Reviews By Title

Disclaimer -- I don't really think "review" is the correct word to use, but lacking a more descriptive prospect off the top of my head, I'll just go with it. I'm not a critic, I'm not a literature major, I'm not an aspiring writing. I'm just a big fan of books. These aren't "reviews" so much as simply my thoughts on the books, whether I liked them or not, and who else may enjoy them. I won't be rating them as my feelings regarding certain books tend to change as time goes on. I can never really tell if a book deserves a personal 4 or 5 star rating until long afer I've read it. It's only then that the truly memorable reveal themselves. Some may find my musings helpful or interesting, others may not. Fair enough. If I can help even just a few fellow readers discover a new favorite they may have otherwise missed, I'll call it a job well done!


FICTION


A

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
All Other Nights by Dara Horn
Allah Is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
American Youth by Phil LaMarche
The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone
Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
The Attack by Yasmina Khadra
The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman

B

Bedlam by Greg Hollingshead
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery Deaver
The Body In The Library by Agatha Christie
Bones by Jonathan Kellerman
Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass
The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster
The Book of Samson by David Maine
The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver

C

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
Cards On The Table -- Agatha Christie
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones
Catherine Carmier by Ernest J. Gaines
Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer
Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Christ The Lord: The Road To Cana by Anne Rice
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
The Complete Fables by Aesop
Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman
The Concubine by Norah Lofts
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer
The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
The Courts of Love by Jean Plaidy
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crooked House by Agatha Christie
The Crusader by Michael Alexander Eisner
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

D

Dawn by Elie Wiesel
Day by Elie Wiesel
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted by Elizabeth Berg
Death On The Nile by Agatha Christie
Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs
The Devil's Bones by Jefferson Bass
Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman
The Devil's Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis
The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips
Divine Justice by David Baldacci
Dr. Haggard's Disease by Patrick McGrath
Duchess by Susan Holloway Scott
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

E

Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
Everyman by Philip Roth
Evidence by Jonathan Kellerman
Evil Under The Sun by Agatha Christie
Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn

F

A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer
Finn by Jon Clinch
The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber
Frankstein: Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz

G

The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
Girl In Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chelvalier
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius
The Gospel of Judas by Simon Mawer
Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin
The Great Stink by Clare Clark

H

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
Heat Lightning by John Sandford
The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes
The Holy by Daniel Quinn (Guest Review)
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Humbling by Philip Roth

I

I, Claudius by Robert Graves
An Iliad by Alessandro Baricco
Indignation by Philip Roth
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar

J

Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Jules Verne
Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Junky by William S. Burroughs

K

Killer Summer by Ridley Pearson
Killer View by Ridley Pearson
Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
The King's Daughter by Sandra Worth

L

The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie
The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner
The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Light In August by William Faulkner
A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland

M

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Madonna of the Seven Hills by Jean Plaidy
The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots by Carolly Erickson
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes

N

N or M? by Agatha Christie
Nada by Carmen Laforet
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
Native Son by Richard Wright
The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe

O

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie
The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

P

Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson (Guest Review)
Phantom Prey by John Sandford
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
The Praise Singer by Mary Renault
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk

Q

The Queen's Lady by Barbara Kyle
The Queen's Secret by Jean Plaidy
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer

R

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Revelation by C.J. Sansom
Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver
The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander
Roots by Alex Haley
The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips
Rough Country by John Sandford

S

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen & Ben H. Winters
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
The Sirens of Baghdad by Yasmina Khadra
Skeletons At The Feast by Christ Bohjalian
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
Survival At Auschwitz by Primo Levi
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

T

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl by Kate McCafferty
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Timbuktu by Paul Auster
Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
Travels In The Scriptorium by Paul Auster
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

U

Ulysses by James Joyce
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Annotated Edition) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louis Gates Jr. & Hollis Roberts

W

Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
What Is The What by Dave Eggers
When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Woman In The Dunes by Kobo Abe
The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
World Without End by Ken Follett
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Y

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood





NON-FICTION

Art History

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

Biography/Autobiography

His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
John Adams by David McCullough
Roots by Alex Haley
Survival In Auschwitz by Primo Levi
Waiter Rant by Steve Dublanica
Wild Boy: My Life In Duran Duran by Andy Taylor
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

Environmentalism

Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman

Essays

Burn This Book edited by Toni Morrison
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Holidays On Ice by David Sedaris
Naked by David Sedaris
Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace by Gore Vidal
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris

Globalization

The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

History, American

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

History, European

The Borgias and Their Enemies by Christopher Hibbert

Humor

Dave Barry's Money Secrets by Dave Barry
Me Of Little Faith by Lewis Black
When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? by George Carlin

Lexicography

The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester

Literature Studies

The Grotesque edited by Harold Bloom

Philosophy/Psychology

How To Think About The Great Ideas by Mortimer J. Adler
Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Poetry

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spencer
How To Read A Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry by Edward Hirsch
Poems From Guantanamo edited by Marc Falstaff

Politics/Current Events

The Audacity To Win by David Plouffe
Homo Politicus by Dana Milbank
The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
Renegade by Richard Wolffe
This Land is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich

Religion

Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman

Science, General

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 edited by Elizabeth Kolbert

Social Sciences

Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman
Idiot America by Charles Pierce
Methland by Nick Reding
The Penguin State of the World Atlas by Dan Smith

Sports

Can I Keep My Jersey? by Paul Shirley

Trivia

The Intellectual Devotional: American History by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim

Writing

The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. II by The Paris Review
Writing To Learn by William Zinsser