Recently Read

Yep, that's right - I've been away for weeks, and all you're getting is a lousy "Recently Read" post.  My apologies!  I'm doing okay, if exTREMEly busy,  and counting the days until my 6-month work eval, at which point I can transfer out of my current position and into another office while still keeping my accrued PTO, etc.  Am I going to be out of there like a shot? OH YES I AM.  haha.


1.  Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean - Keilloresque short stories.  Charming, if a little too cutesy.

2.  News of the World by Paulette Jiles - Novel about a traveling "news reader" in the 1870s.  I liked some of her previous novels, but I didn't like the narrative style of this one and didn't get very far.  I might try it again at some point, though.

3.  Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie - Novel about a woman coming to terms with her turbulent childhood.  Okay.

4.  Growing up in Cooper Country - edited by Louis C. Jones - Boyhood memoirs from two men who grew up in upstate New York in the late 1700s/early 1800s.  Very interesting.

5.  Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch - Novel about a boy on a whaling expedition in the 1800s.  Very interesting and well-written, but bad things happen, and I just wasn't in a place emotionally to deal with it at the time I read it, so I quit about 80 pages from the end.  Still a good read, even if I couldn't make it to the end.

6.  Chickens in the Road by Suzanne McMinn - Account of a novice who bought a farm.  Good.

7.  Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King.  Short stories.  Good, of course.

8.  Burn Down the Ground by Kambri Crews - Memoir of growing up with deaf parents in rural Texas.  Engaging.

9.  Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel - Account of a young man who, after graduating from college, walked across America.  Interesting.

10.  A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska - The Story of Hannah Breece edited by Jane Jacobs.  Hmmm ... a memoir about (a) frontier Alaska and (b) schoolteaching?  OH YEAH.

11.  All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot - An old favorite, memoirs of a veterinarian in England in the thirties.

12.  Poor Cow by Nell Dunn - I guess this novel, about an unwed teen mother with a thief for a boyfriend, caused quite a stir when it was published it in the 60s.  I found it interesting but rather tame by today's standards.  How times change!

13.  The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard - I don't know why I pick up murder mysteries - I just don't enjoy the genre.  Still, I made it all the way through this one, so that says something.

14.  Little Green by Loretta Stinson - Novel about a rootless young woman who gets involved with a bad man.  Really, really good.

15.  The Growing Seasons by Samuel Hynes - Memoir about growing up in the thirties.  I'm a sucker for books about growing up in the Depression, and this was a good one.

16.  A Ticket to Ride by Paula McLain - Novel about a young woman growing up in the seventies.  I grew up in the seventies, too!  haha.  I liked this one.

17.  If The Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss - Novel about a small Appalachian community in the seventies.  Okay.

18.  Trauma Junkie:  Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse by Janice Hudson.  Good!

19.  Leaving Wayne by Danny Clune - Memoir about a man who grew up in this area in the 50s and 60s.  He mentions lots of places (and people!) I know, so it was an interesting read.  Good.