Books Read 2010

[Isgrimnur]

I just told my girlfriend that I had no need to remember how to convert from C to F in the temperature scale. The internet can reember for me. However, she actually need so know this stuff. I am certain what she needs to know is best, even if the future will lead to the most expedient solution.

C * 1.8 + 32 = F

The intercept of temperature lines is at -40 degrees.

All pulled from memory, no Google required.

[Jeff V]

I just told my girlfriend that I had no need to remember how to convert from C to F in the temperature scale. The internet can reember for me. However, she actually need so know this stuff. I am certain what she needs to know is best, even if the future will lead to the most expedient solution.

C * 1.8 + 32 = F

The intercept of temperature lines is at -40 degrees.

All pulled from memory, no Google required.

Just you wait...some day, those brain cells will become filled with beer too.

[Jeff V]

Understanding the Fundamentals of Classical Music by Richard Freedman

This series of lectures on Classical Music is part of The Modern Scholar group of audio courses. Each chapter focuses on a musical form or style, or illustrates several common, related themes. Audiobooks work best for this sort of instruction -- snippets of music illustrating the points made reinforce the what was just learned in the lecture.

Unfortunately, the subject is quite vast, and each 20 minute or so lecture really doesn't do much beyond scratching the surface. One or two examples often aren't enough to get a firm grasp on the technical nuances between related styles. Freeman isn't the most engaging speaker, either,

I guess I would really like to see a series like this done by Bill McGlaughlin of Exploring Music fame. Not only does he do a better job finding illustrations, but his conversational tone is a little more conducive to learning often obscure minutiae. That he gets 5 hours a week instead of just 20 minutes helps too.

[Jeff V]

Heaven or Heresy a History of the Inquisition by Thomas Madden

Another audio course in The Modern Scholar series, History of the Inquisition is third series I've done this year. In terms of content, it was the most interesting of the three. While we all think of the Inquisition as Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition; the origins, considered the Medieval Inquisition, and the Roman Inquisition operated much differently in form and function. Professor Madden does a good job explaining the myth of the Inquisition compared with its reality -- a pious populace often welcomed the assistance of an Inquisitor, whose expressed purpose was to ensure the people were on a righteous path following the tenants of the church as determined by the authorities (the pope and his cronies).

The myths aren't completely without basis in fact. The Spanish Inquisition killed thousands, many of them Jews who converted to Christianity in an earlier, ill-conceived pogrom led by King Ferdinand (Christopher Columbus' sponsor). Unfortunately for the converts, Jews in general were immune to the attentions of the Inquisitors.

Madden wraps up with a discussion of how the Inquisition is portrayed in literature and now movies. This is a very thorough investigation on a rather narrow subject, and content-wise it is done very well. Unfortunately, Professor Madden is not a particularly talented speaker -- there are a lot of awkward pauses, "umms" and "ahhs"; and many moments where he clearly lost track of his point and attempted to recover by restating the previous statement. It was very much like listening to a poor public speaker.

So far, the series is 1/3 on speakers, 2/3 on content, and 3/3 on overall value.

[Chaosraven]

Ok, just finished Feast for Crows... Where's that fifth book?

[JonathanStrange]

Heh.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Kill Zone and Dead Shot by Jack Coughlin and Donald A Davis (2 separate novels by same team).

Gunnery Sgt Jack Coughlin, USMC (Ret) is *the* sniper of the Iraqi war, 72 confirmed kills. His autobiography "Shooter" was very good read. He will tell you he hit the target in the head or chest. With Don Davis, he went into fiction, and it's interesting.

In "Kill Zone", an American general was kidnapped in Saudi Arabia by terrorists... but who snatched him were... Americans. Gunnery Sgt Kyle Swanson, top Marine sniper, was ordered to join a rescue of the general. When the rescue attempt went kaput, and Gunny Swanson was the sole survivor, he quickly realized they were set up to fail, and someone VERY high up is a traitor. But will he survive and accomplish his mission?

In "Dead Shot", the Iraqi sniper known as "Juba" shot down an Iraqi scientist in the middle of Green Zone. He's out to protect an Iraqi secret... "Palace of Death", where the WMDs were hidden. And when Juba unleashed a WMD attack on the crowd attending Royal wedding in England, using the weapons from Palace of Death, the world panicked. Task Force Trident, composed of Kyle Swanson, legally dead and off the books, and an elite team of marines, vows to hunt down Juba. But where is Juba heading next with the next set of WMDs, and when the snipers finally find each other, who will come out the winner?

I would say "Kill Zone" is a better book overall. It has that "maniac out to take over the world" feel and "lone hero against impossible odds" feel. I can almost write a script from it. Dead Shot has this unfinished feel, the ending is a bit contrived, and as you can guess, there will be a next round.

[WPD]

I haven't updated my list in a while, but finished a book last night that I would recommend to most people (except Zarathud): The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

A book written about a modern world where magic is possible, most people just don't know it, with references to Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and LOTR.

[Scuzz]

Martin Gilbert ............The First World War......


I read this because I had recently read Dreadnought and had to continue the story. This is a good history of the war. It contains interesting names and stories. It follows people who become bigger names in WW2 as well.

However at 540 pages it seemed rather short and many events which seemed to merit more didn't get it. You got names and casualty lists but their seems a general lack of reasoning or strategy.

I would have liked more.


3.5 of 5 stars

[WarPig]

I haven't posted in this thread yet, but due to this post, I felt the need to go read 1632 by Eric Flint. I enjoyed it so much I read 1633, the book of short stories also available for free on the Baen free library, and bought (used, of course) the 1634 books (currently reading 1634: The Galileo Affair) and 1635. The dose of "history lesson" is more subtly inserted in the first book, I think, and since then I feel as if I've been clubbed over the head with it. Still, when I get going on a series, I don't like to quit.

I also caught up with all of the Sookie Stackhouse books (for all the True Blood fans out there) by Charlaine Harris. Sorry if this is messing up the format of the thread, I just wanna be a part of it!

[Scuzz]

The Third Omnibus of the Black Company Series by Glen Cook.................

Bleak Seasons and She is the Darkness.




I did enjoy the books but I think these books really slow down the series. The narrator changes and the thrust of the story changes. There is still action, still good and bad characters but there is a "dream" theme that goes thru them that gets old after awhile. Hopefully it leads to more than it has so far. She is the Darkness ended well and hopefully will lead to more and better...

I still recommend it, assuming you have read the preceeding books, but not as much..

2.5 out of 5

[Bad Demographic]

stuff

I'm glad you're enjoying Eric Flint's 1632 series. I've read quite a few of the books in the series. I've noticed I like the books by Flint the best. There are a couple of other writers I enjoy (though not as much) and some I don't care for. The short story collections are best for figuring this out.

I'm also happy you're enjoying the Sookie Stackhouse series. I started reading these some years ago (well before the TV show) and got a few other people hooked on them - notably my husband, Chris Gwinn and Bill Harris. I'm now about 2 books behind in the series, A Touch of Dead (collection of short storie) and the latest ... Dead in the Family ? I don't like buying hardcovers so I'm currently putting myself on the library reservation list. Of course, I've neglected to get on the list for these two books - possibly because at one point I was something like number 690 something for Lee Child's "61". Those request lists get pretty long.

Another couple of books you might consider trying are John Steakley's "Armor" and John Scalzi's "Old Man's War". And if, for some strange reason, you haven't read any of Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books, I recommend them, too. For those, you should probably start with "Warrior's Apprentice". Good stuff!

[Isgrimnur]

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection

Novels
A Study In Scarlet
The Sign of the Four
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Valley of Fear

Short Story Collections
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
His Last Bow
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Well, that took me a while, but it was nine books in one volume, so I'll count them that way. The stories were definitely interesting and kept me reading. Obviously, some of the basic elements of the stories have been done to death in modern culture and Scooby Doo episodes such that I was able to recognize where the story was going beforehand, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the material. I can certainly say that I wouldn't have enjoyed them nearly as much if I had read them in HS as so many people seem to do.

Next up, I have The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900 on the Kindle and, in the effort to get back into reading actual paper books, I have The War Lovers : Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Rmpire, 1898 out from the local library.

[silverjon]

I'm currently reading a collection of Sherlock Holmes pastiches edited by John Joseph Adams. It's pretty good, but I think Mr. Adams has begun to stretch himself too thin with the incessant book production. I'm not finding the more recent collections he's put together to be nearly of the high caliber of his first few, and the backs of the books keep promising more and more.

[WarPig]

stuff

Good stuff!

Thanks for the recommendations!

[Jeff V]

Star Beast by Robert Heinlein

Before his "dirty old man" phase, Robert Heinlein went through a "kiddie lit" phase, of which the best-known book was the propagandist Starship Troopers. Star Beast, first published in 1954, is the stuff of "ABC After School Specials."

The family pet of an adolescent boy happens to be an articulated, many-legged creature about the size of a bus. When a rottweiler annoys him (her?), he simply eats it. Originally brought home by Johnny's grandfather on an early interstellar expedition, Lummox is the only creature of it's kind on earth. The problem is, Lummox came down with a case of wanderlust, and left home for a neighbor excursion that caused all sorts of, well, minor destruction.

The problem is, the neighborhood gets up in arms, and wants the creature declared a menace and destroyed. There is one little hitch that attracts the attention of a government xeno-relations agency -- Lummox can speak rudimentary English. However, at a trial that decides his fate, a teenage girl is allowed to represent him; an interest in law being her sole qualification.

It turns out that Lummox is more than is realized, even by Johnny and his would-be attorney. Had the local buffoons had their way, Lummox would have been dead, followed shortly afterward by the rest of the planet. But of course, we are given a sappy happy ending.

It made me pine for pervert Heinlein whose happy ending would have a totally different meaning.

Hitch 22 - A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens wrote one of my favorite books of the decade: God Is Not Great: How Religion Ruins Everything. Culled from first-hand experience in many of the world's hot-spots and conversation with some of the movers and shakers of the past four decades, the book was filled with remarkable insight from someone who's career was largely as a socialist activist and journalist, until abandoning that cause fairly recently. Knowing a little of the places he's been and who he knew, I was excited to hear about this autobiography when he appeared on The Daily Show.

Now I look forward to a biography written by someone else.

While the book did include a lot of what I hoped to read, it seemed to drag more than it should because some people and places that Hitchens credits as being influential in his life simply weren't all that compelling to me -- especially when he goes on and on about poets and authors I've never read. Perhaps I should read some of what was referenced...and then maybe I'll better appreciate this memoir. But the fact is, it was a slow, arduous read, and it was with much perseverance that I made it to the end.

I still find him to be a fascinating individual, I just think his story will be better told by someone else.

[Scuzz]

1959..The Year Everything Changed.....by Fred Kaplan



A very interesting book that chronicles events and people from 1959 that brought change to the world. The book has Norman Mailer, Margaret Sanger, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Fidel Castro, Kruschev and Kennedy, the guy who invented the microchip......and many more.

It covers technology, music, literature, the space race, the pill and others.

A good read.

4 of 5

[Isgrimnur]

The War Lovers : Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898

This book tackles the events leading up to and through the attack on San Juan Hill mainly from the standpoints of Roosevelt, Lodge, and Hearst, and gives asides to House Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed and William James. While Reed is actually present and working against the war drumbeat in the government, James has little if anything to do with the other men personally and is used as a stand-in for the ivory tower intellectuals struggling against the rising tide of warmongering present.

This book is not overly dependent on the political aspects of the fight, but is more attuned to the personal history and motivations of the main men. You see their flaws as well as their strenghts. The rest of the war and remaining lives of the pricipals are almost afterthoughts to this tale, but is beyond the scope that the author lays out from the beginning. We take the story from their childhood exposures to the Civil War and finish up with Roosevelt's son on the beaches of Normandy.

All in all, an enjoyable read, but certainly not a definitive history from either a political or military perspective. I would recommend this almost as a primer for the time frame and the characters involved if the reader is interested. It reads quickly and will let you know if you have any further interest in pursuing more readings on the subjects.

[Carpet_pissr]

Shit My Dad Says

Freaking. Hilarious.

One of the only books I have bought from the Kindle library to read on my iPhone (and still kind of pissed that the Kindle version is MORE than the hardcopy?! WTF) Still, very much worth it for the guffawing I did. Probably added a few days to my lifespan because of that book.

Some favorite quotes:

"You worry too much. Eat some bacon . . . What? No, I got no idea if it'll make you feel better, I just made too much bacon."

"Snausages? I've been eating dog treats? Why the fuck would you put them on the counter where the rest of the food is? Fuck it, they're delicious. I will not be shamed by this."

"I'm gonna put a handful of condoms in the glove compartment of the car. . . . I don't give a shit if you don't want to talk about this with me, I don't want to talk about this with you, either. You think I want you screwing in my car? No. But I'd much less rather have to pay for a kid you make because there ain't condoms in there."

[JonathanStrange]

1959..The Year Everything Changed.....by Fred Kaplan



A very interesting book that chronicles events and people from 1959 that brought change to the world. The book has Norman Mailer, Margaret Sanger, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Fidel Castro, Kruschev and Kennedy, the guy who invented the microchip......and many more.

It covers technology, music, literature, the space race, the pill and others.

A good read.

4 of 5

I should get that for my father - he was born that year. Either this book or Sh*t My Dad Says.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished "The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace" by Aaron David Miller.

The guy's a career analyst specializing in Middle East and has served under SIX different secretaries of state, over 20 years as analyst, diplomat, and negotiator , all the way up to Condi Rice. He offers an inside look into the issues and forces at play that few people get to see. What I gathered from the book:

* Arafat is a genuine little p****. He doesn't really WANT peace, because it'd put him out of business. The longer the whole thing dragged on, the more he will hold onto power.

* Which is why Bush Jr. and Condi Rice came along, and 9/11 happened, they tossed PLO aside, and insist on negotiating with a different group of Palestinians. PLO and Hamas were denounced as terrorist organizations,

* The Israeli Knesset system, which works by creating coalitions, gives tremendous power to the little parties needed for the crucial 'swing votes', which severely complicates their foreign policy

* Israel will go their own way and defy US policy if it felt it is in their interest to do so. They will weigh the longer-term consequences of that defiance, but they will do what is needed for their sake, not ours.

* The "effect" of the "Jewish Lobby" in the US depends on who you talk to. An Arab or Arab-supporter / sympathizer will say Congress is controlled by Jews, and everybody else pretty much says not so, but nobody knows exactly. The answer will also depend on present circumstances.

* A lot of pro-Israeli support in the US are from the religious right, God's chosen people and all that.

* three biggest American contributors to the peace negotiations? Kissinger, Baker, and Carter.

* You can't have peace in the area without the local big countries (Egypt and Syria) helping the issues. King Jordan was nice enough to help, but Jordan wasn't the leader of the area, so his help is not *THAT* helpful.

* First Gulf War was both a blessing and a curse. Saddam Hussein was defeated, and anybody who was sitting on the fence, such as Jordan, was severely embarrassed on the world stage and eager to kiss and make up with the US. Arafat, who had publicly supported Saddam Hussein and did not speak out against invasion of Kuwait, was basically pariahed, which really p***ed him off, so any subsequent negotiations was basically f***ed because Arafat refuse to play if he can't look good.

Nice book. I may have to re-read it one day.

[Carpet_pissr]

Would be interesting to see how his opinion compares with Richard Haas' in "War of Necessity, War of Choice", also a good read with insight into the inner workings of foreign policy.

Linky: http://www.amazon.com/War-Necessity-Cho ... -1-catcorr

[Bad Demographic]

It's been a while since I said anything about books I've read, so I suppose I should try to catch up.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
A year or two ago I read Mieville's The Scar and it was pretty good. Takes place not too long after the events in "Perdido Street Station". Somehow, though, "The Scar" was just not fully engaging. "Perdido Street Station" engaged me right from the start. I really liked the characters and cared about what happened to them.
Mieville's writing is very dense and quite dark. His are not books that I can slam through (compare with Harry Potter books which I can read in about 2-3 days). I would guess it took me over a month to get through "Perdido Street Station" and I did read some other books during that time. I also did the bad thing of skipping ahead. Often this results in my never fully reading a book - after all, I know how things end so why bother? I'm glad, though, that I fully read through "Perdido Street Station" even after skipping ahead. The main character, Isaac Grimnebulin, makes some hard choices that I initially found dissatisfying, but the important thing was his struggle with those choices. That redeemed his character for me.
I won't try to assign a rating, but I'm really glad I read this book. If you're looking for some serious fantasy (steam punk) fiction that's not an epic tale of saving the world, and you can cope with dark, dense writing (most of you seem quite able), I would recommend it.

Agent to the Stars, Judge Sn Goes Golfing, The Android's Dream, The Last Colony, Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi.
Old Man's War is a book that ChrisGwinn lent me and I must have really liked it (I did!) because now I've read pretty much all of Scalzi's fiction. I'm even sort of reading a collection of entries from his blog (Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded). I liked all the books in the "Old Man's War" series ("Old Man's War", "The Ghost Brigades", "The Last Colony", "Zoe's Tale") but the first was best. Good adventure, interesting and fun characters.
Everything I liked about the "Old Man's War" series is present is "The Android's Dream" but presented in a lighter fashion. I thought the central concept - that an alien race would destroy the Earth if we didn't deliver a sheep of the special breed 'Android's Dream' for their coronation, and that the only surviving member of that breed is primarily human - was pretty funny. I felt Scalzi successfully mixed elements that reminded me of Love Boat, the Ender's Game book that follows Speaker for the Dead, any movie that involves a shoot-out in a shopping mall, and Scalzi's own People Who Come Up With Interesting Ideas. As a bonus, the reader briefly encounters Judge Sn who is the central character of
Judge Sn Goes Golfing, a chapter-long story about the irascible (and alien) Judge Sn engaging in his favorite Earth pastime of golf. Funny and kind of weird, it's probably good that the story is only a chapter long.
I think I read that Agent to the Stars was Scalzi's first book (first written, perhaps not first published) and it shows. Pretty good but I'd only recommend it to people who can't get enough Scalzi.

Moving Pictures and Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett.
I really like Terry Pratchett's books, some more than others. "Moving Pictures" was good but was similar enough to "Soul Music" that I wouldn't recommend it to anybody I wanted to get hooked on Pratchett ("Night Watch" is what really go me into Pratchett). I liked "Equal Rites" quite a bit, possibly because I could empathize with Esk's frustrations. But Granny Weatherwax was the character I really liked so now I'll have to find out if there are any other books featuring her.
I really like Terry Pratchett. These are not his best, but "Equal Rights" rates pretty high with me.

Of course, since everybody has different tastes, ymmv.

[Jeff V]

The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss

Tired of the 8-5 routine? Do you feel a twinge of jealousy when you encounter those with more freedom than you seem to have? Are you an entrepreneur whose business world revolves around you and you think it will all come crashing down without you? This book really does have something for about everyone.

A lot of what Ferriss suggests seems really only practical for those owning their own business, but corporate drones can benefit too. Before I even started reading the book, I accomplished one of the fundamental tenets of the book: I obtained permission to work two weeks from the Philippines. Ferriss does a great job covering a lot of "how-to"; he doesn't merely make vague suggestions that require further investigation and follow-up; he cites specific tools and websites and describes out to effectively use them to do anything from working remotely (and preferably with minimal disruption from the office) to traveling on the cheap -- but living well in the process. Ferriss even takes children into account: after all, the goal is to do your life's work and live a good life, and not waiting for retirement before embarking on the latter.

While I seem to have a good start at leveraging this book to my advantage, I'll be looking for opportunities to make use of additional concepts listed both here and on Ferriss' website. Even if your ambition doesn't include world travel, the organizational tips will work well at just improving your domestic life. Unless you really want your grave stone to read "he worked hard for long hours," there is something in this book that can help improve your life.

[Jaymann]

I do all my work in four hours a week. The rest is just padding.

[Jeff V]

I do all my work in four hours a week. The rest is just padding.

The trick, then, is to do it from where you want and that want not be the office.

Ferriss actually advocates manipulating the system so that your performance appears better outside of the office rather than in.

[silverjon]

I read and liked that book. Been trying to convince D to implement some of the strategies to leverage eventual permission to remote work from my home more often. We'll see....

[Pyperkub]

Books Read in 2010:

U is for Undertow - Sue Grafton (meh - she's writing out the string I think)
The Black Company - Glen Cook
Shadows Linger - Glen Cook
The White Rose - Glen Cook
Shadow Games - Glen Cook
Dreams of Steel - Glen Cook
The Silver Spike - Glen Cook
Nine Dragons - Michael Connelly
Up in the Air - Walter Kirn (very different from the movie)
Bleak Seasons - Glenn Cook
She is the Darkness - Glenn Cook
Water Sleeps - Glenn Cook
Soldiers Live - Glenn Cook

For the black company books, I was kept interested throughout, but I felt after the first 3 books, it fell off. I'm not sure if that's because Croaker/the Narrators became too involved in strategizing or what. Maybe I just liked the idea of them fighting for the wrong side and then making it right, with vast things unknown and only hinted at. I also think the whole Deceivers/Khadi plot took too long to resolve, maybe the latter books needed to be more concise.

The Burning City - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

I remember some of the great books by Niven & Pournelle. This isn't one of them. They've dropped off since they had to write the sequel to A Mote in God's eye. Of course, I'm subjecting myself to the sequel since I got them both from the library. This one's set in the "The Magic Goes Away" universe, but didn't have much of the creativity of that book.

Burning Tower - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

Better than the Burning City, with a decent story involving the Aztec gods in the Southwest. Ultimately, these two novels are more like a travelogue of Niven & Pournelle in the Magic Goes Away universe. Fun, but not really memorable. They did leave room for a third.

Songs for a Teenage Nomad - Kim Culbertson

A friend of mine's first published book. An interesting tale of a teen girl who's been moved from town to town and stepfather to stepfather who lands in a town in CA and finds out why. A 'young adult book' with many echoes of Catcher in the Rye, and it's won some Young Adult fiction awards.

Baseball's Great Experiment (Jackie Robinson and his legacy) - Jules Tygiel

A look at segregation and integration in baseball. How baseball first ended up segregated, how Branch Rickey saw the future and orchestrated the beginnings of integration, how and why Jackie Robinson was chosen and what his experiences were like, and the story of those who followed Jackie. A very interesting look at baseball and america in the post war, jim crow era, and the struggle to integrate. I was surprised at the specifics of the experience under Jim Crow in different locales, as well as the exacerbating effect Brown v. Board of Education had.

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

I enjoyed this much more than American Gods. I think it's the Kipling-esque 'Just-so-Stories' feel to this tale, rather than the oppressive feel of 'gods'.

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

Yeah, I've been on a bit of a Neil Gaiman kick this summer. Of the three, I think that the Graveyard book is the best. I think I've figured out what bugs me about his characters - he has a tough time giving them a soul. My hypothesis is that it has to do with his background in graphic novels, in that he relied on the artists to really bring out the characters that his words sketched out - I'm basing this more on the movies from his books Coraline and Stardust, as it seems to me that the movies have been better, because the characters get a better definition than the more spartan ones he creates in his novels. It also accounts for me liking Anansi Boys and the Graveyard Book more, as he kind of patterned his storytelling after Kipling - and it gave his characters a certain archetypal quality.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson
The Girl who played with Fire - Steig Larsson
The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest - Steig Larsson

A fun group of page turners. Enjoyed thoroughly.

The Pawn (Patrick Bowers Chronicles) - Stephen James

A freebie from the Kindle store, this is a fun FBI thriller. Engaged me enough to buy the 2nd book in the series.

Bump for the catchup

[lildrgn]

Finished The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbø. Absolutely loved it. It's a crime thriller set in Norway featuring an alcoholic detective named Harry Hole. Good news is that there are about 6-7 Harry Hole books. Bad news is they're hard to come by. If you're a Connelly/Bosch or Larssen fan, you'll probably dig Harry Hole.

[Jeff V]

Metal Swarm by Kevin J. Anderson

You might say this series has really grown on me, perhaps like a cheap beer after the 10th or 12th can. The unlikely coincidence of events are leading to more wars -- and it's hard to identify two factions that have not been at war sometime in the course of this series events. Despite its title, Metal Swarm wasn't about the rise of the evil robots -- in fact, they are rather on the decline. The Klickiss, a race of giant insects, has come back from presumed extinction to reclaim all of their former worlds. Worlds that several novels earlier were the targets of a new human colonization initiative. Ooops.

The Earth's Hansa's chairman is getting nuttier by the day, and is now pretty much an incarnate of Stalin. His minions are even becoming conflicted with the magnitude of the orders being issued -- and one actually has the wherewithal to do something about it. But if internal strife and giant bugs aren't enough of a threat, the Faeros, a race of fire elementals that live in suns, have gone on the offensive under the direction of a mad, outcast Ildiran usurper who had started a civil war a few books back.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

This is the follow-up to Pollan's excellent The Omnivore's Dilemma. In Defense of Food is about identifying real food, and adjusting your diet accordingly. By identifying food, Pollan isn't talking about the packaged goods lining your supermarket shelves and freezer cases. He's talking about more fundamental basics: fruits, vegetables, grass-fed beef: in other words, the kind of items our ancestors would have immediately recognized as food. And this, Pollan believes, is important because the more processed our diet is becoming, the less healthy we are as result. Incidents of Type-2 diabetes and heart disease in particular have been on a dramatic rise in recent decades and show no sign of abating. Paradoxically, over the same period, we have generally become even more obsessed with our health. The verdict? The things that food companies are pushing upon us as food (and, thanks to a strong lobby, with government encouragement and approval) are killing us.

Pollan tells us why. The mystical world of vitamins and nutrition is still pretty much a mystery. Most vitamin supplements among the vast array found at the supermarket are worthless. The unique combination of chemicals and fiber that aid absorption when eating real food is lost when vitamins are isolated and introduced in other forms. While you might be ingesting a recommended quantity of, say, vitamin B-6, your body isn't using it, so in the end, you are still deficient even if though you've religiously taken your supplements. Additives in various kinds of processed food even go as far as to counteract the nutrition that might be contained in uncompromised ingredients.

Pollan also brings up how some of the demonized foods: fats in particular, seem to have no detrimental effect in some cultures that have a culinary legacy, such as France, Italy and Greece. Among the things he preaches throughout is the need to eat less, and eat slower. Add to that, don't eat alone. And a glass or two of wine with meals isn't so bad either. Other advice is buy foods your ancestors would recognize as food. Don't buy anything with more than 5 ingredients, or ingredients you can't identify. I would have liked to see him include some sample meal plans like he did in The Omnivore's Dilemma -- not that it needed it for substance, but it would have nicely illustrated his points and give readers an exact point of reference to begin their journey into "real food."

[Zarathud]

I haven't updated my list in a while, but finished a book last night that I would recommend to most people (except Zarathud): The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

A book written about a modern world where magic is possible, most people just don't know it, with references to Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and LOTR.

I've read The Magicians at my wife's suggestion and would also recommend it. Although sometimes you'll want to smack the protagonist Quentin upside his stupid little head (at the end, with a baseball bat).

I'm nearing the end of Paul Kearney's Monarchies of God series. While the world building is sometimes a little flat, the pacing is excellent because he doesn't get caught up in details. Most of all, his key characters (male) are rich and compelling. It's in the same genre as Game of Thrones, but less dark and less convoluted.

The Western world is threatened by an invading Eastern horde that sacks the Holy Seat. In the face of its loss, the Bishops in the Church seek to consolidate their political power. At the same time, the equivalent of the old Empire decides to re-engage the world by lending its crack military troops as mercenaries. The younger kings recognize the Church's threat to their power and resist. One of these kings tries to save at least some of the magickal folk in his kingdom from the inquisition by sending them out as colonists. Terrible things happen that will shape the world.

[silverjon]

This book, Show Me How, is enormously fun, and also an enormous time-suck.
http://epl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/ ... how_me_how" target="_blank

It isn't really a cover-to-cover read, but something to pick up and flip through, and then wonder what happened to the last half hour.

I've already learned quite a lot. It's not really anything you can't get off the internet if you need to know something specific. The beauty of it is all the things you never knew you should know, but that become essential once you see them, and the excellent design and illustrations.

[Jeff V]

The Philippines by Wendy McElroy

Part of a series on political hotspots around the world, this brief history of the Philippines (narrated by Harry Reasoner) summarizes the early origins from tribal Malays as well as more than 400 years of Spanish occupation, which not only united the islands as a nation, but also turned it into the seat of Catholicism in the far east. During the Spanish-American War, The Philippines were taken with the help of rebels opposed to the Spanish regime. They had hoped for independence, but the US was determined to exercise their Imperialistic muscle, and decided to keep them as a base of Asian operations. This led to further unrest -- and, well, I'm somewhat surprised they've forgiven us for our bad behavior around the turn of the century. Our soldiers and military commanders had a tendency to act poorly, although future president William Howard Taft, governor of the Philippines for a while, tried to encourage cooperation between the two peoples.

The Philippines contributed a regiment to the US war effort during WW1. It was famously the site of an early-war invasion by Japan, driving US forces under Douglas MacArthur off the islands, but the general vowed to return -- an action he made good on several years later, landing on the island of Leyte (which, incidentally, was also the site of the largest naval battle in history). By WW2, the Philippines were already on the road to self-government, and joining MacArthur was their defacto president, Manuel Quezon.

The remaining chapters chronicle the rise of the popular yet terribly corrupt Ferdinand Marcos, and his partner in crime, wife Imelda, and the assassination of popular senator and political challenger Benigno Aquino, Jr. It was Aquino's wife, Corazon, who over threw the Marcos regime to become the first-ever female head of state in an Asian country.

On one hand, the Philippines are a young country as far as independent rule goes -- and the US occupation has provided the greatest impact on the history leading to the nation's development. I would have like to have seen a little more information on the years of Spanish rule, since that had a great impact on culture and even language. I do love ancient history, and I would have liked a little more info on the tribal history, what is known, anyway. The audio presentation was very good, although some of the accents seemed a little contrived.

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

Stephen Hawking is an iconic figure in theoretical physics, and I'm rather convinced the reason he beats the odds and has stayed alive this long is because of his determination to finally create a unified theory that explains the physical and natural universe. Leonard Mlodinow is a best-selling author who most recently explained the fascinating world of probability in his book, The Drunkard's Walk.

I've tried to read Hawking before, but I've never quite connected with him. While he appears to be patiently trying to explain some pretty heady theories in layman's terms, he always seems to not quite get there. And physics just isn't one of my specialties. Mlodinow did a fine job speaking my language, so there was hope....

Alas, it just didn't quite come together. The "M-Theory", Hawking's proposal for a "theory of everything" is complex and is an amalgamation of multiple theories, not all which are equally well explained. In particular is trying to envision dimensions beyond the three that most impact our daily lives, and the incredible number of simultaneous universes the theory allows. He tries to explain how the big-bang occurred; how something from nothing COULD occur, but I'll be damned if I could relate this to someone else--especially a non-physicist type, perhaps a religious type who most needs to understand what is probably a convincing argument (Hawking does take a secular approach across the board).

Perhaps the best parts of the book dealt with the history of theories dealing with the natural universe, including such luminaries as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Newton, Einstein, Hubble, and Feynman. The color illustrations are nice, although some times I didn't quite get the point of the illustration. I'm pretty sure at some point, an author is going to make the concepts herein more accessible to people like me. I'll be first in line to buy it when they do.

What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman was quite the character in the world of 20th century physics. A graduate of Cornell, he won a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics. His career included development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos; and late in life, he was on the investigative committee determining the cause of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. It was his work on that committee that comprises the bulk of this book, which is comprised of memoirs, some written shortly before his death by cancer in 1988.

Other parts of the book tell us more about Feynman as a person. He married his first wife, knowing she had incurable tuberculosis, and never was able to even kiss her. He talks some about adventures taken with his second wife, including visiting a remote inn in Japan where he had to convince the family that ran it to allow them to stay. Such stories help show us that Feynman lived a good life -- he was more than just a dedicated scientist and engineer.

His investigation and report of the Challenger disaster was the most prominent portion of the book. In the course of the investigation, he finds politically-motivated negligence, but also gives kudos to the engineers who tried to warn of problems prior to the launch. The most telling statistic was the administrators pinned the chance of catastrophe at 1/100,000; while the data presented by the engineers was at a more reasonable 1/100. Better still, the book was well-written in layman's terms; even when Feynman spoke of material properties, he did so in a manner understandable by all.

[Kasey Chang]

Why People Believe in Weird Things by Michael Shermer
http://www.amazon.com/People-Believe-We ... 0716733870" target="_blank

Michael Shermer, noted skeptic, is the guy who busted "psychics" on Unsolved Mysteries. He explains the psychological issues of weird beliefs, pseudo-science, how they are formed, how creationists (i.e. evolution deniers) and holocaust deniers work, a short history of both, and how they perpetuate their own beliefs.

Some parts of a book felt like a bit of rambling, as it is simultaneously not enough details and too much details about the two groups highlighted. The history of both groups does not really give us too much insight into the reason they were formed.

It is the portions about how these beliefs came into being, and why would people believe them when they seem so outrageous to us non-believers, that makes the book interesting.


SuperFreaknonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

The freakconomists are back with a more observations about way things work in the human society and pokes some sense with some apparently non-sensical questions. Among them: Can eating kangaroo save the planet? (hint: Kangaroo don't "pass" methane, which is a greenhouse gas much worse than CO2) Why should terrorists buy life insurance? (hint: it doesn't fit their profile) Are people by nature altruistic or selfish? (hint: depends on your experiment setup) And so on.

The book focuses on some strange and controversial subjects, and that's part of its "taboo" charm. In the first book they talked about drug dealers, scholastic cheating (by teachers) and in this book they talked about... prostitution and terrorism, among other things. Here's a sample topic:

Did you know that prostitution prices have NOT really gone up during the life of the United States, when adjusted for inflation? You'd thought that prices would have gone up when prostitution was outlawed, but the fem-lib movement have made sex more available for free, and the prostitutes have to lower prices to "compete". And apparently having a pimp does help because the pimp markets to a higher class of clients than the independents. And yes, there are numbers to back those claims up.

[Kasey Chang]

I, Sniper by Stephen Hunter

Bob Lee Swaggart is back... a horrible crime had been committed. Four noted 70's radical had been gunned down, and leads immediately pointed to Carl Hitchcock, one of the most famous snipers to survive Vietnam. They raided his home... found paper clippings of the dead folks posted to a wall. When they tracked him down, he's dead in a motel with the rifle in his hand and a hole in his head, apparently self-inflicted. Open and shut case, right?

Wrong. It's TOO perfect. When everything lines up too perfectly, it smells of a setup... So Bob Lee Swaggart was called in... and he found a conspiracy that reaches high up into government, newspaper reporters out to ruin people, richest people in the world, and the secret world of snipers...

Setup is interesting, and some parts are incredibly tense, as both sides try to setup each other and one mistake may be the last. There's also a scene in waterboarding. Yes, I said waterboarding.

[Jaymann]

I just finished The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Weighing in at three volumes of about 1,300 pages each it is definitely not a light read. Set about 700 years in the future, the premise is simple and powerful. What if the soul of almost everyone who ever lived was trapped in a purgatory where they could still observe but not interact with the living universe. Then, in a future where humans have colonized hundreds of planets, an opening is created whereby these souls can, under the right circumstances, take possession of living humans, pushing the living soul into the background and obtaining virtually superhuman powers in so doing.

Hamilton does not give short shrift to all of the physical, moral and spiritual implications of such a scenario. The story is told from multiple perspectives, but he manages to tie them (perhaps a little too) neatly together. If you like epic, sprawling space opera and are willing to stick it out, it is well worth the ride.

[Crusis]

I just finished The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Weighing in at three volumes of about 1,300 pages each it is definitely not a light read. ride.

Great to see another Hamilton fan. I just finished his newest book, The Evolutionary Void and it was a great entry in his latest universe. His newer cycle of books are really wonderful, in some ways better than Nightsdawn. You'll probably need a break after slogging through that massive set of books.

[Pyperkub]

Books Read in 2010:

U is for Undertow - Sue Grafton (meh - she's writing out the string I think)
The Black Company - Glen Cook
Shadows Linger - Glen Cook
The White Rose - Glen Cook
Shadow Games - Glen Cook
Dreams of Steel - Glen Cook
The Silver Spike - Glen Cook
Nine Dragons - Michael Connelly
Up in the Air - Walter Kirn (very different from the movie)
Bleak Seasons - Glenn Cook
She is the Darkness - Glenn Cook
Water Sleeps - Glenn Cook
Soldiers Live - Glenn Cook

For the black company books, I was kept interested throughout, but I felt after the first 3 books, it fell off. I'm not sure if that's because Croaker/the Narrators became too involved in strategizing or what. Maybe I just liked the idea of them fighting for the wrong side and then making it right, with vast things unknown and only hinted at. I also think the whole Deceivers/Khadi plot took too long to resolve, maybe the latter books needed to be more concise.

The Burning City - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

I remember some of the great books by Niven & Pournelle. This isn't one of them. They've dropped off since they had to write the sequel to A Mote in God's eye. Of course, I'm subjecting myself to the sequel since I got them both from the library. This one's set in the "The Magic Goes Away" universe, but didn't have much of the creativity of that book.

Burning Tower - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

Better than the Burning City, with a decent story involving the Aztec gods in the Southwest. Ultimately, these two novels are more like a travelogue of Niven & Pournelle in the Magic Goes Away universe. Fun, but not really memorable. They did leave room for a third.

Songs for a Teenage Nomad - Kim Culbertson

A friend of mine's first published book. An interesting tale of a teen girl who's been moved from town to town and stepfather to stepfather who lands in a town in CA and finds out why. A 'young adult book' with many echoes of Catcher in the Rye, and it's won some Young Adult fiction awards.

Baseball's Great Experiment (Jackie Robinson and his legacy) - Jules Tygiel

A look at segregation and integration in baseball. How baseball first ended up segregated, how Branch Rickey saw the future and orchestrated the beginnings of integration, how and why Jackie Robinson was chosen and what his experiences were like, and the story of those who followed Jackie. A very interesting look at baseball and america in the post war, jim crow era, and the struggle to integrate. I was surprised at the specifics of the experience under Jim Crow in different locales, as well as the exacerbating effect Brown v. Board of Education had.

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

I enjoyed this much more than American Gods. I think it's the Kipling-esque 'Just-so-Stories' feel to this tale, rather than the oppressive feel of 'gods'.

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

Yeah, I've been on a bit of a Neil Gaiman kick this summer. Of the three, I think that the Graveyard book is the best. I think I've figured out what bugs me about his characters - he has a tough time giving them a soul. My hypothesis is that it has to do with his background in graphic novels, in that he relied on the artists to really bring out the characters that his words sketched out - I'm basing this more on the movies from his books Coraline and Stardust, as it seems to me that the movies have been better, because the characters get a better definition than the more spartan ones he creates in his novels. It also accounts for me liking Anansi Boys and the Graveyard Book more, as he kind of patterned his storytelling after Kipling - and it gave his characters a certain archetypal quality.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson
The Girl who played with Fire - Steig Larsson
The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest - Steig Larsson

A fun group of page turners. Enjoyed thoroughly.

The Pawn (Patrick Bowers Chronicles) - Steven James

A freebie from the Kindle store, this is a fun FBI thriller. Engaged me enough to buy the 2nd book in the series.

The Rook (Patrick Bowers Chronicles) - Steven James
The Knight (Patrick Bowers Chronicles) - Steven James
The Bishop (Patrick Bowers Chronicles) - Steven James

These weren't quite as good as The Pawn, but they were fun. The Pawn had one of the most disturbing opening scenes I've read.

The Gathering Storm - Brandon Sanderson/Robert Jordan

Sanderson does well, and is really pulling things together again. But with decent pacing, as I felt Jordan knew the end was coming and threw too much into his last book. I'm ready for the next book, hopefully it'll be on the Kindle soon.

The Reversal - Michael Connelly

Easily Connelly's worst book, IMHO. It feels like it's only half a book and the courtroom stuff is so stock that it fails to grip the reader. Bad enough that I'll probably wait for reviews on his next book, as he definitely seems to have gotten to the "I'm just churning these out for the money" phase of his career.

Relentless (Book 1 of Dominion trilogy) - Robin Parrish

Another Freebie from the Kindle Store. Interesting story, pedestrian writing. Probably won't be getting the rest of the books, unless they're free.

Bump to add a few more. I'd recommend people stay away from The Reversal, even if you're as big a Connelly fan as I am. Get it from the library or used if you must read it - I kind of felt ripped off by it.

[lildrgn]

Pyperkub: bummer about The Reversal. I'll still read it though.

Funny about The Pawn. I got it for free for my Kindle as well. It wasn't until about 1/2 way through that I realized:

Spoiler:

Waitaminute! This is a mystery/thriller with no cussing!

Oh snap! A religious themed mystery/thriller!!

[iloveplywood]

Thanks to this thread or another thread on the forum I finished up all of the Abercrombie books -- I loved them! For me they topped George RR Martin in the gritty fantasy department. There were a few plot items that seemed very strange, but maybe I just didn't read closely enough. Anyway, thanks forum for cluing me in.

I then read His Majesty's Dragon (again recommended here). This was a bit of a let down -- not bad, but I'm not in any rush to read the rest of the series which is unusual. The characters just didn't do much for me.

Finally, I finished The Passage -- an artsy post-apocalyptic novel by Justin Cronin . I see that Jeff V. is reading it so I'm sure we will see a good full review soon, but my short analysis is that the sum of the book was much greater than the parts. There were a lot of things about the plot and execution of the story that annoyed me or left me underwhelmed, but in the end I really got sucked into the story and have thought about it quite a bit since finishing it. It's definitely a book that you need some patience as it's not particularly fast moving and it's long (take note that I love post-apocalyptic plot lines so I might have enjoyed it more than the average person). The most disappointing part was finding out it was the first book in a trilogy. While I enjoyed the book a lot, I'm just not sure the subject matter needs 2700 pages to reach a conclusion. Still, I thought it worked well as a stand alone novel so that diminished the pain a bit.