Niccolò Rising by Dorothy Dunnett

June 24, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Gordon Griffin. Whole Story Audiobooks, 2013. Originally published 1986. 26 hours, 16 minutes. Purchased. Set in Bruges in 1460, the first book in Dunnett’s eight-partThe House of Niccolòseries introduces readers to Claes, a teenaged dyer’s apprentice who was raised from the age of ten by his employer, Marian de Charetty. Claes believes himself to be the legitimate son of Simon de St. Pol of Kilmirren, a Scottish lord who claims Claes (or, Nicholas van der […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, 20BooksofSummer, Audiobook, Chunkster, Europe, Fiction, Italy • Tags: Dorothy Dunnett, Gordon Griffin

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

June 14, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Davina Porter. Recorded Books, 2002. Originally published 2001. 55 hours, 30 minutes. Library copy. The fifth book in Gabaldon’s Outlander series opens right at the conclusion of the proceeding book: Brianna and Roger have reconciled at the clan gathering in the colony of North Carolina where the Frasers have traveled to see Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta marry Jamie’s co-revolutionist from Culloden. The wedding, however, is interrupted by the arrival of the local magistrate, who proceeds to arrest […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Audiobook, Chunkster, Fiction, North America, Science Fiction, United States • Tags: Davina Porter, Diana Gabaldon

The Buried by Peter Hessler

May 29, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Penguin Press, 2019. 480 pgs. Purchased. After years of living and working in China as a journalist for The New Yorker,Hessler moved with his wife, Leslie, and infant twin daughters to Cairo in 2011. The same year the Egyptian Arab Spring began, resulting in the overthrow of the dictator Hosni Mubarak and the election of the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi. As Hessler documents in his book, Morsi would serve as president for barely a […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Africa, Chunkster, LGBTQA+, Nonfiction • Tags: Peter Hessler

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

May 15, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – audiobook. Read by Robertson Dean, Cherise Boothe, Dwight Bacquie, Ryan Anderson, Johnathan McClain, Robert Younis, and Thom Rivera. Highbridge, 2014. 26 hours. Purchased.  On December 3, 1976, gunmen opened fire inside the Jamaican home of Reggae superstar, Bob Marley. The attack occurred against the backdrop of the looming general elections – a event the American government was afraid would sweep a pro-Communist government into power — and only two days before Marley was set to perform at a […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Awards and Prizes, Caribbean, Chunkster, Fiction, ReadDiverse • Tags: Cherise Boothe, Dwight Bacquie, Johnathan McClain, Marlon James, Robert Younis, Robertson Dean, Ryan Anderson, Thom Rivera

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon

May 3, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Davina Porter. Recorded Books, 2005. 44 hours, 50 minutes. Purchased. As the conclusion of Voyager, Claire and Jamie Fraser found themselves washed ashore the coast of Georgia with Jamie’s nephew, foster son, and step-daughter turned foster-daughter-in-law. A hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean destroyed their ship and waylaid their plans to travel back to Scotland from Jamaica and return Ian Murray back to his mother, Jamie’s sister. At the start of Drums of Autumn, the fourth book […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Audiobook, Chunkster, Europe, Fiction, North America, United Kingdom, United States • Tags: Davina Porter, Diana Gabaldon

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

April 5, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Harper, 2018. 464 pgs. Purchased. Kingsolver’s latest novel teeters together two stories set roughly 150 years apart through a shared locality, the planned community of Vineland, New Jersey. The present-day story is set late 2015 and early 2016 – the characters react to the rhetoric of Donald Trump’s campaign, although never refer to him by name – and follows the matriarch of Vineland’s newest residents, Willa. Willa’s husband recently lost his tenured professorship after the small, insolvent […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Book Club, Chunkster, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Barbara Kingsolver

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

March 27, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Mulholland Books, 2018. 656 pgs. Purchased. The fourth installment of Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike series opens with the wedding of Strike’s assistant turned junior private investigator, Robin Ellacott, and the fallout of Strike firing Robin at the end of Career of Evil over concerns for her safety.  Robin wants to go back to working for Strike as a private investigator, but Strike still hasn’t contacted her and her family, especially her fiancée Matthew, aren’t keen on the idea […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Crime, Europe, Fiction, United Kingdom • Tags: J.K. Rowling, Robert Galbraith

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

March 18, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Vintage, 2011. Originally published 2010. 622 pgs. Purchased.   Subtitled “The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration”, Wilkerson’s book follows three individuals in order to construct a larger narrative about the movement of black Americans between 1915 and the 1970s. Historians estimate roughly six million black Americans moved from majority black southern states governed by white minorities to northern and western states where racism had not (yet) been codified through Jim Crow laws. The three individuals profiled […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Mountain West, Nonfiction, ReadDiverse, United States • Tags: Isabel Wilkerson

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

February 22, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – Kindle edition. Translated from the Hebrew. Harper, 2015. Originally published 2011. 541 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “A Brief History of Humankind”, Harari’s book covers three “revolutions” that shaped the course of history – the Cognitive Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, and the Scientific Revolution – before delving into a lesson in how culture binds the world together and a short speculation about the future. Beginning about 70,0000 years, the Cognitive Revolution led to the evolution of Neanderthals and other […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Africa, Chunkster, Economics, Europe, Hebrew, Indigenious Peoples, Middle East, Nonfiction, North America, Religion, South America, Translated, United States • Tags: Yuval Noah Harari

See Me by Nicholas Sparks

February 18, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — print. Grand Central Publishing, 2015. 486 pgs. Purchased. It’s been awhile since I found myself (internally) screaming at a character to stop being so stupid. Yet, that was all I could do with the characters Sparks created for this novel. After about 100 pages, the main female character, Maria, reveals that she was sent unsigned, menacing notes following the death of a domestic violence victim. At the time, Maria was working as a prosecutor, and the victim’s murderer […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Crime, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Nicholas Sparks

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

February 4, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Flatiron Books, 2018. 453 pgs. Purchased. Nine strangers met at a health resort in Australia; each arrive at Tranquility House with their own goal for the 10-day, screen-free experience. Frances, a formerly bestselling romance writer, is hoping to reorient herself following the rejection of her latest novel by publishers and a stinging rebuke of her work – and of the whole genre – by a critic. Dragged to the resort by his wife, Ben isn’t sure if […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Fiction, Oceania • Tags: Liane Moriarty

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

January 24, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — audiobook. Read by Carrington MacDuffie. Blackstone Audiobooks, 2007. Originally published 1943. 16 hours, 17 minutes. Born in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn in 1901, young Francie Nolan has fallen in love with reading. She’s determined to read every single book in the small, public library, and has already made her way through the As when Smith’s novel opens. Along with a love of reading, Francie also possess a keen ability for observation, noticing the plant in the bowl […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Audiobook, Book Club, Chunkster, Classics, Classics Club, Fiction, New York, North America, United States • Tags: Betty Smith, Carrington MacDuffie