Welcome to The Occasional Reader.  My name is Marc Rubin and I live in Monroe Ohio.  I am a curious reader.  History, science, novels - all I ask is that the writer open my eyes to a new idea, experience, frame of reference.  One section of my bookshelf is devoted to books that caught my attention and held me to the very end. 

I decided to start this blog as an homage to a Time Life book club that I joined 30 years ago.  Not the usual Time Life book club, built around a how-to theme with a new picture book every other month.  This was a "trust us" book club with no theme at all.  Every two months, two books arrived in the mail.  Books that were the personal favorites of someone who worked at Time Life Books.  Different types of books every time - and almost always books that I had never heard of (but should have).  It was fun and some of my favorite books came from that series.

So, if you stick with me, I'll pull a book off of my curiosity shelf every week and tell you about it.  You can post comments back.  If you know the book, weigh in.  If you don't know it, but it reminds you of another book, please post a review - I'm always looking for something to read.

Thanks for stopping in - I hope you stick around and enjoy the trip.

- Marc