Books read 2021 (A-O) & #'s

Books not in Wake County Library: (1) Hildegard of Bingen's Holistic Approach to Wellness: A 12th Century Healer & Visionary, 4 Stars (Linda Lee Smith); (2) The Constitution of the United States of America (30 pp), 5 Stars (National Archives & Records Administration, Washington DC) (3) The Bible in 52 Weeks, 4 Stars (Dr. Kimberly D. Moore, Pastor; have Kindle edition) (4) Williams-Sonoma Collection: Soup, 4 Stars (Diane Rosser Worthington, have hardcopy) (5) Finding Hildegard: Healing through Medieval Wisdom, 3 Stars (Gregg Koskela) (6) What Falls Away, 5 Stars (Mia Farrow, have Kindle edition) (7) 6-Minute Fitness at 60+, 4 Stars (Dr Jonathan Su) (8) Mrs. Entwhistle series #1: Once You're Over the Hill, You Pick Up Speed, 4 Stars (Doris Reidy) (9) Apropos of Nothing, 3 Stars (Woody Allen) (10) Strength Training over 40, 4 Stars (Alana Collins) (11) Spiralizer Cookbook, 4 Stars (Violla Green, have Kindle edition) (12) The Last Duel, 5 Stars (Eric Jager) (13) Outer Banks Scenic Byway, 3 Stars (Douglas Stover) (14) The Vines, 3 Stars (Shelley Nolden, have Kindle edition)

Showing 1 - 20 of 43  There are a total of 63 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "1,000 books to read before you die"
Star rating for 1,000 books to read before you die
Average Rating:
5 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Started in 2018 but read most to finish it in 2021! Have Kindle edition.
Description:
"Encompassing fiction, poetry, science and science fiction, memoir, travel writing, biography, children's books, history, and more, 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die moves across cultures and through time to present an eclectic collection of titles, each described with the special enthusiasm readers summon when recommending a book to a friend."--Dust jacket.

2. 1984

Book cover for "1984"
Star rating for 1984
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Have Kindle edition.
Description:
Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities. Written 75 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever... "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."...
Book cover for "After the fire"
Star rating for After the fire
Average Rating:
5 stars
Notes:
5 Stars.
Description:
"Fredrik Welin is a seventy-year-old former surgeon who retired in disgrace years ago. He has retreated to a Swedish archipelago, where he lives alone on an island. He swims in the sea every day, cutting a hole in the ice if necessary. He is perfectly content to live out his days in quiet solitude. Until he wakes up one autumn evening to find his house on fire. Fredrik escapes just in time, wearing two left-footed boots. All that remains in the morning...
Book cover for "Arguing with zombies"
Star rating for Arguing with zombies
Average Rating:
5 stars
Notes:
5 Stars.
Description:
"An accessible, compelling introduction to today's major policy issues from columnist, best-selling author, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. There is no better guide than Paul Krugman to basic economics, the ideas that animate much of our public policy. Likewise, there is no better foe of zombie economics, the misunderstandings that just won't die. This delightful new book finds Krugman at his best, turning readers into intelligent...
Book cover for "Before she disappeared"
Star rating for Before she disappeared
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Notes:
5 Stars.
Description:
"A propulsive thriller featuring an ordinary woman who will stop at nothing to find the missing people that the rest of the world has forgtten ... Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will--searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media...
Book cover for "Blue nights"
Star rating for Blue nights
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Notes:
3 Stars.
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter, from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Notes to John.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century
Richly textured with memories from her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan...
Book cover for "Brave new world"
Star rating for Brave new world
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Notes:
5 Stars.
Description:
Huxley's classic prophetic novel describes the socialized horrors of a futuristic utopia devoid of individual freedom. First published 70 years ago, the classic, prophetic novel capturing the socialized horrors of a futuristic utopia remarkably explores the now-timely themes of cloning, individual creativity and freedom, and the role of science, technology, and drugs in humankind's future.
Book cover for "The bridge of San Luis Rey"
Star rating for The bridge of San Luis Rey
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Have Kindle edition.
Book cover for "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee"
Star rating for Bury my heart at Wounded Knee
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Have Kindle edition.
Description:
Brown's meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. This edition includes illustrations, essays, and excerpts from firsthand accounts and memoirs, that add depth and reflection to this momentous work.
Book cover for "The Churchills"
Star rating for The Churchills
Average Rating:
5 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Have Hardcopy edition.
Book cover for "Clotel"
Star rating for Clotel
Average Rating:
5 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Have Kindle edition.
Book cover for "Constance"
Star rating for Constance
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Have Kindle edition.
Description:
In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it's an abomination against nature. For young Constance "Con" D'Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it's terrifying. After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness--stored for that inevitable transition--something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic,...
Book cover for "A crack in creation"
Star rating for A crack in creation
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Have Kindle edition.
Book cover for "Dearly"
Star rating for Dearly
Average Rating:
4 stars
Notes:
3 Stars. Have Kindle edition.
Book cover for "The deep"
Star rating for The deep
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Notes:
5 Stars.
Description:
"Yetu holds the memories for her people--water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners--who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one--the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her....
Book cover for "Devotions"
Star rating for Devotions
Average Rating:
4.9 stars
Notes:
5 Stars.
Description:
"Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver presents a personal selection of her best work in this definitive collection spanning more than five decades of her esteemed literary career. Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet"...

17. Dust

Book cover for "Dust"
Star rating for Dust
Author:
Series:
Silo series volume 3.
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Notes:
5 Stars. Have Kindle edition.
Description:
Armed with secret knowledge, Juliette, now mayor of Silo 18 and her crew set out to rescue a world she hates but now understands better -- the world of the Silos with its rigid rules and terrible consequences for disobedience.
Book cover for "Einstein's dreams"
Star rating for Einstein's dreams
Average Rating:
4 stars
Notes:
4 Stars. Have Paperback edition.
Book cover for "An event in autumn"
Star rating for An event in autumn
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Notes:
4 Stars. #11 in series but #10, The Troubled Man, is actually last chronologically in the Kurt Wallander series. #11 was written many years before 2013 publish date.
Description:
After nearly thirty years in the same job, Inspector Kurt Wallander is tired, restless, and itching to make a change. He is taken with a certain old farmhouse, perfectly situated in a quiet countryside with a charming, overgrown garden. There he finds the skeletal hand of a corpse in a shallow grave. Wallander’s investigation takes him deep into the history of the house and the land, until finally the shocking truth about a long-buried secret...
Book cover for "The four winds"
Star rating for The four winds
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Notes:
5 Stars.
Description:
"[A]n epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America's most defining eras--the Great Depression. Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with...