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Don’s Year In Books

Don’s 2024 Year in Books

Take a look at Don’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

Go to Don’s 2024 Year in Books

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1,063 books | 432 friends

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167,008 books | 4,030 friends

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Don Trowden

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://www.dontrowden.com/

Genre

Fiction

Influences

Proust, Fitzgerald, Angelou, Baldwin, Ellison, Austen, Irving, Roth, W ...more

Member Since

April 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/dontrowden

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Don Trowden is the pen name for Caleb Mason's four novels. Caleb is also the author of the non-fiction book The Isles of Shoals Remembered and has a new novel titled Thickafog coming March 2025 (please visit his Caleb Mason Goodreads page).

The Normal Family Trilogy consists of Normal Family (2012), No One Ran to the Altar (2016), and All the Lies We Live (Feb 2018). Caleb also wrote The Isles of Shoals Remembered (1992), which gives a sense of what it was like to be one of the artists, musicians, and writers summering at America's first arts' salon, the precursor to the MacDowell Colony. Allen Lacy of The New York Times said: "provides a fascinating look at an important time in American arts."

Begin reading extensive free e-samples of my nov ...more

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Combine Editions
Don Trowden’s books

Average rating: 3.86 · 99 ratings · 37 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	Normal Family 3.75 avg rating — 57 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Young Again by Don Trowden (Goodreads Author), Valerie McKee 4.23 avg rating — 22 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	All the Lies We Live (3) (Normal Family Trilogy) 3.90 avg rating — 10 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No One Ran to the Altar 3.60 avg rating — 10 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

16 posts
Don Trowden's Blog

The What vs. The Who

When I founded Publerati ten years ago, one of my core guiding principles was to help The What regain lost power versus The Who. (I’m not talking about the British rock band.)

What do I mean by this? In our loud age of celebrity culture, reality television, and cable news, quietly excellent novels by unknown people have little hope of being published. Agents are looking for people with a large foll

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Don’s Recent Updates

Don Trowden liked Robin Price's review of Thickafog: "I love the remote setting of a small community on an island off the coast of Maine. Having lived on the coast myself I fully understand the huge variation between life during the winter, and the busy summer tourist season. The characterisation is part" Read more of this review »
Nov 18, 2025 03:03PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Thickafog by Caleb Mason. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Thickafog by Caleb Mason <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Don Trowden and 2 other people liked Kathy Church's review of Thickafog: "Wonderful This book is so good. I enjoyed the characters and how they interacted. I never saw this ending coming, but it was perfect!"
Nov 18, 2025 03:03PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Thickafog by Caleb Mason. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Thickafog by Caleb Mason <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Don Trowden wants to read The Last Renter: An Archer Island Thriller (The Archer Island Series Book 2) by Caleb Mason	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 16, 2025 11:39AM · like
Don Trowden made a comment on Shelley R. Sonnier’s review of Thickafog " Thank you! "
Nov 13, 2025 03:03PM · see review
Don Trowden liked Shelley R. Sonnier's review of Thickafog:
Nov 13, 2025 03:03PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Thickafog by Caleb Mason. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Thickafog by Caleb Mason <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Don Trowden liked Nancy Shaw's review of Thickafog: "Lots going on in this book. Small town, small island, and all that vines with knowing everyone. Two older people fall in love, not without much ado from family and the town. Does he love her or want her money? There’s drugs and drinking and ask bad t" Read more of this review »
Nov 08, 2025 05:27AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Thickafog by Caleb Mason. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Thickafog by Caleb Mason <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Don Trowden finished reading Thickafog by Caleb Mason	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 20, 2025 12:57AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Thickafog by Caleb Mason. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Thickafog by Caleb Mason <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Don Trowden rated a book it was amazing The Friend by Sigrid Nunez	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Such a great read with depth and filled with interesting tidbits about being a writer, a professor, and of course a dog owner. What do dogs know? Think? Feel? All housed within recovering from the loss of a loved one who kills himself and wondering w ...more
Sep 04, 2025 06:53AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Friend by Sigrid Nunez. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Friend by Sigrid Nunez <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Don Trowden is now following Susan Minot Author of Evening
Aug 31, 2025 09:31AM · like
Don Trowden rated a book it was amazing Don't Be a Stranger by Susan Minot (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It’s reassuring to me that fiction of this caliber, like a great jazz recording, can still find its way through the consolidated commercially-focused publishing world despite the fact it is more art than commerce. Congratulations to Knopf. Like a gre ...more
Aug 31, 2025 09:18AM · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Don't Be a Stranger by Susan Minot. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Don't Be a Stranger by Susan Minot <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Don Trowden (?)

“The past is the anchor that weighs us down.”
― Don Trowden

1 likes

“He preferred to burn his bridges before he got on them.”
― Don Trowden

0 likes

“Feeling downtrodden? Read Don Trowden.”
― Don Trowden

0 likes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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A Million More Pages: A (Reading) Life of Crime	88	162	Aug 01, 2022 09:38PM

Don’s Quotes

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
― Marcel Proust

tags: gratitude, happiness

5514 likes

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

tags: inspirational, music, philosophy

74289 likes

“One thing you who had secure or happy childhoods should understand about those of us who did not. We who control our feelings, who avoid conflicts at all costs, or seem to seek them. Who are hypersensitive, self-critical, compulsive, workaholic, and above all survivors. We are not that way from perversity, and we cannot just relax and let it go. We’ve learned to cope in ways you never had to.”
― Piers Anthony

158 likes

“The past is the anchor that weighs us down.”
― Don Trowden

1 likes

“He preferred to burn his bridges before he got on them.”
― Don Trowden

0 likes

More of Don’s quotes…