August 2016 Book Report

 

Caravan (1943) by Lady Eleanor Smith

Adventure writer James Darrell is at the end of his life and grants one more interview. Afterward, he reminisces about all the journeys he went on and wrote about. He was rejected by his true love because he didn’t have enough money. By the time he had achieved fame, she was unhappily married to someone else. This was a well written, interesting book, but the ending was a real bummer.

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Cluny Brown (1944) by Margery Sharp

A top-rate little charmer of a book! Orphan Cluny is living with her uncle, who is at his wits end. She doesn’t seem to “know her place” as a middle-class young woman and is finally sent off to go into service as a maid to a wealthy family in the country. She still insists on doing things her way, and causes a great deal of turmoil. Lovely little book.

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For the Birds (2015) by Emily Thomas

Bluehill Library series. Coraline is sure that a local bird sanctuary is going to be taken over by a big corporation and the land spoiled. She disappears suspiciously and librarian Anne and her children have to take care of Coralines pet parrot.

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O River, Remember! (1943) by Martha Ostenso

A sprawling story of 2 pioneer families, the Wings and the Shaleens in Minnesota. Fighting, feuding, loving, losing. Prairie fires, blizzards and a plague of grasshoppers. Starts in the 1870s and goes up to the beginning of WWII. Well written, but sure a lot of turmoil, angst and death along the way.

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A Fine and Private Place (1971) by Ellery Queen

The Importunato brothers have an enormous business empire, spread throughout the world. The oldest brother, Nino, is obsessed with the number 9 and allows his superstitions to rule. One by one, the brothers are murdered until the only ones left are Nino’s much younger, very beautiful wife and the handsome young private secretary. WHO DONE IT???