Now I'm getting the chance to read books I didn't have time for before. Think of me whenever you see the slogan "So many books, so little time!" Now I've got the time.  Cheers, Fred.

Fiction

Hanging Out in Bur Oak: During the 1930’s Depression, Bootleggers, the Draft and World War II

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Book Number: 
467
Date Fred Read: 
July 2012
Fred's Rating: 
5
Author: 
Neal Smith
Total Pages: 
162
Publisher: 
Ice Cube Press
Year: 
2009

Neal Smith (born 1920) spent four years in WWII as a bomber pilot, became an attorney in 1950, was a U.S. Congressman for 35 years (the longest-serving Iowan in the U.S. House), and has been a consultant in international relations, including Hungary and Lithuania. He was the sponsor of legislation to establish the Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa.  Read more

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We’ll Always Have Paris

Image of We'll Always Have Paris: Stories
Book Number: 
447
Date Fred Read: 
March 2012
Fred's Rating: 
5
Author: 
Ray Bradbury
Total Pages: 
210
Publisher: 
William Morrow
Year: 
2009

The author of 39 books (as of 2009), Ray Bradbury is one of the most celebrated fiction writers of our time. Among his best-known works are Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, all of which I read long ago. He has won many awards for his science fiction and fantasy fiction novels and short stories.  Read more

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The Help

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Book Number: 
430
Date Fred Read: 
November 2011
Fred's Rating: 
5
Author: 
Kathryn Stockett
Total Pages: 
451
Publisher: 
Putnam
Year: 
2009

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She has a degree in English and creative writing from the University of Alabama. For nine years she worked in New York in magazine publishing and marketing. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughter. This, her first novel, was the #1 Bestseller in the NYT and it was very highly recommended to me by my wife and her book club.  Read more

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Cutting for Stone

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Book Number: 
429
Date Fred Read: 
October 2011
Fred's Rating: 
4
Author: 
Abraham Verghese
Total Pages: 
658
Publisher: 
Vintage
Year: 
2009

Abraham Verghese is Professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was the founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio, where he is now an adjunct professor.  Read more

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Someone Knows My Name

Image of Someone Knows My Name: A Novel
Book Number: 
428
Date Fred Read: 
October 2011
Fred's Rating: 
5
Author: 
Lawrence Hill
Total Pages: 
470
Publisher: 
Norton
Year: 
2007

Lawrence Hill is the author of the novels Any Known Blood and Some Great Thing. For Someone Knows My Name, he won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and is a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. This novel came highly recommended by my wife’s book club.  Read more

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A Star Called Henry

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Book Number: 
404
Date Fred Read: 
April 2011
Fred's Rating: 
4
Author: 
Roddy Doyle
Total Pages: 
342
Publisher: 
Viking Penguin
Year: 
1999

Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist, and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into successful films, beginning with The Commitments. In 1993 he won the Booker Prize. Doyle is a native of Dublin. He established a creative writing center, “Fighting Words,” which opened in Dublin in 2009. This novel is about life of the very poor living in Dublin’s slums.  Read more

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The Quickening

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Book Number: 
393
Date Fred Read: 
February 2011
Fred's Rating: 
4
Author: 
Michelle Hoover
Total Pages: 
213
Publisher: 
Other Press
Year: 
2010

Michelle Hoover teaches writing at Boston College. She has been a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference scholar, the Phillip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University, a MacDowell fellow, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and won in 2005 the PEN/New England Discovery Award for Fiction. This is her debut novel.  Read more

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Putting Away Childish Things: A Tale of Modern Faith

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Book Number: 
367
Date Fred Read: 
August 2010
Fred's Rating: 
5
Author: 
Marcus J. Borg
Total Pages: 
338
Publisher: 
HarperOne
Year: 
2010

Marcus J. Borg, professor emeritus of Oregon State University who held the Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture, wrote 4 NYT bestsellers: Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, The Last Week, and Jesus. I read these 4 and 7 (so far) other books by him. (For his books I’ve read, click on his name.)  Read more

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New Stories from the South 1996: The Year’s Best

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Book Number: 
363
Date Fred Read: 
July 2010
Fred's Rating: 
4
Total Pages: 
271
Publisher: 
Algonquin Books
Year: 
1996

Shannon Ravenel, series editor of The Best American Short Stories for 13 years, has edited New Stories from the South since its introduction in 1987. I was given this book, with of its “new” Faulkner short story, because the giver knew I had read all Faulkner’s novels and short stories.  Read more

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World Made by Hand

Image of World Made by Hand: A Novel
Book Number: 
362
Date Fred Read: 
July 2010
Fred's Rating: 
5
Total Pages: 
362
Publisher: 
Grove Press; Reprint edition
Year: 
2008

As of 2008 James Howard Kunstler is the author of nine novels and three nonfiction books, The Geography of Nowhere, Home from Nowhere, and The Long Emergency. This novel is far from a typical post-apocalyptic novel. It was a highly rated book by my wife’s Book Club last year.  Read more

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