I am currently reading a 1955 first edition of One Man’s India by Arthur Stratton, a Brunswick native, Bowdoin alum (’35) and English professor, and well-known traveler and author of the mid-twentieth century. To cite the dust jacket, the book is a “…personal record of a journey from Darjeeling to the Deccan, reflecting the life …
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I just finished reading Yannick Murphy’s new novel, The Call, a bizarre and lovely book narrated by a large animal veterinarian in rural inland New England (the author is from Vermont). When I say “narrated” I mean that the narration is broken up into categories: “The Call” (in which the vet gets called to, for …
Harlan Coben’s Tell No One is a great summer read for those who love murder mystery novels. It tells the story of David Beck, a man still struggling with the loss of his wife who was attacked and brutally killed many years before. However, his whole life is turned upside down when he receives an …
I am currently in the midst of the Cairo Trilogy,(Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street) by Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize for Literature 1988). These three novels tell the story of three generations of an Egyptian family during the first half of the twentieth century. In an intensely patriarchal culture and against the political background …
I confess. I “read” audiobooks. My workaday commute from Portland gives me a lot of time for listening. Not only do I feel that I make productive use of the commuting time, but I find that I can catch up on works that seem to keep slipping off the top of my reading list. This …
This work is a non-fiction that reads like an excellent historical novel. It focuses on the experiences of William Dodd and his family during Dodd’s time as the first ambassador to Germany for America during Hitler’s rise to power. Although at first the Americans can feel the enthusiasm for the “New Germany,” several accounts of …
Whether religious or not, it is almost impossible for a person to avoid the story of Adam and Eve. Mark Twain utilizes these two personas in his work The Private Life of Adam and Eve to provide some “insight” into their everyday lives. By laying out the book in the form of a personal journal, …
Several years ago I joined a men’s book group, an activity I’d never tried before. I should have done so much sooner! It’s been a rewarding experience for many reasons, one being my introduction to books I was unlikely to encounter on my own. Our current book falls into this category: Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of …
I have just finished reading J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone . This series follows the life of Harry Potter, a boy who lost his parents at a very young age to a wizard named Voldemort who went as bad as you could go. Raised by the worst muggles (non-magic folk) imaginable, Harry …
On my Kindle (something I first tried by borrowing one from the H-L Library), I’ve just finished American Grace by Robert Putnam (a Harvard prof) and David Campbell (a Notre Dame prof). It’s a fascinating book that examines religion in America with all our diversity, tolerance, or lack thereof. Based on extensive surveys and research, …
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