This episode aired Thursday, May 30.
It’s been a while but we’re compiling another UPR Community Booklist and we want to know what you’re reading. What’s on your nightstand or device right now? Is there a book that has had a big impact on you? Which books are you looking forward to reading? Perhaps you’d like to tell us a personal story connected to a favorite book. We’d love to hear about books in the adult, young adult & children’s categories. One suggestion or many are welcome.
Our community booklist:
UPR Listeners:
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Martyr by Kaveh Akbar
Soil by Camille T. Dungy
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
A Necessary Lie by Doohyun Kim, Jiyeon Maeng and Heidi Tucker
Anne Holman from The King’s English:
A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko and Emerald Mile
Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin
Cast Away by Kase Johnstun
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (prequel to There There)
The Unwedding by Ally Condie
The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos (and Shades of Mercy coming in July)
Return to Blood by Michael Bennet (Better the Blood was first Hannah Westerman)
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
James by Percival Everett (and in tandem The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain)
Demon Copperhead (and in tandem David Copperfield)
Long Island by Colm Toibin (sequel to Brooklyn)
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson (author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand)
Familiaris by David Wroblewski (author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle) Hamlet
Ferris by Kate DiCamillo
Tom’s list:
Louis L’Amour: Jubal Sackett / Conagher / Last Stand at Papago Wells
P. G. Wodehouse: Something New / Joy in the Morning / Mulliner Stories
American Heritage History of World War II
Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson
Truman by David McCullough
Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
Elaine Thatcher’s book list:
The Summer Before the Dark (1973)
Doris Lessing
Outstanding. It’s the first of her books that I have read and definitely won’t be the last. Lots
of inner dialogue, if you like that sort of thing. I think she really captured some of the
experiences and dilemmas of middle-aged women. Five stars.
Kabul (1986)
M.E. Hirsh
Another excellent book about an upper-class Afghani family (with an American mother) dealing
with the political and personal pressures of the 1970s in Afghanistan, New York, and Moscow.
The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s (2023)
Alexander Nemerov
A fascinating series of short-short stories of America in the 1830s. Some characters were real
people, others are fictional. Each story puts a magnifying glass on a small aspect of Jacksonian
America, and each has some connection to the forests that then covered most of the eastern
part of North America.
Elegy for Eddie (Maisie Dobbs, #9) (2012)
Jacqueline Winspear
The Maisie Dobbs books, according to USA Today, are “less whodunits than why-dunits, more
P.D. James than Agatha Christie.” This one deals with the murder of a street peddler and
explores the tensions between the working classes and aristocrats in 1930s London.
Leaving Everything Most Loved (Maisie Dobbs, #10) (2013)
Jacqueline Winspear
Another Maisie Dobbs “why-dunit,” this story engages with the lives of Indian immigrants in
England.
A Rule Against Murder (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #4) (2008)
Louise Penny
In keeping with my own preference for non-gory and non-dark mysteries (but not a fan of most
“cozy” mysteries), this book presents Canadian Inspector Gamache and his team as they
investigate a murder at a quiet rural resort. I love Gamache’s gentlemanly ways, even as his
younger associates are a bit more rough around the edges.
Sacred Clowns (Leaphorn & Chee, #11) (1993)
Tony Hillerman
It’s been several decades since I last read a Tony Hillerman novel—I read so many of them years ago that I became tired of them. But it was a wonderful reunion with old friends Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the Navajo Nation Police as they try to solve crimes committed in a Pueblo village. Lots of great characters that echo my own experiences of living in New Mexico.
The Kill Artist (2000)
Daniel Silva
I wanted to like this, partly because the protagonist is an art restorer, but I guess I’m past my
spy thriller phase. This character is also an international assassin, and I didn’t enjoy the details
of planning to kill a terrorist. But it’s well-written and might appeal to other readers.
The Bookshop on the Corner (Kirrinfief, #1) (2016)
Jenny Colgan
Formulaic and just ok. A young librarian loses her job and moves to a village in Scotland and
starts a mobile bookshop there.
