(no subject)
35. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann
34. While My Pretty One Knits, Anne Canadeo
33. Ur, Stephen King* (audio)
32. The Firm, John Grisham*
31. Free-Range Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee*
30. Misery, Stephen King
29. Spook Country, William Gibson (audio)
28. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, Bill Bryson
27. People are Unappealing*: True Stories of Our Collective Capacity to Irritate and Annoy *Even Me, Sara Barron
26. The Green Mile, Stephen King*
25. Bag of Bones, Stephen King*
24. The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology, ed. Christopher Golden
23. Relentless, Dean Koontz
22. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting
21. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
20. Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
19. The Stand, Stephen King*
18. Hollywood's Stephen King, Tony Magistrale
17. Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card
16. Harem, Dora Levy Mossanen
15. Dies the Fire, S.M. Stirling
14. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan
13. Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing, & Rolling to Free Your Inner Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot
12. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, Linda Lawrence Hunt
11. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
10. Patient Zero, Jonathon Maberry
9. God's Country, Percival Everett
8. Heart of Stone, C. E. Murphy
7. The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, William Kalush and Larry Sloman
6. The Good Fairies of New York, Martin Millar
5. Limeys: The True Story of One Man's War Against Ignorance, the Establishment and the Deadly Scurvy, David I. Harvie
4. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
3. Tatham Mound, Piers Anthony
2. Alas, Babylon, Pat Frank
1. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
Lost City of Z: good stuff. History and biography and journalism rolled into one. Percy Fawcett was a British explorer obsessed with the Amazon. He was convinced that somewhere in the jungle, there was a great city, and he was determined to find it. David Grann follows the obsession, Fawcett's military career, and Fawcett's final trail into the Amazon, all in the effort to find out what happened to the explorer, or to find Z himself.
While My Pretty One Knits was bad. Several things wrong with this book.
1. Within 18 pages, I wanted to take my red pen to it. Whoever edited it did a poor job.
2. The writing wasn't that great either.
3. Once I figured out for sure who did it, I wasn't interested in keeping reading. I had no connection with the characters at all.
4. Though it's a book about women who love to knit (one of them owns a knitting shop, actually), there's none of that love conveyed in the story. The author did her research, and she knows about knit and purl and cabling and the Yarn Harlot and UFOs, but there's no passion behind it. It felt like she was just regurgitating facts so that she'd sound good. It just sounded forced.
5. The title is dumb.
I couldn't help thinking, no wonder I don't like mysteries. I had the suspect in mind long before anyone else mentioned them, and then when I was absolutely sure, I didn't want to keep reading. I'm sure a good mystery writer would make me want to finish the book because I actually cared about how the characters turned out, but now I'm wary of any mysteries.
34. While My Pretty One Knits, Anne Canadeo
33. Ur, Stephen King* (audio)
32. The Firm, John Grisham*
31. Free-Range Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee*
30. Misery, Stephen King
29. Spook Country, William Gibson (audio)
28. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America, Bill Bryson
27. People are Unappealing*: True Stories of Our Collective Capacity to Irritate and Annoy *Even Me, Sara Barron
26. The Green Mile, Stephen King*
25. Bag of Bones, Stephen King*
24. The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology, ed. Christopher Golden
23. Relentless, Dean Koontz
22. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting
21. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
20. Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
19. The Stand, Stephen King*
18. Hollywood's Stephen King, Tony Magistrale
17. Hidden Empire, Orson Scott Card
16. Harem, Dora Levy Mossanen
15. Dies the Fire, S.M. Stirling
14. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan
13. Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing, & Rolling to Free Your Inner Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot
12. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, Linda Lawrence Hunt
11. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
10. Patient Zero, Jonathon Maberry
9. God's Country, Percival Everett
8. Heart of Stone, C. E. Murphy
7. The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, William Kalush and Larry Sloman
6. The Good Fairies of New York, Martin Millar
5. Limeys: The True Story of One Man's War Against Ignorance, the Establishment and the Deadly Scurvy, David I. Harvie
4. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
3. Tatham Mound, Piers Anthony
2. Alas, Babylon, Pat Frank
1. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
Lost City of Z: good stuff. History and biography and journalism rolled into one. Percy Fawcett was a British explorer obsessed with the Amazon. He was convinced that somewhere in the jungle, there was a great city, and he was determined to find it. David Grann follows the obsession, Fawcett's military career, and Fawcett's final trail into the Amazon, all in the effort to find out what happened to the explorer, or to find Z himself.
While My Pretty One Knits was bad. Several things wrong with this book.
1. Within 18 pages, I wanted to take my red pen to it. Whoever edited it did a poor job.
2. The writing wasn't that great either.
3. Once I figured out for sure who did it, I wasn't interested in keeping reading. I had no connection with the characters at all.
4. Though it's a book about women who love to knit (one of them owns a knitting shop, actually), there's none of that love conveyed in the story. The author did her research, and she knows about knit and purl and cabling and the Yarn Harlot and UFOs, but there's no passion behind it. It felt like she was just regurgitating facts so that she'd sound good. It just sounded forced.
5. The title is dumb.
I couldn't help thinking, no wonder I don't like mysteries. I had the suspect in mind long before anyone else mentioned them, and then when I was absolutely sure, I didn't want to keep reading. I'm sure a good mystery writer would make me want to finish the book because I actually cared about how the characters turned out, but now I'm wary of any mysteries.