A tender, informative little book. It even had me wondering if I might enjoy having my own snail! Readers who like this would also enjoy a book from the late 90s called "A Country Year: Living the Questions" by Sue Hubbell. It’s still in print and in our library.   posted Aug 24, 2012 at 11:01AM

Became the film "Iris"   posted Aug 17, 2011 at 11:18AM

Became the film "Precious"   posted Aug 17, 2011 at 11:15AM

Became the film "Notes on a Scandal"   posted Aug 17, 2011 at 11:14AM

The film "Precious" was based on this powerful novel.   posted Aug 16, 2011 at 7:33PM

Saw the author on Oprah. She said she’d written each chapter from the perspective of EACH of the daughters and the wife, then chose her favorite version. So she actually wrote this novel five times!   posted Apr 6, 2011 at 6:26PM

A cracking good adventure tale, full of winking outlaws and relentless villains. In 1915, an aging bank robber is trying to right his past by making amends to the woman he left behind forty years earlier, and a struggling novelist joins him in his quest.   posted Sep 1, 2009 at 3:52PM

Manny DeLeon manages a Connecticut Red Lobster restaurant on its last night before closing. Although they don't know it, his quirky staff is family to Manny. Knowing he can take only 5 employees with him to a nearby Olive Garden, and faced with a blizzard on that last night, Manny's is an eloquent story of an ordinary man. This author has been called "the bard of the working class."   posted Apr 18, 2008 at 12:07PM

Movie title: Someone Like You   posted Apr 18, 2008 at 11:44AM

Did you think you weren't "into" vampire tales? This elegantly written first novel may change your mind. Did Bram Stoker base his Count Dracula on the historical figure Vlad the Impaler, the cruel 15th Century prince of Wallachia? A father and then his daughter search for clues across time and borders in dusty Ivy League libraries and ancient monasteries. What does that dark legend have to do with modern times, and does that evil still exist?   posted Apr 18, 2008 at 11:40AM

This is one of those rare books that one really never forgets. Eerie, suspenseful, haunting.   posted Mar 25, 2008 at 6:14PM

Film title: Master and Commander-the Far Side of the World   posted Mar 25, 2008 at 5:56PM

Movie title: Sweetland   posted Dec 21, 2007 at 2:11PM

The best book! I read it, then bought it, because it is encouraging and invigorating and it’s about living life to the fullest, instead of winding down.   posted Dec 7, 2007 at 1:42PM

A fascinating combination of the "inside scoop" on some chef celebrities, behind the scenes in some famous restaurants, and a man’s determination to learn all aspects of professional cooking, including an escapade involving the author hauling a 200-pound freshly killed pig up to his New York City high-rise apartment with an appalled businessman sharing his elevator. Readers will not be bored.   posted Dec 7, 2007 at 1:31PM

This is a gripping story I couldn’t put down. It was all too easy to imagine oneself out in freezing cold for months on end, trying to stay above the Antarctic ice that first crushed their ship and then began to break up into open water as the crew struggled to reach land. That any of them survived is a testament to human endurance, both physical and mental.   posted Dec 7, 2007 at 1:22PM

A remarkable little book that can be read in one sitting. A wistful recollection of the cocktail hour between husband and wife in which they exchanged their thoughts, hearts and souls, and which she recalls during his illness and after he is gone. Interspersed with the lovely writing are line drawings illustrating the rooms in which this love story played out. Somber, reflective, touching, but never mawkish. Read it once, twice, and then perhaps buy it, as I did.   posted Nov 29, 2006 at 1:45PM

A stunning one day in the life of a London neurosurgeon, but it is not about his medical practice. Henry Perowne has a leisurely day planned, ending with his family gathering around the dinner table for talk and reunion. But starting with his pre-dawn view of an airliner with wing aflame flying overhead and followed by a car accident leading to confrontation with the hoodlum driver, Henry's Saturday builds ominously to a compelling climax.   posted Aug 27, 2006 at 4:49PM

When her thirty-year marriage broke up, Sue Hubbell found herself alone and broke on a small farm in the Ozarks. Keeping bees, she found solace in the natural world. She began to write, challenging herself to tell the absolute truth about her life and the things she cared for. An uplifting, marvelous book about a woman finding her way in middle age.   posted Jun 20, 2006 at 3:32PM