Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoy reading the books by Maeve Binchy because I admire the way she tells the stories of her characters. I heartily recommend her books to new readers, with the warning that many of her secondary characters seem superfluous to the current book, and that is because their stories have been more fully told in prior books. Sometimes these updates and transitions read as barely more than an outline or synopsis which can jar a reader out of the fictive dream of the current story. These updates are there to satisfy me and the rest of her fans that more has happened to the twins, Muttie and Lizzie, Clara and Frank and so on.



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Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

My comments are concerned with reading this as an ebook on Nook. When I changed the font size, the hardcover book design with Modern English text page opposite the Old English text page, no longer worked. I had to put my thumb by the line that reverted back to Old English, click forward once or even twice, and look for the line that switched to Modern English which was usually close to where my thumb was. This interruption of the reading flow was an irritation. Another irritation was not all the words I looked up were in my Nook dictionary so I found them in my desk copy of the dictionary. Reading footnotes which are at the end of the book are also easier to do with a hardcover book.



If anyone knows how I could have more easily handled these concerns, please comment.

As for the Tales, it is good to know that a nearly 650-year-old fart story can still make me laugh.



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Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a character-driven story told in a series of letters. The characters are distinct and memorable.



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Bless the Bride by Rhys Bowen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


By the tenth book in her mystery series, I feel Molly Murphy is an old friend and I look forward to reading about her adventures. I like the supporting cast of characters. I like the 1903 New York setting for a short history lesson.



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Only Pack What You Can Carry: My Path to Inner Strength, Confidence, and True Self-Knowledge by Janice Holly Booth

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I would rate this four stars for the stories of her travels and her reflective writing about courage, solitude, introspection and commitment. I take back one star for the exercises at the end of the chapters which made this book feel as if it were published to be back-of-the-room sales at motivational seminars.



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The Andes by Tony Morrison

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The text of The Andes takes the armchair-traveling reader on the journey of Tony Morrison and his wife, Marion. They begin in northern Columbia and end 700 miles from Antartica. They travel by car, truck,airplane and on foot. As always, there are lots of excellent photos by other photographers to supplement the illustrations of The Andes, its wildlife and its plantlife.



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I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Unemployed? Underemployed? Or know someone who is? Read "I Do Not Come to You By Chance" by Adaodi Tricia Nwaubani for the story of Kingsley of Nigeria, and a different perspective on those annoying email scammers.

This is a well-crafted first novel with memorable characters and told in a fresh voice.



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Labrador by Robert Stewart

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


There was too much text devoted to the story of the ill-fated Hubbard expedition and JJ Audubon's diary notes for me to rate this text as high as the photos as I have in other books of this series. I prefer more descriptions of the country as told through its geology, its plants, and its animals. There is an entire chapter, "The Little Creatures," devoted to flies.



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This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


My copy is the Adobe Digital Edition, free from Adobe.



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High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never by Barbara Kingsolver

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I prefer her novels to her collection of essays.



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New Guinea by Roy D. Mackay

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


As I rated the other books of this series 5 stars, I give this the same for the text is as interesting as the pictures. I feel as if I have been to a docent lecture at a favorite museum or zoo after reading a book like this. I feel satisfied that I know and understand a bit more about a place that I am unlikely to visit in my lifetime.



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