Fiction

Happy birthday, Harper Lee!

This is from The Writer’s Almanac, which is produced by Prairie Home Productions and presented by American Public Media: It’s the birthday of (Nelle) Harper Lee, (books by this author) the author of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), born in Monroeville, Alabama (1926), the daughter of a local newspaper editor and lawyer. She was a […]

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older adults in literature

“T” Is for Trespass by Sue Grafton

Grafton, Sue. “T” Is for Trespass (2007)New York: Putnam, 400 pages   ISBN: 0399154485Random House Audio, narrated by Judy Kaye Recommended Starting a new Sue Grafton novel always means getting reacclimatized to Kinsey’s world. For Kinsey (lucky woman), time is not passing nearly as quickly as it is for her readers. At the beginning of

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“Hold Tight” by Harlan Coben

Coben, Harlan. Hold Tight (2008)  Dutton, 321 pages, $26.95 hardcover  ISBN-10: 0525950605  ISBN-13: 978-0525950608. Recommended When Mike and Tia Baye install a spy program on their son Adam’s computer, they have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. All they know is that 16-year-old Adam has become increasingly more withdrawn and sullen over the past

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“Lost Boys” by Orson Scott Card

Card, Orson Scott. Lost Boys   New York: HarperCollins, 1992    ISBN 0-06-109131-6   Audiobook by Blackstone Audio Recommended This is the story of the Fletcher family: Step (Stephen) and his pregnant wife, DeAnne, and their children–Stevie, age 8; Robbie, 4; and Elizabeth, 2. It’s 1983, and the family is relocating from Indiana to Steuben,

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Amazon.com: Best of 2007: Books

Amazon.com: Best of 2007: Books Sorry to be so late with this, but here’s one of those year-end lists that I missed.  In fact, there are several lists here, broken down by subject matter. There are readers’ favorites as well as editors’ picks included, so you can get a feel for what books other ordinary

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“World Without End” by Ken Follett

Follett, Ken. World Without End   New York: Dutton, 2007   ISBN 0525950079 Penguin Audiobooks Ken Follett spent three years writing this sequel to his most popular book, The Pillars of the Earth. In World Without End, 200 years have passed since the completion of the majestic cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. During

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Dorothy Sayers and British Detective Fiction

NPR : A Brutal, British Mystery Novel for Boxing Day Jonathan Hayes, a New York City forensic pathologist, describes how a BBC broadcast of Dorothy Sayers’s novel The Nine Tailors made him appreciate Sayers’s influence on the mystery genre: In Nine Tailors, the violence is not bloodless, but brutal, and the characters are made of

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“The Knitting Circle” by Ann Hood

Hood, Ann. The Knitting Circle New York: Norton, 2007 ISBN 0-393-05901-4 Blackstone Audiobooks, narrated by Hillary Huber Highly recommended This novel is all about perspective, and about the healing power of telling our stories. When Mary Baxter’s five-year-old daughter dies suddenly of meningitis, Mary finds herself unable to read, write, go to work, or do

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“Broken for You” by Stephanie Kallos

Kallos, Stephanie. Broken for You   New York: Grove Press, 2004   ISBN 0-8021-1779-1    Blackstone Audiobooks   Narrated by Anna Fields Recommended Margaret Hughes, age 75, has just learned that she has a brain tumor. Margaret lives alone in a vast mansion in the most upscale part of Seattle. Her only companions are the

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“An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England” by Brock Clarke

Clarke, Brock. An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England: A Novel Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 2007  ISBN 978-1-56512-551-3  Random House Audio, narrated by Daniel Passer This quirky novel is about stories–the stories we tell about our lives and about ourselves, and the stories we tell to others and to ourselves. The story’s narrator is

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