Alison Reads

Parallel stories of two boys abandoned by their fathers told in spare blank verse. One story is the biblical one of Ishmael and the other is about modernday Sam, whose father has a new wife and son. Both boys rely on their faith in God to help them adjust to their new status. A quick […]

The first part of a three-part history, part 1 covers 3000 BC to 1603 AD. A very readable (or listenable, as in my case) history of the island of Britain, including Scotland and Wales. Not just a history of kings and battles, but a social history as well. Recommended.

A 2005 anthology of time travel stories, some famous such as Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” and some less well known. My favorite was “Fire Watch” by Connie Willis, about a young man who as part of his graduate degree in history goes back to London during the Blitz to try to save St. […]

I selected this audiobook because a) it was available on cassette and b) it was read by Barbara Rosenblat, my favorite audiobook reader. Jemima Jones is a fat and unhappy London journalist who is in love with a colleague who sees her only as a friend. One day she gets fed up, joins a gym, […]

Sixth-grader Percy Jackson discovers that he is a demigod (father a Greek god, mother a mortal). He escapes several killers and arrives at Camp Half-Breed, where he is assigned a quest to find Zeus’s missing thunderbolt. He and two friends, a satyr and Athena’s daughter, go on a cross-country trip, dodging enemies and descending into […]

I first read this book in one marathon session the night it came out. I didn’t retain much of what I read, so I decided to listen to it in order to be ready for the next book. For the two people in the world who don’t know, this is the 6th of 7 Harry […]

Twelve-year-old Bethany’s world is turned upside down when one day her terrified parents drop her at her aunt’s house and disappear. She discovers that she looks just like the sister she never knew about who died 20 years before at the age of 13. Bethany has to figure out how she fits into a world […]

Twelve-year-old Jem and his family move to London from rural England and end up living next door to poet William Blake. A well-researched historical novel that evokes the sights (and smells) of eighteenth-century London. I didn’t like it as well as The Girl With a Pearl Earring, but it’s still worth reading. Not a children’s […]

I decided to reread this book because I first read it as a teenager and didn’t remember much about it. First written in 1960, it covers 1500 post-apocalyptic years during which the Abby of St. Leibowitz in New Mexico preserves books and civilization through the dark ages until civilization once again rises. The Catholic Church […]