Welcome to MarshaReads.com. You will find a collection of short essays about books I’ve read starting in approximately spring 2016. Your comments are welcomed.
Read Books: How They Mattered to Me This Year for an update.
A note to my visitors: I remain behind in posting blogs for the books I’ve read. I find writing very invigorating but reading is even more seductive so it’s easy for me to fall behind. I intend to fill in the blogs I’ve missed. Keep visiting!
Since this list has grown substantially since I started this website, I provide two tables to help you find a particular book or a particular author.
Because I’m not an expert webmaster, I have the two tables on two pages to minimize your need to scroll seemingly endlessly.
This page has a table with the books aphabetized by title.
“Books by Title” has a table with the books aphabetized by author’s last name. If “The” or “An” is in the title, the second word is used for aphabetization (at least some of the time)
NOTE: I’ve decided to classify any book that was published >50 years ago as “Classic”. This is my personal definition. If we’re still reading a book published more than 50 years ago it must have something that continues to resonate with readers today and likely in the future. Good enough definition for me.
| Author Last Name | Author First Name | Title |
| Hanna-Jones | Nikole | 1619 Project |
| Penny | Louise | A Better Man |
| Miller, Jr | Walter | A Canticle for Lebowitz |
| Penny | Louise | A Fatal Grace |
| Towles | Amor | A Gentleman in Moscow |
| Penny | Louise | A Great Reckoning |
| Levin | Ira | A Kiss Before Dying |
| Smith | Patrick | A Land Remembered |
| Allende | Isabel | A Long Petal of the Sea |
| Penny | Louise | A Rule Against Murder |
| Hillerman | Tony | A Thief of Time |
| Haynes | Natalie | A Thousand Ships |
| Penny | Louise | A Trick of Light |
| Rum | Etaf | A Woman is No Man |
| Rum | Etaf | A Woman is No Man |
| Penny | Louise | A World of Curiosities |
| Wharton | Edith | Age of Innocence |
| Haruf | Kent | All Souls At Night |
| Penny | Louise | All the Devils are Here |
| Doerr | Anthony | All the Light We Cannot See |
| Stegner | Wallace | All the Little Live Things |
| McCarthy | Cormac | All the Pretty Horses |
| Quindlen | Anna | Alternate Side |
| Woodard | Colin | America Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America |
| Jones | Tayari | American Marriage, An |
| El Akkad | Omar | American War |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Among the Mad (6)* |
| Strout | Elizabeth | Amy and Isabelle |
| Cotterill | Colin | Anarchy and Old Dogs |
| Tolstoy | Leo | Anna Karenina |
| Montgomery | L. M. | Anne of Green Gables |
| Sophocles | Antigone | |
| Bachman | Fredrik | Anxious People |
| Wood | Monica | Any Bitter Thing |
| Strout | Elizabeth | Anything is Possible |
| Mahfouz | Naguig | Arabian Nights and Days |
| Halliday | Lisa | Asymmetry |
| Lewis | Sinclair | Babbitt |
| Sudbanthad | Pitchaya | Bangkok Wakes to Rain |
| Updike | John | Bech: A Book |
| Atkinson | Kate | Behind the Scenes at the Museum |
| Patchett | Ann | Bel Canto |
| Haurf | Kent | Benediction |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Birds of a Feather (2) * |
| Walker | Martin | Black Diamonds |
| Oates | Joyce Carol | Black Water |
| Didion | Joan | Blue Nights |
| Walker | Martin | Body in the Castle Well |
| Kid | Sue Monk | Book of Longing, The |
| Hood | Ann | Book That Matters Most, The |
| Marsha | Books: How They Mattered to Me This Year | |
| Huxley | Aldous | Brave New World |
| Brockmeier | Kevin | Brief History of the Dead, The |
| Walker | Martin | Bruno: Chief of Police |
| Walker | Martin | Bruno and the Carol Singers |
| Walker | Martin | Bruno’s Challenge and Other Stories |
| Strout | Elizabeth | Burgess Boys, The |
| Ishiguro | Kozuo | Buried Giant, The |
| Penny | Louis | Bury Your Dead |
| Charmock | Anne | Calculated Life, A |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Care and Management of Lies: A Novel of the Great War, The |
| Galbraith | Robert | Career of Evil |
| Atkinson | Kate | Case Histories |
| Wilkerson | Isabella | Caste |
| Vonnegut | Kurt | Cat’s Cradle |
| Heller | Joseph | Catch 22 |
| Hillerman | Anne | Cave of Bones |
| Walker | Martin | Caves of Perigold |
| Galloway | Steven | Cellist of Sarajevo, The |
| Russo | Richard | Chances Are… |
| Walker | Martin | Children Return, The |
| See | Lisa | China Dolls |
| See | Lisa | The Island of Sea Women |
| Black | Benjamin | Christine Falls |
| Davies | Carys | Clear |
| Tyler | Anne | Clock Dance |
| Walker | Martin | Coldest Case, The |
| Patchett | Ann | Commonwealth |
| Twain | Mark | Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court |
| Verghese | Abraham | Covenant of Water, The |
| Hillerman | Tony | Coyote Waits |
| Gaskell | Mrs (Elizabeth) | Cranford |
| Stegner | Wallace | Crossing to Safety |
| Walker | Martin | Crowded Grave, The |
| Cotterill | Colin | Curse of the Pogo Stick |
| Hillerman | Tony | Dance Hall of the Dead |
| Bradbury | Ray | Dandelion Wine |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Dangerous Place (11)*, A |
| Lui | Cixin | Dark Forest |
| Walker | Martin | Dark Vineyard, The |
| Hillerman | Tony | Dark Wind, The |
| Napolitano | Ann | Dear Edward |
| Munro | Alice | Dear Life |
| Leon | Donna | Death and Judgement |
| Leon | Donna | Death at LaFenice |
| Lui | Cixin | Death’s End |
| Kingsolver | Barbara | Demon Copperhead |
| Williams | Pip | Dictionary of Lost Words, The |
| Tyler | Anne | Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant |
| Cotterill | Colin | Disco for the Departed |
| Le Guin | Ursula | Dispossessed, The |
| Cotterill | Colin | Don’t Eat Me |
| Walsh | M. O. | Don’t Take My Sunshine |
| Walsh | M.O. | Don’t Take My Sunshine |
| Russell | Mary Doria | Dreamers of the Day |
| Tokarczuk | Olga | Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead |
| Patchett | Ann | Dutch House, The |
| Smiley | Jane | Early Alert |
| Westover | Tara | Educated |
| Black | Benjamin | Elegy for April |
| Windspear | Jacqueline | Elegy for Eddy (9)* |
| Wood | Monica | Ernie’s Ark |
| Jaswal | Balli Kaur | Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows |
| Haruf | Kent | Eventide |
| Russo | Richard | Everybody’s Fool |
| Rum | Etaf | Evil eye |
| Hamid | Moshin | Exit West |
| Hillerman | Tony | Fallen Man, The |
| Walker | Martin | Fatal Pursuit |
| Dark | Alice Elliott | Fellowship Point |
| Wolitzer | Meg | Female Persuassion |
| Hillerman | Tony | First Eagle, The |
| Groff | Lauren | Florida |
| Guskin | Sharon | Forgetting Time, The |
| Banks | Russell | Foregone |
| Keegan | Claire | Foster |
| Tyler | Anne | French Braid |
| Nunez | Sigrid | Friend, The |
| Contreras | Ingrid Rojas | Fruit of the Drunken Tree |
| Tripp | Dawn | Georgia |
| Howell | Georgiana | Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations |
| Hyeonseo | Lee | Girl with Seven Names, The |
| Zgheib | Yara | Girls at 17 Swan Street, The |
| Rao | Shobha | Girls Burn Brighter |
| Mandel | Emily St John | Glass Hotel, The |
| Penny | Louise | Glass Houses |
| Erpenbeck | Jenny | Go Went Gone |
| Smiley | Jane | Golden Age |
| Spufford | Francis | Golden Hill |
| Dickens | Charles | Great Expectations |
| Dweyer | Carol | Growth Mindset |
| Adichie | Chimanda Ngozi | Half of a Yellow Sun |
| O’Farrell | Maggie | Hamnet |
| Atwood | Margaret | Handmaid’s Tale |
| Atwood | Margaret | Heart Goes Last, The |
| McCullers | Carson | Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The |
| McBride | James | Heaven and Earth Grocery Store |
| Kelly | Jack | Heaven’s Ditch |
| Napolitano | Ann | Hello Beautiful |
| Shetterly | Margot | Hidden Figures |
| Vance | JD | Hilbilly Elegy |
| Shamsie | Kamila | Homefire |
| Lami | Laila | Hope and the Pursuit of Other Dangerous Things |
| Brooks | Geraldine | Horse |
| Urrea | Luis Alberto | House of Broken Angels |
| Warton | Edith | House of Mirth |
| Cisneros | Sandra | House on Mango Street, The |
| Ogawa | Yoko | Housekeeper and the Professor, The |
| Penny | Louise | How the Lights Get In |
| Wood | Monica | How to Read a Book |
| Marais | Bianca | Hum If You Don’t Know the Words |
| Kang | Han | Human Acts |
| Hillerman | Tony | Hunting Badger |
| Sklott | Rebecca | Immortal Life of Henrietta lacks, The |
| Cotterill | Colin | I Shot the Budha |
| Silber | Joan | Improvement |
| Capote | Truman | In Cold Blood |
| Kandel | Eric | In Search of Memory |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | In this grave hour |
| Godden | Rummer | In This House of Brede |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Incomplete Revenge (5) *, An |
| Desai | Kiran | Inheritance of Loss, The |
| Gailbrath | Robert | Ink Black Heart |
| Haruf | Kent | Introduction–Kent Haruf |
| Shorto | Russell | Island at the Center of the World |
| Berry | Wendall | Jaybar Crow |
| DeFoe | Daniel | Journal of the Plague Year |
| Windspear | Jacqueline | Journey to Munich (12)* |
| Grann | David | Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI |
| Ishiguro | Kauzo | Klara and the Sun |
| Penny | Louise | Kingdom of the Beast |
| Purnell | Sonia | Kingmaker |
| Lawrence | D.H. | Lady Chatterley’s Lover |
| Benedict | Marie | Lady Clementine |
| Austen | Jane | Lady Susan |
| Doig | Ivan | Last Bus to Wisdom |
| Goodwin | Doris Kearns | Leadership in Turbulent Times |
| Ko | Lisa | Leavers, The |
| Windspear | Jacqueline | Leaving Everything Most Loved (10)* |
| Geer | Andrew Sean | Less |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Lesson in Secrets (8)*, A |
| Garmus | Bonnie | Lessons in Chemistry |
| Vida | Vendela | Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name |
| Galbraith | Robert | Lethal White |
| Ulrich | Laurel Thatcher | Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary 1785-1812, The |
| Saunders | George | Lincoln in the Bardo |
| Hillerman | Tony | Listening Woman |
| Forman, Jr. | James | Locking Up Our Own |
| Mandel | Emily St John | Lola Quartet, The |
| Moore | Liz | Long Bright River |
| Lusisella | Valerie | Lost Children Archives |
| Cotterill | Colin | Love Songs from a Shallow Grave |
| Strout | Elizabeth | Lucy by the Sea |
| McEwan | Ian | Machines Like Me |
| Atwood | Margaret | Madd Addam |
| Lewis | Sinclair | Main Street |
| Joukhadar | Zeyn | Map of Salt and Stars, The |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Mapping of Love and Death (7)*, The |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Massie Dobbs (1) * |
| Groff | Lauren | Matrix |
| Ogawa | Yoko | Memory Police, The |
| Haugh | Jennifer | Mercy Street |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Messenger of Truth (4)* |
| Cain | James M. | Mildred Pierce |
| Quindlen | Anna | Miller’s Valley |
| Langer | Ellen | Mindfulness* |
| Dweck | Carol | Mindset: The New Psychology of Success |
| Watson | Brad | Miss Jane |
| Charles | Janet Skeslien | Mis Morgan’s Book Brigade |
| Modiano | Patrick | Missing Person |
| Wilke | Collin | Moonstone, The |
| Que Mai | Nguyen Phan | Mountains Sing, The |
| Hijuelos | Oscar | Mr. Ives’ Christmas |
| Macy | Caitlin | Mrs. |
| Nordhoff Hall | Charles James Norman | Mutiny on the Bounty |
| du Maurier | Daphne | My Cousin Rachel |
| Matar | Hisham | My Friends |
| Ben-Moshe | Danny | My Lost Family |
| Strout | Elizabeth | My Name is Lucy Barton |
| Choo | Yangsze | Night Tiger, The |
| Russo | Richardbb | Nobody’s Fool* |
| Toibin | Colm | Nora Webster |
| Gaskell | Elizabeth | North and South |
| Strout | Elizabeth | Oh William |
| Strout | Elizabeth | Olive Again! |
| Vuong | Ocean | On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous |
| Atkinson | Kate | One Good Turn |
| Quindlen | Anna | One True Thing |
| Welty | Eudora | Optimist’s Daughter, The |
| Atwood | Margaret | Oryx and Crake |
| Dinensen | Isak | Out of Africa |
| Powers | Richard | Overstory, The |
| Lee | Min Jin | Pachinko |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | Pardonable Lies (3) * |
| Walker | Martin | Patriarch, The |
| Patchett | Anne | Patron Saint of Liars, The |
| Enger | Leif | Peace Like a River |
| Hillerman | Tony | People of Darkness |
| Benedict Murray | Marie Victoria Christopher | Personal Librarian, The |
| Wilde | Oscar | Picture of Dorian Gray, The |
| Haruf | Kent | Plainsong |
| Doig | Ivan | Prairie Nocturne |
| Austen | Jane | Pride and Prejudice |
| Sparks | Muriel | Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The |
| Smiley | Jane | Private Lives |
| Kingsolver | Barbara | Prodigal Summer |
| Schnittman | Suzanne | Provocative Mothers and their Precocious Daughters |
| Hansberry | Lorraine | Raisin in the Sun |
| Maughman | W Somerset | Razor’s Edge, The |
| Ishiguro | Kazuo | Remains of the Day |
| Chevalier | Tracy | Remarkable Creatures |
| Stegner | Wallace | Remembering Laughter |
| Wright | Cameron | Rent Collector, The |
| Banks | Russell | Reserve, The |
| Walker | Martin | Resistance Man, The |
| DeFoe | Daniel | Robinson Crusoe |
| Hillerman | Anne | Rock with Wings |
| Larson | Kate Clifford | Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter |
| Patchett | Ann | Run |
| Galbraith | Robert | Running Grave, The |
| Hillerman | Anne | Sacred Bridge, The |
| Hillerman | Tony | Sacred Clowns |
| Orczy | Baroness | Scarlet Pimpernel, The |
| Brooks | Geraldine | Secret Chord, The |
| George | Alex | Setting Free the Kites |
| Hillerman | Tony | Shape Shifter |
| Zimmer | Carl | She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity |
| Yun | Jung | Shelter |
| Cotterill | Colon | Six and a Half Deadly Sins |
| Walker | Martin | Shooting at Chateau Rock |
| Ward | Jesmyn | Sing Unburied Sing |
| Hillerman | Tony | Sinister Pig, The |
| Westen | Jessica | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight |
| Hillerman | Tony | Skeleton Man |
| Hillerman | Tony | Skinwalkers |
| Cotterill | Colin | Slash and Burn |
| Brennan-Jobs | Lisa | Small Fry |
| Lang | James | Small Teaching |
| Keegan | Claire | Small Things Like These |
| Banville | John | Snow |
| Smiley | Jane | Some Luck |
| McDermott | Alice | Someone |
| Darznik | Jazmin | Song of a Captive Bird |
| Hillerman | Anne | Song of the Lion |
| Iweala | Uzodinma | Speak No Evil |
| Stegner | Wallace | Spectator Bird |
| Hillerman | Anne | Spider Woman’s Daughter |
| Horowitz | Tony | Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide |
| Hillerman | Anne | Stargazer |
| Mandel | Emily St John | Station Eleven |
| Penny | Louise | Still Life |
| Quindlen | Anna | Still Life with Bread Crumbs |
| McGhee | Heather | Sum of Us, The |
| Dawson | Evan | Summer in a Glass |
| Winspear | Jacueline | Sunlit Weapon, A |
| Chancellor | Bryn | Sycamore |
| Patchett | Ann | Taft |
| Hillerman | Anne | Tale Teller, The |
| Michener | James | Tales of the South Pacific |
| Hillerman | Tony | Talking God |
| Walker | Martin | A Taste for Vengeance |
| Strout | Elizabeth | Tell Me Everything |
| Walker | Martin | Templar’s Last Secret, The |
| Hardy | Thomas | Tess of d’Ubervilles |
| Friedman Mandelbaum | Thomas L Michael | That Used to be us: How America Fell Behind in the World it invented and how we can come back |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | The American Agent (12) |
| Walter | Jess | The Angel of Rome and Other Stories |
| Finkel | Michael | The Art Thief |
| Lefteri | Christy | The Beekeeper of Aleppo |
| Penny | Louise | The Beautiful Mystery |
| Hillerman | Tony | The Blessing Way |
| McBride | James | The Color of Water |
| Winspear | Jacqueline | The Consequences of Fear |
| Galbraith | Robert | The Cuckoo’s Calling |
| Cotterill | Colin | The Coroner’s Lunch |
| Penny | Louise | The Cruelest Month |
| Lui | Cixin | The 3 Body Problem |
| Penny | Louise | The Brutal Killing |
| Lui | Cixin | The Dark Forest |
| Cotterill | Colin | The Delightful Lif of a Suicide Pilot |
| Walker | Martin | The Devil’s Cave |
| Shaw | George Bernard | The Doctor’s Dilemma |
| Greene | Graham | The End of the Affair |
| Valdez Qunade | Kristin | The Five Wounds |
| O’Nan | Stewart | The Good Wife |
| Conroy | Pat | The Great Santini |
| See | Lisa | The Island of Sea Women |
| Towles | Amor | The Lincoln Highway |
| Penny | Louise | The Madness of Crowds |
| Cotterill | Colin | The Merry Misogynist |
| Haig | Matt | The Midnight Library |
| Lombardo | Claire | The Most Fun We Ever Had |
| Penny | Louise | The Nature of the Beast |
| Wood | Monica | The One in a Million Boy |
| Benedict and Murray | Marie and Victoria Christopher | The Personal Librarian |
| Cotterill | Colin | The Rat Catcher’s Olympics |
| Cotterill | Colin | The Second Biggest Nothing |
| Galbraith | Robert | The Silkworm |
| McTiernan | Dervla | The Sisters |
| Atwood | Margaret | The Testaments |
| O’Brien | Tim | The Things They Carried |
| Bennett | Brit | The Vanishing Half |
| Wood | Charlotte | The Weekend |
| Collins | Wilkie | The Woman in White |
| Cotterill | Colin | The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die |
| Hanna | Kristin | The Women |
| Orange | Tommy | There, There |
| Patchett | Anne | These Precious Days |
| Adichie | Chimamanda Ngozi | Thing Around Your Neck, The |
| Kahneman | Daniel | Thinking Fast and Slow |
| Cotterill | Colin | Thirty-Three Teeth |
| Frankel | Laurie | This Is How It Always is |
| Krueger | William Kent | This Tender Land |
| Haruf | Kent | Tie That Binds, The |
| Walker | Martin | To Kill a Troubadour |
| Patchett | Ann | Tom Lake |
| Zevin | Gabrielle | Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow |
| Shakespeare | William | Tragedy of Julius Caesar, The |
| Galbraith | Robert | Troubled Blood |
| Dana | Richard Henry | Two Years Before the Mast |
| Stowe | Harriet Beecher | Uncle Tom’s Cabin |
| Ullmann | Linn | Unquiet: A Novel |
| Kang | Han | Vegetarian, The |
| Hillerman | Tony | Wailing Wind |
| Appanah | Natacha | Waiting for Tomorrow |
| Gundar-Goshen | Ayelet | Waking Lions |
| Keegan | Claire | Walk the Blue Fields |
| Orange | Tommybb | Wandering Stars |
| Tolstoy | Leo | War and Peace |
| Woolfe | Virginia | Waves, The |
| Roberts | Cokie | We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters |
| Whitaker | Chris | We Begin at the End |
| Kadish | Rachel | Weight of Ink, The |
| Tompkins | Joanne | What Comes After |
| Kalanithi | Paul | When Breath Becomes Air |
| Wood | Monica | When We Were the Kennedys |
| Owens | Delia | Where the Crawdads Sing |
| Haruf | Kent | Where You Once Belonged |
| Anderson | Carol | White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide |
| Ranganath | Charan | Why We Remember |
| Toews | Miriam | Women Talking |
| Palacio | R.J. | Wonder |
| Coben | Harlan | Woods, The |
| Atwood | Margaret | Year of the Flood, The |
| Kuang | R.F. | Yellowface |
MarshaReads.com 