Books High and Low

This is a good introduction to the history of the Lhasa Apso breed and its care. Published in 1979, it provides a history of the breed in ...

Author William Powers spent a year living in a twelve by twelve foot square cabin, which he documented in his book Twelve by Twelve: A One...

I loved this novel about a middle-aged man who was sentenced to house arrest in a hotel in Moscow not long after the Russian Revolution. H...

I know I'm late to the game reading The Power of Habit , by Charles Duhigg, which came out in 2012. I've read so many references t...

Like most of us, I read Anne Frank's diary while in school, either 7th or 8th grade. It wasn't assigned, but was recommended by a ...

This is a fascinating look at the history of the fonts that we take for granted every day. Author Simon Garfield describes how fonts were ...

I mentioned in my last post that I read a few books about Germany in preparation for my week-long vacation in Berlin in July. I selecte...

In preparation for our summer vacation in Berlin, I wanted to read a little about Germany. I picked this biography of Angela Merkel and an...

This is a really fun fantasy about a man who ages much more slowly than other humans. He's in his fifth century when he breaks the rul...

This memoir by Justin Trudeau, the current Prime Minister of Canada, is a fast and fun read. Published as he was poised to lead the Libera...

I really enjoyed this overview of Canadian history. It's part of the Cambridge Concise History series, and in 10 chapters and only 330...

Forest Bathing caught my eye when I was browsing at Barnes and Noble last month. Written by Dr. Qing Li, Associate Professor at the Nippo...

My book club selected Born to Run as one of our winter picks. I've always been a casual fan of Bruce Springsteen's music, being fa...

I loved this memoir by comedian and host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah. With a Black mother and a white father, and born in the last deca...

O I couldn't resist reading another book that explores how Trump succeeded in the 2016 election. This book focuses on Steve Bannon, h...

I really enjoyed this memoir from Robert Gottlieb, a man who has been involved in the publishing industry for decades. In this book he tak...

This is an excellent collection of essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In this book, he brings together one essay published in each of the eight y...

This is a really interesting collection of anecdotes about David Bowie, told to Dylan Jones through interviews that span decades. Arranged...

As with the last book that I reviewed, this book has been written about a lot, so I'm not going to go into too much detail. I will jus...

A lot has been written about this book since it was published last year. Having been an ardent Hillary supporter, I was curious about her ...

I loved this story about a young man who experiences a lifetime of pain in one summer a few years after the second world war in Norway. Tr...

Pink Floyd is my all-time favorite band, and I really enjoyed this inside account of the band's history by the only member to have bee...

This post includes the books that I read in December, plus a few that I forgot to write about from earlier this fall. I just realized that t...

 This is a fascinating look at the history of humans, from our origins in the distant past to today. Author Yuval Noah Harari, a historia...

The main character of this psychological thriller is a defense lawyer who takes on the case of a young girl who has committed a school sh...

The Last Mrs. Parrish is written by a sister duo, Lynne and Valerie Constantine, who write under the pseudonym Liv Constantine. It's ...

I loved this book about how dictionaries are created. Author Kory Stamper has worked at Merriam-Webster since 1998 and she has written a t...

Fans of Armistead Maupin will love this memoir. In it the author talks about his childhood in North Carolina with a very conservative father...

The Gatekeepers is a fascinating look inside every White House from Nixon's administration through Obama's. Author Chris Whipple de...

My book club picked My Beloved World for our May read. Sonia Sotomayor had recently visited the University at Albany, although I was trave...