The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski is a miracle tale of one young man’s voyage through classic turmoil accompanied by the dogs he has loved and trained. My words do not do this justice to this debut novel.


I never thought that a book titled Avenues of Spiritual Consciousness (by Roger K. Freeman) would hold my interest. The perseverance of Raven Janamanchi, a young woman of intense belief, is severely challenged after she meets Basil Porter, an outed CIA agent. Their beginnings near Matinicus Island on the Maine coast lead to worldwide adventure. 

I first read Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present by Michael B. Oren a year ago. There is so much information (604 pages and about 130 pages of notes and bibliography) that I’m reading it again because I want to go over to catch things I may have missed or forgotten. It is fascinating and has given me a different and I hope more compete view of what is happening there now.

I like Roots by Alex Haley because the author pays so much attention to details. I am enjoying it.

The Cousins’ War by Kevin Phillips ties the English Civil War to the American Revolution and then to the Civil War. The thesis is that with every turn of the English war (1642 to 1648) and every turn of politics, another set of dissidents was shaken out of England. The Parliamentarians tended to go to New England, the Royalists to Virginia. Their attitudes tended to persist, the North being more democratic than the South.

Abigail Adams: A Biography by Phyllis Lee Levin complements the current attention being given to “John Adams,” the television presentation. I enjoyed and learned so much from this 488-page book. Abigail Adams was a splendid “helpmeet” to her husband and a true patriot to America.

I am reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke’s 2004 allegorical novel about theoretical magicians overcoming their pride, fear, and arrogance to become practical magicians in service to mankind. This book entertainingly reminds me to actively show my faith by my works.

What a joy to revisit A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. My grandson asked if we could read it together.

Like his father before him, John Quincy Adams had a disappointing presidency. He was resoundingly defeated for reelection. Leaving office, an embittered Adams vowed to “bury myself in complete retirement as much as a nun taking the veil.” Instead, the 63-year-old was persuaded to run for Congress where he found his niche. Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade, Joseph Wheelan’s biography, concentrates on the amazing final 17 years in the life of this most principled American.

I just finished The Mayor’s Tongue by Nathaniel Rich. It’s a fairy tale for adults with intriguing characters and it left me thinking more deeply about how I see other people, even those I love. This isn’t the fun, escapist story I usually read. It’s literature that gets you thinking and stays with you.

The American Soul by Jacob Needleman is an arresting stimulus to thought in this election year helping to give focus to a discussion on the real American values that are great enough to unify the country. His thesis is that materialism is not a cause but the effect of “the poverty of ideas about the inner and outer world.” Let the conversation be renewed!

The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg describes Bragg’s childhood in eastern Alabama and reflects on the life of his father. Bragg was motivated to write the book; he recently married and became a stepfather to a 12-year-old. Due to the strained relationship with his own father, the author is concerned about the challenge he faces in becoming a father for the first time. It’s a truly open account of life with a troubled, yet loving, father and the fears men face when becoming a father.

I highly recommend Painting The Invisible Man by Rita Schiano. In 2001, while researching the online archives of her hometown newspaper for a client, the author, freelance writer Rita Schiano made a keying error,
a simple mistake that led her to a path she’d been avoiding most of her life. It took her on a journey inside the world of her father, killed gangland-style more than two decades ago. Schiano turned that difficult journey into an engrossing novel, which explores the complex dynamics of growing up in an Italian family on the fringes of the Mafia. The story examines themes of forgiveness, atonement, and redemption.

How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend written by The Monks of New Skete is a pleasant, interesting, and informative training manuals for dog owners. We are gently taught why dogs do what they do and learn kindly ways to change their attitudes and behavior, as well as our own. The Monks of New Skete have been breeding and training German Shepherds in their quiet monastery in upper New York State for over forty years, as well as operating “a training and consultation program that is open to all breeds”. Understanding is the key.

In Pascal’s Wager: The Man Who Played Dice With God James A. Connor has given us the opportunity to enter the physical space and place of 1588-1670 France. He brings classic and substantive insight into the provincial and fomenting social mores of these times: the militancy and corruption of the papacy; the intrusive and diminishing ideology of Aristotelian philosophy; and, the deepening schism in the Catholic Church and monarchies of Pascal’s times. Through the lens of Blaise Pascal’s tightly-knit family, we enter the inordinate emotional sibling reliance (addiction) of children who have been raised in the isolated, dominating, and cloistered world of a widowed father suddenly thrust into self-survival and the salt of erudition. Connor offers a beguiling rendition of the facts during Pascal’s life and times: How do we reconcile the scientist and the mystic? How do we formulate true questions, questions that ask a question and continue to ask another after that?