Currently Reading
My Library at LibraryThing
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If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
“In the writing of this book I have consulted so many different editions of the complete works and the individual plays that it would be impossible to list all of them without the bibliography becoming longer than the story itself.” ~ M. L. Rio, Author’s Note, If We Were Villains “Here I must also acknowledge…
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Wolf Hall Companion (2020) by Lauren Mackay
An accessible and authoritative companion to the bestselling Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel, published after the third and final book, The Mirror and the Light. Wolf Hall Companion gives an historian’s view of what we know about Thomas Cromwell, one of the most powerful men of the Tudor age and the central character in…
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Paint an Inch Thick by Adam Dompierre
A Madcap Mystery, California-Style: Eddie London might be the worst detective in all of Summerport. Then again, he assures himself, it’s a pretty big city. But when Veronica Lawrence hires him to find her missing husband, Eddie sees his chance to transcend the low-stakes (and low-paying) cases that have thus far sustained his fledgling operation….
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Then She Died by Michael Geczi
Emotional and psychological episodes are nothing new for Will Post. He’s got a lifetime of experience. More than anyone would want or believe. But he doesn’t have any experience dealing with his recent killing of three people, and that’s his newest challenge, along with haunting hallucinations and delusions. His solution: hit the road, get out…
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Unicorns Can Be Deadly by Charlotte Stuart PhD
A young boy witnesses a kidnapping in a homeless encampment and flees for his life. After rescuing a young boy trying to escape from two men who are chasing him, private investigator and single mom Cameron Chandler is repeatedly told that ” you can’ t save everyone.” Nevertheless, she takes on several clients who want…
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The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix’s latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films — movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare…
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Casino Royale by Iam Fleming
Casino Royale was Ian Fleming’s first novel, and the book that launched the global, iconic, legendary action adventure, espionage franchise that is James Bond/007. JAMES BOND PLAYS A DEADLY GAME OF CHANCE IN IAN FLEMING’S UNFORGETTABLE FIRST NOVEL “Le Chiffre” is a ruthless operative and the money-man for a Soviet cell in France, but he’s…
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Haunted Houses Creak: A Horror Collection by M. H. Altis
“I once read a F. Scott Fitzgerald (F. Scott Fitzgerald? what he’d do to you?) short story collection that gave a bit of context and descriptions for all the stories within, and I liked it. Not necessarily the stories themselves, but the idea. So, here were [sic] are — shouts out Scotty F regardless. “Be…
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Textkit
Update: March 2025 — Unfortunately, the site won’t load. When you hit the home page at Textkit.com it looks pretty sad. The site is obviously broken, the image and CSS files having been stored and linked from a rackspacecloud.com account which seems to have expired. The Facebook page is also pretty much dead. But if…
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A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (Audio Book)
I’m familiar with the story — thank goodness! — but this audio book was so over produced, I couldn’t hear it. I got lots of background noise and ambiance, but the actual words were lost in the cacophony!
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First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
Finally! A female main character who is not an idiot! Well, unless you count getting stuck in this lifetime situation in the first place as stupid. None of the “I knew something wasn’t right . . .” or “That can’t be what I think it is . . .” and “I was so stupid!” when…
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The Secret Doctrines of Jesus by H. Spencer Lewis
Even though it’s a very short book, I’ve just not been able to continue with it, and I give up. I read The Mystical Life of Jesus and found it fascinating. The writing style was the same and, of course, a lot of secrecy about any sources. “They’re hidden and secret, but we have them.”…
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Ten Year Reading Plan
This list is based on The Great Books of the Western World edited by Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. There were two editions published (in 1954 and 1990) and this is an amalgamation of the reading plans from both of them. Most of the links are to the Wikipedia articles for the authors and Project…
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The Brain-Attic
“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A food takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best…
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The Alternative: Your Family’s Guide to Wellness by Elena Upton, Ph.D.
This review was written for LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers. I received a copy of this book from the publisher to review. “The Alternative: Your Family’s Guide to Wellness” by Elena Upton Fifth Element Press (2019) 2nd Edition 3.5 / 5 “The Alternative: Your Family’s Guide to Wellness” is a book by Elena Upton, Ph.D., a classically…
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Make It Right by Ron Yates
This review was written for LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers. I received a copy of this book from the author to review. “Good fiction presents plausible problems. Chekhov maintained that the artist is not required to solve the problem but to correctly formulate it. I feel cheated when an author provides a tidy package without allowing me…
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It’s Alive! It’s Alive!
What a great week! First, I heard from Professor Grote. And today, Jim Tirey, the brains behind Textkit!! You always hope when you find that things have not changed for the better that there’s a happy reason. What a relief to know that’s true in this case. Not only that, but Jim was able to…
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An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones and William Wilson
I wish I could remember where I picked this up. Might have been Hastings, but I get rid of their stickers as soon as possible because they put them in the most inconvenient places. Anyway, I haven’t finished the book yet, but I probably never will. It will be a nightstand/end table fixture from now…
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A Loyal Character Dancer (Inspector Chen Series) by Qiu Xiaolong
This series is great for a good dose of Chinese culture, which is nicely woven into the main story. It also seems that the main plot itself is just a framework for the culture. That was great with the first book, but started getting tedious with the second. I don’t know if I would “do”…
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The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
I determined to work through The Vampire Chronicles but got stuck with this one. Two stars for an interesting story. Too bad it takes so long to tell it, rambling on.
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The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Loved the ending!
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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
I’m a little more than half-way through my first reading of this book and I’m so glad I didn’t read any of the reviews or the recommendations on my book sites before I started. The reviews confuse me, and I’ll be taking a harder look at them after I’ve finished my own analysis. But what…
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LibraryThing Android App
It’s been a long time coming, but LibraryThing has launched their app for Android. The iPhone app has been available for awhile, so it’s nice to see one for the rest of us. 🙂 I haven’t tried it out yet, but looking forward to it!
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Yeah, I Needed Another Project!
I took on this project because, well, you can never have enough of them, right?! Goodness! I still love it — I’m not giving up as I’ve been a bookworm since I learned to read. Came across this literature map of the world today and just had to share it. It is definitely “brilliant!” 🙂
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A Comprehensive Guide to Wheelock’s Latin by Dale A. Grote
I have recently had the most wonderful email conversation with Professor Grote. He’s been so informative, friendly and approachable — which I guess you have to be if you’re going to be teaching Latin these days! He even answered my first email over the weekend! That’s impressive. 🙂 He told me some of the history…
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Homeschool Log
This log was created to conform to the Missouri homeschool regulations which require 1,000 hours of instruction during the school year, with at least 600 hours in the basics, which will be in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. You may need to customize the headings for your location.
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BookLikes
I’d like to be able to comment on my experience with BookLikes, but I can’t “get in” and, apparently, I’m not the only one. Better be paying attention when that verification code comes in. I obviously wasn’t! 🙂 It’s not unusual for sites to “move on” — Goodreads was sold to Amazon.com, and Shelfari, as…
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8 Ways to Read (a Lot) More Books This Year
Neil Pasricha’s article in the Harvard Business Review has eight great suggestions on time management and organization: Centralize reading in your home, Make a public commitment, Find a few trusted lists, Change your mindset about quitting, Channel your reading dollars, Triple your churn rate, Read physical books, and Reapply the 10,000 steps rule. The article,…
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Foreign Language | Frederic M. Wheelock | Getting Organized | Richard A. LaFleur | Self-Education | Tips & Tricks | Wheelock's Latin | Wheelock's Latin
How to Study Wheelock’s Latin
Why study Latin — or any language for that matter? For one, I’m lately finding several things I would like to read but have not been translated into English. Further, I’m becoming more cynical about translations in general — you really are at the mercy of the translator when it comes to interpretation. And language…
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Study Guide to Wheelock’s Latin by Dale A. Grote
Digging around for my old Latin resources, I was relieved to find that the Study Guide to Wheelock’s Latin by Dale A. Grote was still freely available online. As we all know, however, when it comes to the InterWebs, too often “One day you’re in and the next day you’re OUT!” Well, Professor Grote already…
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How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler
A version of How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler is available in PDF format from the Everglades High School website. Though not the same one I have in my library — this one is geared towards reading the Great Books — it still contains a lot of information that would be useful…
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Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery by Eric Ives
While I liked the book, it was not an easy read. I think it could have benefited *greatly* from an editor. Keep in mind, too, that I am an American reading a book on English history. A Brit might not have so much trouble with it? This is the first Ives book I’ve read —…
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LibraryThing
LibraryThing claims on their about page that it is “an online service to help people catalog their books easily.” There’s a lot more going on than that — so much so that you can get lost for hours just exploring the site. I like LibraryThing and signed up to be a lifetime member almost immediately….
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The Cornell Note-Taking System
The Cornell Note-Taking System isn’t for everyone, or for every book — it’s actually designed for lecture notes — but it is extremely useful in the right setting. I created this template several years ago for my son to use and he found it quite beneficial for most of his work. I’ve found it quite…
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Biology A Self-Teaching Guide by Steven Daniel Garber
We used this book for ninth grade biology because it was recommended in “The Well-Trained Mind.” It is a good start, but it is not enough work to earn a full high school science credit. And you will definitely need to add labs to make it a laboratory course. But we were happy with the…
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Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse by David Ferry
I haven’t read any of the other translations of this book, but I will, so I can compare them. I really enjoyed this one, though. There’s also a great section with information about how David Ferry made decisions on how to deal with some of the translation issues. It’s a short book, a quick read,…
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If I’d Killed Him When I Met Him by Sharyn McCrumb
I just finished this book and I enjoyed it immensely. This is my first Sharyn McCrumb book and I love her writing style and her wit. I will definitely be reading more of her books. That said, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book before you read the others in the Elizabeth MacPherson series. Most series…
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Never Enough by Joe McGinniss
I found this book on the “for sale” shelf at my library and bought it because Joe McGinniss wrote it, not because I was familiar with the case of the “Milkshake Murderer.” Once you adapt to his writing style, it’s a quick read. There’s not a lot of fluff here — it’s fast paced and…
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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
I loved this book! You have a good idea pretty early as to what is going on — but it’s all so strange and odd in a subtle sort of way! The narrator’s matter-of-fact manner creates the impression that everything is normal when it clearly isn’t. I was asking “Why?” the whole time — and…
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The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn by Retha M. Warnicke
I’m not going to say I don’t recommend this book, because it might not have gotten a fair go. This is my fourth Tudor-era book in a row, and maybe I’m just burnt out. Perhaps I would have preferred this book if I had read it first, rather than last. The blurbs about this book…
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Saturday by Ian McEwan
I did not enjoy this book, did not look forward to reading it, and it’s a relief that it’s finished. The thought that kept going through my mind the whole time I was reading it was the continued realization that I just did not care what happened to these characters — past, present or future….
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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
My son *hates* these movies — so what better reason than that to read the books? I’m late to the party, I know, but that’s nothing new. So, I read the book, then watched the movie. If you’ve only seen the movie — or just the commercials for the movies! — you’ve missed a lot….
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Great Books of the Western World
The Great Books of the Western World is a series of books published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The first edition of 54 volumes was published in 1952. A second edition was published in 1990 which contained 60 volumes.
