false 40 227 186 true 5652684 read 2 true 2008517 currently-reading 39 true 2008516 to-read 40 false 2772742 historical-fiction 27 false 2767240 web-design 25 false 2008523 fiction 19 false 2776088 scotland 19 false 2808101 history 17 false 2772745 biography 14 false 5128187 nonfiction 13 false 2008519 business 10 false 2808113 body-and-mind 9 false 2767189 scottish-historical-fiction 8 false 2780738 books-by-wise-women 7 false 6695316 nom-nom-nom http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72976931 Elmer Gantry (Hardcover) by Sinclair Lewis
bookshelves: currently-reading, fiction
I'd forgotten how utterly repulsed one feels reading this novel. My only consolation is that I'm now an ocean away from the setting, rather than the middle of it. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77959318 HELP! A Bear is Eating Me! (Paperback) by Mykle Hansen
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58831525 Veronica's review of The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway

Thanks for the warning - I keep seeing this book in so many stores that I almost felt obliged to pick it up. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72976889 to: Chasing Angels (Paperback) by Meg Henderson
bookshelves: scotland
This was a lovely novel about a girl named Kathy from Glasgow's East End, a heroine who, for many reasons, was right after my own heart. Usually the very words "Glasgow East End" hint at some sort of mawkish victim-lit story, but this tale about how Kathy starts a new life afresh in the place she feels she was really meant to have been born in is anything but.

Although this was a one-night read without literary asperations, I found quite a few parallels to the magnificent The Welsh Girl. Both novels are a tribute to the extraordinary lengths women go to in silence to preserve their families and protect their children because the menfolk are either drunk, stupid, or delusional fantasists. And to Kathy, the place where the most cowardly men hide isn't drink or money. It's religion, as demonstrated by the family's sadistic Priest as well as her estranged brother.

Like the Welsh Girl, Kathy must start afresh on her own because every value the world is supposed to uphold about religion, love, responsibility, and family has been made a mockery of within the walls of that East End tenement. Is this a feminist novel? Aye it is, and Kathy'll take the teeth oot of abody who says otherwise. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17399321 to: Elizabeth I, CEO: Strategic Lessons from the Leader Who Built an Empire (Hardcover) by Alan Axelrod
bookshelves: business, currently-reading
Back on my "currently reading" shelf for my annual re-read.

What would Elizabeth do?

Think in terms of military strategy, cause a little trouble, keep an energetic team close at hand, and know how to work a room. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72888097 Heather's review of Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel

Thanks for the tip, Veronica. I absolutely loved [Joseph Knight, which dealt with the same subject, as painful as it was to read at times. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77024057 Sacred Hunger (Paperback) by Barry Unsworth
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74157064 to: CLYDE BUILT: The Blockade Runners and Cruisers of the American Civil War (Hardcover) by Eric Graham
bookshelves: scotland
This well researched account of Glasgow's role in supporting the Confederacy is unintentionally funny. You can actually picture a fuming American consul stomping from quay to quay screaming at a Weegie shipyard owner, who is insisting in a perfectly sincere voice that the massive ironclad boats under construction (at 26 different shipyards...) are perfectly legitimate shipping vessels. Which may just happen to go to Charleston. Via Bermuda. Only Glasgow.

The political chapters (Glesga was pure crawlin' wi spies!) are much more entertaining than the 'weekend enthusiast' parts about tonnage and engine capacity this and keel that. Although I'm sure a certain part of the readership would say just the opposite.

Three stars for a few errors in dates of various US history events (who me pedantic?) ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76562638 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts (Paperback) by Barbee Davis
bookshelves: business, to-read
Received a glowing review from Web Worker Daily. ]]>