Books High and Low

  I read this play in anticipation of a performance by Penn State's Centre Stage in April. It's one of Shakespeare's earlier co...

  I bought this book in the 1990s at the University of Pittsburgh bookstore when I worked at Hillman Library. I thought it would be a good w...

  In Agatha Christie's fifth mystery, down on his luck Anthony Cade travels from South Africa to London to deliver a manuscript memoir b...

  I really loved this science fiction novel by British author Adrian Tchaikovsky. Humanity is in decline, and when a virus disrupts the work...

  I have mixed feelings about this novel about three siblings, their spouses and children, and a young mother and her daughter. I had a hard...

  Agatha Christie's fourth mystery doesn't include any of her more famous detectives. The main character, Anne, is a young woman who...

I was disappointed in this novel by popular author Laura Dave. I had read another book by her and found it to be entertaining ( The night we...

In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to read this short novel about love in its many forms. French lessons is about three French tuto...

  I really enjoyed this novel based on the true story of the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial in Sutton Hoo, England. As war approach...

  This is Agatha Christie's third mystery and her second one featuring Hercule Poirot. Although I read a lot of Christie as a teenager, ...

  I really enjoyed this fascinating and well-researched history of the finding and decoding of the Rosetta stone. After several men failed t...

  I liked this book about a group of Chinese immigrants who struggle with life and love in New York's Chinatown. The story actually span...

  I really enjoyed the second novel of Agatha Christie's. It's the first of five books starring the characters Tommy and Tuppence. I...

  I enjoyed this celebrity memoir written by actor, director, and producer Griffin Dunne. It brought to life the crazy life of his parents a...

This is a good introduction to Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia until his death in 869. Edmund was killed by the Danes, reportedly tie...

  I enjoyed this collection of personal essays about West Virginia. Author Laura Jackson is a West Virginia native and writes lovingly about...

I really enjoyed this 1922 novel about four women who travel to Italy, renting an old castle for a month. All of the women are unhappy for d...

  Dear Evan Hansen is a musical that will be coming to Eisenhower Auditorium in April, so I thought I'd read the play before going to s...

  Devil is fine tells the story of a biracial man who has just lost his teenage son. He inherits a plot of land that was meant for his son ...

  This is a wonderful look at not only the relationship between Doris Kearns Goodwin and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin, but also an in...

I really enjoyed this novel by Paul Auster, one of my favorite authors. The Brooklyn follies tells the story of a recently retired, divorce...

  This is a good introduction to the Plantagenet dynasty in Britain. It devotes a chapter to almost all of the kings from Henry II through H...

  I read what I thought was a lot of Agatha Christie mysteries when I was a teenager, probably a few dozen, but that's only a fraction o...

  This is the second book in a series of "how to" books by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh that I've read; other book...

I was prepared to dislike Headshot because I really don't like boxing as a sport, but I was surprised by how engaging this book was. It...

  I really enjoyed this play about Beatrice and Benedick, Hero and Claudio. I read it in anticipation of seeing the play performed at Penn S...

In this family drama, author Terah Shelton Harris reveals the problems inherent in "heir property," which is land that has been in...

  I didn't realize when I began Trust Her that it is a sequel to Northern Spy , which I haven't read yet. I would have preferred to...

  This is a bit of escapist fiction featuring a group of Scotland Yard officers who are tasked with protecting the crown jewels when they...

  These are two novellas written by celebrated Hebrew novelist S.Y. Agnon, who was the recipient of the Nobel prize in Literature in 1966. B...