The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Book 1)407 reviews Alexander McCall Smith Anchor, 2003 life-affirming book with the unforgettable main character + Took me a while but..... When Precious Ramotswe's father, Obed, dies and leaves her all the cattle with the advice to sell it and buy herself a good business, she decides to become a private detective, the first lady detective in Botswana, and perhaps in the whole of Africa. Mma Ramotswe, smart, fat and good-natured, ...             The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle)166 reviews Susan Orlean Ballantine Books, 2000 No Title + Fascinating Reading + The Orchid thief + Fishes, orchids, or anything we are intrigued by...             The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary ...412 reviews Simon Winchester Harper Perennial, 2005 the madness of scholarship + Supplement, Addendum, Prequel, Sequel, Corollary + Three-and-a-half stars, really. + Psychological thriller that can't be put down + A fun, informative piece of history             How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays (A Harvest Book)19 reviews Umberto Eco, Diane Sterling, ... Harvest Books, 1995 A book for many journeys + Collection of funny essays 1-4 pages long + fine intellectual entertainment + The witty traveler             The Wind in the Willows16 reviews Kenneth Grahame Candlewick, 2003 Lovely Book, entranced my kids. + Perfect for younger children + simply stunning + Great Illustrations for W in the W             Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)32 reviews Charlotte Brontë, Michael Mason Penguin Classics, 2003 I love this book + This is one of the great books for love, passion and characters. + Even better than I remembered I read "Jane Eyre" because I'd had for a long time some vague sense that I'd like Jane Eyre as a character. And I was entirely right. I don't think I've ever quite connected so well with a character before - and I've never before understood so clearly why people still read great literature - ...             Otherwise: New & Selected Poems6 reviews Jane Kenyon Graywolf Press, 1997 Poetry for the human experience + Great product & service + Bright Stars on a Winter Night + Captivating and Honest             The Magic Mountain (Everyman's Library)3 reviews Thomas Mann Everyman's Library, 2005 Truly Marvelous + Illness is life and death + For serious readers... Thomas Mann's opus follows Hans Castorp's visit to a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, a stay which would last seven years. This immensely rich and complex novel is, at its core, about temporality. We are given numerous conversations between the primary actors about the plasticity of time, ...             Pride and Prejudice (Oxford World's Classics)903 reviews Jane Austen Oxford University Press, USA, 2004 Boy oh boy was I ever wrong about Lady Jane!!! + Worth paying for on the Kindle + What a Year for the Bennets + as always, better than the movie + Pride and Prejudice             Me Talk Pretty One Day735 reviews David Sedaris Back Bay Books, 2001 Do Not Read While Eating Because It's So Funny You Might Choke + David Sedaris does it again! + Not heartwarming... in a good way. When I opened this book I had limited time so I decided to look for the shortest essay in the book so I could sneak in a quick read. I selected "Big Boy" which started on page 97 and ended before the next essay that started on page 100. By the end of the first paragraph I was already laughing and ...             A Confederacy of Dunces (Penguin Modern Classics)2 reviews John Kennedy Toole Penguin Classics, 2000 Best Book Ever + The funniest book I've ever read This is the best book I have ever read. I f I ever wrote a book, I would want it to be this one. I have been buying copies since I first read it in New Orleans in 1980. A must-have for anyone who loves a great laugh!             Lying Awake98 reviews Mark Salzman Vintage, 2001 Wise Little Book + a wonderful exploration of faith and forgiveness + A small gem of a book + A story of faith             Gilead: A Novel303 reviews Marilynne Robinson Picador, 2006 This is a nearly perfect book + A Hill of Testimony + beautifully written novel of reflection Gilead is a nearly perfect book. It is quiet, multi-layered, and deeply spiritual. Composed in the form of a letter from the elderly protagonist, John Ames, to his young son, the work is a meditative near-monologue about faith, anger, love, and forgiveness; emotional patrimony, isolation, and ...             A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail)968 reviews Bill Bryson Broadway, 1999 A Warm & Funny Book + Great Travel Memoir + A Walk in the Woods + A Walk in the Woods             The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics)13 reviews Thomas Hardy Modern Library, 2001 The Return of the Native is a reader's return to the joys found in Hardy's Wessex + Why Read It + Great service! + Return of the Native + An opera of a book             Who Will Run the Frog Hospital24 reviews Lorrie Moore Vintage, 2004 This Book is Like Music + Beautiful, haunting and also very funny + Perfect Summer Reading I first read this book almost 10 years ago, when it first came out, and it is one of the books I keep returning to. Certain passages keep echoing back to me, they are so well written, poetic and apropos of certain hard-to-describe situations and states of mind. When I read some sentences they ...             A Place on Earth: A Novel10 reviews Wendell Berry Counterpoint, 2001 A Place of Loss and Hope + A Sense of Place + rural masterpiece. + A Place on Earth + "A Place Called Earth"             The Magic Mountain (Everyman's Library)3 reviews Thomas Mann Everyman's Library, 2005 Truly Marvelous + Illness is life and death + For serious readers... Thomas Mann's opus follows Hans Castorp's visit to a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, a stay which would last seven years. This immensely rich and complex novel is, at its core, about temporality. We are given numerous conversations between the primary actors about the plasticity of time, ...             The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics)13 reviews Thomas Hardy Modern Library, 2001 The Return of the Native is a reader's return to the joys found in Hardy's Wessex + Why Read It + Great service! + Return of the Native + An opera of a book             The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Book 1)407 reviews Alexander McCall Smith Anchor, 2003 life-affirming book with the unforgettable main character + Took me a while but..... When Precious Ramotswe's father, Obed, dies and leaves her all the cattle with the advice to sell it and buy herself a good business, she decides to become a private detective, the first lady detective in Botswana, and perhaps in the whole of Africa. Mma Ramotswe, smart, fat and good-natured, ...