A Walk in the Woods

By Bill Bryson
Rated: ★★★★★

Since I want to be a Travel Writer when I grow up this is my favorite non-fiction author. I love his style and witty sense of humor and pithy observations.

In A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson tackles what is, for him, an entirely new subject: the American wilderness. Accompanied only by his old college buddy Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin. If nothing else, A Walk in the Woods is proof positive that the journey is the destination. As Bryson and Katz haul their out-of-shape, middle-aged butts over hill and dale, the reader is treated to both a very funny personal memoir and a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through.

65. Walking Home

by Goldreich, Gloria
Rated ★★★★

This was an accidental reread for me. I didn't realize tht I had read it before until I was about ten pages into it. Still I enjoyed it just as much this time as I did the first. It's very well written.

Rochelle Weiss's life is turned upside down when she learns both of her parents are dying of cancer. When she requests a leave of absence from her job is denied and when she states that she is determined to take the time to care for them she finds herself fired.

When both of her parents die within hours of each other Rochelle finds herself alone and almost entirely without funds. She takes over a friends dog walking clients and uses the time to reevaluate her life, her values and what kind of future she wants.

64. Love You Soldier

By Amy Hest
Rated ★★

This book was really just a short story as it was only 47 pages long and was written for very young readers. While I often enjoy children's books just as much as any other child, this was not one of them.

The story of a young girl in New York whose father is killed in WWII just never came together for me. It could have been very touching had the author had her act together when she wrote it.

63. Flower Confidential

By Amy Stewart
Rated: ★★★★

I checked this book out from the library because I liked "From the Ground Up" by this author so much. While I didn't like it quite as much I did find it fascinating. I certainly learned a lot about the flower business. Here is a blurb from the book jacket.

"For over a century hybridizers, geneticists, farmers, and florists around the world have worked to invent, manufacture, and sell flowers that are bigger, brighter, and sturdier than anything nature could provide. Almost any flower, in any color, is for sale at any time of year." "Amy Stewart travels the globe to take us inside this dazzling world. She tracks down scientists intent on developing the first genetically modified blue rose; an eccentric horticultural legend who created the world's most popular lily (the 'Star Gazer'); a breeder of gerberas of every color imaginable; and an Ecuadorean farmer growing exquisite, high-end organic roses that are the floral equivalent of a Tiffany diamond. She sees firstHand how flowers are grown and harvested on farms in Latin America, California, and Holland. (It isn't always pretty.)"--BOOK JACKET.