“A Natural History of the Senses” by Diane Ackerman
A sensuous exploration of how humans experience the world around us.
“Across the River and Into the Trees” by Ernest Hemingway
This story is really about two relationships in the Colonel’s life: with his 19 year old girlfriend Renata, and with his own past.
“If You Knew Suzy” by Katherine Rosman
After her mother’s death, Katie Rosman is left reeling. Her mother, Suzy, was only 60 years old, and the diagnosis of lung cancer came as a shock to the nonsmoker. After Suzy’s death, Rosman, a journalist, decides to investigate her mother’s life in order to understand how she faced her own death.
“Wings” by Karl Friedrich
Sally Ketchum has had a hard life. Her father, a dirt-farming alcoholic and religious fanatic, made her childhood living hell. At eighteen, she meets a young, charming man named Tex Jones who frees her from the prison of East Texas, but their incredible bond is broken when he dies in a tragic airplane accident.
“Hot” by Mark Hertsgaard
Title: Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth Author: Mark Hertsgaard ISBN: 9780618826124 Pages: 352 Release date: January 2011 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Genre: Nonfiction; environmental science Format: eBook Source: Personal collection & Netgalley Rating: 2.5 out of 5 In Hot, Mark Hertsgaard approaches global warming through the prism of a parent concerned about the world his little girl will inhabit by 2050. A disappointed Melody Wilson hoped to read more solid advice. In 2005, American author and journalist Mark […]
“The Kid” by Sapphire
Sapphire’s second work of fiction, The Kid, begins with the funeral of the protagonist of her first novel, Push. Precious’s son, Abdul, is nine years old, and in the wake of his mother’s death he faces a terrifying world completely alone.
“The Passage” by Justin Cronin
Title: The Passage Author: Justin Cronin ISBN: 9780345504968 Pages: 784 Release date: June 8, 2010 Publisher: Ballantine Books Genre: Literary fiction (among others) Format: Hardcover Source: Millie’s collection Rating: 2.5 out of 5 I read this book because it was highly recommended on the internet as a vampire apocalypse novel good enough to be called literary fiction. I enjoy post-apocalyptic tales like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and World War Z by Max Brooks. And while I generally find vampires tiresome, I loved […]
“Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness begins as a story among friends on a boat anchored on the River Thames. The narrator tells how Charles Marlow wonders aloud that nearby London, now the largest, most populous, and wealthiest city in the world, was once as dark and savage as Africa. Indeed, before the Roman conquest, London was “one of the dark places on earth,” Marlow tells his astonished companions.
Melody Schreiber 