Alison Reads

A lyrical, poetic first novel about love and hate and magic, set in the steamy Texas swampland. A pregnant cat is dumped in the woods and makes her way to a shack where she makes friends with an old hound dog who is permanently chained to a post by his hateful master. The kittens are […]

One day the author, in his late 20s, realized that he had crushing bills and no way to pay them, plus he had gained more than 100 pounds since he graduated from college. So he decided to stop going to bars nightly and limit himself to $8 per week food budget and 800 calories per […]

Mibs Beaumont eagerly awaits her 13th birthday, when her “savvy” or magic talent will appear, as it has for every other member of her family. On her birthday, though, she hijacks a bus to get to her father who is gravely ill in the hospital, and a wild ride ensues. A rollicking fast read full […]

In Paris the homely concierge of a wealthy apartment building hides the fact that she is well-read and has sophisticated tastes. A precocious twelve-year-old girl in her building forms a bond with her, and they both are befriended by the new tenant, a very cultured Japanese man. The girl has decided to commit suicide on […]

Wow! Collins takes reality TV to the nth degree in this post-apocalyptic tale of a country ruled by an autocratic central government. Every year a lottery is held to select a boy and a girl from each of the 12 regional districts to battle to the death in an arena. All citizens must watch the […]

Twenty-five years after his best-selling Blue Highways, the author takes off again on the road less traveled, in a meandering search for “quoz” which is the word he coined for something unexpected and memorable, a special moment. From his home base in Missouri, he goes North, South, East and West. My favorite part is his […]

An autobiographical first novel by a Taiwanese-American, this book describes a year in elementary student Grace’s life as she moves between Chinese and American cultures. She is the only Asian student in her school until another Taiwanese girl arrives and the two quickly become best friends. I especially enjoyed the Christmas chapter, when Grace and […]

An unlikely best-seller, this is an account of the Puritan settlers in New England in the 1630s — not the Mayflower crew, but the founders of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which included John Winthrop and Ann Hutchinson and Roger Williams. Vowell has done an impressive amount of research and she tries to get inside 17th-century […]

Ben discovers in his senior year of high school that he has a terminal illness. He chooses to tell nobody and goes out for football for the first time. A wonderful book about a smart kid who learns to take risks and reach out to people, including a homeless drunk. Excellent; recommended for high school […]

Set at the Endinburgh International Festival and Fringe Festival which are held for three weeks each August, this book starts out slowly and it’s hard to keep all the characters in one’s head, but gradually the characters become real and by the end all the separate threads are tied together. I enjoyed learning about pyrotechnics […]