Monthly Archives: August 2018

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

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Ken Kesey        Pages:    325       Published: 1962

The book: Randle Patrick McMurphy manages to get himself admitted to a mental hospital to serve out the last few months of his prison term, thinking the hospital will be a better option. Nurse Ratched runs the ward he is in like a dictatorship, where there are severe penalties for failure to follow her rules. McMurphy challenges Nurse Ratched, flouting her rules and leading many of the other patients astray. What started as a game turns into a deadly battle of wills. The story is narrated by a Native American, Chief Bromden, who has been a patient in the hospital for years.
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A Gentleman in Moscow

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Amor Towles     Pages: 462                 Published: 2016

The book: In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced, by a Bolshevik court, to house arrest in the Metrapol Hotel in Moscow.
The Count must now live in a small attic room, and confine his activities to the hotel. He forms unexpected friendships with both staff and guests. One particular friendship will impact his life emotionally more than the revolution itself.
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The Woman in White

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Wilkie Collins      Pages: 627      First published: 1860

The book: Walter Hartright, a drawing master, is walking back to London on a moonlit night when he encounters an unusual woman dressed all in white, to whom he provides assistance. It appears that perhaps she has escaped from an asylum.
Later that week he takes up a new post as drawing tutor to the beautiful Laura Fairlie at Limmeridge House. Laura is engaged to the apparently sinister Sir Percival Glyde.
There seems to be some sort of connection between the woman in white, Limmeridge House, and Sir Percival Glyde.
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A Sky the Color of Chaos

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M.J. Fiévre   Pages: 170   Published: 2015

The book: This is M.J. Fiévre’s memoir of growing up in Haiti during the rise and fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which was a violent time for the country.
While chaos reigns outside in the streets, inside Fiévre’s own home there are also tumultuous times, and her family tiptoes on eggshells around her father and his mood swings.
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The Madonnas of Leningrad

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Debra Dean     Pages: 228      Published: 2006

The book: Marina, an elderly Russian, lives in the USA with her husband. Her granddaughter is getting married. She is trying to live day to day but ordinary tasks become harder and harder as her mind seems to fail her. Life around her is confusing. Her past life in Russia sometimes seems more real than the present. But what exactly happened in the past? What is it that Marina is remembering?
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