Killing a King by Dan Ephron

December 23, 2015 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. Print. 304 pgs. Library copy. On November 4, 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel was assassinated as he left a pro-Oslo Accords peace rally in Israel by a twenty-five-year-old Israeli citizen named Yigal Amir, who justified his actions through the Talmudic concept of “rodef”. The law of “din rodef” allows an individual to kill a person in order to save innocent lives and, according to Amir, Rabin was guilt of murdering Israeli settlers in the West Bank because he […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Nonfiction, Religion • Tags: Dan Ephron

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

December 18, 2015 by Christina

Fiction — print. Orion, 2009. 339 pgs. Library copy. The Foxman family is forced to confront painful feelings about their familial bonds and the realities of the four sibling’s collapsing relationships with their significant others as they sit shiva for seven days following the death of their patriarch. None of the siblings want to sit shiva given that their father was never one for religion or God, but their mother and their childhood friend turned rabbi once known by the nickname “Boner” […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Book Club, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Jonathan Tropper

Betrayal by The Investigative Staff of The Boston Globe

December 17, 2015 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Little, Brown, 2008. Originally published 2002. 304 pgs. Library copy. As a resident of Boston and someone who briefly worked in journalism, I felt compelled to see “Spotlight”, a feature film that follows the Boston Globe‘s reporting of the Catholic Church child-abuse scandal in 2001-2002. The film certainly makes a compelling case for supporting the local paper and, more specifically, the investigative journalists who take months to develop a story rather than the click-bait headlines that seem to be […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Crime, New England, Nonfiction, North America, Religion, United States • Tags: Ben Bradlee Jr., Kevin Cullen, Matt Carroll, Michael Paulson, Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, Stephen Kurkjian, The Boston Globe, Thomas Farragher, Walter V. Robinson

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

December 15, 2015 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Jim Dale. Listening Library, 2007. 21 hours, 45 minutes. Library copy. Rather than return to Hogwarts for his seventh and final year at the wizarding academy, Harry Potter decides to finish Albus Dumbledore’s quest to find and destroy Voldemort’s horcruxs in order to vanquish the Dark Lord once and for all. The task was entrusted to Harry and Harry alone, although Dumbledore gave him permission to Ron and Hermione, and Harry refuses to include the members of […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Audiobook, Chunkster, Europe, Fantasy, Fiction, Juvenile, United Kingdom • Tags: J.K. Rowling, Jim Dale

The Bone Woman by Clea Koff

December 11, 2015 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Random House, 2005. Originally published 2001. 304 pgs. PaperBackSwap. In order to prosecute perpetrators for genocide and crimes against humanity, bodies must be exhumed and their condition as well as the mass graves they are found in must be documented. It is not enough to say people of particular ethnic or religious groups have disappeared and are presumed dead as perpetrators can claim these missing individuals were casualties of war or are undocumented refugees in neighboring lands. […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Africa, Balkans, Europe, Genocide, Nonfiction • Tags: Clea Koff

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

December 10, 2015 by Christina

Fiction — eBook. Amazon Kindle, 2012. Originally published 1874. 512 pgs. Free download. Hardy’s novel focuses on the follies of the heart with the heroine, Bathsheba Everdene,  falling for the superficial rather than the practical. At the beginning of the novel, young Bathsheba tells her first suitor, a promising sheep farmer named Gabriel Oak, that she should never want to marry him because she’s afraid he could never tame her the way a wife needs to be tamed in order for the marriage to work. […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Chunkster, Classics, Classics Club, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Thomas Hardy

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

December 9, 2015 by Christina

Nonfiction — audiobook. Read by Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett, Seth Meyers, Michael Schur, Eileen Poehler, William Poehler, Patrick Stewart, and Kathleen Turner. Harper Audio, 2014. 7 hours, 31 minutes. Library copy. Memoir is likely the wrong word to describe this book. Yes, it provides some details into Poehler’s life — her childhood just north of where I currently live in Burlington, Massachusetts; her time at Improv Olympics in Chicago; her experiences living in a rat-infested, basement in New York City […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Audiobook, New England, New York, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett, Eileen Poehler, Kathleen Turner, Michael Schur, Patrick Stewart, Seth Meyers, William Poehler

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis

December 8, 2015 by Christina

Fiction — print. Coach House Books, 2015. 171 pgs. Library copy. In this imaginative, little book, the Greek gods Hermes and Apollo visit a dog kennel near Toronto and gift the fifteen dogs there with consciousness. The two have wagered a bet over whether or not intelligence — or, maybe more appropriately,  awareness of one’s place in society outside the insular pack — makes humans happier than other beings. If one of these fifteen dogs gifted with human intelligence dies […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Animals, Canada, Fiction, Giller Prize, North America • Tags: André Alexis

Voices by Arnaldur Indriðason

November 24, 2015 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder. Minotaur, 2007. Originally published 2002. 313 pgs. Library copy. Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson is called to one of the grand hotels in Reykjavik to investigate the murder of the hotel’s Santa/handyman/doorman named Gulli, who was found dead in his basement apartment with his pants around his ankles. The hotel staff insists the old man was an unwanted addition to their ranks – a washed out doorman who was to be fired at […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Crime, Europe, Fiction, Iceland, Icelandic, Translated • Tags: Arnaldur Indriðason

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

November 21, 2015 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Kenneth Branagh. Listening Library, 2013. Originally published 1955. 3 hours, 57 minutes. Library copy. Two young children named Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer decide to explore the connected attics their family’s homes in London during the summer of 1900. During their exploration, the two children stumble across Digory’s Uncle Andrew, and Polly is convinced by Uncle Andrew to touch a yellow ring, which causes her to immediately vanish. Horrified, Digory learns that his uncle has been playing with magic and […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Audiobook, Classics, Fantasy, Fiction, Juvenile • Tags: C.S. Lewis, Kenneth Branagh

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince By J.K. Rowling (Reread)

November 20, 2015 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Jim Dale. Listening Library, 2005. 18 hours, 31 minutes. Library copy. Returning to Hogwarts for his sixth year, Harry Potter is horrified to learn that Severus Snape, potions master and a Death Eater that Harry’s beloved headmaster claims to trust with his life, has now taken over the Defense Against the Dark Arts post. Harry is convinced Snape’s true allegiances lie with Voldemort rather than with the Order of the Phoenix and, as such, is  playing Dumbledore […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Audiobook, Chunkster, Europe, Fantasy, Fiction, Juvenile, Reread, United Kingdom • Tags: J.K. Rowling, Jim Dale

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

November 18, 2015 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Davina Porter. Recorded Books, 1998. Originally published 1992. 39 hours, 28 minutes. Library copy. This sequel to Outlander begins in 1968 with Claire Randall returning to Scotland from her home in Boston with her twenty-something daughter, Brianna, in tow. Now that her husband, Frank, has passed, Claire is determined to explain her past – how she traveled through the stones of Craigh Na Dun to the 1700s, married a Highlander named Jamie Fraser, and eventually […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Audiobook, Chunkster, Europe, Fantasy, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: Davina Porter, Diana Gabaldon