mystery writers. I found Jussi Adler-Olsen and his recentl...

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost & Gail Steketee was an eye-opening read for me. I do not watch reality television, but I am aware that the hoarding phenomenon is the subject of several shows.

Hoarding is qu...

Room is the story of a five-year-old child who has spent every day of his young life in one room. The room has no windows and he is not allowed to go outside. He tells of his life with his mother and his surroundings, where everything is of value to ...

This audio book is hilarious. Several of the animals, reptiles, amphibians and insects portrayed in these stories will remind you of people you know. I hope I am not one of them!

As a plus, the audio book is read by several people, among them, Elain...

This book is filled with interesting ideas and worth flipping through. The strangest suggestion was to make bracelets out of old tooth brushes. I will not be doing that, but I might try to take apart my toaster and clean it inside as recommended to f...

This is a must-see movie. It was originally released in 1999, however the story is timeless. Based on the biography of Willie Morris, the story takes place in 1940 in a little town on the banks of the Yazoo River. It's a tale of a boy and his dog, i...

I'm not a war history buff, in fact, I tend to avoid those types of books altogether, but this book was incredible. The story takes the reader through the inspiring life of Luis Zamperini. The book includes tales of childhood delinquency with eventua...

As a recent recipient of an iPad, I was anxious to learn as much as I could about them. This book is a great start. It explains how to use the pre-installed applications and recommends applications to buy. This book will help the novice user as well ...

I love to read Henning Mankell. I enjoyed his Kurt Wallander mysteries and wanted to read more. "The Man from Beijing" is a tale of murder, revenge and corruption. A massacre is discovered in a small village in Sweden. When Judge Birgitta Roslin rea...

"Tinkers" is Paul Harding's first novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2010 for this work. As the story begins, George lies on his death bed surrounded by his family. As he drifts from states of consciousness and sleep, his memorie...