Books High and Low

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

The murder at the vicarage, by Agatha Christie

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This is Agatha Christie's tenth mystery and first one featuring Miss Marple. Colonel Protheroe was shot dead in the vicar's office, ...

Tehran at twilight, by Salar Abdoh

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  I picked up this book to read a few days before the recent hostilities between Israel, Iran, and the U.S., but it's a stark reminder o...

Before the coffee gets cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

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  This is a slight but charming book about a cafe in Japan where customers can travel though time. There are a lot of rules about time trave...

Vietnam: a history, by Stanley Karnow

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This is a substantial (750 page) deep dive into the Vietnam War with a heavy focus on the politics surrounding most of the major U.S. decisi...

The burnt house, by Faye Kellerman

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  After an airplane crashes into an apartment building in Los Angeles, one of the supposed passengers is missing, but in the wreckage of the...

The St. Zita Society, by Ruth Rendell

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  Like many of Ruth Rendell's books, this one is filled with zany characters who make incredibly poor decisions. The St. Zita Society is...
Thursday, May 22, 2025

The last one at the wedding, by Jason Rekulak

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  I really enjoyed this suspenseful thriller about a man who's trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. Frank is a middle class ...

The Seven Dials mystery, by Agatha Christie

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The Seven Dials mystery is Agatha Christie's ninth novel and second starring Superintendent Battle. Like The Secret of Chimneys , althou...

Avenger, by Frederick Forsyth

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I really enjoyed this thriller by Frederick Forsyth, an author I had read more regularly back in the 1990s. I had enjoyed his work such as T...

The Complaints, by Ian Rankin

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I really enjoyed this detective story by Ian Rankin, the very popular author of the Inspector Rebus novels, set in Edinburgh, Scotland. The ...

Knife: meditations after an attempted murder, by Salman Rushdie

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  I've been following Salman Rushdie's story ever since he made the news with the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. Its pu...

The book at war: how reading shaped conflict and conflict shaped reading, by Andrew Pettegree

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  This is a fascinating history of books and reading during wartime. Focusing to a large extent on 20th century wars, primarily World Wars I...
Monday, May 5, 2025

My side of the mountain, by Jean Craighead George

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  I first read this book as a kid when I found it in my aunt's apartment; I think it was left there by another cousin who was visiting. ...

The mystery of the Blue Train, by Agatha Christie

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  This is Agatha Christie's 8th novel (and 5th with Hercule Poirot). In it, Poirot tackles the murder of a wealthy woman on a luxury tra...

The mystery of Mrs. Christie, by Marie Benedict

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Agatha Christie gets the Marie Benedict treatment in this novel about Christie's 11-day disappearance in 1926. Alternating sections addr...

Sleepwalk with me, and other painfully true stories, by Mike Birbiglia

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  I watched all of Mike Birbiglia's standup specials on Netflix last year and really enjoyed his funny, storytelling style. This book is...
Wednesday, April 16, 2025

The queens of crime, by Marie Benedict

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  The queens of crime was my book club's April pick, and it was a good choice for me in particular since I've been reading Agatha Ch...

The big four, by Agatha Christie

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  The big four is billed as a Hercule Poirot mystery, but it's less of a mystery than a spy novel. It was pulled together from a series...
Sunday, April 6, 2025

A tree grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

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  I read this book for my book club a little reluctantly because I had read it before; however, I realized that I remembered so little of it...
Thursday, April 3, 2025

The murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie

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Agatha Christie's third novel featuring Hercule Poirot has the detective in retirement (showing she didn't necessarily plan on such ...

Mission to Paris, by Alan Furst

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This was an enjoyable spy thriller that takes place in the lead-up to World War II. Austrian-American actor Fredric Stahl is strong-armed by...

A place for everything: the curious history of alphabetical order, by Judith Flanders

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  This is an extraordinary study that shows how humans slowly transitioned toward the use of alphabetical order to organize all manner of th...
Thursday, March 20, 2025

Love's Labour's Lost, by William Shakespeare

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  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...

Selected poems of Charles Baudelaire, translated by Geoffrey Wagner

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  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...

The secret of Chimneys, by Agatha Christie

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

Service model, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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  I really loved this science fiction novel by British author Adrian Tchaikovsky. Humanity is in decline, and when a virus disrupts the work...
Sunday, March 2, 2025

Flight, by Lynn Steger Strong

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  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...
Friday, February 28, 2025

The man in the brown suit, by Agatha Christie

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  Agatha Christie's fourth mystery doesn't include any of her more famous detectives. The main character, Anne, is a young woman who...
Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Eight hundred grapes, by Laura Dave

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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...
Thursday, February 20, 2025

French lessons, by Ellen Sussman

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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...
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