More 2011 Books Read
Additions to the books read list - 12 finished books this time, plus 3 more non-starters. First, the books I finished so far this year, new additions bolded:
Neuromancer, by William Gibson.
The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson, read by Jennifer Wiltsie
New Spring, by Robert Jordan.
Magician: Apprentice, by Raymond E. Feist.
The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien, read by Rob Inglis
Magician: Master, by Raymond E. Feist.
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
Submarine, by Edward L. Beach. Jr., Captain, USN (Retired)
Storm Front, by Jim Butcher
The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher
A Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks
With the Old Breed, by EB Sledge
U is for Undertow, by Sue Grafton
Silverthorn, by Raymond E. Feist
A Darkness at Sethanon, by Raymond E. Feist
The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien, read by Rob Inglis
The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien, read by Rob Inglis
Tongues of Serpents, by Naomi Novik
The Lion, by Nelson DeMille, read by Scott Brick
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, read by Jay O. Sanders
Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Mistborn: The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson, read by Michael Kramer
Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore
The Hour Game, by David Baldacci
Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Ever Seen, by Christopher McDougall, read by Fred Sanders
Ramona the Brave, by Beverly Cleary
George's Marvelous Medicine, by Roald Dahl
Mistborn: The Well of Ascension, by Brandon Sanderson
An Object of Beauty, by Steve Martin, read by Campbell Scott
And, the non-starters, or, more accurately, those that I started but never finished:
The Knight, by Gene Wolfe
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, by Meg Meeker, read by Cecelia Ridder
Theodore Rex, by Edmund Morris
@Tongues of Serpents - This is the 6th book in Novik's Temeraire series, and it is basically 2 things - a way for her to further explore the worldbuilding of sentient dragons in 1780s world geopolitics, and a two hundred page chase sequence without a satisfying payoff. I can't really complain, because I love the characters and the world so much, and, like book 5, it flowed very organically from the situations the characters were in, to the detriment of the book. Novik is nothing if not scrupulously true to her characters and the social enviroments they are trapped in at the time. Unfortunately, it makes the inevitable conflicts of the overall plot less than wonderful. But the premise of the series and the promise fulfilled by the first book are more than enough for me to return to the series over and over, hoping she catches that spark once again. Book 7 (of a planned 9) is in the works, and looks to send Temeraire and Lawrence to the Incan Empire. I'm looking forward to it. Recommended only if you are already a fan of the series.
@The Lion - This is the 5th book about Detective John Corey by Nelson DeMille, and provides the conclusion to the events that began in his earlier novel The Lion's Game. It was good. Maybe not as good as it's predecessor, but I am a sucker for the hyper-macho, smart-ass, sexist asshole that is John Corey. I love reading from his POV, because he is everything I am not. But, understandably, it's not for everyone. Recommended, if you're a DeMille fan.
@Catch-22 - Unknowkingly, this book has been the physical embodiment of my philosphy of both military and government my entire life. I think probably because my father had read it years ago, and it affected him deeply, reflecting the things he had seen in the military, and that rubbed of me during my formative years. Or, maybe it's just tapping into that much universal truth in life. I dunno. Either way, the first half was fabulous and infuriating and entirely believable. THe second half started dragging for a while, but picked up at the end. Highly recommended.
@Mistborn: The Final Empire and @Mistborn: The Well of Ascension - I am thoroughly surprised by how much I liked these books. For those ofyou who haven't paid attention to any of my Books Read updates for 2 years, you'd not know that Brandon Sanderson took over the Wheel of Time series after creator Robert Jordan died in 2007. Apparently, Jordan's widow chose Sanderson for the job after reading the Mistborn series. And I can totally see why. The characters felt alive to me, the scenario/plot was really cool, and the magic system was phenomenally cool. Whatever you might think about epic fantasy - this isn't that. This is Ocean's Eleven (the Clooney version) set in an opressive Victorian England, with magical parabolic-flight fighting! I so cannot do it jusctice by describing it. Go read it. Not quite as highly recommended as Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles, but only just. Very highly recommended. It's a trilogy, and I've read the first 2 parts. Can't wait to get the third from the library.
@Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - This is the best take on religion and Christianity since Monty Python's The Life of Brian. The character of Biff a Christ's friend is a brilliant stroke of genius. The book was a quick, easy, ad engrossing read. Highly Recommended.
@The Hour Game - Meh. Mindless quick read about 2 fairly uninteresting former failed secret service agents turned PIs in rural Virginia, chasing a serial killer who mimics a different serial killer with each murder. Interesting premise, poor characters. Also, within 50 pages, you realize that the killer, who we know if male from page 1, is one of only 3 possible suspects (the only other males in the book) And 2 of them are killed off halfway through the book. So, gee, guess who the killer is?
@Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Ever Seen - This was a fun book. I wish I had read it instead of listened to it. It seemed like every chapter started off with an unattributed exclamation, like "Holy Crap!", or "Lookout!", and then the text would start with 5 minutes of flashback leading up to the point where someone was shouting out, and then at that point you knew exactly what was going on. Seeing that on the page is one thing - it's an annoying thing, but it's a thing. Hearing it in an audiobook is just cruel and frustrating. Also, I would assume that a few parts of the book would have had diagrams of the running stride, and maybe even maps of the Copper Canyons of Mexico, or even maps of race routes. Those all would have been very helpful. As for the book itself, very entertaining, though very poorly laid out and outlined. Too many tangents and digressions, too much disjointed and out of order. But the overall impression was a good one, despite these flaws. Recommended.
An Object of Beauty - Yes, by that Steve Martin. It definitely has his voice, other than that it actually had Campbell Scott's voice, since, you know, he read it. But From the snippets of Martin's writing I've heard or read over hte years, as well as the movies he's written, like L.A. Story, it definitely felt like something he wrote. Except that, it didn't grab me. It was an excellent character study, but I don't much go for character studies, and the overall plot - moving up in the Upper East Side Art World, had exactly zero appeal to me. I gave up partway through, then went back to it. Recommendation? Meh.
When I started keeping track of the books I'd read, back in 2008, I hada separate list for kid's books. That was easy to do and seemed fitting, when the books were 6 pages long, made of posterboard, and had 6 words per page. Now that we're reading books to Willow a chapter a night for bedtime stories, I feel like I can actually count them as *real* books. So, I'm including them here.
@Anne of Green Gables - Saw the TV-miniseries when it came out, but had never read the book. Recently read it to Willow a chapter a night as bedtime stories. It was fun. The TV version glossed over bits and simplified others, which is to be expected, but the entire relationship between Anne and Glibert Blythe was changed in tone and structure. It made for interesting differences. Anyway, the important part is that Willow absolutely loved it. And that's enough for me to be happy. Recommened.
@Ramona the Brave - I'd never read any Beverly Cleary as a kid. Now I have. It was cute.
@George's Marvelous Medicine - I love Roald Dahl, but I am becoming increasingly convinced that he loves cute endings, without thinking through the ramifications. I am still kinda traumatized that the little boy protagonist in Dahl's The Witches has to live out the rest of his life as a mouse, and didn't get changed back. In this book, the protagonist basically kills his grandmother. !!?? It was a cute book, but really not a good example to set for impressionable kids...
The Non-Starters
@The Knight - I'd never read any Gene Wolfe before, and when his 2-parter Wizard Knight set came out 4 or 5 years ago, I heard great things, and was led to believe it was a groundbreaking series. So, I picked up the first book. I tried really really hard to like, I really did. I stuck with it for nearly 200 pages. But the writing style was just too sparse, haphazard, and full of potholes for me to enjoy. Not Recommended
@Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters - This one was recommended by a podcaster my wife listens to. The basic premise of the book (self-helpy) can be summed up as follows: "You are a good Dad because you talk to your daughter, play with her, and shove God down her throat with a ramrod. You're not like those other men, those bad Dads, who don't do that and live in the bad parts of town. Go pat yourself of the back, because you are just like my Daddy. I know all this because I'm a woman pediatrician with Daddy issues. Will you love me please?" Needless to say, I stopped early and ran from it. Not Recommended
@Theodore Rex - I have always heard fantastic things about Teddy Roosevelt. The man was in his day as much of a bigger than life figure as Vladimir Putin is today, except for, you know, the whole murderous KGB/Bond villain vibe. Also, he gave us Teddy Bears and the Forestry Service. So, I wanted to know more about him. This dude Edmund Morris had written a biography of Teddy back in the 70s, and recently wrote another one. I thought, Gee, that sounds really cool, and both got fantastic reviews. I'll read one. Instead of what I was expecting, I got an hour by hour account of the man's presidency. Hour By Hour Account. It was mind-numbing. Not Recommended
So, what's up next for Matt's reading, you ask? Well, I've got 3 or 4 other audiobooks waiting for me to start. As for dead tree reading, I'm about 5 pages into each of 2 books, 1 is another David Baldacci that I can't tell if I want to read or not, and the other is a Robin Hobb. I've heard great things about her, but I am getting a little tired of epic fantasy. So, we'll see if I stick with either of them.
No worries.
And, the non-starters, or, more accurately, those that I started but never finished:
@Tongues of Serpents - This is the 6th book in Novik's Temeraire series, and it is basically 2 things - a way for her to further explore the worldbuilding of sentient dragons in 1780s world geopolitics, and a two hundred page chase sequence without a satisfying payoff. I can't really complain, because I love the characters and the world so much, and, like book 5, it flowed very organically from the situations the characters were in, to the detriment of the book. Novik is nothing if not scrupulously true to her characters and the social enviroments they are trapped in at the time. Unfortunately, it makes the inevitable conflicts of the overall plot less than wonderful. But the premise of the series and the promise fulfilled by the first book are more than enough for me to return to the series over and over, hoping she catches that spark once again. Book 7 (of a planned 9) is in the works, and looks to send Temeraire and Lawrence to the Incan Empire. I'm looking forward to it. Recommended only if you are already a fan of the series.
@The Lion - This is the 5th book about Detective John Corey by Nelson DeMille, and provides the conclusion to the events that began in his earlier novel The Lion's Game. It was good. Maybe not as good as it's predecessor, but I am a sucker for the hyper-macho, smart-ass, sexist asshole that is John Corey. I love reading from his POV, because he is everything I am not. But, understandably, it's not for everyone. Recommended, if you're a DeMille fan.
@Catch-22 - Unknowkingly, this book has been the physical embodiment of my philosphy of both military and government my entire life. I think probably because my father had read it years ago, and it affected him deeply, reflecting the things he had seen in the military, and that rubbed of me during my formative years. Or, maybe it's just tapping into that much universal truth in life. I dunno. Either way, the first half was fabulous and infuriating and entirely believable. THe second half started dragging for a while, but picked up at the end. Highly recommended.
@Mistborn: The Final Empire and @Mistborn: The Well of Ascension - I am thoroughly surprised by how much I liked these books. For those ofyou who haven't paid attention to any of my Books Read updates for 2 years, you'd not know that Brandon Sanderson took over the Wheel of Time series after creator Robert Jordan died in 2007. Apparently, Jordan's widow chose Sanderson for the job after reading the Mistborn series. And I can totally see why. The characters felt alive to me, the scenario/plot was really cool, and the magic system was phenomenally cool. Whatever you might think about epic fantasy - this isn't that. This is Ocean's Eleven (the Clooney version) set in an opressive Victorian England, with magical parabolic-flight fighting! I so cannot do it jusctice by describing it. Go read it. Not quite as highly recommended as Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles, but only just. Very highly recommended. It's a trilogy, and I've read the first 2 parts. Can't wait to get the third from the library.
@Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - This is the best take on religion and Christianity since Monty Python's The Life of Brian. The character of Biff a Christ's friend is a brilliant stroke of genius. The book was a quick, easy, ad engrossing read. Highly Recommended.
@The Hour Game - Meh. Mindless quick read about 2 fairly uninteresting former failed secret service agents turned PIs in rural Virginia, chasing a serial killer who mimics a different serial killer with each murder. Interesting premise, poor characters. Also, within 50 pages, you realize that the killer, who we know if male from page 1, is one of only 3 possible suspects (the only other males in the book) And 2 of them are killed off halfway through the book. So, gee, guess who the killer is?
@Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Ever Seen - This was a fun book. I wish I had read it instead of listened to it. It seemed like every chapter started off with an unattributed exclamation, like "Holy Crap!", or "Lookout!", and then the text would start with 5 minutes of flashback leading up to the point where someone was shouting out, and then at that point you knew exactly what was going on. Seeing that on the page is one thing - it's an annoying thing, but it's a thing. Hearing it in an audiobook is just cruel and frustrating. Also, I would assume that a few parts of the book would have had diagrams of the running stride, and maybe even maps of the Copper Canyons of Mexico, or even maps of race routes. Those all would have been very helpful. As for the book itself, very entertaining, though very poorly laid out and outlined. Too many tangents and digressions, too much disjointed and out of order. But the overall impression was a good one, despite these flaws. Recommended.
An Object of Beauty - Yes, by that Steve Martin. It definitely has his voice, other than that it actually had Campbell Scott's voice, since, you know, he read it. But From the snippets of Martin's writing I've heard or read over hte years, as well as the movies he's written, like L.A. Story, it definitely felt like something he wrote. Except that, it didn't grab me. It was an excellent character study, but I don't much go for character studies, and the overall plot - moving up in the Upper East Side Art World, had exactly zero appeal to me. I gave up partway through, then went back to it. Recommendation? Meh.
When I started keeping track of the books I'd read, back in 2008, I hada separate list for kid's books. That was easy to do and seemed fitting, when the books were 6 pages long, made of posterboard, and had 6 words per page. Now that we're reading books to Willow a chapter a night for bedtime stories, I feel like I can actually count them as *real* books. So, I'm including them here.
@Anne of Green Gables - Saw the TV-miniseries when it came out, but had never read the book. Recently read it to Willow a chapter a night as bedtime stories. It was fun. The TV version glossed over bits and simplified others, which is to be expected, but the entire relationship between Anne and Glibert Blythe was changed in tone and structure. It made for interesting differences. Anyway, the important part is that Willow absolutely loved it. And that's enough for me to be happy. Recommened.
@Ramona the Brave - I'd never read any Beverly Cleary as a kid. Now I have. It was cute.
@George's Marvelous Medicine - I love Roald Dahl, but I am becoming increasingly convinced that he loves cute endings, without thinking through the ramifications. I am still kinda traumatized that the little boy protagonist in Dahl's The Witches has to live out the rest of his life as a mouse, and didn't get changed back. In this book, the protagonist basically kills his grandmother. !!?? It was a cute book, but really not a good example to set for impressionable kids...
The Non-Starters
@The Knight - I'd never read any Gene Wolfe before, and when his 2-parter Wizard Knight set came out 4 or 5 years ago, I heard great things, and was led to believe it was a groundbreaking series. So, I picked up the first book. I tried really really hard to like, I really did. I stuck with it for nearly 200 pages. But the writing style was just too sparse, haphazard, and full of potholes for me to enjoy. Not Recommended
@Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters - This one was recommended by a podcaster my wife listens to. The basic premise of the book (self-helpy) can be summed up as follows: "You are a good Dad because you talk to your daughter, play with her, and shove God down her throat with a ramrod. You're not like those other men, those bad Dads, who don't do that and live in the bad parts of town. Go pat yourself of the back, because you are just like my Daddy. I know all this because I'm a woman pediatrician with Daddy issues. Will you love me please?" Needless to say, I stopped early and ran from it. Not Recommended
@Theodore Rex - I have always heard fantastic things about Teddy Roosevelt. The man was in his day as much of a bigger than life figure as Vladimir Putin is today, except for, you know, the whole murderous KGB/Bond villain vibe. Also, he gave us Teddy Bears and the Forestry Service. So, I wanted to know more about him. This dude Edmund Morris had written a biography of Teddy back in the 70s, and recently wrote another one. I thought, Gee, that sounds really cool, and both got fantastic reviews. I'll read one. Instead of what I was expecting, I got an hour by hour account of the man's presidency. Hour By Hour Account. It was mind-numbing. Not Recommended
So, what's up next for Matt's reading, you ask? Well, I've got 3 or 4 other audiobooks waiting for me to start. As for dead tree reading, I'm about 5 pages into each of 2 books, 1 is another David Baldacci that I can't tell if I want to read or not, and the other is a Robin Hobb. I've heard great things about her, but I am getting a little tired of epic fantasy. So, we'll see if I stick with either of them.
No worries.