Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

by Donna | Jun 1, 2015 | Nonfiction, Other

Rating:  Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill. South Dakota Historical Society Press (2014), 448 pages. Laura wrote this autobiography in 1930, and tried unsuccessfully for many years to get it...

The Almost Nearly Perfect People

by Cindy | May 9, 2015 | Nonfiction, Other

Rating:  The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia, by Michael Booth. Picador (2015), 400 pages. As a geography-challenged American, the Scandinavian countries have always been bunched together in my mind into one...

Two Years Before the Mast

by Donna | Apr 30, 2015 | Nonfiction, Other

Rating:  Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea, by Richard Henry Dana. Signet Classics (1840), 432 pages. This book is quite well-known and already has legions of devoted fans; my purpose here is to urge reluctant readers to give...

This Is How

by Cindy | May 25, 2012 | Other

Rating:  This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More for Young and Old Alike, by Augusten Burroughs. St. Martin’s Press (2012), 240 pages. Fans of Dry, Running With...

Three Cups of Deceit

by Donna | Oct 12, 2011 | Angry, Other

Rating:  Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way, by Jon Krakauer. Anchor (2011) 96 pages. Vindication!  I read Three Cups of Tea a couple of years ago, well before the scandal broke (via the April 17 episode of 60 Minutes),...

The Wave

by Donna | Feb 15, 2011 | Environment, Nonfiction

Rating:  The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean, by Susan Casey. Doubleday (2010), 318 pages. Oh, Susan. I’m so embarrassed for you. Aren’t you embarrassed? Must all your books become a paean to your unbridled lust for one of the...