Post Comment
James Romano
Reader
Patriots
A. J. Langguth
James Romano
The best book on the revolution
A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol. I, 1809 – 1849
Sidney Blumenthal
This is a great book about Lincoln and his Times. I learned much about Illinois Politics and the people Lincoln was surrounded. The chapter about the Mormons, Stephen Douglas and Illinois is worth the whole book. I love political biography and this series is a must read.
Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill
Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., Tip O'Neill, William Novak
This is a great book. O'Neill is fantastic in his stories. He discusses every President from Eisenhower to Reagan. O'Neill had an on again/off again relationship with the Kennedys. This is a great story. His relationships with the Presidents is the key to this story.
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis
A riotous satire of English university life, the engaging and high-spirited Lucky Jim had a huge impact in its time, setting the style for postwar fiction and helping to define the generation of “Angry Young Men” in 1950s Britain. But this Angry Young Man is as funny as they come, and the novel’s se...show more
The Book of Three
Lloyd Alexander
The Book of Three, the initial installment of The Chronicles of Prydain, a fabled five-volume series, was only Lloyd Alexander’s second novel, yet it permanently established him as a writer for adolescents whose work could be enjoyed with uninhibited and even critical pleasure by adult readers as we...show more
In Xanadu
William Dalrymple
The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins was only thirty-three in 1976 when he published The Selfish Gene, a landmark of popular science that summarized a genetic view of evolution then gaining currency among biologists. It was such a success that its title has entered the lexicon. But the title, as Dawkins has admitted, is...show more
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
Jane Ellingwood tied for runner-up in the December 13, 2019 Battle at Byrd's Books in Bethel, CT with her praise for Delia Owens's novel.
A Game of Thrones
George R. R. Martin
The plot of A Game of Thrones revolves around a dynastic war among several families, but every step of the way the intricate story lines are personal and visceral. What’s most compelling is that the reader’s understanding of unfolding events is continually transformed by shifting narrative perspecti...show more
Make Way for Ducklings
Robert McCloskey
Beautifully drawn and visually composed with great but unobtrusive care (text and images are arranged so that even the turning of pages is part of the book’s storytelling charm), Make Way for Ducklings relates the adventures of a newlywed mallard couple searching for a place to start their family. T...show more
The Princess of Clèves
Madame de Lafayette
“The last years of Henry II’s reign saw a display of opulence and gallantry such as has never been equalled in France,” begins this pioneering novel, written a century after the period it describes and populated with historical figures, a notable exception being its fictive heroine. She is an heires...show more
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
Like Buck, the big dog that is this book’s protagonist, the reader of The Call of the Wild is swiftly and irrevocably swept from the “sun-kissed” world of its opening pages into a realm of elemental and unsparing experience. A favorite of his owner, Buck has known a placid, even pampered life in Cal...show more