Monday, December 7, 2015

A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen

1. Her Royal Spyness
2. A Royal Pain
3. Royal Flush
4. Royal Blood 
5. Naughty in Nice
6. The Twelve Clues of Christmas
 7. Heirs and Graces
 8. Queen of Hearts
 9. Malice at the Palace
10. Crowned and Dangerous
11. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
12. Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding

Sunday, December 6, 2015

2015 New York Times Notable Books


Fiction & Poetry


BEATLEBONE. By Kevin Barry.
THE BEAUTIFUL BUREAUCRAT. By Helen Phillips.
BEAUTY IS A WOUND. By Eka Kurniawan.
CITIZEN: An American Lyric. By Claudia Rankine.
CITY ON FIRE. By Garth Risk Hallberg.
THE COMPLETE STORIES. By Clarice Lispector. Edited by Benjamin Moser.
DELICIOUS FOODS. By James Hannaham.
THE DOOR. By Magda Szabo.
DRAGONFISH. By Vu Tran.
FATES AND FURIES. By Lauren Groff.
THE FIFTH SEASON. The Broken Earth: Book One.By N.K. Jemisin.
FINALE: A Novel of the Reagan Years. By Thomas Mallon.
THE FIRST BAD MAN. By Miranda July.
THE FISHERMEN. ByChigozie Obioma.
FORTUNE SMILES: Stories. By Adam Johnson.
FROM THE NEW WORLD: Poems 1976-2014. By Jorie Graham.
GOD HELP THE CHILD. By Toni Morrison.
HARRIET WOLF’S SEVENTH BOOK OF ­WONDERS. By Julianna Baggott.
HERE. By Richard McGuire.
THE HOLLOW LAND. By Jane Gardam.
HONEYDEW: Stories. By Edith Pearlman.
HOW TO BE BOTH. By Ali Smith
THE INCARNATIONS. By Susan Barker.
LEAVING BERLIN. By Joseph Kanon.
A LITTLE LIFE. By Hanya Yanagihara.
THE LOVE OBJECT: Selected Stories. By Edna O’Brien.
LOVING DAY. By Mat Johnson.
MAN AT THE HELM. By Nina Stibbe.
A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN: ­Selected Stories. By Lucia Berlin.
THE MARE. By Mary Gaitskill.
*THE MEURSAULT INVESTIGATION. ­By ­Kamel Daoud. Translated by John Cullen.
MISLAID. By Nell Zink.
MY STRUGGLE: Book 4. By Karl Ove Knausgaard.
NIGHT AT THE FIESTAS: Stories. By ­Kirstin Valdez Quade.
OUTLINE. By Rachel Cusk.
PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT LIFE. By ­Atticus Lish.
PURITY. By Jonathan Franzen.
THE SELLOUT. By Paul Beatty.
S O S: Poems 1961-2013. By Amiri Baraka.
*THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD. Book 4, The Neapolitan Novels: “Maturity, Old Age.” By Elena Ferrante.
THE STORY OF MY TEETH. By Valeria ­Luiselli.
SUBMISSION. By Michel Houellebecq.
THE SYMPATHIZER. By Viet Thanh Nguyen.
THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING: Fiction. By Colum McCann.
THE TRUTH AND OTHER LIES. By Sascha Arango.
THE TSAR OF LOVE AND TECHNO: Stories. By Anthony Marra.
THE TURNER HOUSE. By Angela ­Flournoy.
*VANESSA AND HER SISTER. By Priya ­Parmar.
THE VISITING PRIVILEGE: New and Collected Stories. By Joy Williams.
THE WHITES. By Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt.


Nonfiction

AMERICA’S BITTER PILL: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System. By Steven Brill. 
THE ARGONAUTS. By Maggie Nelson.
AUGUSTINE: Conversions to Confessions. By Robin Lane Fox.
BARBARIAN DAYS: A Surfing Life. By ­William Finnegan.
BECOMING NICOLE: The Transformation of an American Family. By Amy Ellis Nutt.
*BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME. By ­Ta-­Nehisi Coates.
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF PRIMO LEVI. Edited by Ann Goldstein.
THE CRIME AND THE SILENCE: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime ­Jedwabne. By Anna Bikont. Translated by Alissa Valles.
DAUGHTERS OF THE SAMURAI: A Journey From East to West and Back. By ­Janice P. Nimura. 
DESTINY AND POWER: The American Odys­sey of George Herbert Walker Bush. By Jon Meacham.
DO NO HARM: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery. By Henry Marsh.
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD: A Cultural ­History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe. By Michael Pye.
EMPIRE OF COTTON: A Global History. By Sven Beckert.
THE FLY TRAP. By Fredrik Sjoberg. Translated by Thomas Teal.
THE FOLDED CLOCK: A Diary. By Heidi ­Julavits.
THE GAY REVOLUTION: The Story of the Struggle. By Lillian Faderman.
THE GERMAN WAR: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945. By Nicholas Stargardt.
GHETTOSIDE: A True Story of Murder in America. By Jill Leovy.
GIVE US THE BALLOT: The Modern ­Struggle for Voting Rights in America. By Ari Berman. 
GUANTÁNAMO DIARY. By Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Edited by Larry Siems. 
*H IS FOR HAWK. By Helen Macdonald.
HUNGER MAKES ME A MODERN GIRL: A Memoir. By Carrie Brownstein.
THE INVENTION OF NATURE: Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World. By Andrea Wulf. 
JONAS SALK: A Life. By Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs.
KATRINA: After the Flood. By Gary Rivlin. 
KILLING A KING: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of ­Israel. By Dan Ephron. 
LETTERS TO VÉRA. By Vladimir Nabokov. ­Edited and translated by Olga Voronina and Brian Boyd.
LISTENING TO STONE: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi. By Hayden Herrera.
LOITERING: New and Collected Essays. By Charles D’Ambrosio.
MODERNITY BRITAIN: 1957-62. By David Kynaston.
THE MONOPOLISTS: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game. By Mary Pilon.
NEGROLAND: A Memoir. By Margo Jefferson.
NEUROTRIBES: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. By Steve ­Silberman. 
OBJECTIVE TROY: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone. By Scott Shane.
THE ODD WOMAN AND THE CITY: A ­Memoir. By Vivian Gornick.
ON THE MOVE: A Life. By Oliver Sacks.
ONE OF US: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway. By Asne Seier­stad. Translated by Sarah Death.
ORDINARY LIGHT: A Memoir. By Tracy K. Smith.
THE OTHER PARIS. By Luc Sante. 
THE PRIZE: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? By Dale Russakoff.
THE SHAPE OF THE NEW: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World. By Scott L. Montgomery and Daniel Chirot.
SKYFARING: A Journey With a Pilot. By Mark Vanhoenacker. 
SPINSTER: Making a Life of One’s Own. By Kate Bolick.
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. By Mary Beard.
STALIN’S DAUGHTER: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva. By Rosemary Sullivan.
STRANGERS DROWNING: Grappling With Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices and the Overpowering Urge to Help. By ­Larissa MacFarquhar
$2.00 A DAY: Living on Almost Nothing in America. By Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer. 
THE UNRAVELING: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq. By Emma Sky.
THE WEATHER EXPERIMENT: The Pioneers Who Sought to See the Future. By Peter Moore. 
WITCHES OF AMERICA. By Alex Mar..


Wednesday, July 22, 2015

NY Times Notable Books 2014



FICTION &POETRY

ALL OUR NAMES. By Dinaw Mengestu.
ALL THE BIRDS, SINGING. By Evie Wyld.
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. By Anthony Doerr.
AMERICAN INNOVATIONS. By Rivka Galchen.  
THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER: Stories. By Hilary Mantel.
THE BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER. By Lawrence Osborne.
BARK: Stories. By Lorrie Moore.
THE BLAZING WORLD. By Siri Hust­vedt.
THE BONE CLOCKS. By David Mitchell.
THE BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS. By Michel Faber.
THE BOOK OF UNKNOWN AMERICANS. By Cristina Henríquez.
BOY, SNOW, BIRD. By Helen Oyeyemi.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS. By Marlon James.
CAN’T AND WON’T. By Lydia Davis.
THE COLD SONG. By Linn Ullmann. Translated by Barbara J. Haveland.
COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE. By Haruki Murakami. Translated by Philip Gabriel.
DEPT. OF SPECULATION. By Jenny Offill.
THE DOG. By Joseph O’Neill.
EUPHORIA. By Lily King.
EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU. By Celeste Ng.
F. By Daniel Kehlmann. Translated by Carol Brown Janeway.
FAITHFUL AND VIRTUOUS NIGHT. By Louise Glück.
FAMILY LIFE. By Akhil Sharma.
FOURTH OF JULY CREEK. By Smith Henderson.
A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING. By Eimear McBride.
I PITY THE POOR IMMIGRANT. By Zachary Lazar.
THE LAUGHING MONSTERS. By Denis Johnson.
LENA FINKLE’S MAGIC BARREL. Written and illustrated by Anya Ulinich.
LET ME BE FRANK WITH YOU: A Frank Bascombe Book. By Richard Ford.
LILA. By Marilynne Robinson.
LOVERS AT THE CHAMELEON CLUB, PARIS 1932. By Francine Prose.
THE MAGICIAN’S LAND. By Lev Grossman.
THE MOOR’S ACCOUNT. By Laila La­lami.
MOTHERLAND FATHERLAND HOMELANDSEXUALS. By Patricia Lockwood.
MY STRUGGLE. Book 3: Boyhood. By Karl Ove Knausgaard. Translated by Don Bartlett.
THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH. By Richard Flanagan.
NORA WEBSTER. By Colm Toibin.
PANIC IN A SUITCASE. By Yelena Akhtiorskaya.
THE PAYING GUESTS. By Sarah Waters.
THE POETRY OF DEREK WALCOTT 1948-2013. Selected by Glyn Maxwell.
REDEPLOYMENT. By Phil Klay.
REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS. By Bret Anthony Johnston.
A REPLACEMENT LIFE. By Boris Fishman.
SONG OF THE SHANK. By Jeffery Renard Allen.
10:04. By Ben Lerner.
THIRTY GIRLS. By Susan Minot.
THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY: Book 3, The Neapolitan Novels: “Middle Time.” By Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein.
THE WALLCREEPER. By Nell Zink.
WE ARE NOT OURSELVES. By Matthew Thomas.
WHEN MYSTICAL CREATURES ATTACK! By Kathleen Founds.


NONFICTION

AMERICAN MIRROR: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell. By Deborah Solomon.
BEING MORTAL: Medicine and What Matters in the End. By Atul Gawande.
BUILDING A BETTER TEACHER: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone). By Elizabeth Green.
CAN’T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT? Written and illustrated by Roz Chast.
 CHINA’S SECOND CONTINENT: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in ­Africa. By Howard W. French.
CUBED: A Secret History of the Workplace. By Nikil Saval.
DEEP DOWN DARK: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free. By Héctor Tobar.
DEMON CAMP: A Soldier’s Exorcism. By Jennifer Percy.
DUTY: Memoirs of a Secretary at War. By Robert M. Gates.
DYING EVERY DAY: Seneca at the Court of Nero. By James Romm.
EICHMANN BEFORE JERUSALEM: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer. By Bettina Stangneth. Translated by Ruth Martin.
ELEPHANT COMPANY: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II. By Vicki Constantine Croke.
EMBATTLED REBEL: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief. By James M. McPherson.
THE EMPATHY EXAMS: Essays. By Leslie Jamison.
FACTORY MAN: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local — and Helped Save an American Town. By Beth Macy.
THE FAME LUNCHES: On Wounded Icons, Money, Sex, the Brontës, and the Importance of Handbags. By Daphne Merkin.
FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES: A Memoir. By Charles M. Blow.
FORCING THE SPRING: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality. By Jo Becker.
GANDHI BEFORE INDIA. By Ramachandra Guha. GEEK SUBLIME: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty. By Vikram Chandra.
HOTEL FLORIDA: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War. By Amanda Vaill.
THE HUMAN AGE: The World Shaped by Us. By Diane Ackerman.
THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan. By Rick Perlstein.
THE INVISIBLE FRONT: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War. By Yochi Dreazen.
THE INVISIBLE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures. By Christine Kenneally.
JUST MERCY: A Story of Justice and Redemption. By Bryan Stevenson.
LIMONOV. By Emmanuel Carrère. Translated by John Lambert.LITTLE FAILURE: A Memoir. By Gary Shteyngart.THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO: My Year of Raging Hormones. By Sandra Tsing Loh.
NAPOLEON: A Life. By Andrew Roberts.
NO GOOD MEN AMONG THE LIVING: America, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes. By Anand Gopal.
NOT I: Memoirs of a German Childhood. By Joachim Fest. Translated by Martin Chalmers.
ON IMMUNITY: An Inoculation. By Eula Biss.
ON THE RUN: Fugitive Life in an American City. By Alice Goffman.
100 ESSAYS I DON’T HAVE TIME TO WRITE: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater. By Sarah Ruhl.
THE PARTHENON ENIGMA. By Joan Breton Connelly.
PAY ANY PRICE: Greed, Power, and Endless War. By James Risen.
PENELOPE FITZGERALD: A Life. By Hermione Lee.
PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights. By Katha Pollitt.
THE SHORT AND TRAGIC LIFE OF ROBERT PEACE: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League. By Jeff Hobbs.
THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History. By Elizabeth Kolbert.
A SPY AMONG FRIENDS: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. By Ben Mac­intyre.
STUFF MATTERS: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World. By Mark Miodownik.
THE TEACHER WARS: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession. By Dana Goldstein.
THIRTEEN DAYS IN SEPTEMBER: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David. By Lawrence Wright.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: Capitalism vs. the Climate. By Naomi Klein.
THROWN. By Kerry Howley.
THE TRIP TO ECHO SPRING: On Writers and Drinking. By Olivia Laing.
THE TRUE AMERICAN: Murder and Mercy in Texas. By Anand Giridharadas.
WORLD ORDER. By Henry Kissinger.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Miss Marple by Agatha Christie

 (audiobooks)
Murder at the Vicarage
The Body in the Library

The Moving Finger
A Murder is Announced
They Do It With Mirrors
A Pocket Full of Rye

4.50 From Paddington
The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side
A Caribbean Mystery 
At Bertram's Hotel (not audio)

Nemesis
Sleeping Murder

The Tuesday Club Murders (short stories)