The Fabric of America, by Andro Linklater (on CD)

I have to say that I wouldn't have read this with my eyeballs, but listening to it was remarkably interesting. Not what I expected at all, but a completely different point of view of the expansion of America.

A House Reunited, by Professor Jay Winik (on CD)

Interesting information here, all of the events that occurred in the month of April 1865. I learned a great deal, for instance putting together the timing of Lee's surrender and the remainder of the Confederate Army's (or rather Armies') surrenders. And Lincoln's assassination, which happened less than a week after Appomattox.

The downside of this recording is that Winik has some of Tom Brokaw's more annoying speech difficulties, and talks too fast, misspeaks regularly, and repeats himself word-for-word over and over. Ugh.

The Gospel in Brief, by Leo Tolstoy

Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy became interested in 'freeing' the scripture from the layers of religiosity inside of which he felt the Orthodox Church had encased it. So he retranslated and paraphrased the gospels as he felt they should read. This was happening in the midst of the great German discourse on who the historical Jesus really was, so Tolstoy had lots of people to help him over the translation problems since I doubt he learned Biblical Greek and/or Hebrew.

Fascinating that whenever someone decides to do this sort of project, it ends up creating a clearer picture of the person doing it than it does of Jesus.

In any case, I read about 1/3 of the book and the copy I had turned out to be defective--50 missing pages--and I just never got back to it; I sort of feel like I got the gist of it.

Overland West (vol. 1), by Will Bagley

I started this, ambitiously, and only got about 25 pages in. I think I'll wait for volume 2 since by then he will start talking about Colorado. ;-)

OK, that's not fair, because he already was talking about Colorado. However, this may be one of those things that works better on Nook simply because I can read it for a long period of time and spend some time thinking about it and making notes to myself as I go.

Mountain Ice, by R. E. Derouin

One of the books I bought last summer while we were in Ouray, and another in the series starring David Dean as the owner of a B&B in Ouray. This one is about a 19th century diary and a guest who appears to be trying to escape from an abusive husband. When the husband dies, there's no shortage of suspects.

The Wilder Life, by Wendy McClure

The author was as much of a Laura fan as a child as I, but she says she grew out of it, only to rediscover the books soon after the death of her mother. She and her husband make the rounds of all the extant Laura houses on a journey to rediscover the 1880s and her childhood. Good book, a bit 'skimmy' but fun for Little House die-hards like me.

Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov

For some reason I had this down as a Must Read from some list or another. So very Russian. So very classic. I like it--maybe someday I'll see it performed.

At Home : a Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson

While I wasn't thrilled with the author's reading of the book, the writing itself was the usual in-depth research combined with wry humor. I may have to find this book and read it (with my eyes) as so many of the names he mentions didn't stick because I didn't see them.

In any case, following the floor plan of his home in England, Bryson explains why and how our houses work the way they do today, and what has changed over the course of history, specifically in the last 150 years or so.

Ouray, by Gail Zanett Saunders, Maria Jones and the Ouray County Historical Society

Found this in Ouray and read it quickly. There wasn't a whole lot here that was really news, but I did enjoy the photos, many of which were new to me. Made me rather homesick.

Breath and Bones, by Susann Cokal

Would make a good discussion novel.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs

Simply one of the best books about what it meant to be a slave girl in the first half of the 19th century.

Bought this at the Booker T. Washington Historic Site this summer.

Murder on the Leviathan, by Boris Akunin

This was a bit of a strange duck. It's a locked-room mystery set on a ship ("Death on the Nile" anyone?), although the crime happened in Paris weeks earlier. It is told from the viewpoints of each of the characters, chapter by chapter (including one by the person who ends up being "It"). It features a bumbling inspector from Paris who is smart, but not as smart as he thinks he is. It is set in the 1870s, although it feels more like it should be set in the pre-World War I era (1910s). And the person who actually figures it all out? A stuttering Russian man who is apparently quite attractive to women while being completely a cold fish on the page.

Still, the whole set-up is an interesting concept. I may have to look into more by Akunin. I'm curious is this was an unusual set-up or if each of the books in the series are similar.

Good characterizations, but a bit "between the wars"-ish for me. If you love Dame Agatha, you'll like this.