soroptimist international
of fort bragg
sentinel newsletter
Book Recommendations

soroptimist international
of fort bragg
sentinel newsletter
Book Recommendations

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March 2010 ~ The Last Aloha
by Gaellen Quinn
Published by Cypress House Press (member Cynthia Frank’s company)
February 2010 ~ Tales of a Female Nomad
by Ruth Gordon Gelman
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December 2009 ~ West with the Night
by Beryl Markham
Beryl Markham, born in England in 1902, was taken by her father to East Africa in 1906 where she played with native Maruni children and apprenticed with her father as a trainer and breeder of racehorses. During the 1930's, she became an African bush pilot. In 1936 she became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.
November 2009 ~ The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
October 2009 ~ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
August 2009 ~ Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jamie Ford
June 2009 ~ Year of Wonder
by Geraldine Brooks
May 2009 ~ Dewey
by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
April 2009 ~ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
by Anne Fadiman
The story of the illness and treatment of an epileptic Hmong child living in Merced, CA., and the clash of cultures between her parents and the American doctors treating her.
March 2009 ~ Three Cups of Tea
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
February 2009 ~ Women of the Silk
by Gail Tsukiyama Amazon book review
January 2009 ~ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon Amazon book review



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General Book Recommendations:
Stones into Schools by Greg Mortensen's inspiring sequel to Three Cups of Tea
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom (author of Tuesdays with Morrie). It is the tale of Albom's conversations and interactions of two men of God, one is his childhood rabbi, the other a reformed drug dealer and convict who became a pastor in Detroit's inter-city.

Good read: Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon.
If anyone wants to borrow, let me know.
from Colette Bailey


I have read two books recently by John Krakauer- Into Thin Air and Into the Wild. These books are not just about adventure into the wild places of this world but why and how we get there as people. The first book is about the Everest Climb some years ago and the how and the why that climb ended in disaster. "Into The Wild" is mostly about a young man going alone into a remote area of Alaska and why he ended up there. They are good books to think about. I think they are both already major motion pictures.
from Grace Sharples

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is a memoir of the author, three years after a protracted divorce, embarking on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for "balancing." These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert's exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, "It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.'"
from Lynne Calder

This engrossing memoir, as Salbi shows how Saddam Hussein "managed to make decent people like [her] parents complicit in their own oppression." "Growing up in Baghdad," the author remembers, "was probably not unlike growing up in an American suburb," but then Salbi's father became Saddam's private pilot. Gradually, the man who treated her like a niece became a man she called " 'Amo' [Uncle] not out of affection, but because I was afraid to say his name—Saddam Hussein—out loud." Interspersed with Salbi's memories are her mother's recollections of imposed visits from and disquieting parties with Saddam. These riveting passages reveal a self-absorbed man who, as Salbi comes to understand, "saw no conflict between feeling fondness for people and killing them." Making a physical escape from Iraq was easy—a marriage was arranged in the U.S. to an abusive husband (from whom Salbi also had to escape)—compared with making the new life that culminated in founding Women for Women International, an organization that assists women victimized by war. Books to come will offer more historical and statistical data, but this may be the most honest account of life within Saddam's circle so far; not a rebel's account, although Salbi is certainly a dissident, rather, it's an enlightening revelation of how, by barely perceptible stages, decent people make accommodations in a horrific regime.
from Lynne Calder:
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
In the Woods and The Likeness By Tana French
Slam by Nick Hornby, anything by Nick Hornby
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
from Kathryn Leaman:
The Red Letter Diary by Lily Koppel
The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow
from Linda Dutcher:
Growth of the Soil by Kruit Hamsun
Amazing Gracie: A Dog's Tale by Dan Dye
The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel by Garth Stein

More dog book recommendations:
Dog Years: A Memoir (P.S.) by Mark Doty
Izzy & Lenore: Two Dogs, an Unexpected Journey, and Me by Jon Katz
Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash
Dog on It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quin
Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote
a big little life by Dean Koontz. The novelist and his wife adopted their first dog, Trixie, a retired Canine Companion for Independence assistance dog. Koontz relays the amazing impact Trixie had on Dean and his wife.
Soroptimist Book Recommendations
Thursday, March 4, 2010
SIFB, P O Box 131, Fort Bragg, CA 95437
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