Books High and Low

Monday, June 22, 2026

Spare, by Prince Harry

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  I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. It's been thoroughly reviewed and rated on sites like Amazon and Goodreads, wi...
Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Joe country, by Mick Herron

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  The sixth book in Mick Herron's Slow Horses series opens with two of the Slough House agents killed, although they aren't named. T...

Lessons from the edge: a memoir, by Marie Yovanovitch

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  This is a fascinating memoir by Marie Yovanovitch, a career diplomat who served in many roles throughout the former Soviet Union and who e...
Sunday, June 7, 2026

Where we keep the light: stories from a life of service, by Josh Shapiro

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I enjoyed this self-portrait by Josh Shapiro, the current governor of Pennsylvania and someone widely believed to be a potential contender f...
Wednesday, June 3, 2026

The road to the salt sea, by Samuel Kolawole

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  I found this a tough book to read because nothing ever goes right for the protagonist, Able God, or anyone else in the book, for that matt...

Dumb witness, by Agatha Christie

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  In this Hercule Poirot mystery from 1937, wealthy spinster Emily Arundell writes to Poirot with concerns that someone in her family is try...
Sunday, May 24, 2026

Gathering moss: a natural and cultural history of mosses, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

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  I really enjoyed this collection of 19 essays about moss. Subjects include much of the author's research into mosses' reproduction...

London rules, by Mick Herron

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This series of novels about MI5's set of outcasts known as "Slow Horses" just gets better and better. In this fifth book in th...

Cards on the table, by Agatha Christie

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  Agatha Christie pokes fun at herself in this first novel featuring the mystery writer Ariadne Oliver. Ms. Oliver is one of eight guests at...
Friday, May 15, 2026

Standing by the wall, by Mick Herron

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Standing by the wall  is a collection of five novellas in the Slow Horses series published between 2015 and 2022. They introduce some new ch...
Tuesday, May 12, 2026

The chariots of Calyx, by Rosemary Rowe

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  Libertus, a former slave and current mosaic artist, has developed a reputation for solving murders, and in this fourth installment of Rose...

Spook Street, by Mick Herron

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  In the 4th novel in the Slow Horses series by Mick Herron, one of the main characters disappears after his grandfather, who has dementia, ...

The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley

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I liked this book a lot. The main character is hired to be the companion of a man who was rescued from the 19th century just before he was k...
Thursday, April 23, 2026

On all fronts: the education of a journalist, by Clarissa Ward

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I really enjoyed this memoir by journalist Clarissa Ward, currently the chief international correspondent for CNN. She studied comparative l...
Wednesday, April 22, 2026

107 days, by Kamala Harris

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This is a thoughtful and intimate look at the short presidential run of Kamala Harris in 2024. The chapters are numbered by how many days ar...
Friday, April 17, 2026

Tabula rasa, by Ruth Downie

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I really enjoyed this sixth book in Ruth Downie's Medicus series about a doctor in the Roman army in the 2nd century. In this book Gaius...

Murder in Mesopotamia, by Agatha Christie

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The narrator of  Murder in Mesopotamia  is Nurse Amy Leatherman who has traveled to Mesopotamia to accompany a patient, planning to travel h...
Thursday, April 9, 2026

Her hidden genius, by Marie Benedict

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This is a very good fictionalized examination of Rosalind Franklin's career as a scientist in 1940s and 1950s England and France. She ca...

Real tigers, by Mick Herron

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This is the third novel in the Slow Horses series by Mick Herron. It continues the story of a bunch of exiled MI5 officers who are assigned ...
Saturday, March 28, 2026

Shut up and read: a memoir from Harriett's Bookshop, by Jeannine A. Cook

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This is an interesting and heartfelt memoir by a woman who has founded three bookstores that operate not only as bookstores but also as comm...
Friday, March 27, 2026

The husbands, by Holly Gramazio

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I really loved this fantasy about a woman who gets a new husband every time he goes into the attic. She tries out some of the husbands for a...
Saturday, March 14, 2026

A new lease of death, by Ruth Rendell

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In this second book in Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford mystery series, both Inspector Wexford and his DI Mike Burdon take a back seat i...

Grit: the power of passion and perseverance, by Angela Duckworth

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In this book, University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Angela Duckworth shares her own and others' research about what makes some...
Saturday, March 7, 2026

Being mortal: medicine and what matters in the end, by Atul Gawande

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  This is a very moving book about what people need to think about as they approach end of life. Author Atul Gawande is a surgeon, writer, a...

Semper fidelis, by Ruth Downie

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  In this fifth mystery in the Gaius Petreius Ruso series about a doctor attached to the Roman army in 2nd century Britain, Ruso uncovers co...
Tuesday, March 3, 2026

The ABC murders, by Agatha Christie

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I really enjoyed this mystery, Agatha Christie's 11th with Hercule Poirot and the first featuring a serial killer. Poirot's friend C...
Sunday, February 22, 2026

The wedding people, by Alison Espach

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  This is a page-turner of a novel that I just couldn't put down. College professor and recently divorced Phoebe goes to a resort hotel ...

The power of habit: why we do what we do in life and business, by Charles Duhigg

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In an engaging and entertaining collection of stories and research, author Charles Duhigg shares how habits form and how they can be changed...
Saturday, February 7, 2026

Dead lions, by Mick Herron

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  I really enjoyed this second book in the Slow Horses series by author Mick Herron. The story begins when a retired spy notices a former So...
Friday, January 30, 2026

Remarkably bright creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt

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  I really loved this first novel by author Shelby Van Pelt. It's about a woman named Tova Sullivan who has endured significant loss ove...
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