Clingmans Dome , Higest Mountan in the Great Smokies, by Marci Spencer

Loved the book...descriptions of the rocks, trees, flowers, trails at the Dome..Made me want to go up and walk to the tower again...

The Paris Wife by Paula McClain

Ernest Heminway's first wife...Hadley Richardson.....novel based on fact...They lived an exciting life in Paris  with all the artists and authors of that period...Fitzgeralds...Sherwood Anderson..John Dos Passos...Gertrude Stein...to name a few...good read

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

all about Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah..the woman who left her husband and children for him fiction based on facts

The Racketer by John Grisham

I loved the first half of the book and hated the second half

Wild..from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed

I didn't know much about this trail that starts in California and goes through Oregon...Cheryl walked it by herself...meeting a very few people along the way..She carried a very heavy backpack and her feet hurt the whole way..But she persevered and got to the end of the trail. She ran out money when the boxes she mailed herself along the way were late and she was hungry and without food at times...She is a good writer and you feel that you are waking with her.

Dearie..the remarkable life of Julia Child, by Bob Spitz

it's a big thick book...rather intimidating at first glance so I read it like I read James Mitchners ALASKA...I started with the last chapter first and read it backwards. That way I didn't have to get bogged down in her grandparents and parents' history, I got right to Julia.  And a fascinating person she was...
She was a large person...over 6 feet tall , raised in beautiful Pasedena, California ,and always looking for adventure. She joined the foreign service where she met Paul, and they lived in several places,including Paris..."which to her was the most beautiful place on earth. "It was there that she discovered good food and learned how to cook.  That eventually led to her TV program which was the first cooking show.  I watched it on my black and white TV set. Now I watch her on public television and appreciate her even more.  I enjoyed the book....  

Silent Waters by Jan Coffey

An adventure in a nuclear submarine....The hijackers are taking it out to sea and  up the coast toward New York,  and the captain and a woman  submarine expert are locked in one of the rooms..My kind of book.....

Below Stairs by Margaret Powell

The classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir  that inspired Upstairs, Downstairs, and Dowtown Abbey
It's a true story of a maid who was born in 1907..She describes her life as a parlor maid, cooks helper, and finally s cook.   It's a way of life that is gone forever...

Last Train to Elkmont by Vic Weals

It's a history of the mountains when men were cutting timber and taking it out by train through Elkmont....A look at life on the Little River in the Great Smoky Mountains...Lots of old black and white pictures taken       in the early 1900's .

Bible

 I just read the Bible from cover to cover.  I read the New Testament first in the Phillips Modern English version.  Then I read the Old Testament in the Living Bible Paraphrased edition.  Both were easy to read in the modern English. The Old Testament was a surprise to me.  I expected it to be mild and sweet like the New Testament, but I discovered otherwise...I would read a book every morning at the breakfast table and then discuss it with JMB ( my bible expert). He has read the Bible over and over for many years.  Now I'll start again  with the New Testament....

Lilibet

Lilibet... the Intimate Portrait of Elizabeth II,  by Carolyn Erickson.     .Lots of books out right now about Elizabeth 11.  I liked this one. It portrays a highly spirited woman who loves her dogs and her horses and most of all her country .She doesn't see her children much when they are young....their grandmother keeps them....Phillip doesn't look good in this book...He isn't home much..he's out partying. 

The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper

I checked out this book because it mentions Knoxville as one of the places the author lived.  It's a biography of a girl growing up in Liberia.  She lived through Liberia's sad history as a child living in the wealthy class of the country then...Her life gets harder as the country changes.She comes to America and then goes back to Liberia years later....Sad...

Meigs Line by Dwight McCarter and Joe Kelly

I saw this book at the Sugarlands Visitor Center and I ordered it from the library...It's written by retired ranger McCarter and it describes journeys he and his friend made in the mountains to find the original boundary between the United States and the Cherokee Nation...The line went through the Smokies and into South Carolina and over the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The two men did not follow trails, they "shot" the historical line and walked through bushes and rhodendron hells and over bluffs and caves and through rivers...Reading the book is like taking a hike in the mountains....I loved it......

Smoky Mountain Magic by Horace Kephart

I saw this book at the Sugarlands Visitor Center...a book by Horace Kephart that I hadn't read, so I checked it out of the library.  It is fiction that he wrote in 1929, and his great  granddaughter inherited the manuscript .  She published it  with proceeds donated to Great Smoky Mountain National Park....It's about a man living in the mountains...semi-biographical.

Must Love Dogs by C...Cook

A funny little paperback I picked up at McKays...She is trying to find a husband in the lovelorn ads...

I just read Robin Cook's newest....Death Benefit...I like his books there  is always a lot of action and this one was good. 
The heroine is a beautiful med student named Pia who solves a mystery at Columbia Med School...

Dog On It

Spencer Quinn's first book about Bernie and Chet and the Little Detective Agency...A fun book to read

The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn

If you like dogs, you'l like this dectective story about Bernie and and his dog, Chet.  They solve the mytery of a lost boy from a summer camp overnight trip.  You get the dog's perspcetive as well as the humans.  It's humorus and a big adventure.  I enjoyed it...  

The Litigators by John Grisham

I was number 319 on the waitng list for this book and I finally got it last week.  It is John Grisham's laterst , and I think each book he does get better than the last one.  It's all about sleazy lawyers who chase amublances and barely make a living.  They finally got a big case about a medicine that killed their client and the book is all about the trial and things leading up to it..Lots of personal interest in the characters...I really really liked the book...Now I have to wait for him to write another one.....

A Walk for Sunshine by Jeff Alt

I read every book I can find about the Appalachian Trail since we walked more than 800 miles of it a few years ago. The first book that got me interested was Ed Garvey's..We even named our dog after him. Jeff Alt is a good writer and he covers the trail fast enough to keep the reader going with him.  I relived the miles to Skyland Drive, and discovered that the miles in Pennsylvania are rocky and in the White Mountains the trail is like a rock climb..Maine has many rivers to cross.  Mount Katahadin is a mountain climb.  The book is an enjoyable easy chair hike..