Mary Whipple
Mary Whipple worked for many years as an English teacher and International Student Advisor at a Massachusetts college, where she worked to promote international understanding and bridge the gaps between American culture and other cultures from around the world. She is a Top 10 Reviewer on Amazon.com who also has contributed to www.desijournal.com, a web site for Indian-Americans in the United States. Her interest in authors from other cultures is broad, and many of her reviews reflect that interest. Mary has recently gathered together all her reviews… and adding more every week… at her own site: Seeing the World Through Books.
Mary has reviewed the following for MostlyFiction.com:
2009 (Top Picks)
- Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz (12-28-09)
- Fly By Wire: The Geese, The Glide, The Miracle on the Hudson by William Langewiesch (11-10-09)
- Box 21 by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström (10-16-09)
- The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly (10-13-09)
- Blood Safari by Deon Meyer (10-3-09)
- Twisted Tree by Kent Meyers (9-24-09)
- The Age of Orphans by Laleh Khadivi (9-20-09)
- The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville (9-7-09)
- Child’s Play by Carmen Posada (9-2-09)
- The Siege by Stephen White (8-23-09)
- Galahad at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse (8-11-09)
- Morning and Evening Talk by Naguib Mahfouz (8-7-09)
- The House without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (8-3-09)
- House Secrets by Michael Lawson (7-19-09)
- The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (7-16-09)
- A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert (7-9-09)
- Censoring An Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour (6-17-09)
- The Downhill Lie by Carl Hiaasen (6-8-09)
- Wonderful World by Javier Calvo (5-31-09)
- Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith (5-27-09)
- Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead (5-23-09)
- Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards by Robert Boswell (5-17-09)
- Nobody Move by Denis Johnson (5-10-09)
- Wanting by Richard Flanagan (5-5-09)
- All the Living by C. E. Morgan (4-29-09)
- The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels (4-21-09)
- Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz (4-19-09)
- My Michael by Amos Oz (4-19-09)
- Darling Jim by Christian Moerk (4-11-09)
- Out of My Skin by John Haskell (3-31-09)
- The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer (3-27-09)
- The Accordionist’s Son by Bernardo Atxaga (3-18-09)
- Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear (3-9-09)
- First Execution by Domenico Starnone (3-4-09)
- The Women by T.C. Boyle (2-24-09)
- August by Gerard Woodward (2-17-09)
- Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck (2-17-09)
- Fool by Christopher Moore (2-09-09)
- Esther’s Inheritance by Sándor Márai (2-7-09)
- Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith & Jere Smith (1-30-09)
- A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (1-22-09)
- Rumpole Misbehaves by John Mortimer (1-16-09)
- Tokyo Fiancée by Amelie Nothomb (1-14-09)
- The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent (1-9-09)
- Land of Marvels by Barry Unsworth (1-4-09)
2008
- Karnak Cafe by Naguib Mahfouz (12-29-08)
- The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (12-26-08)
- Friendly Fire by A. B. Yehoshua (12-22-08)
- Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous (12-19-08)
- The Enchantress of Florence by Salmon Rushdie (12-17-08)
- Indignation by Philip Roth (12-7-08)
- Widows of Eastwick by John Updike (12-7-08)
- Rancid Pansies by James Hamilton-Paterson (11-25-08)
- A Mercy by Toni Morrison (11-11-08)
- Sea of Poppies by Amitov Ghosh (10-22-08)
- When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (9-27-08)
- The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (9-18-08)
- Man in the Dark by Paul Auster (8-29-08)
- A Manuscript of Ashes by Antonio Munoz Molina (8-23-08)
- The People of Privilege Hill by Jane Gardam (8-14-08)
- A Curious Earth by Gerard Woodward (8-07-08)
- Secrets of the Sea by Nicholas Shakespeare (8-2-08)
- Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva (7-23-08)
- The Legal Limit by Martin Clark (7-13-08)
- Swan Peak by James Lee Burke (7-9-08)
- Four Days in November by Vincent Bugliosi (7-4-08)
- Little Criminals by Gene Kerrigan (7-1-08)
- The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III (6-21-08)
- Death Rites by Alicia Giméz-Bartlett (6-15-08)
- Breath by Tim Winton (6-9-08)
- Sorry by Gail Jones (6-2-08)
- The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer (5-30-08)
- Exiles by Ron Hansen (5-19-08)
- The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (5-11-08)
- The Blue Door by David Fulmer (5-5-08)
- Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (4-29-08)
- The Lost Luggage Porter by Andrew Martin (4-22-08)
- The Descendents by Kaui Hart Hemmings (3-19-08)
- Lush Life by Richard Price (3-24-08)
- God’s Spy by Juan Gómez-Jurado (3-14-08)
- The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black (3-4-08)
- Between Two Seas by Carmen Abate (2-28-08)
- The Konkans by Tony D’Souza (2-19-08)
- Captivity by Debbie Lee Wesselmann (2-8-08)
- Wise Children by Angela Carter (2-5-08)
- Red Moon Rising by Matthew Brzezinski (1-21-08)
- Saturday’s Child by Ray Banks (1-11-08)
- Salt River by James Sallis (1-6-08)
- Born Standing Up by Steve Martin (1-1-08)
2007
- The Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (12-26-07)
- Bethlehem Road Murder by Batya Gur (12-19-07)
- Death of a Murderer by Rupert Thomson (12-15-07)
- The Unforeseen by Christian Oster (12-7-07)
- Broken Colors by Michele Zackheim (11-27-07)
- On Kingdom Mountain by Howard Frank Mosher (11-23-07)
- The Girl on Via Flaminia by Alfred Hayes (11-17-07)
- The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg (11-17-07)
- Work Shirts for Madmen by George Singleton (11-12-07)
- Engleby by Sebastian Faulks (11-7-07)
- The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa (11-3-07)
- The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam (10-27-07)
- Grub by Elise Blackwell (10-21-07)
- Tomorrow by Graham Swift (10-14-07)
- Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital (10-8-07)
- A Season of Fire and Ice by Lloyd Zimpel (10-6-07)
- Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday (9-30-07)
- I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabil (9-26-07)
- Lions at the Lamb House by Edwin M. Yoder (09-19-07)
- The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (9-14-07)
- Turing’s Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldan (08-13-07)
- The Tortoises by Veza Canetti (08-8-07)
- Prime Time Suspect by Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett (7-26-07)
- Written Lives by Javier Marias (07-23-07)
- Facing the Bridge by Yoko Tawada (7-9-07)
- Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino (06-28-07)
- The Midnight Choir by Gene Kerrigan (6-16-07)
- Sudoku books reviewed (6-12-07)
- Matters of Honor by Louis Begley (6-5-07)
- The Husband by Dean Koontz (5-27-07)
- This Human Season by Louise Dean (05-17-07)
- The New Woman by Jon Hassler (05-13-07)
- Death Comes for the Fat Man by Reginald Hill (5-3-07)
- How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman (04-23-07)
- Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle (04-16-07)
- The Palestinian Lover by Sélim Nassib (04-12-07)
- Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (4-03-07)
- Unnatural History of Cypress Parish by Elise Blackwell (03-20-07)
- Margherita Dolce Vita by Stefano Benni (02-28-07)
- The Hill Road by Patrick O’Keeffe (02-19-07)
- When the Devil Holds a Candle by Karin Fossum (2-5-07)
- He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum (2-5-07)
- The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth (01-28-07)
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (01-22-07)
- Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante (01-17-07)
- One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (01-08-07)
- Breakable You by Brian Morton (01-05-07)
2006
- A Woman in Jerusalem by A. B. Yehoshua (12-28-06)
- Angel and Apostle by Deborah Noyes (11-16-06)
- Old Filth by Jane Gardam (11-16-06)
- 54 by Wu Ming (11-16-06)
- Restless by William Boyd (11-16-06)
- Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear (11-16-06)
- Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear (11-16-06)
- Golden Country by Jennifer Gilmore (9-30-06)
- The Emporer’s Children by Claire Messud (9-30-06)
- Cellophane by Marie Arana (9-30-06)
- Drive by James Sallis (9-30-06)
- Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey (8-26-06)
- Wolves of Memory by Bill James (8-26-06)
- It’s Getting Later All the Time by Antonio Tabucchi (8-26-06)
- The Shoe Tester of Frankfort by William Genazino (8-26-06)
- A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (6-4-06)
- Mohr by Frederick Reuss (6-4-06)
- Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas (6-4-06)
- Departure Lounge by Chad Taylor (6-4-06)
- Explorers of the New Century by Magnus Mills (6-4-06)
- Embracing Family by Nobuio Kojima (5-1-06)
- Cripple Creek by James Sallis (5-1-06)
- Aftermath by Brian Shawver (5-1-06)
- Rainaldi Quartet by Paul Adam (5-1-06)
- Where the Truth Lies by Rupert Holmes (5-1-06)
- The Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow (5-1-06)
- If You Could See Me Now by Michael Mewshaw (5-1-06)
- The Best Light Recipe by Cook’s Illustrated (5-1-06)
- The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright (3-20-06)
- Passion by Jude Morgan (3-22-06)
- House of Many Gods by Kiana Davenport (3-22-06)
- The House of Paper by Carlos Maria Dominguez (3-22-06)
- The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder (3-22-06)
- The Sea by John Banville (1-29-06)
- The Conjurer’s Bird by Martin Davies (1-29-06)
- The Tyrant’s Novel by Thomas Keneally (1-29-06)
- Kinshu: Autumn Brocade by Teru Miyamoto (1-29-06)
- Gotz and Meyer by David Albahari (1-29-06)
- Comrades in Miami by Jose Latour (1-29-06)
2005
- The Work of Wolves by Kent Meyers (12-12-05)
- The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (12-12-05)
- Ash and Bone by John Harvey (12-12-05)
- Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Song by John Crowley (12-12-05)
- Florida by Christine Schutt (12-12-05)
- A Zoo in My Luggage by Gerald Durrell (12-12-05)
- The March by E. L. Doctorow (10-30-05)
- Joplin’s Ghost by Tananarive Due (10-30-05)
- The Matter of Desire by Edmundo Paz Soldán (06-12-05)
- Half Broken Things by Morag Joss (10-30-05)
- The Ghost Writer by John Harwood (10-30-05)
- The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich (10-30-05)
- Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie (10-30-05)
- The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyemi (9-5-05)
- The Swimmer by Zsuzsa Bank (9-5-05)
- Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah (9-5-05)
- No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (9-5-05)
- Dead at Daybreak by Deon Meyer (9-5-05)
- Dark Harbor by David Hosp (9-5-05)
- A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin (7-15-05)
- The Optimists by Andrew Miller (7-15-05)
- Natives and Exotics by Jane Alison (7-15-05)
- Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo (7-15-05)
- The Dragon Scroll by I.J. Parker (7-15-05)
- In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith (06-12-05)
- Alibi by Joseph Kanon (06-12-05)
- Borges and the Eternal Orangutans by Luis Fernando Verissimo (06-12-05)
- The History of Love by Nicole Kraus (06-12-05)
- The Portrait by Iain Pears (06-12-05)
- Mobita’s Tattoos by Mira Kamdar (06-12-05)
- Paris Trout by Pete Dexter (06-12-05)
- Lighthousekeeping by Jeannette Winterson (05-07-05)
- Small Island by Andrea Levy (05-07-05)
- Rebels of Babylon by Owen Parry (05-07-05)
- Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland (05-07-05)
- Altered Light by Jens Christian Grondahl (05-07-05)
- Death in Danzig by Stefan Chwin (3-27-05)
- Saturday by Ian McEwan (3-27-05)
- April Fool’s Day by Josip Novakovich (3-27-05)
- War Trash by Ha Jin (3-27-05)
- The Staggerford Murders by Jon Hassler (3-27-05)
- Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva (3-27-05)
- Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (2-17-05)
- Valley of Bones by Michael Gruber (2-17-05)
- Scream Queens of the Dead Sea by Gilad Elbom (2-17-05)
- Casanova in Bolzano by Sandor Marai (2-17-05)
- Kreutzer Sonata by Margriet de Moor (2-17-05)
- The Red and the Green by Iris Murdoch (1-22-05)
- Big Breasts & Wide Hips by Mo Yan (1-16-05)
- The Persistence of Memory by Tony Eprile (1-16-05)
- Hedwig and Berti by Frieda Arkin (1-16-05)
- The Snow Fox by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer (1-10-05)
2004
- The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore (12-19-04)
- East Side Story by Louis Auchincloss (12-19-04)
- The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble (12-19-04)
- The Double by Jose Saramago (12-19-04)
- The Story of My Baldness by Marek vand de Jagt (11-7-04)
- A Window Across the River by Brian Morton (11-7-04)
- The Queen of the South by Arturo Perez Reverte (11-7-04)
- Lovers of Algeria by Anouar Benmalek (11-7-04)
- A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz (11-7-04)
- Snowleg by Nicholas Shakespeare (10-12-04)
- The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M.G. Vassanji (10-12-04)
- Bitch Creek by William Tapply (10-12-04)
- Boyos by Richard Marinick (10-12-04)
- The Love Wife by Gish Jen (10-12-04)
- Heir to a Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick (09-16-04)
- Havoc, in Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett (09-16-04)
- Snow by Orhan Pamuk (09-16-04)
- The Master by Colm Toibin (09-16-04)
- Pyro by Earl Emerson (09-16-04)
- Waiting for Teddy Williams by Howard Frank Mosher (08-22-04)
- The Ptolemies by Duncan Sprott (08-22-04)
- Strange But True by John Searles (08-22-04)
- The London Pigeon Wars by Patrick Neate (08-22-04)
- A Son of War by Melvyn Bragg (08-22-04)
- The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa (08-22-04)
- The Madman’s Tale by John Katzenbach (07-24-04)
- The Shunra and the Schmetterling by Yoel Hoffman (07-24-04)
- You Have to Be Careful in the Home of the Free by James Kelman (07-24-04)
- One Last Look by Susanna Moore (07-24-04)
- The Last Day of the War by Judith Claire Mitchell (07-10-04)
- No Ordinary Matter by Jenny McPhee (07-03-04)
- Siege of Salt Cove by Anthony Weller (07-03-04)
- The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson (07-03-04)
- Q by Luther Blissett (07-03-04)
- Shadow of Death by William G. Tapply (07-03-04)
- Transmission by Hari Kunzru (06-01-04)
- Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell (06-01-04)
- Brother and Sister by Joanna Trollope (06-01-04)
- The Enemy by Lee Child (06-01-04)
- Waiting for an Angel by Helon Habila (06-01-04)
- Plain Heathen Mischief by Martin Clark (05-15-04)
- The Half Brother by Lars Christensen (05-15-04)
- Eventide by Kent Haruf (05-15-04)
- Some Great Thing by Colin McAdam (05-15-04)
- The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon Carlos Ruiz (05-15-04)
- The Madonna of Excelsior by Zakes Mda (04-23-04)
- Links by Naruddin Farah (04-23-04)
- The Hell Screen by I. J. Parker (04-23-04)
- The Heartsnatcher by Boris Vian (04-04-04)
- Fanny by Edmund White (04-04-04)
- A Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva (04-04-04)
- Priestly Sins by Andrew M. Greeley (04-04-04)
- The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe (03-09-04)
- Aloft by Chang-rae Lee (3-9-04)
- The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner by Giles Waterfield (2-22-04)
- Havana World Series by Jose Latour (2-22-04)
- Bold Sons of Erin by Owen Parry (2-22-04)
- The Cutting Room by Laurence Klavan (2-22-04)
- The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares (1-25-04)
- Shipwreck by Louis Begly (1-25-04)
- Call Me the Breeze by Patrick McCabe (1-11-04)
- The Calligrapher by Edward Docx (1-11-04)
- Moloka’i by Alan Brennert (1-11-04)
- Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke (1-11-04)
2003
- Garbo Laughs by Elizabeth Hay (11-30-03)
- A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche (11-30-03)
- Old School by Tobias Wolff (11-30-03)
- War Torn by John Marks (11-30-03)
- Walking into the Night by Olaf Olafsson (11-11-03)
- The Scarlet Letters b y Louis Auchincloss (11-11-03)
- That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx (11-1-03)
- Deafening by Frances Itani (10-21-03)
- Winner of the National Book Award by Jincy Willett (10-21-03)
- The Fox’s Walk by Annabel Davis-Goff (10-21-03)
- Train by Pete Dexter (10-05-03)
- Harvard Yard by William Martin 10-05-03)
- I Was Howard Hughes by Steven Carter (9-24-03)
- The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem (9-7-03)
- Brick Lane by Monica Ali (9-7-03)
- Orchard by Larry Watson (9-7-03)
- Secret Father by James Carroll (8-30-03)
- Crabwalk by Gunter Grass (8-24-03)
- Screwball by David Ferrell (8-23-03)
- The Bielsky Brothers by Peter Duffy (8-22-03)
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (8-3-03)
- Native Dancer by John Eisenberg (8-3-03)
- Due Preparation for the Plague by Janette Turner Hospital (8-3-03)
- The Point of Return by Siddhartha Deb (7-8-03)
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (6-30-03)
- The Genius of the Sea by Naeem Murr (6-30-03)
- Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore (6-18-03)
- The Lamplighter by Anthony O’Neill (6-18-03)
- Hunger by Elise Blackwell (6-18-03)
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (5-28-03)
- Teammates by David Halberstam (5-28-03)
- When Boston Won the World Series by Bob Ryan (5-28-03)
- Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor (5-13-03)
- Flash House by Aimee Liu (5-13-03)
- Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde (4-20-03)
- Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (4-20-03)
- Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux (4-20-03)
- Shroud by John Banville (3-31-03)
- Clara by Janice Galloway (3-31-03)
- Solomon Time by Will Randall (3-31-03)
- Office of Innocence by Thomas Keneally (03-16-03)
- Samurai William by Giles Milton (03-16-03)
- The Voyage of Destiny by Robert Nye (03-16-03)
- The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa (03-16-03)
- The Commissariat of Enlightenment by Ken Kalfus (03-03-03)
- Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King (03-03-03)
- Wintering: A Novel of Slyvia Plath by Kate Moses (2-22-03)
- Troubles by J. G. Farrell (2-10-03)
- Plundering Paradise by Michael D’Orso (2-10-03)
- Any Human Heart by William Boyd (2-10-03)
- Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz (2-1-03)
- Martin Sloane by Michael Redhill (1-29-03)
- Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove (1-29-03)
- The Fall by Simon Mawer (1-20-03)
- Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon (1-20-03)
- Atonement by Ian McEwan (1-20-03)
- Dancer by Colum McCann (1-9-03)
- The Justification of Johann Gutenberg by Blake Morrison (1-9-03)
- The Resurrectionists by Michael Collins (1-2-03)
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