Category: From My Bookshelf – Lynn Willoughby

  • From My Bookshelf: A Better Man: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

    From My Bookshelf: A Better Man: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel

    By Lynn Willoughby A Better Man: A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery ~  Louise Penny Life is changing for Armand Gamache.  He has been demoted in the Surete, he is questioning his choice to return as a homicide inspector.  But when a young woman goes missing from his village of Three Pines, he gets involved. No…

  • From My Bookshelf: Olive Again

    From My Bookshelf: Olive Again

    By  Lynn Willoughby Olive Again ~ Elizabeth Strout Olive is getting old.  She is lonely.  She is not any more likable than when she was married to Henry and teaching high school math.  She has a big personality, is judgmental, acerbic and short tempered.  And I really like her. This book is a series of stories…

  • From My Bookshelf: My Name is Eva

    From My Bookshelf: My Name is Eva

    By Lynn Willoughby My Name is Eva ~ Suzanne Goldring Her parents call her Evelyn, her husband called her Evie, when she was working in Germany just at the end of WWII she was called Eva, and when she is in her nineties, living in a seniors home, the night staff call her Hildegard. The story…

  • From My Bookshelf: One Brother Shy

    From My Bookshelf: One Brother Shy

    By Lynn Willoughby One Brother Shy ~Terry Fallis This beloved Canadian author was speaking at the Turner Valley library in the fall and I was lucky enough to hear him.  Mush like his books, he is witty, warm and very candid.  While none of his books is autobiographical, all have elements of his life story in…

  • From My Bookshelf: Native Tongue

    From My Bookshelf: Native Tongue

    By Lynn Willoughby Native Tongue ~ Carl Hiassen Sometimes after reading a series of difficult, tragic, inhumane books, I need a change.  I need to read something by David Sedaris, Christopher Moore, Terry Fallis or Carl Hiassen.  This book of fiction gave me the laughter, the silliness and the satire I needed. The Amazing Kingdom of…

  • From My Bookshelf: The Nickel Boys

    From My Bookshelf: The Nickel Boys

    By Lynn Willoughby The Nickel Boys ~ Colson Whitehead This is not a true story, but it is based on an actual home for juvenile boys and the archaeological evidence and forensic studies of the grave sites found on the grounds after the 111 years the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys was active.  The location…

  • From My Bookshelf: Send Down the Rain

    From My Bookshelf: Send Down the Rain

    By Lynn Willoughby Send Down the Rain ~ Charles Martin This is a complex book with several stories. The writing is deceptively simple. The stories are not. Joseph is a soul weary, sad and lonely man. We know little about him other than he lives alone in a remote cabin in the mountains. Out wandering with his dog, Rosco,…

  • From My Bookshelf: A Boy From the Streets

    From My Bookshelf: A Boy From the Streets

    By Lynn Willoughby A Boy From the Streets ~ Maria Gibbs Twin boys born in Rio are abandoned at birth.  Less than a week later, Carolina and Fernando adopt one, and move to England where Carolina is in and out of mental hospitals for the next twelve years.  Now they are headed back to Brazil…

  • From My Bookshelf: Life on the Ground Floor

    From My Bookshelf: Life on the Ground Floor

    By Lynn Willoughby Life on the Ground Floor: Letters From the Edge of Emergency Medicine ~ James Maskalyk This is a deeply personal book for the author as he writes about his life as an emergency room doctor in Toronto, his humanitarian work in Ethiopia and his visits with his elderly grandfather in northern Alberta.  I really…

  • From My Bookshelf: The Institute

    From My Bookshelf: The Institute

    By Lynn Willoughby The Institute ~ Stephen King Another great tale from the weird and wonderful mind of Stephen King. “No one does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves.” This book involves children with special telepathic powers, who are kidnapped and taken to a secret, hidden facility…

  • From My Bookshelf: Starlight

    From My Bookshelf: Starlight

    By Lynn Willoughby Starlight ~ Richard Wagamese I have been a Wagamese fan since I read “Ragged Company”.  Then I read everything else he had written. Sadly, this will be his last book as he died on March 10, 2017 – just before he was able to complete the draft of this novel.  I believe this…

  • From My Bookshelf: Forgiveness

    From My Bookshelf: Forgiveness

    By Lynn Willoughby Forgiveness ~ Mark Sakamoto This Canadian author has hit all the right notes in this autobiographical memoir of three generations of his family. There truly are lessons in forgiveness for all of us. Ralph MacLean is from the Magdalene Islands. He is eighteen when he and his best friend, Deighton, enlist in the army…

  • From My Bookshelf: Watershed

    From My Bookshelf: Watershed

    By Lynn Willoughby Watershed ~ Mark Barr Money from Roosevelt’s New Deal Program meant building dams which would supply electricity to rural area. The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 transformed the lives of millions of Americans. This is a novel, based on facts, about a rural area of Tennessee, near Memphis in 1937.  It is the story…

  • From My Bookshelf: The North West is Our Mother

    From My Bookshelf: The North West is Our Mother

    By Lynn Willoughby The North West is Our Mother ~ Jean Teillet The Metis people of Canada are descended from both First Nations and Europeans. This is their story. It begins in the last decade of the eighteenth century in the Canadian Northwest. The history of the voyageurs, through the years of competition between The Hudson Bay…

  • From My Bookshelf: A House in the Sky

    From My Bookshelf: A House in the Sky

    A House in the Sky ~ Amanda Lindhout I put off reading this book for a long time.  While being held hostage for a huge ransom only because you are white, is never acceptable. I felt Lindhout had never taken responsibility for her conscious decision to travel to Somalia, a travel destination the Canadian government had…