Mahsdad's (Jeff) 2014 - Part 4

If you're still with me, we made it to FOUR. If you're new, my name is Jeff. I live in Southern California. I'm an avid reader (obviously, why else would I be doing this :) ), but I also enjoy photography, hiking and playing games and hanging out with my family. Book-wise, I have a pretty eclectic taste in what I read and I hope to give you not so much reviews but my impressions about what I read.

What you will find here is mostly my rambling, way too many (according to some :) ) Wishlist and TBR pile temptations and a smattering of my photography.

My 2013 Reading Thread

To start off the thread, here's an image I took at the Salton Sea.

2014 Statistics

Owned - 10
Bought 2014 - 8
Free/Found - 3
Library - 3
Gift - 4
Audio - 19
eBook - 4

July
51. All You Need Is Kill - Hiroshi Sakurazaka
50. Hollow World - Michael J. Sullivan (AUDIO)
49. You - Austin Grossman
48. Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger (AUDIO)

June
47. In the Woods - Tara French
46. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (AUDIO)
45. Invisible Beasts - Sharona Muir - ER
44. The Giver - Lois Lowry (AUDIO)
43. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

May
42. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (AUDIO)
41. The Lives of Tao - Wesley Chu
40. Freedom(TM) - Daniel Suarez
39. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed
38. Beasts of No Nation - Uzodinma Iweala
37. The Woman Who Died A Lot - Jasper Fforde
36. Wakulla Springs - Andy Duncan (EBOOK)
35. Daemon - Daniel Suarez (AUDIO)

April
34. Acts of God - Ellen Gilchrist - ER
33. Summerland - Michael Chabon
32. Sunnyside - Glen David Gold (AUDIOI)
31. A Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier
30. Burning Girls - Veronica Schanoes (EBOOK)
29. Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere - Julie Lamana - ER
28. Robopocalypse - Daniel H. Wilson (AUDIO)
27. The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett

March
26. The Corpse Exhibition - Hassan Blasim
25. Divergent - Veronica Roth
24. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (AUDIO)
23. A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
22. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein (AUDIO)
21. Human Division - John Scalzi
20. On a Pale Horse - Piers Anthony (AUDIO)
19. 11/22/63 - Stephen King

February
18. 2001: A Space Oddyssey - Arthur C. Clarke (AUDIO)
17. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green, David Levithan
16. Make Room, Make Room - Harry Harrison (EBOOK)
15. Abandon - Meg Cabot (AUDIO)
14. Men and Cartoons - Jonathan Lethem
13. Junky - William S. Burroughs (AUDIO)
12. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers (AUDIO)

January
11. Lexicon - Max Barry (AUDIO)
10. Train - Pete Dexter
9. Rocket Science - Jay Lake
8. Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester (AUDIO)
7. Carrie - Stephen King
6. Tales of Beedle the Bard - J. K. Rowling (Michael Read)
5. NOS4A2 - Joe Hill (AUDIO)
4. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (Family Read)
3. Every Day - David Levithan
2. Dead Pig Collector - Warren Ellis (EBOOK)
1. The Last Dragonslayer - Jasper Fforde

Books Read in 2014 by Year

2014 - 5
2013 - 11
2012 - 8
2011 - 4
2010 - 1
2009 - 2
2008 - 2
2007 - 2
2006 - 2
2005 - 6
2004 - 1
2001 - 1
2000 - 1
1997 - 1
1996 - 1
1993 - 1
1986 - 1
1969 - 1

Currently Reading

The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen - Rudolf Erich Raspe - S: 1/5/14
Brisingr - Christopher Paolini (Michael Read)- S: 1/12/14
The Math Book - Clifford Pickover - S: 2/9/14
Hyperbole and a Half - Allie Brosh - S: 6/15/14
Matterhorn - Karl Marlantess - S: 7/6/14
The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven

TBR Additions

January
Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan - Free (YMCA)
The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - Free (YMCA)
The Courious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon - BN
Dragon Riders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey - Library Book Sale
The Kept - James Scott - Library Book Sale
Lexicon - Max Barry (AUDIO) - Free (Library Borrow)
Summerland - Michael Chabon - Library Book Sale
Out on Blue Six - Ian McDonald - Paperback Swap
Men and Cartoons - Jonathan Lethem - Brownbag Books
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers (AUDIO)- Humble Bundle
Abandon - Meg Cabot (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle
Found - Margaret Peterson Haddix (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle - DNF
Junky - William S. Burroughs (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle
On a Pale Horse - Piers Anthony (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle
Stolen - Lucy Christopher (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle - DNF
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle - DNF
True Grit - Charles Portis (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle
Vampirates : Demons of the Ocean - Justin Somper (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle
The Orange Eats Creeps - Grace Krilanovich (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle
Seal Team Six - Howard Wasdin - Free (YMCA)
2014 Cambellian Anthology - Various (EBOOK) - Free DRM free download
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby - Free (YMCA)

February
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - Free (YMCA)
One Day - David Nicholls - Free (YMCA)
A Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier - RD
Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere - Julie T. Lamana - Early Review LT

March
Paper Towns - John Green - Target
Lives of Tao - Wesley Chu - Barnes & Noble
Human Division - John Scalzi - Barnes & Noble
Burning Girls - Veronica Schanoes - Free - Amazon Kindle
Wakulla Springs - Andy Duncan - Free - Amazon Kindle
Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner - Free YMCA
Divergent - Veronica Roth - Walmart
The Corpse Exhibition = Hassan Blasim - Library
Sunnyside - Glenn David Gold (AUDIO) - Library
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (AUDIO) - Library
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague - Geraldine Brooks - Free YMCA
Robopocalypse - Daniel H. Willson (AUDIO) - Library

April
Beasts of No Nation - Uzodinma Iweala - Amazon (RD suggestion)
Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor - Kindle (RD's suggestion)
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway - Free YMCA
Acts of God - Ellen Gilchrist - Free Early Review

May
Paris Trout - Pete Dexter - Brownbag Books
American on Purpose - Craig Ferguson - Brownbag Books
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra - Brownbag Books
Confederates in the Attic - Tony Horwitz - Brownbag Books
Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome - John Scalzi - Kindle Single
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - Ted Lawson - Pearl Harbor Gift Store
Ten Minutes Later... The USS Helm in WWII - Frank Wotring - Pearl Harbor Gift Store
The Shambling Guide to New York City - Mur Lafferty - free contest
The Ghost Train to New Orleans - Mur Lafferty free - contest
The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach - Brownbag Books
Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer Brownbag Books

June
Invisible Beasts - Sharona Muir - Early Review
Love Among the Particles - Norman Lock - Free from Publisher
Fight Club - Chuck Palanhuik (AUDIO) - Humble Bundle
Recapitulation - Wallace Stegner - Beyond the Books, Moab Ut
The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons - John Wesley Powell - Arches NP Giftshop
Edge of Tomorrow - Hiroshi Sakurazaka - Amazon

Wishlist Additions

January
Hang Wire - Adam Christopher
On Such a Full Sea - Chang-rae Lee
Shovel Ready -Adam Sternbergh
The Land Across - Gene Wolfe
Wake - Lisa McMann
Luminaries - Eleanor Catton
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
The Hundred-Foot Journey - Richard C. Morais
The Visionist - Rachal Urquhart
Fooling Houdini - Alex Stone
A Highly Unlikely Scenario - Rachel Cantor
Shaman - Kim Stanley Robinson
Stone Spring - Stephen Baxter
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather
More Than This - Patrick Ness
Logan's Run - William Nolan
Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
High-Rise - J.G. Ballard
What Makes This Book So Great - Jo Walton
The First True Lie - Marina Mander
Crapalachia - Scott McClanahan
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend - Matthew Dicks

February
An Unnecessary Woman - Rabih Alameddine
Terms of Enlistment - Marko Kloos
Praying Drunk - Kyle Minor
Last Days of California - Mary Miller
Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer
The Heart Does Not Grow Back - Fred Venturini
Veronica - Nicholas Christopher
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson
Strange Bodies - Marcel Theroux
The Martian - Andy Weir
Go: A Novel - John Clellon Holmes
The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope - Rhonda Riley
Defenders - Will McIntosh
Love Minus Eighty - Will McIntosh
This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own - Jonathan Rendall
Round Ireland with a Fridge - Tony Hawks
The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green - Joshua Braff
The Enormous Room - e.e.cummings
This Blinding Absence of Light - Tahar Ben Jelloun
The Last Summer of Reason - Tahar Djaout
The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker
Three Princes - Ramona Wheeler

March
Black Moon- Kenneth Calhoun
Notes from the Internet Apocalypse - Wayne Gladstone
Helmut Saves the World - Matt Sheehan
Honor Among Thieves: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion - James S. A. Corey
Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly - P.T. Jones
Dead Americans and Other Stories - Ben Peek
The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
Hill William - Scott McClanahan
Birds of a Lesser Paradise - Megan Mayhew Bergman
The Child Thief - Brom
Extreme Dentistry - Hugh A.D. Spencer
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North

April
Redeployment - Phil Klay
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo
The Intern's Handbook - Shane Kuhn
Love and Math - Edward Frenkel
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Afterparty - Daryl Gregory
The Loving Dead - Amelie Beamer
Other Worlds, Better Lives - Howard Waldrop

May
The Bees - Carol Ann Duffy
My Real Children - Jo Walton
The Boat - Nam Le
Untamed State - Roxane Gay

June
Mainspring - Jay Lake
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell
Robogenesis - Daniel H. Wilson
The Farm - Tom Rob Smith
The Rise & Fall of Great Powers - Tom Rachman
Capturing the Light - Helen Rappaport
The Selected Works of TS Spivet - Reif Larsen
The Lost - Sarah Beth Durst
In Paradise - Peter Matthiessen
Patton's Spaceship - John Barnes
Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Thomas Sweterlitsch
The Symmetry Teacher - Andrei Bitov

July
We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

35. Daemon - Daniel Suarez (AUDIO) - A pretty good techno-thriller, where an eccentric billionaire game developer creates the Daemon, a self aware AI construct. It is activated shortly after his death and its first task is to kill anyone who gets in its way. Think skynet. It takes over control of IT departments of large companies and gets people in the "real" world to do its bidding by giving them points and prestige in the network. The cops and the federal government are trying to find ways to fight it, but in the end you really don't know who is good and who is evil

Lots of near future and very plausible tech. Autonomous cars, glasses interfaced to the internet (GoogleGlass), bot nets, AI. Certainly not award winning, but a fun ride.

S: 4/21/14 F: 5/2/14 (12 Days)

A new thread! I've got that one on the Wishlist.

Yeah I figured once I got north of 220 and had a new book to post, it was time. Still amazed, as last year I only had 95 posts total.

Thanx for stopping by. If you want the audio for Daemon (and its sequels), PM me and I'll get them to you. (I have ways.... ;)

Hey all you scifi/time travel nuts. Here's an interesting little short about 2 astronauts who are in a ship that has a safety device that allows for a 3 minute time jump to the past. Very Twilight Zoneish

http://io9.com/two-astronauts-must-decipher-an-emergency-message-from-1566638732

Today's a video posting day. Here's Crash Course's discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird. A classic that I'm going to have to go read again.

http://youtu.be/3xM8hvEE2dI

Happy New Thread, Jeff! I love the photo up top, as usual. Aaaand, you've made me add your #35 to the wishlist. So, uh, thanks for that.

Glad to oblige. ;) We are all addicts in a group that is the polar opposite of AA. Here's another book! Feed the beast!

36. Wakulla Springs - Andy Duncan (EBOOK) - A novella that is nominated this year for both the Hugo and the Nebula. Its a free Kindle Single, that I got thanks to the recommendation of our dear RD.

Even though its nominated for science fiction awards, I think it could only loosely be considered scifi, maybe a "genre" story. The basic gist is that the story centers around Wakulla Springs in the Florida panhandle. It spans time from the 30's to present day and links activities in the Florida panhandle and the Springs and resort lodge with Hollywood (several movies were filmed there) with several generations of African-Americans who worked, lived and were greatly affected by the power and mystique of Wakulla Springs.

While its, perhaps, mostly historical fiction, it had a touch of magical fantasy that I enjoyed. A beautifully written story that I would recommend.

S: 4/9/14 F: 5/5/14 (27 Days)

What time is it, kids? Its Foto Friday Time!

Okay, I'm entirely too excited about this. Maybe is just because I'm working from home today, yipee. No 2 hours on the freeways; its the little things that mean the most.

Anyway, here you go. Some more flowers that it did the slightest bit of post-production to over saturate the colors. Gives it a old postcard type of feel. I did this for a photo club we used to have a work. I called it Postcard from Alice's Wonderland



ETA - changed it to a slightly smaller size. Couldn't see it in one go.

More videos from the Brother's Green. This is John Green's vlog from back in November where he gives a bunch of book recommendations (in the style of; if you like this, you should like ....) Lots of book bulletie (if bulletie is a word) goodness awaits. Hey come on, its what you come to know, expect and loathe about my thread ;)

http://youtu.be/Y4UT9iBdQDI

37. The Woman Who Died A Lot - Jasper Fforde - This the the seventh installment in the Thursday Next "universe", so its not going to be one that the casual observer is going to pick up and start with. If it sounds interesting, you should go back to the beginning and pickup The Eyre Affair.

In this episode, Thursday is now the head of the Library District, being passed over to head SpecOps 27 (Literary Detectives). She's dealing with agents from the Goliath Corporation trying to kill her, help her family prevent God smiting her town at the end of the week and help her son cope with the fact that time travel is impossible and that he will never head the Chronoguard and save the world on multiple occasions. And, oh yeah, there's an ever increasing chance that an asteroid will destroy the Earth in 2014. In other words, the usual stuff.

Probably not my favorite of the series, but its a really fun read, full of puns, literary allusions and illusions and enough wacky plot twists and turns to keep you entertained.

S: 4/29/14 F: 5/8/14 (10 Days)

>15 mahsdad: Oooh, very cool photo!

Love the photo, Jeff. The angle that you shot from adds to the slight sense of surrealism from the over-saturated colors. Pardon my flora ignorance but what kind of flowers are those?

>19 rosalita: Thanks Julia, I believe the flower is a Foxglove. I too have flora ignorance. That's what my wife's forte is. I just shoot what looks good to me, worry about what it is later.

Ah, foxglove. I've heard of that, at least. :-)

Glad you liked #36! Slowly wandering through, nursing hand/shoulder owwies.

^+1 Glad to have you back around RD. (At least posting wise) Be well!

Great name the Salton Sea and superb image to boot.

Have a wonderful Sunday, mate and I am pleased you continue to chew your way steadily through the threads this year.

>24 PaulCranswick: Interestingly, the Salton Sea is a completely accidentally created man-made lake. in the early 1900's they were trying to divert the Colorado River for irrigation. In 1905, the river broke out of the dykes and dams that were trying to direct its flow and changed course into the area that is now the Sea. It was 2 years before they got it flowing back in the proper direction. Continued flooding after that prompted the need for a dam on the Colorado, and led to the construction of the Hoover Dam.

Thus ends today's history lesson. :)

Adored the Postcard from Alice's Wonderland! Great perspective and scrumptious colors.

Thanks Marianne!

38. Beasts of No Nation - Uzodinma Iweala - Another successful RD recommendation. This first novel by Iweala is a brutal depiction war in a fictitious country in West Africa. We hear the story thru the voice of Agu (never mentions age, but has to be pre-teen) has he is conscripted into the army (more like a band of rebels) and forced to fight. As we read about his experiences, he flashes back to his life before and its these thoughts of his family that I think keeps him going and allows him to cope with things that no normal adult should have to experience.

My only real criticism is that it is written in a pidgen-English dialect of how a young African boy might speak. I found it difficult to get used to initially, but eventually I did.

Not for the faint of heart, but a really good novel.

S: 5/9/14 F: 5/13/14 (5 Days)

What every little book obsessed person needs :)

From BoingBoing : http://boingboing.net/2014/05/13/book-spine-switch-plate.html

>29 mahsdad: Ha! Love this! Thanks for posting.

Love the light switch cover!

For today's Foto Friday, I offer you a view outside my hotel window. I'm in Hawai'i for a company trade show and this is what I woke up to. Better than the heat and smoke my wife is dealing with (I owe her big time)

>32 mahsdad: Wow. Just ... Wow.

Back from Hawai'i. Great show, fun times, got a little bit of site seeing in. Went to Pearl Harbor yesterday to see the Arizona Memorial, incredible. Also went to the USS Bowfin and Submarine Museum; very cool.

Small Book Haul at the gift store.

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - Ted Lawson : One of my favorite books growing up. I've probably read this at least 8 or 9 times. Never owned a copy. This is a new edition for the 60th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo that happened months after the attack on Pearl.

Ten Minutes Later... The USS Helm in WW II - Frank Wotring : This is a book that I HAD to buy, if for no other reason that my last name is Helm. And its a signed copy too. Can't wait to read it.

Finished one book on my trip, and will finish another on my commute to work tomorrow, so expect a couple reviews, I mean impressions, soon.

Little video about a book store in New York that no one can find. Makes me want to go there...

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/194324.html

Thanx to Kriti Godey (kdodey), I now have both of Mur Lafferty's Shambling Guides

Shambling Guide to New York
Ghost Train to New Orleans

She had a give-away on her blog: http://justaworldaway.com/

Go check her out...

Gorgeous photo from Hawaii, Jeff!

Thanx Julia...

39. Wild : From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed - The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is a hiking trail that goes from the Mexico border to the Canadian border. This is the memoir of one woman's time on the trail. It made me want to both run TO and FROM the idea of hiking that far at the same time.

The structure of the story does a good job cutting back and forth between Strayed's experiences on the trail and her life before and what got her to the PCT. After the tragedy of losing her mother at a very early age, then ending her marriage and struggling with drugs, Strayed finds herself in the Mohave desert, woefully unprepared (she has all the equipment, perhaps too much of it, but its not always about the stuff) for what lies ahead. An engaging story that kept pulling me along mile after mile.

A couple quotes that stuck with me...

"...it had nothing to with getting from point A to B. It had only to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles for no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets."

"Going down, I realized, was like taking hold of the loose strand of yarn on a sweater you'd just spent hours knitting and pulling it until the entire sweater unraveled into a pile of string. Hiking the PCT was the maddening effort of knitting that sweater and unraveling it over and over again."

S: 4/24/14 F: 5/16/14 (23 Days)

40. Freedom (tm) - Daniel Suarez (AUDIO) - This is the sequel to Suarez's Daemon that continues the story about the Daemon AI system and its "Dark Net" operatives. This is more of a good vs evil thriller with the happy-go-lucky high tech gamer types battling the evil one-world order types hell-bent on bring a cyber and financial apocalypse to the world.

Pretty fun story, nice use of near future tech, telepresence, Google glass type interfaces, game theory and social networks. It also deals with the political issues of big finance and agribusiness.

Its a sequel, so unless you read the first, don't bother with this one. But otherwise, its worth a look

S: 5/4/14 F: 5/19/14 (16 Days)

The Nebula Awards were presented last week and in case you missed it, or are slightly interested, here's the Novel category...

Winner: Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

Nominees:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
Fire with Fire, Charles E. Gannon
Hild, Nicola Griffith
The Red: First Light, Linda Nagata
A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar
The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker

i'm really glad you liked BEASTS, jeff!

still left-handed typing. ow

i was rooting for THE GOLEM to win, but i haven't read the leckie yet.

oh, and HAPPY THINGAVERSARY!!

Thanx RD! Totally forgot that it was my Thingaversary. I guess I got get me to the bookstore this weekend. Oh woe is me. :)

Happy Thingaversary, Jeff!

>44 mahsdad: yeah, boo hoo for you. snort

remember, it's your holy obligation to return with 8 books...1 to grow on.

>42 richardderus: Back on the subject of books read or in progress. I'm also just about finished and thoroughly enjoying Lives of Tao. Can't wait for the next one. Just read on Chu's blog that that there is going to be a third as well; he just sent the manuscript to the publisher.

Today is my day for over sharing (quantity that is, not subject). Here's this week's Crash Course - Literature episodes. In it, John gives us his take on Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Haven't read this in a while, so on the phone, the audio version goes...

Part 1 - http://youtu.be/F6g7S2W27Kc
Part 2 - http://youtu.be/HyKhIiGKq5M

And now for what you all are really waiting for ( yeah right ;) )...

Happy Foto Friday!

I'll let you all stew for a bit, as to the subject, but I'll just say I took this on my recent trip.

I suspect "stew" is a clue, or should I say "clew"? :) I don't know what it is, but it's beautiful!

it is beautiful. it's an oil slick, though.

Ding! Ding!. Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

More significantly, its the oil slick that's been leaking out of the USS Arizona since 1941

it's unforgettable once you've seen it.

^+1

Wow, never would have guessed that was an oil slick.... Pretty cool....the picture, maybe not the oil! :)

Loved the pics from Hawaii. Saw the USS Arizona in 1978 and it has stuck with me ever since. Truly unforgettable.

Happy Thingaversary! We need the list of your Cranswickian purchases!

Unfortunately, no Cranswickian horde this weekend. Having too much fun doing other non-book (I know, heaven forbid) related family things. Planted flags for Memorial Day with the boy and his fellow Boy Scouts, saw the new X-men movie, went to an Artsy/Crafty Street Fair in Hermosa Beach and went Kayaking in Newport Beach today. It was a full weekend.

Blame Amazon for there not being a book store within 20 minutes of my house, but I promise within the next couple weeks, I will spend entirely too much on too many books that I'll add to Mt TBR.

Busy weekend indeed. I'm tired just reading it. Someone bring me a gin and tonic!

^+1

Name this movie...

..."Want a beer?"

"Its 7am"

"Scotch?"

^ EEEEEEH, wrong answer, thanks for playing, try again. ;)

dunno why, it gave me a hangover thinking about beer at 7am!

Well you don't HAVE to play again. I'm just padding my post stats anyway ;)

I will give a hint (of a sort) to anyone else who might be wandering by. The movie where that quote was from, came out in 1983. THIRTY-ONE frickin' years ago. How is that temporally possible

Animal House?

Nope, Animal House was released in 1978 which is 36 years ago. A fact that I still refuse to believe.

Another quote from the same movie

..."I'm going to rip these walls out and, uh, of course rewire it."

"Yeah, you gonna make it all 220?"

"Yeah, 220, 221. Whatever it takes"

:)

...I feel like I've overdone the 420 after reading that...

I have no idea what movie that's from, but my friends and I have been using variations on the "220, 221, whatever it takes" line for years! Now I'm really curious as to which movie it is.

Mr. Mom

My Google fu is strong. :)

^+1

The Beer/Scotch and 220/221 lines are standard issue reparte between my wife and I.

RD's comment about bringing him a Gin & Tonic made me think of it. Haven't watched the movie in a while, think I need to do so again.

Thanx for playing "Obscure Movie Trivia from deep within Jeff's Brain"

41. The Lives of Tao - Wesley Chu - Okay lets this this right out of the way, cause its on the back of the book and its not really a spoiler. Tao is a member of an ancient alien race that crash landed on Earth millions of years ago and can live like a symbiot within other living creatures. Once humans arrived on the scene, Tao and his brethren begin shaping humanity, leading our evolution so that we can help them get back to their homeworld.

That being said, the actual plot of the novel is a high-adventure James Bond/Jason Borne Thriller where one faction of the aliens and their hosts (lets call them the Good Guys) are battling another faction of aliens and their hosts (the Bad Guys). We see this story unfold thru the eyes of Roan, a pasty-pale computer geek who for reasons becomes a host to Tao. He has to learn very quickly how to be a host and how to be a "secret" agent. To Chu's credit Roan is not Jason Borne, he's not a super agent. He is flawed and conflicted. It makes you root for him all the more.

I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the sequels (2 that I've read about, so far). Its an interesting world that I want to read more about.

S: 5/20/14 F: 5/25/14 (6 Days)

Wow, I'm 3 for 3 in the Early Reviewer lottery.

Loranne just let me know that I'm getting Invisible Beasts by Sharona Muir

I got a book for March's batch (didn't request any in April) and got one in Feb.

I'm 50/50 on like vs. meh so far. :)

Because we are all about all things books here on LT, and we need to bring the youngsters into our fold (One of Us, One of Us, One of Us), here's the link to the Kickstarter project that Levar Burton is doing to get Reading Rainbow back up and running on the web.

He's already at twice his goal and the project isn't even a day old.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-f...

For $10K, you can have dinner with him and wear his cool glasses thing.

Sure I'm a geek, but I ain't a RICH geek. ;)

>74 mahsdad: Ha!

>74 mahsdad: *snork!*

I grew up sans Reading Rainbow, but I'd love to see it make a comeback, if only so that I could finally see it!

Well looky here, its Foto Friday again. So weird how that keeps happening.

Here's another shot from Hawai'i. I like playing around with long exposures and messing with the focus or zoom. This was taken from my hotel room. Enjoy.

Here's a box of book bullets you might enjoy... LA Times Summer Books preview

http://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-summer-reading-guide-20140529-htmlstory.ht...

That looks so trippy. Ok I'm curious as to what it actually is? A street with cars zooming by??

>79 jolerie: Valerie, its pretty much the view from my hotel at night. (see >32 mahsdad: for a daytime view).

I set the camera on a table and (in this case) set the exposure to 6 seconds. While the shutter was open, I twisted the zoom from near to far (or vice versa, I can't remember which)

Ahhhh.....so cool and again so trippy..haha!
Photography is definitely one of the things I'd want to take up or at least learn more about once the kids are older. Thanks for sharing your talent with us!

>77 mahsdad: Cool!

>78 mahsdad: NOT cool!

>82 richardderus: Thanx for the picture comment...

As to the list, come on, you know I had to....

Jeff, you're a Satanic Book Warbler. When *I* do it, it's kind and gentle informative posting. When *you* do it, it's an evil incitement to Sin and Financial Ruin.

I am, you see, a Bookchristian. Me = good, you = bad. See? Simple! Now internalize these facts and all will be well.

^ So we're really going to do this dance again? Hey Pot, its Kettle, you're black.

First, this is my thread and you don't have to click on the link if you don't want to. Have you no self control man?

Secondly, I can think of at least 1 or 2 links that YOU'VE posted on MY thread that have at least as many books as this one did. Did I go post this on YOUR THREAD. No I didn't. So there. **As he takes his ball and stomps away home**

Third, you know you love it. Besides Good can NOT exist without Evil. To mix metaphors and paraphrase (poorly) Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men; You NEED me posting links, you WANT me posting links...

Lastly (for now), have you heard me complain about the multiple real books I've purchased as a direct result of your recommendations, or posts? Nope don't think you have.

Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

Hope you have great weekend. ;)

*sigh* Such a Man. Just admit you're wrong and all will be well.

I got a couple new books in the mail today, but thank goodness they're Bookmooched. Almost as good as your freebie table at the Y!

Do you follow Wes Chu on Goodreads and blog? He's a class act, he is, and I like supporting him with my actual dollars.

Okay, to make you happy. I was wrong. I shouldn't share things with my friends here on a BOOK forum about BOOKS that they might find interesting. I'll do better in the future. (Sarcasm implied)

I should start looking at Bookmooch more. Paperbackswap is hit or miss for the kind of books I like to read

As far as Wesley and Goodreads, just did, forgot about that one. I had put his blog on my Feedly, and followed him on Twitter, Facebook, et al as soon as I finished Lives. I agree, I'll buy Deaths and Rebirth as soon as I see them.

*sarcasm ignored* Good! Now that's all cleared up.

Feedly keeps me sane. I'm actually liking it more than Google Reader (of sainted memory) and I use it multiple times daily.

I find both Bookmooch and PBS pretty hit-or-miss unless I get to know someone and can shop their inventory fairly often. I've ratcheted down my own inventories and now post books when I see they're on someone's wishlist.

I loved Bloglines, and then I hated Google Reader when Bloglines disappeared. Then I loved Reader and hated Feedly when Reader disappeared. Now I love Feedly.

And why the hell are you "poking" me on FB. That's so 5 years ago ;)

...that was YOU? Oh dear

^ Too Funny!

June's releases, conveniently broken down by date.

I covet The Madonna and the Starship, and have pre-ordered Six-Gun Snow White because Valente. So many books, so little time.

Certainly not a Cranswickian Thingaversary haul (I'm going to spread things out a bit), but I picked up a couple off the Wishlist from my local used (and only) bookstore

The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach
Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer

Off to continue The Book Thief. Catch yinz later...

Jeff, I thoroughly enjoyed The Art of Fielding when I read it, although it seems opinions are somewhat mixed here on LT. I'll look forward to your thoughts when you get to it.

"Enjoy" probably isn't the right word for what I hope you're doing with The Book Thief but nonetheless ...

Are you a Pittsburgh boy?

I am :)

Though much to my Mother's chagrin, I've lived in So Cal longer now than I did in the 'Burgh.

>94 rosalita: BTW, I just added your blog to my Feedly subscriptions

I know the feeling. I'm from Long Island myself, but I've lived in the Midwest much longer than I lived in NY.

Thanks for adding my blog. I'm trying to post more so that will be good motivation.

>94 rosalita: I missed the comment about Book Thief. I am "enjoying" it, but at about half-way thru, I know the shoe is going to have to drop.

For those of you who knew author Jay Lake but might not have heard the news, he passed away this morning.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/06/01/jay-lake-is-gone/?utm_source=twitterfeed&a...

Such a sad thing. I've been following the blog off and on, but hadn't checked in for a bit.

42. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (AUDIO) - This is probably the third time I've read this, and every time I love it more. This is ostensibly Vonnegut dealing with his time as a WWII P.O.W. in Dresden. He lived thru the fire bombing that probably killed more people than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima (depending on where the facts come from).

His alter-ego in this story is Billy Pilgrim, a private during the war and an Optometrist after. He becomes unstuck in time and the narrative presents itself in a delightfully weird way. One minute you're with him in the slaughterhouse in Dresden, next you're with Billy and his wife at a party and then he wakes up in his cell at the zoo on Trafalmadore, the planet the aliens took him to when he was abducted. And then he'll jump right back again. Time travel in both directions to Pilgrim.

A very odd story that is right in my wheelhouse. The audio version I listened to was very good. Ethan Hawke did the narration. Recommend.

S: 5/22/14 F: 5/30/14 (9 Days)

>101 mahsdad: Oohh! an Ethan Hawke narration -- tempting!

Let me sing the praises of Bellevue Literary Press. Just about a week ago, Loranne informed me that I won the ER lottery and I was to expect Invisible Beasts in the mail soon.

Well, the package came today and I got the expected book, but I also got an unexpected book. Love Among the Particles by Norman Lock

Many thanks to Molly Mikolowski and Bellevue Literary Press.

Can't wait to read both of these. I guess I have to fast track them into the queue.

This might not stick around for too long, but for those of you in love with words and scifi, might find this interesting.

Somebody took the script for Star Wars and sorted it alphabetically.

Then figured out where in the movie, each one of those words appeared and recut the movie to put every word in alphabetical order.

its hypnotic to watch

http://boingboing.net/2014/06/04/arst-arsw-star-wars-re-edite.html

Happy Foto Friday Folks.

Since its the first Friday in June, today's image is the June entry from my calendar. Enjoy.

...weirdly intriguing...

And now you understand the essence of my photography. That is always my first instinct. If its weirdly intriguing, its a good image, IMNSHO :)

>107 mahsdad: Ah. Je comprends bien.

>104 mahsdad: impressive. Amazing the different ways the word "can't" is pronounced.

43. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak - I won't say that I enjoyed this book, as the subject matter, really doesn't lend itself to "enjoyment", but it is a really excellent book and I'm glad I read it.

It is the story of Leisel, a German girl during WWII who is given up to be raised by a couple in a small town outside of Munich (as an aside, the town is called Molching. There is a real town called Olching outside of Munich, if the author wanted to mask where the story took place, he could have come up with a better town name, IMO).

Leisel is the "Book Thief" and gets the name by taking a book from one of the grave diggers at her little brother's funeral, but she is unable to read it. During the course of the book, her adoptive/foster Father teaches her to read this book and the several that she steals or saves from destruction. At the beginning, they are unaffected by the war that is going on outside their town, but as time progresses, the war comes to them and they affected by it in an all too real manner.

There are many aspects of this book that I won't spoil, from the narrative structure, which I thought was very interesting, to the characters that Leisel interacts with in her town. I will say that it is both a tragic and uplifting story that is well worth your time. Technically it is a "Young Adult" novel, but that is selling it short. Its just an excellent novel.

S: 5/25/14 F: 6/7/14 (14 Days)

A couple lines from Book Thief that left an impression language-wise...

"When the train pulled into Bahnof in Munich, the passengers slid out as if from a torn package"

"She waited for the suffocation of sleep"

The Book Thief makes another conquest! I've rarely heard a negative review of it.

Things I would have liked to see....

Back in the 60's Maurice Sendak was asked to illustrate a 30th Anniversary edition of The Hobbit. Due to "reasons", it never happened past Sendak doing a couple test drawings. Only one exists today.

Check this out... http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/maurice-sendak-illustrates-the-hobbit.html

I'm all most done reading my Early Review book; Invisible Beasts, and I am liking it a lot. Wanted to share a passage that I thought was particularly profound...

"The present, or Holocene, mass extinction is not the only one in life's history. It is the only one caused by a single organism capable of seeing the big picture, understanding its own destructive role, and changing that. But we don't see the big picture unless its shown to us."

>6 mahsdad: Jeff, I like your listing of those books added to the wishlist. I may borrow this idea if ok with you.

>115 Whisper1: Fine by me Linda. I'm sure I got it from somebody else. I keep an actual Wishlist collection in my "library", as well as on Goodreads. But I always like to share my obsessions.

BTW, the only reason I'm really using GR, is that their mobile app works really well, so having my WL in my pocket, helps when you come across a book sale ;)

Good Friday Folks!

For your Foto Friday viewing pleasure, I give an image of some flowers that I took with my phone. My wife loves to work in the garden and I do not, but when ever we go to the garden store, while she is looking for new and interesting plants to put in the garden, I am looking for new and interesting images of flowers to capture. It keeps me entertained ;) Enjoy your day, and weekend.

Gerberas! Pretty.

Looks like the Crash Course Literature folks are on a poetry kick. Here's John's take on Sylvia Plath...

http://youtu.be/iJn0ZPd6mYo

I've just started watching the Crash Course Lit vids, Jeff. They are very entertaining. I think I first heard about them here on your thread, so thanks!

^+1 Glad to share...

>117 mahsdad: My very absolute favorite flower! Just lovely.

44. The Giver - Lois Lowry (AUDIO) - A Young Adult book that was published in 1993 and one that I always saw on the shelves, but never picked up. With the pending arrival of a movie version, I decided it was time to "read" it. In this case, it meant listening to the audio.

Its the story of a Utopian (or is it Dystopian) society where everyone is tightly controlled by rules that stress the sameness of society. 1984 and Logan's Run immediately came to mind. Part of the rules of society is that every person is assigned a job on their 12th birthday. Jonas is selected to be the Receiver of Memories, a very mysterious job, where he goes to work with the Giver. The Giver, has all the memories of of the society before Sameness began. Jonas is to be given these memories and take over for the Giver. As he starts to take on more memories, he becomes more conflicted
and decides that the status quo has to change.

A real easy read that I liked, but didn't love. This is the first in a series of three, but I'm not sure I need to read the rest.

S: 6/10/14 F: 6/12/14 (3 Days)

I think I can officially state that I don't like Cormac McCarthy

Nothing personal, if you like his stuff, fine by me. I was just listening to the audio version of No Country for Old Men and though I don't know how many pages in I was, but I invoked the Pearl Rule. It just didn't capture my attention.

At one point, I liked the idea of reading all of his works, but this is the 3rd one I've set aside. So I'm done.

No harm, no foul. On to other stuff.

+1 on the McCarthy decision.

I'm reading In the Woods and due to "reasons", French is talking about death and Victorian tombstones. She "quote" from one that I thought was profound. Wanted to share.

"Remember pilgrim, as you pass by, As you are now so once was I; As I am now so will you be"

Off to Utah tomorrow for a little family adventure. Probably won't post much (still need to "review" Invisible Beasts), but then I'm not the most talkative around here anyways. I will, hopefully, get a Foto Friday posted.

Have a safe trip, Jeff!

Utah! Have a wonderful time, a safe journey, and a happy homecoming.

^ Yep, we're in Bryce for a couple days and then going to Moab for a couple days. Lots of pictures forth coming.

Okay, I know you've been waiting with baited breath, wondering where the heck is Foto Friday?

Well, I'm sorry, we were having too much fun in Bryce that I forgot to post. Either that, or I was too tired after hiking around this glorious area for 2 days. So sorry :)

Here is one of the 17 panoramas I took (with more on the way). Enjoy...

I agree with you about McCarthy. He's really not my cuppa.

>130 mahsdad: That is spectacular! What scenery. I'm following your adventures on FB and my feet hurt every time you post a hike's mileage.

I'll post more about my trip (it was spectacular) later in the week, but I wanted to (of course) report on a couple books I got along the way.

At the Visitor's Center at Arches National Park, I picked up The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by John Wesley Powell. its based on his journals of the fated expedition that he was a member. The back cover blub about how they servived famine, attacks, mutiny and dangerous rapids, has me intriqued.

Second, I got at a Book Store in Moab. In the bargain bin, I got Recapitulation by Wallace Stegner. Have no idea what its about, but at $2.50, I know it will be worth the money

Gorgeous pic from Utah, Jeff! I'm glad your getaway was a good one.

Recapitulation, apparently, is a sequel to Big Rock Candy Mountain! I'd no idea it even existed. *popcorn bowl* So, you'll be reading it now, right?

>135 richardderus:, Nor did I Monsieur RD. I do have Big Rock Candy Mountain, which I haven't read yet. I guess these 2 might have to worm there way up near the top of Mt TBR.

You're in for a treat with Big Rock Candy Mountain. I know of few people who didn't like it, and many who found it richly rewarding (me).

And since it was even cheaper than Recapitulation (FREE), mores the better.

When we were coming across Utah yesterday on the LONG drive home, there is a place where the folks actually named a mountain "Big Rock Candy Mountain" as a tourist marketing gimmick after the song came out.

Priceless! What a great dodge.

Boy, not reading threads for a week, certainly gives you a backlog. :)

You could go bonkers trying to read 'em all after a week. Start afresh, stay sane.

Oh I probably will, I'll jump to the bottom to clear out the read counts and skim back up.

On the wall at the Bookstore at LACMA (LA County Museum of Art)

"Be Careful of Books. Be Careful with Books. Be Careful or One can Become a Weapon-Wielder. Be Careful or One can Become the Victim" - Cai Guo-Qiang

BTW, I forgot to plug the book store in Moab. It was Back of Beyond Books. It was a neat store. Eclectic mix of new and used books. Had a section on antique and 1st edition books as well. Their website doesn't work, but their facebook page is here.

https://www.facebook.com/moabbooks

If you find yourself in Moab, UT, check them out.

It is my most devout and sincere wish never, ever to find myself in Utah ever, ever, ever again, as I have a severe allergy to Mormons. But the bookstore sounds wonderful.

You know we are Morman-phobic as well, but there is a definite earthy-crunchy + outdoorsy testosterone vibe in Moab. Lots of art galleries (tho perhaps too much Southwest Art), coffee shops, and interesting restaurants. Lots of opportunities to rent offroad vehicles or sign up for river rafting activities (not that we took advantage of either) Didn't see one LDS Temple. The only downside was the Liquor Store not being open on Sunday. Since we live in California where you can buy beer/wine/spirits in the grocery store anytime of the day, any day of the week, we're jaded.

I think if we had gone a little further north, we would have felt that allergy more.

My stepmother was from Nampa, Idaho, the Mothership of the Church of the Nazarene. She was the first adult in my life who, when I said of religious things, "...but that doesn't make SENSE!" replied, "nope, sure doesn't, and don't let the {obscene characterization redacted} tell you otherwise."

But still we visited the nutball family...and the Mormon side...and wheeee dawggie them is some out-there folks.

I grew up in the Methodist Church and had a fine time with Youth Groups and Service Projects. But once I graduated and moved out to Cali, I think me and organized religion decided to agree to disagree.

And in the words of Forrest Gump; That's all I'm gonna say about that. ;)

Went to the LA County Museum of Art. Saw a Calder exhibit and a French and German Expressionism exhibit (Kandinsky, Picasso, Van Gogh and the like) that was pretty darn cool to see.

Didn't buy any books at the book store, but added a couple to my WL.

>148 mahsdad: Change the Cali part to Bloomington, IN and you've got my growing-up-in-religion experience exactly. :)

All religion ever meant to me was people shouting/chanting illogical things at me in a building that was more interesting than the people in it.

Calder's mobiles are cool. I do like the Expressionists for their verve.

45. Invisible Beasts - Sharona Muir - I got this book thru the good graces of Bellevue Literary Press and the Early Reviewer program. The book is basically a collection of short stories (some printed in other publications), loosely tied together as the memoirs of Sophie. She is an amateur naturalist with a unique ability. She can see invisible creatures that live among us. One member of her family per generation inherits this gift.

Some of the "beasts" that she's discovered are the likes of Feral Perfumier Bees, to Truth Bats, to Beanie Sharks to the Hynogator.

For the most part very enjoyable, if not eclectic stories that use these fictitious animals to draw our attention to the natural world around us. Not all of them connected with me, but a majority did, and I would still recommend giving this book a try.

A new thing I'm trying, is, when a line or two sticks out for me, I will share them here.

From "Feral Perfumier Bees" : "It nourished them, roughly, but somewhere in its aromatic heart lurked an indigestible dissonance, where the chemistries of received wisdom wrestled with the nectars of circumstance."

From "Hypnogator" : "The trail smelled like arboreal body odor, a musk of indescribable antiquity that made my lungs strain to remember their gillhood.

S: 6/6/14 F: 6/15/14 (10 Days)

Its Foto Friday Time!

Here's another of my panoramas I stitched together from our trip to Utah. Like last week's image, this one is from Bryce Canyon National Park. Interestingly enough, one bit of trivia we learned, is that Bryce Canyon isn't really a Canyon, its technically an Amphitheater.

I have so many cool shots (IMHO) that I want to share, so here's a double dose of FF.

This little guy is probably a juvenile midget faded rattlesnake (if my Google-Fu is strong). This little bundle is probably only 5 in in diameter.

Panorama COOL

Snake interesting...faded? My first thought was how appropriate that someone stone-washed a snake.

From what I read, as these snakes get older their markings start to fade, so the blend in more. But a beige sand colored snake really isn't going to hide in this red colored soil. Ah, evolution, thou art a tough task master.

Strikes (!) me there's a lot more beige than red in the desert, so...

Great photos! The landscape is just beautiful in that area. Bryce Canyon is on our list of National Parks to go to -- all of them are actually!
We went to Zion a few years ago, but couldn't make it to Bryce in the same trip :(

>157 jayde1599: We did Zion and Grand Canyon (North Rim) several years ago. This trip was to complete the Grand Staircase.

It was a whirlwind. Went to; Cedar Breaks National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, Kodachrome State Park, Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, Capitol Reef National Monument, Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.

After I do a bit of editing, I'll subject you all to a link where you can partake of all of my images.

Link's to online photos...the geeky version of subjecting your friends to vacation slide shows.

>156 richardderus: There is a surprising amount of red sand in central Utah

Oh my goodness! Snake!

*Off to try to shake the heebee-geebees*

46. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (AUDIO) - The first rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club, which is going to make it a little hard to review this book. The second rule of Fight Club is DON'T TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB, which is going to make it REALLY tough to review this book, but I guess I'll muddle thru.

As a rule, I want to read the book before I see the movie, but in this case I had already seen the movie long ago, and I think the knowledge of where this book goes, diminishes it somewhat. I wish I could have gone into this without knowing where it was going. Also, my issue with seeing any movie first is that I can't see anyone but Ed Norton and Brad Pitt as the main characters. No more mind's eye imagination, oh well.

Besides that, its a pretty good read. The basic story is of a man stuck in a job he doesn't like, who is a raging insomniac and addicted attending various disease support groups. There he meets Marla, who, like him goes to these groups but isn't sick at all. He also meets Tyler Durden, a mysterious character that the narrator looks up to. Together they start Fight Club, a group of guys that get together to beat the crap out of each other. As therapy? Of course the group isn't enough and the idea grows and grows and spins psychedelically into mass mayhem. Like I said, if you've seen the movie, or read it in the past, you know where this leads up. If you haven't then, I can't help you, cause you DON"T talk about Fight Club.

A violent weird little book that I enjoyed.

S: 6/17/14 F: 6/27/14 (10 Days)

>161 mahsdad: My first Palahniuk read a long time ago. I enjoyed it very much, but was equally pleased by the movie. I don't think I saw Brad Pitt as Durden when I read it, but I got darn close to Ed Norton!

Some fun reading and gorgeous pictures going on here, Jeff!

Good call on No Country for Old Men. Despised it as a movie (hours of my life wasted). No way I'd ever read the book.

Thx Marianne for the kind words about my pix.

I always wanted to see NCFOM the movie, cause we love us some Cohen Brothers around my house, but never pulled the trigger. I think I'll pass on that as well.

I'm the type of person, and I think most of those who read this are too, that will jump at the chance to goto the library and check out a couple books, even though Mt TBR reaches about up to the ceiling.

Today I got...

You - Austin Grossman. Hooked from page 1. For anyone who loves video games, grew up in the 70's and 80's. Shades of Ready Player One, but more on the business/developer side.
Matterhorn - Karl Mariantes. A big novel about the Vietnam War. Acclaimed and highly recommended by several LTers. I've wanted to read this for years.

My son got the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (all 6 books) and a couple graphic novels that I'll probably read as well (and not just to pad my reading stats :) )

My wife got several books as well.

We then got some Starbucks and spent a pleasant hour reading and looking at the ocean from the cliffs of Palos Verdes.

Pretty decent end to the weekend.

Hope yours was enjoyable too.

Oh, that sounds like a lovely way to wrap up the weekend!

47. In the Woods - Tara French - Got this one from the lending table at the YMCA. I continue to have good success from picking up books from the "take one/leave one" table. This is a rippin' good yarn.

Essentially, a police procedural (picture Law & Order/SVU but with a plot and interesting characters), that opens in a small town in Ireland 3 young children go into the woods, something happens and they are attacked and one boy survives.

Years later that boy is now a police detective investigating the death of a young girl in the same town where he hasn't been back to in 25 years. The players in this crime, the relationship between the detective and his partner and whether or not his experiences as a child are related to this crime kept me guessing and kept me turning the page.

A good read, recommend.

S: 6/14/14 F: 6/29/14 (16 Days)

Everyone loves In the Woods. What is wrong with me? It was ~meh~ for me. Not at all awful, but I don't care if I never read another syllable of hers again.

Hey to each is own. There are tons of different stuff out there. I don't usually go for police procedurals or mysteries, but since it was on the free table I thought I would give it a try. I enjoyed it.

I don't think I'll actively look for her other works, but if I found one, I wouldn't kick it out of bed for eating crackers.

I'm reading You right now (library get) and I love it, but I'm a computer geek child of the 70's/80's so its right in my wheelhouse.

I can't help but feel I'm missing something.

Oh well, you enjoy You.

There is a scene early on in the book where the main character is in 7th grade and he and his friends are brought 2 by 2 to see the first Commodore PET computer. The teachers didn't know what to do with it, so they let the kids play with it in groups.

The main character then says after seeing the computer; "But it was probably the most generous and the most humble gesture I received from an adult in the sixteen-year duration of my schooling. The woman was simply leaving us alone with our future, the future she wouldn't be part of. She didn't know how to do it or what it was, but she was trying to give it to us."

I can relate.

I liked In the Woods quite a bit and I've liked the other Tana French novels I've read. That said, she is a library read for me, not an acquisition read. But then, most authors are these days with very few exceptions, so there's no shame in that.

You've seen this, no doubt.

I've been there over an hour. Drooling.

I did now, you Angelic Book Warbler.

I'll check it out

Wow. That's some great books coming out...

RD - got hit (or at least grazed) by 3 bullets on that list...

Patton's Spaceship - John Barnes : fighting across the Multiverse, yes please (plus its set in Pittsburgh, a plus for me)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Thomas Sweterlitsch : Anther story set in Pittsburgh. Post-apolocylptic, virtual reality, matrix-like, I'm in.
The Symmetry Teacher - Andrei Bitov : Described as a metaphysical mystery novel that is an "echo" of a old British novel that the Russian author had read and long forgotten. Sounded intriguing.

Wow...only three...all the Andre Nortons raised a misty, nostalgic tear for les jadis when I was devouring her stuff. I love, love, loved Sargasso of Space and the follow-ups the most!

I already had Tomorrow and Tomorrow and The Symmetry Teacher pre-ordered. Can't wait!!

I liked the John Barnes books when they came out in the 1990s. Good reads! I must say I am lovin' the hell out of Open Road Media! They republish a lot of excellent stuff.

Oh, BTW, I finally, finally reviewed my favorite book of 2013, The Martian, over in my thread...post #56.

It was a lot of fun. It made me laugh. I cared about the outcome. How rare is all that!

I saw your review, loved it. You write reviews like I want to write reviews, and do write reviews (at least the ones in my head, they never really seem to come out of my fingers properly).

About the list, the three were the only ones I truly wanted to read, I'm sure there are others. Is Open Road republishing Piers Anthony's entire catalog? Did to me.

>179 mahsdad: Thank you for that kind compliment! Just keep workin' them fingers. It's taken me 40 years to get here.

Open Road is in that specific business. They find un-mega-selling authors who have a following and a catalog, republish them as ebooks, and accept the modest profit levels. It's a business model that I admire and support. They do it in all genres, too!

I've shared these all on Facebook, but for those who are gluttons and want to see more of my images from Utah, here's a link to my Smugmug gallery. The gallery has the pictures from...

Cedar Breaks National Monument
Bryce Canyon National Park
Kodachrome State Park
Escalente Petrified Forest
Capitol Reef National Park
Arches National Park
Canyonlands National Park.

http://smu.gs/TPDoDr

Enjoy, or don't, no big whoop.

Yippee, won a copy of Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie in the Hachette Supplemental ER give-away.

Nebula winning book already on my Wishlist, for free? I'll take it.

Cool little video that will hit you right in the feels.

A day in the life of the New York Public Library

http://www.upworthy.com/hm-whats-this-line-for-the-library-whatthewhat-whats-in-...

Happy Foto Friday everyone! For those of us in the US of A, Happy 4th of July. In the words of Apu - Celebrate the independence of your nation, by blowing up a small part of it.

Here's your FF image. Another from my Utah trip. This is Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park.

>184 mahsdad: (Oh my gosh, are you playing the Simpsons Tapped Out game!? Or are you just quoting the show?)

>184 mahsdad: Beautiful! Happy Fourth.

>185 scaifea: Amber, no Tapped Out for me. I broke myself of the Farmville habit, and Tapped Out (as I see it), is just FV with better characters :)

That Apu phrase, is one of the goto sayings in our family. But we remembered it wrong. We always say...

Celebrate the birth of your nation, by blowing up a small part of it.

I think that works better ;)

>187 mahsdad: Ah, I see. I stopped watching the show a long time ago, but I'm completely in love with the game.

Its from one of the early seasons. We too haven't watched it in years. But we have just recently started at the beginning with our 13 yr old and they are still pretty funny.

>189 mahsdad: It *is* a great show - I love the idea of re-visiting it from the beginning with your offspring! I'll tuck that little idea away for later...

48. Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger (AUDIO) - Got this one as part of the Humble Bundle Audiobook sale. This was a very interesting book. Mainly the story of the loss of the swordfish boat; Andrea Gail off the coast of Gloucester MA during the "perfect storm" of 1991 when a Nor'Easter absorbed Hurricane Grace in the North Atlantic.

The author discusses at the beginning that it is hard to put a narrative work together where you ultimately have no idea what what spoken done by the main characters (no one survived, spoiler alert), but Junger wanted to maintain a sense of journalistic integrity. So he did lots of interviews with other fisherman, asking them to describe their experiences during the storm, and what they might have done under the conditions that the Andrea Gail found herself in. He extrapolated from there. I think it worked.

He also inter-cut scenes from the plot thread of the storm with various history lessons. He starts with the history of Gloucester and the fishing industry, moves to the biology of the fish the boats are going after and the technology of how the do it. Then as the storm progresses, he goes thru the science behind this meteorological event. And finally when the storm is at its peak he discusses the Coast Guard and National Guard and what they do to protect sailors on the Grand Banks, as, in the story, they are affecting the many rescues they did during the storm.

This was a very dramatic and engaging book. Recommend.

S: 6/27/14 F: 7/3/14 (7 Days)

I've reviewed the sixth Doubleday UK Book-A-Day meme entry, What Book Would You Put Down to Watch Wimbledon?

Doc Savage: Fortress of Solitude/The Devil Genghis, of course. It's fun to relive innocent days gone by, but so easy to take a break...even a long one...and know catching up won't be troublesome. Visit my review in the Orphans thread...post #34.

I never really got into reading Doc Savage. Always remembered seeing them in the book stores as a kid. (How could you not miss the covers of those pulpy paperbacks). After reading your review, I probably still won't read them.

I think the same might go for comics/graphic novels. I tried to read one that the boy (13 yrs old) checked out of the library about the Templar Knights. Lasted a couple pages, I'd just rather read a full book on the subject.

While I can appreciate the art and craft of the comic book, its just not for me.

Time marches on...

I agree re: comic books, obviously...lots of work for insufficient return for li'l ol' me. I doubt I'll ever buy another of the Doc Savage books. This one cost 1¢ and that was fine; but once a philosopher....

>183 mahsdad: Saw and loved that Day-in-the-Life video for the NYC Library.

Amazing how much a library can do. Which is why it is so important to support one's local public library!

^+1

Jeff, I really liked A Perfect Storm. Part of my enjoyment was the drama of the storm and the rescue attempts, but part of it was just the immersion into a world that is completely unfamiliar to me, commercial fishing. I recently read a transcript of a panel that Junger was on at a writing conference, and he talked about the process of piecing together a narrative for an event that no one survived. He also mentioned that originally his plan was to write a book about dangerous jobs, and the story that became The Perfect Storm was intended to just be a chapter in that book.

^+1 He talked about that book of dangerous jobs at the beginning of the audiobook version I was "reading". Just goes to show you how writing a book can organically grow from what you intended to what it intended.

>197 rosalita: >198 mahsdad: Interesting bit about the genesis of his book. Thanks for sharing!

Both book and movie of The Perfect Storm made my eyelashes sweat and my toes dig into Mother Earth.

"eyelash sweat" I LOVE that image.

You know the phenomenon, then.

49. You - Austin Grossman - Bypassed the multitudes of books on Mt. TBR, to get this fun read from the library.

This an almost on the edge of your seat action thriller for the programmer geek. The main character, Russell, starts off the book interviewing at the video game development house that is run by several of his former high school pals. He's hired and soon after a shakeup occurs (as always does in internet boom-town that was 1997) and he finds himself as the production designer of the company's next game release. A release that is make or break with an all too short timeline and not enough people to do the job.

As he works on the new game, he starts playing the old games and discovers a "glitch" that shouldn't be there that takes him further and further back in the history of the games to the original game that he and his friends created and worked on at computer camp when they were 12.

The kinda serves as a history of computer gaming, from text based adventure D&D games, to Sci-Fi world simulation games, to the political intrigue genres and on to FPS games of today (or at least the hint of what was to come, given the setting)

It was a pretty good nostalgia trip for me, the descriptions of the games and game play in the story, made me want to get copies and play them. I was impressed by the density of the game backstories that Grossman created. The ultimate "villain" in the story is kinda deus ex machina, but I think it worked and it kept me engaged and entertained.

Its probably not for everyone, but if you grew up playing Zork and Wizardry and NetHack and every other video game that came after, you probably will enjoy it.

S: 6/29/14 F: 7/6/14 (8 Days)

...if you grew up playing Zork and Wizardry and NetHack and every other video game that came after, you probably will enjoy it.

...it appears to be English yet it conveys no meaning to me...

+1

Oooh, Computer Camp at 12! I totally did that. *nostalgic sigh*

Oh, and, Wishlisted! Thanks for the review!

Its the weekend! Almost. (Unless you live in the future like Mr. Cranswick - Hi Paul :)

Here's my Foto Friday selection, for your amusement and delight. Its yet another vista from our trip to Utah.

My...isn't that...lush.

*shiver*

How sharp and crisp!

Oh, that is gorgeous!

>207 mahsdad:. Love this -especially with those bare branches framing the right hand side.

"...Bypassed the multitudes of books on Mt. TBR, to get this fun read from the library."

Yup. A detour I take with larding frequency. Wishing you a wonderful weekend, Jeff!

>207 mahsdad:- Love that photo!

Hi Jeff! Sorry, I seem to have unstarred your thread but you are back in action now. Have you tried any of the Ommegang Game of Thrones beers? I recently had the red ale and it was very good. Hopefully, you can get them on the west coast. I know the brewery is the northeast.

Hey Mark,

No worries on the thread starring. So many threads, so little time.

Haven't tried the GoT beers yet. I have seen them in my local Total Wine & Beer store. With your recommendation, I'll have to give them a try.

50. Hollow World - Michael J. Sullivan (AUDIO) - This is another from the Humble Bundle audiobook collection. Its a play on the Time Machine, where the main character discovers that he has a terminal disease and then (as luck would have it) perfects a time machine and jumps to the future to see if they've cured his ills, but he doesn't want to jump too far in the future for fear of not recognizing or being able to cope with what the world has become.

But as plot twists will always have it, he jumps too far. He comes to a world where nature seems to have reclaimed the land and there are no people. He soon discovers that the world is populated by genetic clones who live under ground (perhaps a literary melding of the Eloi and Morlocks) and have eliminated all disease, death and violence. Seems like a utoptia, but all is not well in Hollow World. Someone is murdering people. The novel then becomes a mystery thriller where the detective has to deal with the "fish out of water" fact that he doesn't fit into this new society, and is struggling to find is way as well as help these "innocents" save their world.

Even in the best utopias, a little dystopia always creeps in.

Interestingly, this book was self-published by the author thru a Kickstarter campaign

It was a pretty good read, that I would recommend if you were picking it up at the library.

S: 7/3/14 F: 7/12/14 (10 Days)

Amazon announced Kindle Unlimited for $9.99 a month. Obvious play to compete with Oyster. Thoughts?

If I was going to pull the trigger on a service like this, I'd lean away from the Big A, but depending on their selections?

http://gizmodo.com/kindle-unlimited-is-here-read-as-much-as-you-like-for-1607102...

You can have as many as ten books at a time, but they must be "returned" before more are added.

I read so few ebooks (all on my phone, no kindle yet), so I'll probably skip.

Besides, even though I know you are only purchasing a "license" to read the book when you buy and ebook (and the greedy bastards can revoke said license), I would prefer to always buy the book, unless I'm at the library.

I'm on the same page. (!)

Its Foto Friday time.

Today I'll leave the wilds of Utah behind and share with you the angelic face of my middle child.

Enjoy your weekend all! Happy reading.

*choo*

flees feline evilness

*choo*

First pet dander doesn't travel over the intertubes, so I pshaw your *choo*

Secondly, but he's adorable, and you don't have to walk him at 11pm at night in the snow ;)

Great photo. I'm loving all this virtual *dander-free* love going on.

Is the Kindle Unlimited only available if you own the actual Kindle device, or can you use if you have Kindle, say, on your IPad? I have Prime, but can't use the lending library because I don't have a Kindle device.

Thanks for sharing. I'll be keeping an eye out to see what is available.

Having a quick reunion with with college friends this weekend. Thinking of you -- they are coming from Del Mar!

I didn't even think about it not being available on the apps and just being limited to the physical kindle devices. Interesting.

Enjoy your reunion.

BTW, I don't think I've ever read your "origin" story, is your handle Michigantrumpet because you are, or where at one time a trumpet playing musician? Perhaps at Michigan?

I have no ties to Michigan, but I was a musician in my youth. Played sax all the way thru college

HA that's all y'all know! Cats *choo* are Limbs of Satan and have learned from their Dread Master how to do any- and everything that makes human beings miserable.

As to walking dogs in the snow, it builds character. And beats a litterbox!

Looking forward to the reunion -- they are swinging through Boston on a college visit tour with their daughter.

Grew up in Ypsilanti, MI, attended school in Ann Arbor and yes, I played trumpet there. Was *this* close to being a music major, but ended up in law school instead.

Hope this picture comes through. That's me front and center.



If I didn't play trumpet, I would have definitely picked up the sax. I'm told the trumpet personality fits me perfectly, though. ;-)

>224 richardderus: Well I guess as a Satanic Book Warbler, what better minion to have.

Now if we are continue today's excretory talk, I'm going to use the spoiler tag to keep this thread clean and fresh for those with more delicate constitutions...

What's better, to pick it up desiccated and and coated in sand with a shovel, or to pick it up fresh from the source with a plastic bag covered hand :)

To be fair, if we had a yard and neighborhood that was dog friendly, we'd have one in a heartbeat.

>225 michigantrumpet: I marched all thru High School (western PA), and our band went to Mardi Gras, Disney, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, among other trips.

I went to West Virginia Wesleyan for college and while we didn't have a marching band, I was in the Jazz Band and along with local concert tours during Spring Breaks, go to go to Eastern Europe on a tour during the late 80's.

While, unfortunately I don't play anymore, music was probably my favorite part of my High School and College years.

>226 mahsdad: One is outdoors...the other isn't, and doesn't flush. *shudder*

Living on a half-acre with a tree-lined boulevard is, indeed, an argument for the canids.

>227 mahsdad: I was born in Western PA! Spooky.

WOW! That's a lot of trips in high school and college. What fun! I'm particularly envious of your Eastern Europe trip. Like you, music was a transformative part of my life.

Besides trips to other Big 10 schools, I managed performed in two Rose Bowls, the Gator Bowl, Astrobluebonnet Bowl, A Super Bowl, opened a Republican National Convention and a Bob Hope Special.

All fabulous experiences for someone putting herself through college. Never would have been able to do that otherwise.