Review of “Three Bags Full,” by Leonie Swann

This book has a very clever premise: sheep, whose shepherd, George, is found dead on a hillside in Ireland, take it upon themselves to solve the mystery of his death. Since George had read books to them daily, including detective novels, they are quite familiar with the ways of men, and set out looking for [...]

Sunday Salon – Review of “The 19th Wife,” by David Ebershoff

This book is about the practice of plural marriage among the original Latter Day Saints and also among the current “Firsts” or “First Latter-Day Saints,” those who continue to practice polygamy as part of their faith. The stories of both groups are intertwined in a creative scheme that attempts to create the verisimilitude of a [...]

On The Road Again

August 9-15 we’ll be in Illinois and Wisconsin. It’s a good thing I’m not participating in Game On! Diet this month, because I would not be very helpful to my teammates! Here’s an example of what we’ll experience in the Lovely Land of Cholesterol, Wisconsin: 1. Cheese! Not only does Wisconsin have the best cheese [...]

Review of “No One You Know” by Michelle Richmond

This is a book that I found absorbing from the moment I started it. Ellie Enderlin’s life has been defined by the murder of her sister twenty years ago when Ellie was 19 and her sister Lila was 22. Lila was a math prodigy; she was also pretty; unconventional; nonconforming; kind-hearted but rather unsocial; and [...]

A Book Blogger Appreciation Week Meme

If you were a part of BBAW last year, please answer these simple questions on your blog and drop your link into Mister Linky so that others can learn all about BBAW! Feel free to tag other bloggers to play along! 1) What was the highlight (something that happened, a post, an activity, etc.) of [...]

Review of “The Gods Themselves” by Isaac Asimov

Alyce, of At Home With Books, started this meme to feature favorite reads from the past. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1972, won both of the biggest awards in science fiction: the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. It has always been one of my favorite books of one of my [...]

August 4, 1944 – Anne Frank Was Captured

On this sad date in 1944, young 15-year-old Anne Frank was discovered by the Nazi police hiding in a tiny attic room above her father Otto’s factory in Amsterdam, Holland. She and her family and four others were living in a secret annex concealed behind a moveable bookcase. In the annex, Anne started to write [...]

Review of “The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine,” by April Lurie

This book for young adults narrated by a fifteen-year-old boy on the threshold of adulthood is warm, witty, and rings very true. Dylan Fontaine lives in a well-to-do household in which his father is a busy gynecologist who rarely gets home from the hospital, his mother has run off to live among her artist friends, [...]

Sunday Salon – Review of “Through My Eyes” by Ruby Bridges (Ages 8-Adult)

Through My Eyes tells the story of the forced integration of white schools in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960. Citizens and officials alike had defied federal orders to integrate arising from the seminal 1954 court case, Brown vs. The Board of Education. In 1956, 101 politicians in Congress (99 Democrats and 2 Republicans) issued a [...]

August 1, 1876: Colorado Joins the Union as the 38th State

The United States acquired the eastern part of Colorado in 1803 through the Louisiana Purchase and the western portion in 1848 through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1850, the federal government also purchased a Texas claim in Colorado. This combined property eventually became the Colorado Territory in 1861. In 1857, the U.S. suffered one [...]