drneutron's Books Red in 2008

1. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Oh so very good! I loved the mix of literary references, sci-fi, a bit a fantasy, and thriller. The prose was beautiful, the plot was tight, and the characters were well conceived. Looks like the wife and I have a new series to enjoy.

2. The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

My favorite thing about this series is the annual wrap-up the editors do for fantasy and horror the previous year. It's a great way to catch up on any good books I might have missed over the year and I've often gone back to pick up a recommendation or two.

In spite of the usefulness of the summaries, the point of the book is to present the best short fiction of the year in horror and fantasy. On the horror side, the stories are excellent, and I generally enjoy them. In most years, though, I find the fantasy selections unsatisfying. The stories lean to the modern fantasy and magical realism side rather than more traditional forms of fantasy. I haven't decided if this lack is due to the editors' taste or a limitation of the catalog available for selection. It's hard for me to believe nobody's writing any stories like Fritz Lieber used to.

The current volume is worth a flip-through, for the annual summary if nothing else.

drneutron, will you continue in the "Thursday Next" series? I loved The Eyre Affair but the second one less so. I suppose I thought the humor had somewhat played itself out. But, there are many LTers who have loved the entire series. Have you read Good Omens by Gaiman & Pratchett. Quite funny also.

I'm planning to finish up the series. The wife picked up The Eyre Affair and liked it too, so now we're reading 'em together. If the next couple don't pan out, we may re-think the plan, though.

Either way, I'll post here as I go.

Yep, read Good Omens some time ago and loved it. Gaiman's one of my faves, and Pratchett's ok too.

3. The Keeper by Sarah Langan

I came across a recommendation for The Keeper here on LibraryThing in one of the groups. It sounded interesting, so I picked it up. The first few chapters were slow going, and I almost put it down. Boy, am I glad I didn't. Things pick up and get pretty creepy about 1/3 of the way through and keep going until literally the last sentence.

The Keeper is the story of the death of a town. Not just any town, but an old factory town with a history of abuse and downright evil. And the end isn't easy, by any stretch. The story centers around an inverse sin-eater theme, where the evil that is done in the town builds and builds until it can't be contained anymore. Once it's out, it's not going back into the bottle.

The book suffers from a few first-time author flaws. The writing is a bit uneven, and the characters take a bit to get going. The plot needs juicing in a couple of spots. But in general, I recommend it as worth the time spent.

If you liked Good Omens you should pick up Darkmans by nicola Barker. It's like if you crossed Gaiman and Prechett with The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It was on the Booker short list for 2007.

-mistress 'rissa

I took a look at the reviews here. I'm adding it to my TBR list...It'll bubble up in a couple of months, likely. Thanks for the tip!

4. Black Order by James Rollins

As with all Rollins Sigma Force novels, Black Order mixes thriller action with science just over the border of what's real. As a physicist, I liked the touch of science involved. Just don't take it too seriously - this is definitely finction. Rollins includes an afterward with his sources - turns out I had already read one of them, Himmler's Crusade, that talks about Nazi activities in the Himalayas during the 1930s. That one's highly recommended too.

Many of the characters here are carried over from previous Sigma Force books, and it's fun to see how things go with the continuing characters. Someone new to the series can read this book out of order without missing much, but reading the previous books will add a little richness.

The plot is Rollins' usual tight, action-packed story. If you like this sort of book (and I do!) this will be a satisfying read.

5. Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Day Watch is a fantastic sequel to The Night Watch, in the true sense of the word sequel. It continues the story of the Others, both Light and Dark, as they jockey for advantage and the end to the balance enforced by the Inquisition in a slightly twisty Moscow leading up to the turn of the millennium.

The best part of both books is the back-and-forth plotting to build advantage that inherits so much from the best of Cold War spy novels while still keeping the fantastical elements of a great imaginary world of Others. There are layers upon layers upon layers here, and Day Watch builds wonderfully on the plots from its predecessor.

Frankly, I can't wait until the third volume is out in English to see how it all ends. Highly recommended, but best if read after the first volume.

6. 99 Coffins by David Wellington

One of my issues with recent vampire stories is that authors have been watering down vampires until, in most cases, they seem like people with superpowers instead of terrifying monsters. To my mind, vampire stories lose a lot of their power when this happens. Wellington's books - 13 Bullets and 99 Coffins - definitely do not suffer from that problem. His vampires are evil predators that are truly other than human. Which makes the stories so much more gripping for me, especially as the humans have to cope with the otherness. Be prepared for some pretty graphic images, though. 99 Coffins is the sequel to 13 Bullets, and if you want to get the full flavor of the story, it's best to read them in order. If you don't have the first volume, though, go ahead and dive in. Wellington does a good job of catching readers up with the story.

The story starts with the discovery of a hidden cache of coffins at the Gettysburg battlefield, which turns out to be the remnants of a Union plot to use vampires to beat back the Confederacy in the darkest days of the Civil War. Unfortunately, that discovery leads to modern-day mayhem. The unfolding of the plot is wonderfully done, and my only complaint with the book is that Wellington tries a little too hard to be politically correct in his imagining of the main characters. Once he gets going, though, the development sucks you right in.

7. Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh

Foreigner is a mystery to me. There were times when I really, really liked it and got captivated by the book. Then I'd hit a passage where I just couldn't wait for the book to be over. All in all, I'm still trying to figure out where I stand on the book.

The premise of the book was great - humans traveling in interstellar space get lost and a large portion wind up settling on a world very like Earth bu populated by a native race that's like humanity in many ways, yet different enough that the two races just can't understand each other's inner workings. Most of the book centers on the lone human ambassador to the aliens and how he gets caught up in an internal power struggle having to do with the direction of alien-human relations. The possibilities are rich!

Unfortunately, I just never connected with the main character, Bren, and never developed sympathy for him as he dealt with events. For someone who worked (as he says) for 15 years to be the one person out of millions tobe the single interface between the two races, he seems indecisive and out of his league. It's hard for me to imagine that he would be the choice to represent humans. Much of my misgivings with the book were over what seemed like endlessly repetitive internal anguish over trying to get a grip on the motives and plans of the aliens he was surrounded by. Yet there were times when his character just shined, and that's when I really got into the book.

I understand that many people like these books, and I suspect my opinions are in a small minority. I'd advise anyone interested in these books to try 'em and see for themselves whether the books are worth reading.

8. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin

For the most part, I liked the book, especially the descriptions of the personal quirks of the justices. The thought of Clarence Thomas trucking around the country in a big RV cracked me up, but also felt somehow like he's found a great way to talk to real people instead of the usual DC crowd. I'll have to ask my parents to keep an eye out for him on their trips!

The book does have some flaws. Toobin decided to orient chapters around cases and issues instead of strict chronological order, so there's some jumping around in time that gets confusing in spots where the cases he's discussing overlap in time. His analysis of the cases seems shallow to me, but in fairness, detailed analysis isn't the point of the book. And he seems overly enamored of some justices - Sandra Day O'Connor can do little wrong, it seems. Finally, it just felt like this work was quickly tossed off to meet a deadline.

Decent read, but I'm probably not going to go searching out any of his other works.

drneutron, I read The Run of His Life by Toobin a couple of months ago. It was about the OJ Simpson case. I really enjoyed it. He presented it without sensationalism or hysteria.

Hmmm. I'll check into it. It's probably a rush to judgment to say I'm not searching out *any* of his other works. A recommendation goes a long way...8^}

wasn't there another book about the Supreme court that came out around the same time? I was trying to remember both books before the holidays because I thought they might books my brother might like (he had read a biography of William O. Douglas last year, I think)

9. The Judas Strain by James Rollins

The Judas Strain is the fourth in Rollins' Sigma Force series. As is usual, the book is a roller coaster ride of a thriller that ends with a great battle between the forces of Good and Evil in an exotic location. Bombs go off, bullets fly, miraculous saves are made, the good guys survive impossible odds, and the world is saved. Is it a classic literary work? No. Is it scientifically realistic? No. But it's entertaining, and the continuing characters are fun to get to know. And Rollins kicks the ending up a notch by leaving us hanging as to the fate of at least one of the characters. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

10. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

I've had this one since 1999, read it once - on a business trip, if I recall correctly - and then put it on the shelf. Some discussions here on LT piqued my interest again, so I thought I'd give it a go again to see if my opinion of it changed. The result? Eh, in some ways yes, in some, no.

The core of the book is an attempt to answer the question: Why did history unfold differently on different continents and for different people-groups? Diamond's ideas have to do with issues like geography and distribution of wild plants and animals that could be domesticated rather than traits of the people themselves.

The ideas are still as interesting as the first go around, but I'm convinced that his theories are simpler than real life is. There's lots of meat there to think about. His writing is less captivating that I remember it being. He's wordy and just a touch repetitive. Don't let that stop you, though. The book's quite worthwhile!

11. Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon

A short, fun, colorful tale of two adventurers as they knock about the Caucasus region around 1000 AD. The language is suitably flowery and poetic, the descriptions are delightful, and the characters feel real. Besides, how could anybody miss a book with the working title "Jews with Swords"?

12. The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming

The Spy Who Loved Me is the oddball of the Bond stories. It's told from the point of view of the "Bond girl", and James doesn't even show up until we're more than halfway through the book. He doesn't save the world, just a girl who's being set up in an insurance scheme by some small-time hoodlums. No gadgets, no supervillain. But it's a pretty good read anyway. Not one of my favorite Bond adventures, but not my least favorite either.

13. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

Great caper-that-turns-into-a-rebellion story. I loved the concept - what happens after the hero who's supposed to save the world doesn't? The characters really came alive for me, and the plot was well-paced. Highly recommended!

14. The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes

The Somnambulist is a mashed up stew of Holmes pastiche, occultish mystery, steampunk-ish elements, and just plain weirdness. I thoroughly enjoyed it - read it front to back with only one break, which is unusual for me - especially the unreliable narrator and the surprise at the end when the narrator identity was revealed.

The book has a few novice-author flaws. In spots, I had to backtrack a few lines to picture action as it occurred, and the characters could have been fleshed out just a hair more. Despite this, I highly recommend the book.

15. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Lost in a Good Book is a wonderful follow-on to The Eyre Affair. The wordplay and characterizations are just as good, and I especially loved all the fun Fforde had with names. The plot was a bit weaker than the previous book, but still well worth the time. I'm looking forward to the next one!

>21 drneutron: I have to say I was disappointed in the Somnambulist, which I thought so promising through most of the book. However, I thought the last third or so, a complete jumble of silliness. Btw, the VanderMeers are editing a Steampunk anthology due to come out in May, I think.

#23 - Yeah, I've gotten that reaction from some folks over in the Early Reviewer thread on the book. I read the confusion at in the ending as part of the whole unreliable narrator concept, so it didn't detract much from my enjoyment. There may be some new-author-itis involved as well...

Oh, I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for the anthology! Thanks for the tip...

16. Of Tangible Ghosts by L. E. Modesitt Jr

Of Tangible Ghosts is a mystery/thriller set in an alternative universe where ghosts linger. One of the side effects of this is that war is more difficult, since battles tend to make large numbers of ghosts. This has led to nations and alliances that are eerily familiar, but different from our own in interesting ways. The book centers on the murder of a college professor in a backwater town that leads to lots of trouble for a former spy who is now a professor at the college.

The mystery of who committed the murder was good - I didn't figure it out until the very end. The spy story wasn't so interesting for me until the very end. Modesitt kept using language to try to create a sense of danger to the main character that just didn't work for me. Once the final 10 chapters got going, the pace really picked up and things fell into place. It kept me interested until the end, but not on the edge of my seat.

17. Duma Key by Stephen King

It's been a while since I read a King novel that I thought was outstanding. Until now. Duma Key is old school Stephen King, with a captivating set of characters and a strong plot that builds to a really spooky finish. Well worth the time spent!

18. What Makes A Terrorist by Alan B. Krueger

One of the critical mistakes we can make in the current war on terror is to assume terrorists are poor, uneducated people duped or talked into doing the things they do. Krueger's work sets out to show in a statistical fashion who these people really are. In fact, his analysis shows that terrorists from a wide range of organizations tend to me middle class with higher education, and that our government, at least, has made a number of errors and deliberate misstatements about terrorists and what to do to prevent people from becoming terrorists.

What Makes A Terrorist? is based on a set of lectures given by Krueger, and isn't as deep as I'd like, but it does offer a real statistical analysis of the situation. He's honest about the limitations of his data gathering, and his statistical analysis seems correct to me (although I'm an informed layman rather than an expert in statistical analysis). In addition, the transcribed lecture format seems terse. Nonetheless, it's a good book.

19. A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane

Wow. Where was I in 1994 that I missed this? A Drink Before the War is a whiplash-inducing take on gang warfare, dirty politics and the things done to survive in an evil, uncaring world. The characters are fantastic, the plot moves along quickly, the violence is real, and the book takes on hard issues of race and race relations without wrapping things up in a pretty, but false, bow at the end. I'm definitely moving the rest of the series up on my list of books to read!

20. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Hey, it Frankenstein - what else needs to be said? 8^}

It's a favorite of mine, read it last several years ago. I came across the book a bit ago and decided to compare it with Dracula to see which I liked best. I'll let you know when I finish the other one!

#26 I bought Duma Key recently and was curious what it was about. You could tell by the blurb that it wasn't standard King. It is tucked on the shelf, way down my TBR list but perhaps I might bring it closer to the top? Is it worth the read?

Definitely, yes. He's more character-driven in this one than in most recent books, and the insight he shares into someone recovering from a life-altering accident is marvelous. Given the accident he had, I suppose it should be no surprise that the story just feels real to me even with the supernatural elements.

21. Black: Book 1 in the Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker

Dekker's "Black" opens a trilogy intended to be classic thriller, scifi other-world story, and an allegory for the Christian story of the fall through redemption. As a thriller it's decent enough. As a scifi other-world story and allegory, it's pretty well done. Certainly, Black was good enough to keep me reading, and by the end, I was hard pressed to put it down without finishing. I'm hoping the rest of the trilogy keeps going as well!

#21: I have seen several of Dekker's books and now I will have to check them out. I will definitely look for them.

22. Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart

The Bridge of Birds is very high on my list of favorite books. I love the mixture of lyrical prose, comedy and the feel of a Chinese folk tale that Hughart brings. I first read it back in the 80's when it first came out. The book holds up nearly perfectly on re-reading it some 20 years later. Highly recommended!

23. Lost in Transmission? by Nicholas Perrin

Perrin has written a decent introduction to the problem of textual criticism and whether we can trust the Bible to accurately transmit the words of Jesus. He builds this discussion around the story of how his questioning in this very subject led to his own conversion experience, which provides a framework for walking through the major questions raised by Bart Ehrman and others of the day. And as you might imagine given how he's structured the book, he comes to the conclusion that yes, we can trust the Gospels to accurately transmit Jesus and his message.

I was prepared to be disappointed with this book. I'm no scholar in this area, but I'm no novice either. A number of books like this come across to me as providing trite responses to the questions. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Lost in Transmission? is both deeper and more personal than that. I'll recommend it to novices who have an interest in the subject as a great entry point to the discussion.

24. On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming

By far, my favorite James Bond book. And my favorite thing about the book is way Fleming builds the sense that things just can't end well for James and Tracy. The ending is bitter and just the right note of tragedy.

25. Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg

The thing that struck me about this book is the reality of the characters. Often fantasy falls into some very bad traps for characters, but Carol Berg seems to know how to create people I can believe in and care about. The book is worth reading for that alone.

The plot is good, but in my opinion, overreaches sometimes. Connections between plot elements occasionally come off as contrived, but if you don't worry about that too much, it's great. I've just started the second in the duology, so more review to come...

26. Breath and Bone by Carol Berg

About 8 months ago I picked up the first volume in the duology, Flesh and Spirit, and thought it was pretty good. Then I decided to re-read it in sequence with the second book. I thought I had the plot of the second volume pretty well worked. In some points I guessed right, but in the main points, Carol Berg really surprised me. Breath and Bone is a wonderful book with a twisty plot, great characters, and beautiful prose. This two-volume set should be on every fantasy fan's must-read list! For best effect, read them one after the other without break.

27. Bloodline by F. Paul Wilson

I've been a big fan of Repairman Jack since the beginning. As a part of the series, Bloodlines fills in the storyline nicely. But it's different from most of the other volumes, and I don't think this is one of the best. Repairman Jack fixes things for people. Usually through some sort of trickery, and half the fun of these books is in how the scam is pulled off. Woven through these stories has been an ongoing series of confrontations with agents of the Other. In Bloodlines, the confrontation comes to the front, and I think Wilson is headed to a final confrontation within the next few books. But the con is tossed in at the end, and I think the book suffers for it.

Recommended for the continuing storyline, but don't start with this one. Read the whole series in order.

28. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

The Well of Lost Plots picks up the Thursday Next story after what was a bit of a lackluster second volume. I really fell for the first in the series, so was a little disappointed with Lost in a Good Book. But with the third volume, Fforde is back. His concept of Book World came together nicely, and I love the way he portrayed book characters as actors and Book World as Hollywood, including an awards show! The humor was back, the literary references were fun to spot, the characterizations felt fleshed out, and the plot was great. I'm hoping the rest of the series turns out as good!

29. Looking for Hamlet by Marvin Hunt

Hunt's history of the play starts well. I thoroughly enjoyed his discussion of the source material for Hamlet, the differences between the published versions and issues with how the play was actually performed relative to the printed texts we have. He starts out well discussing the history of interpretation criticism of the play, but after getting to the modern and post-modern analysis just sort of wanders off into the weeds. In spots he claims that a given study was seminal without explaining why. In other spots, he goes off into personal experiences that seem to have little bearing on the explanation of the history of Hamlet studies. In spite of the good material at the start, I found this book ultimately unsatisfying.

Hello doc,

Saw your post on Repairman Jack. Picked up a discarded paperback a couple of years back and enjoyed it a great deal. Fun storytelling. Have always wanted to read more but never knew exactly where to start. Most times I've looked at one, I felt like I wasn't picking up the books in the right order. And, I noticed recently that they have started re-packaging and re-publishing them. So, I am quite confused! Any suggestions on where to pick up a good list with the series in order, even with the Bloodlines ordered in????

Wikipedia has the following:

Repairman Jack has appeared in the following novels:

* The Tomb (1984) re-released in 1998 with updated cultural references, and again in 2004 in a limited edition under its original title, Rakoshi, by Borderlands Press
* Legacies (1998)
* Conspiracies (1999)
* All the Rage (2000)
* Hosts (2001)
* The Haunted Air (2002)
* Gateways (2003)
* Crisscross (2004)
* Infernal (2005)
* Harbingers (2006)
* Bloodline (2007)
* By the Sword (2008)

The list matches up pretty well with my memory.

Thanks a bunch.....I have printed that out and put it with my ever growing wish list of books.

30. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff

Bad Monkeys was a head-twisting, surreal ride through conspiracies and secret organizations, all with a twist of uncertainty about the reality of the whole thing. I zipped right through without hardly taking a breath, and it kept me guessing the whole time. Just when I thought I had things figured out, another twist would come along to upset the applecart. I loved it!

31. Red by Ted Dekker

Dekker's "Red" continues a trilogy begun in "Black" intended to be classic thriller, scifi other-world story, and an allegory for the Christian story of the fall through redemption. Red is better than Black, which was already pretty good, and the allegorical elements came together better this time around, and the characters felt more developed. Very good, and I'm looking forward to the finale!

32. You Said What? by Bill Fawcett

You Said What? is a collection of short essays on lies and deceptions in history. The emphasis is on American history, and most of the stories involve politicians (big surprise!). The book is a light read. The editor says in the introduction that it's meant to be taken in short bites, and he succeeds in his approach. Students of history probably won't learn anything here, but it made for an amusing diversion.

#26 - I hadn't bought a King novel in a long, long time. But I felt compelled to buy Duma Key as well. Its on my TBR pile, but I'm glad to hear such a good review.

33. The Kingdom of Bones by Stephen Gallagher

The Kingdom of Bones is ultimately a story about what a man will do for love. Tom Sayers is a former prizefighter turned stage manager for a traveling company in the late 1800's and his quest to first clear himself of a series of murders, then rescue his love from an ancient evil. In the mix, Gallagher adds a nicely twisty plot involving help from a police inspector turned Pinkerton agent and Bram Stoker and lyrical prose that easily captivates the reader. Highly recommended!

34. The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky

Parts of The Basque History of the World are fascinating - the discussion of Basque origins and language, social customs, recipes, and other insights. Other parts of the book are confusing and a little tedious - the late 19th and early- to mid-20th century history, for example. Kurlansky tends not to follow a strict chronology. Instead he brings in parallel streams of history that overlap, making the story with such unfamiliar names more difficult to follow. I'm also a little uncertain how unbiased he is when it comes to discussing the conflict between the Spanish government and groups like ETA; I'd like to hear both sides before judging. In spite of this, the book is well worth reading.

#50: I have this one checked out of the library and will be reading it in the next week or two. Glad to have some input ahead of time.

35. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

As the follow-on to Mistborn, I expected good things from The Well of Ascension. Brandon Sanderson didn't disappoint. I'm really intrigued by the concept Sanderson presents here - what happens after the Hero who's supposed to defeat evil doesn't. Add to that the question of how a group of heroes become the leaders of a new government in a complex political situation and what it really means to have faith and trust in others, and things get really fascinating. As with the first volume, the plot has plenty of twists to keep us interested, and plenty of development of the main characters. All in all, a great second volume in the trilogy!

#50: I just finished The Basque History of the World last night and agree completely with your review. All in all, I am not sorry I read it. I have one of his other books, Cod: a Biography of the Fish that Changed the World checked out of the library now as well and I also have another of his books that my library did not have, on order.

I've got Cod on my TBR as well. It'll be interesting to compare Kurlansky's two books.

36. Renfield by Barbara Hambly

Hambly tells the Dracula story from the perspective of Renfield, a patient in Dr Seward's asylum. In the original novel, Renfield is a relatively minor character who is killed by Dracula after Renfield betrays him to the vampire hunters. Hambly adds a wife and child to Renfield's history and manages to keep him in the Dracula story until the end by an interesting plot twist that I really don't want to give away.

This novel is told in much the same style as Dracula, through the use of letters and journal entries, and the feel of the story is much the same as the original. Her prose is downright creepy in spots, and the plot twists keep the reader's interest, but never lose contact with the original story. My only concern is that readers not familiar with Stoker's original book won't get the full effect and may miss some of the story.

#36: I will have to check that one out. I have read a couple of Hambly's books in the recent past and enjoyed them. Thanks for the recommendation!

37. Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury by Stephan Pastis

The first two years of one of my favorite comics. I don't know how I would survive the loss of Calvin and Hobbes or The Far Side without Pearls...

38. Al Qaeda In Its Own Words by Gilles Kepel

hoped to get some deeper understanding of Al Qaeda and its leadership from a study of material actually written by themselves rather than filtered through news media or analysts. Al Qaeda In Its Own Words somewhat met this goal, but was ultimately unsatisfying for me. Frankly, the material presented was pretty shallow. The editors imply that this is so because the thinking behind the material is pretty shallow, and I can believe it. It may be that the material the editors have to work with is in itself ultimately unsatisfying.

The introductory material on each of the authors was a decent set of histories, but all of the info could be found in more detail in other sources. The end notes were good, and I highly recommend they be read as the reader proceeds through the text.

What would have made this book better? I'm not sure. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Perhaps the book would have been better if the introductory material also included discussion of the context and some interpretation of the presented material. I suspect the ideas presented here are not mainstream Islam, and so perhaps counterpoint arguments should have been presented. In the end, it seemed like something more needed to be added to round out the work.

39. Night Train to Rigel by Timothy Zahn

Zahn's Night Train To Rigel combines classic alien encounter science fiction with noir detective atmosphere and spy thriller for a good read. The plot is twisty enough to make your head spin, and the setting is well conceived. I liked the interplay between the characters. So with all these good things happening, why did I rate the book at 3.5 stars? Mostly because I never felt that the main characters were in too much danger or that the galaxy was truly threatened by the bad guys. Having said that, I did enjoy the book, will recommend it to others and will eagerly look for the sequel.

40. The Great Warming by Brian Fagan

The Great Warming describes the effect of the period known as the Great Medieval Warming on weather patterns around the world. These changes in climate affected nearly every culture around the world, some in positive ways, but mostly in negative ways. Fagan uses nontechnical prose to discuss these cultural impacts, but manages to convey the depth of recent research in understanding the effects of climate shifts on humans.

Fagan clearly expresses recent ideas and results, but can be a little repetitive at times. This and his lack of depth in discussing research methods are my only complaints about the book. In spite of this, the work was well worth the time spent, and I plan to pick up others Fagan has written - such as The Little Ice Age.

41. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Some of the folks in The Green Dragon are doing a group read of Alice, and since I hadn't read it in many years, I thought I'd join in. The books hold up after 35-ish years of growing up since the last time I read them - in fact, I got much more out of them now that I've gotten some logic and math under my belt.

THe puns are great, the stories are silly, and I'm amazed at how much of these books became embedded in modern culture. I like Wonderland better than Looking Glass, but both are worth the time.

drneutron, you might also like China Mieville's Un Lun Dun which is very Alice-in-Wonderland-like. He has a marvelous imagination!
eta to correct spelling

Done. I loved Perdido Street Station!

42. Ad Infinitum by Nicholas Ostler

In Ad Infinitum, Nicholas Ostler has created a biography of Latin, giving the history of the language from "birth" to present day. Along the way, he treats the interaction between the language and changes in the societies that use the language, showing the feedback loop in which events and customs change language while language guides events and customs.

The discussion of the origin of Latin was the most interesting part of the history for me. I'm little more than a linguistic novice, but had very little difficulty understanding his comparisons of Latin with other concurrent languages such as Etruscan and the discussion of why Latin in particular won out over its competitors. I also really liked his description of the interplay between Greek and Latin, and correspondingly between Greek culture and Roman culture as well. Frankly, though, the second half of the book lagged for me. After the Medieval period, the world grew away from Latin, and in the process, the story of the language becomes much less interesting. My recommendation - pay attention to the first half of the book and treat the second half more lightly.

Hi Drn--Thanks for the welcome message on my thread. Nice to know I don't have the only typo in the topic line.

Your book summaries/reviews are great. I see most of the people on this thread post at least a few words about the books they've read. That will be my next challenge and I'll do so as I finish reading.

43. The Black Tower by Louis Bayard

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette left two children behind when executed. Their son, Louis-Charles, would have been Louis XVII had he not died while being held in the Temple, a dark prison in Paris. Or did he? In The Black Tower, Louis Bayard imagines what might have happened years later during the Bourbon Restoration if Louis-Charles had secretly survived. Or maybe not. Because there were many pretenders to the throne and this may just be one more. Chasing this mystery is Vidocq - founder of the Surete - and Hector Charpentier, who is dragged into the mess when Vidocq finds a note with his name and address in a dead man's pocket.

The Black Tower is a wonderfully conceived portrait of Restoration-era Paris. Bayard's prose captivates the reader within a few pages, and doesn't let up until the end. The story twists and turns nicely, and just when things seem to clear up, Bayard throws in another surprise.

Highly recommended.

44. Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

The Spellmans are one messed up family. They run a private eye business, but their biggest activity seems to be spying on one another. Fortunately for us, their antics are hilarious! Curse of the Spellmans is one of the few sequels that was actually better than the first of the series. I loved the mix of mysteries, spy antics and dysfunction in the plot. The characters are complex and believable, not cartoon-ish like they would be in the hands of lesser talent. All-in-all, great fun!

Oooh, I want to read The Black Tower! It sounds great! And it will make a nice follow-up to Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund (which I read a couple years ago).

After reading Mr. Timothy and not liking it all that well, I was going to stay away from Louis Bayard in the future. But after reading your message #43 I had to add The Black Tower to my wishlist.

Excellent! I really enjoyed The Black Tower but haven't tried any others. I've heard that the second, with a young Poe is supposed to be good and want to track that one down.

45. Beyond the Zonules of Zinn by David Bainbridge

Beyond the Zonules of Zinn had a lot of potential. Bainbridge attempts to lay out the anatomy of the central nervous system, with heavy emphasis on the brain. Some parts of this work shined, especially early in the book. As it went on, though, the book got more and more heavy with the weight of a very detail-laden subject until it was too dense for me to penetrate.

Part of the issue is that the subject is indeed very detail-laden, and without lots of study, it's hard to keep track of all the anatomical bits and pieces Bainbridge discusses. The book would have been substantially improved with more figures clearly showing all the named objects. At least then I could keep things straight in my head as I wade through his discussion of function and formation.

#70 The Bayard book about Poe is called The Pale Blue Eye, and I got it for $6.99 from Costco yesterday.

Yes! Let me know how it is...

46. The Bone Key by Sarah Monette

The Bone Key is a fantastic set of connected short stories centering around Kyle Murchison Booth and his experiences with ghosts, ghouls and other creatures of darkness and death. The stories are spooky and creepy, rather than graphic horror. Monette wrote them to explore the weird tradition a la H. P. Lovecraft and M. R. James. She succeeds wonderfully in evoking the feel of stories from an earlier era.

Highly recommended!

47. The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart

A wonderful combination of mystery and fantasy set in an ancient China that never was. Master Li and Number Ten Ox are back, again solving a mystery that drags them deep into Chinese folk tales, and even a trip to the underworld. Just as lyrical and comic as Bridge of Birds.

48. A Cavern of Black Ice by J. V. Jones

A Cavern of Black Ice, the start of a new trilogy by J. V. Jones, continues her tradition of captivating, character-driven fantasy in finely detailed settings. In a top-level view, the plot is Fantasy 101 - evil creatures out to destroy the world have been locked away in another plane of existence. But every 1000 years, a person is born who is able to either break the prison or seal it for another millennium. Jones neatly avoids the trite by setting the story in a place where clan-based society clashes with a more urban-based culture and by populating it with well-developed and interesting characters. It doesn't hurt that the plot is also very well developed, with lots of strands all tangled together. Themes of war, political maneuvering, and personal loyalty are explored to great benefit. There's some serious potential for the rest of series in pulling all these strands to completion.

I had a couple of minor quibbles with the book. First, it's too long. If the rest in the trilogy are as long, the three volumes will run to 2400 pages. Mind you, I whipped right through it, but a few sections bogged down a bit and could have used some tightening up. My second quibble is that the descriptive passages can get a little overdone. As with my previous comment, a bit more aggressive editing would have moved the action along at a crisper pace. In spite of these comments, A Cavern of Black Ice was a good read, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the story.

49. The Undead Kama Sutra by Mario Acevedo

The third in Acevedo's series, The Undead Kama Sutra continues the adventures of vampire PI Felix Gomez as he solves mysteries and worries about bigger conspiracies that threaten both humans and vampires. The series is light, a bit sarcastic, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Good fun!

50. White by Ted Dekker

The third in Dekker's excellent Circle trilogy. Part thriller, part Christian allegory, White is a great ending to the story. Highly recommended, but you should start with the first volume!

51, Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith

In Holmes on the Range, two unemployed brothers find work as cow hands on a ranch with some mysterious goings-on. Most hands would ride off for greener pastures when bodies start showing up, but not Old Red and Big Red. It turns out that not only does Old Red thrive on the tales of Holmes' cases, but has a real talent for detectifyin' as well. And because he wants to be something more than a run-of-the-mill cow hand, he sets out to solve the mystery.

In spite of the hokey title, Hockensmith has created a pretty good combination of Holmes pastiche and classic western. The story's quite an adventure, the mystery's pretty good, and the characters feel real. I'm looking forward to the sequels now!

52. The Missing by Sarah Langan

The town of Corpus Christi, Maine, is a nice middle-class suburb where life is quiet, until a class field trip disturbs something better left sleeping. Very quickly, a sickness spreads through town - but this is no ordinary virus. It preys on a person's deepest fears and failures, and turns its victims into something very different from human.

Sarah Langan has crafted a great story that starts with a set of flawed characters, then ratchets up the horror until the story becomes apocaplyptic. This is one creepy story. It's a sequel to The Keeper, her previous novel, but the stories are only loosely connected. If you want the full effect, read 'em in order, but The Missing certainly stands on its own.

so what do ya think, she left it open for a third?

I sure hope so. If I had to guess, I'd say we'll see more of the two who got away at the end.

53. Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane

I came across this series some ten years after the first one was published and was a bit miffed that I had missed out for so long. When I finally read it, I just loved the first one, A Drink Before The War. So after finishing Darkness, Take My Hand, am I still miffed? Heck, yeah. This one's better than the first.

Lehane's plot is wonderfully crisp. Nothing is wasted, no dead lulls here. The characters feel real, with all the flaws and delightfulness of real people. And Lehane's prose is just fantastic! I'm really looking forward now to the third in the series.

54. Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh

Gang Leader For A Day was a fascinating read for me. I read it on an airplane ride, so was able to read it in one setting and it definitely kept my attention the whole time. In telling the story of his time spent as a sociology student with the residents of one of the bigger projects in Chicago, Venkatesh provides quite a lot of insight into gang life and how gangs interact with the community around them.

I first ran into this story in Freakonomics, which included a chapter on the economics of drug dealing using some of the data gathered in this research. The analysis piqued my interest, so I quickly grabbed this book up when I came across it. It's a captivating story in many ways, and I think it was worth the time spent.

So why did I give the book 2.5 stars if it's so interesting? Frankly, the whole way through, I just kept thinking that it was too good a story to be true. Naive sociology student happens to connect with gang leader and spend the next several years studying the gang and its local community. Hmm. I can not believe Venkatesh was that naive or that his motives were as pure as he makes them out to be. Now, I don't know the author and I concede that I may be wrong, but the book struck me as self-serving the whole way through. It's still a pretty good read, and the portrait of life among the poor in the US is well worth the effort. It's just that I recommend reading with a little bit of a skeptical eye.

I appreciate your review of the Lehane novel. I've only just read one Lehane so far but am looking forward to more. I love his writing. After your review, I decided to look more at the series, not knowing that Gone Baby Gone was par of the same series. Thanks.

55. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

I thought Fforde's Thursday Next series took a bit of a dip with the second, then picked up a bit with the third. So I was a bit concerned that Something Rotten might not follow through. I was pretty much worried for nothing - it's right up there with the best of 'em so far. These books involve lots of silliness and literary references, and the latest is more of the same with a really good plot, and the resolution of some hanging issues from the previous two volumes. I loved the time traveling and the twist at the end. Especially the "second first person" chapter - very clever!

I am definitely going to keep an eye on your list! I love the Fforde series, re-read Alice this spring (got a new copy of the Annotated Alice for Christmas, to replace a long lost copy), adore Good Omens, re-read all 3 Hughart books regularly, and read the Jared Diamond book this spring. Have you read the other Hambly vampire book, Those Who Hunt the Night? Or Robin McKinley's Sunshine? I just joined yesterday and put my list of reading for the first half of the year, but mostly without reviews--I may have to start posting more often and reviewing--I'm enjoying these.

Yep, I have a copy of Those Who Hunt the Night. I loved it, but haven't read it for a few years. Also read the sequel some time ago and liked that one. The Hughart books are a re-read for me after some folks got together in the Green Dragon group to make a list of our favorite fantasy books and I was reminded of how much I liked 'em. Eight Skilled Gentlemen is in the next batch of books I'll get from the public library. I haven't tried Sunshine, I'll have to poke into it.

Please do post reviews. The lists of what people are reading are great, but it's even better when we get an opinion on the book as well!

drneutron, I've read all of the Lehane, including his forthcoming historical fiction, EXCEPT the series. I read very little American mysteries, except on audio (when I had a commute). His new one is very good, set in Boston during 1918/19: good characters (all the main ones male), plenty of history, action and suspense. You'll probably like it:-)

Yep, it's on my list, but I want to get through the Kinsey/Gennaro series first before branching out. He's rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors!

56. The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

The Monster of Florence is really two stories. The first tells about a series of murders of young couples in the countryside near Florence, Italy, in 1974 and then in the early 80's. The killer was dubbed the Monster of Florence, and was never caught due to among other things, a really bad job of investigation by the Italian police. In fact, after losing the trial of their first set of suspects, prosecutors settled on a conspiracy by a Satanic cult. With little evidence and a lot of speculation, a series of trials were carried out that resulted in - again - no convictions.

The second story is that of the authors. In the process of investigating the case for a book published in Italy, Preston and Spezi offended a powerful prosecutor and were dragged into the case. In fact, Spezi was eventually arrested as the mastermind of the Satanic cult. After international involvement, he was eventually cleared.

The book was first a very good telling of a fascinating crime story, then it became documentation of outrageous power plays by the politically motivated. An excellent read, but it just may get your blood boiling!

57. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

I want to get caught up with the series, but it's been a bit. So I thought I'd start with the first and re-read 'em. I'm of the opinion that this series by far the best Koontz has done. Odd Thomas is a thriller and a paranormal mystery filled with great characters. Highly recommended.

I don't always love Dean, but I do like the Odd series. I'm on the list for the next Odd book, Odd hours

Yeah, Koontz is pretty spotty for me. Mostly my reaction to his books is "meh", but Odd is a great series. I guess there had to be some cosmic balance for that awful Frankenstein mess he made. 8^}

I like Fear nothing too.

Hmmm. Haven't read that one. I'll add it to the list!

Glad you enjoyed The Monster of Florence. Looking forward to that in my next TBR stack as I picked up a copy at a talk and signing Preston did recently. He was very engaging and the premise of the book made me wonder how his experiences will shade the lives of his fictional characters now.

Good point. I hadn't thought about the effect of his experiences on his future fiction. It'll be interesting to see if some of this works its way into the net few books.

58. The World That Made New Orleans by Ned Sublette

I was ultimately disappointed with The World That Made New Orleans. Sublette started well, with an interesting discussion of the early days of the Louisiana Territory and the growth of New Orleans, especially in the interaction between the early French settlers and the Spanish who were nominally occupying the area. But as the book went on, it became pretty clear that there were only a few things Sublette wanted to say - New Orleans came from the interplay between the French and Spanish approaches to colonization and slave trade; the city culture was dominated by the majority black population and their surviving African culture; and periodic infusions of refugees from Cuba and Saint Domingue kept the city's culture alive and steered it to what we nominally think of as New Orleans today. Ok, good stuff, but he didn't need nearly 400 pages to say it and the text got very repetitive in the last half of the book. As compensation for the repetitiveness, the tone got (for lack of a better term) snarkier as he went along until it became a polemic against the Anglo-American culture in the city and further abroad. In the end, the book felt like a graduate thesis with not much meat that tries to be controversial for the sake of being controversial.

Hi and thanks for the information re. The World That Made New Orleans. I requested this book via interlibrary loan from my local library. I'll scan through it and see what I can glean from it.

59. The Last Oracle by James Rollins

The Last Oracle is a typical Rollins adventure - part science, part ideas just beyond the boundary pf science, lots of action, and Sigma Force saving the world. If you like the series, you'll love this one. If you haven't tried 'em yet, start with the first and have some fun!

#102 drneutron: I enjoy the Rollins books because they are such good adventure stories. (I just discovered Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, too, and although certainly not in the same period as Rollins' books, they are very good adventures, as well). Everyone needs a good adventure now and then!

Yep. Sometimes you just need to clear the palette. The Sharpe series is a great example! And along those lines:

60. Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich

The last few in the series weren't as funny to me, and I thought that Evanovich may be running out of ideas. This one's up to her earlier standards. I woke up my wife laughing about one scene - the one with the monkey, enough said! Anyway,it made a nice break from some of the more serious stuff I've been reading.

good to know, the last few books have felt same ol to me, I'll go ahead and read this one (after saying no more)

I'm also glad to hear about The Monster of Florence. My husband has read a number of Preston's books, and I've been wanting to get to them, but the description of his latest has got me raring at the bit. It will be moving to the top of my pile. The premise sounds similar to Ann Rule's A Stranger Beside Me, which I found utterly fascinating. And maybe a bit like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Having read "Monster", what do you think?

I haven't read the Ann Rule book, but from the blurb on LT, it sounds somewhat similar. The first half of the book is necessarily more history since Preston only recently came into the story and events started in the late 50s. But he keeps it personal all the way through as he's basing the history around his poking into the police investigations. If you liked the Rule book, this one will probably work for you too.

In my opinion, no one writes about the sociopathic person better than Ann Rule. A Stranger Beside Me was the first book of hers that I read and, like you alaskabookworm, I found it fascinating. Bitter Harvest was another good one.

I'm in the middle of The Monster of FLorence Where Preston has arrived.

61. The Day Freedom Died by Charles Lane

The Day Freedom Died is and isn't an easy book to read. On the one hand, the story of conflict in Louisiana during the Reconstruction period following the US Civil War is compellingly told. On the other hand, the story centers around the killing of some 65 blacks in Grant Parish, Louisiana, as part of the conflict over whether the more liberal Republicans or the mostly white supremacist Democrats would control the state government. It was a bloody time and Lane doesn't pull any punches, so the book is horrifying in spots.

The conflict originated in how the US government would bring formerly Confederate states back into the Union after the Civil War and how these states would integrate former slaves into society. Initially, at least, Republicans from the North and new freedmen were elected into governorships and state legislatures, while former Confederates were removed from power. As these (mostly) Democrats fought back politically, more violent means were also used, among other objectives, to affect elections. In Grant Parish, this resulted in two full slates of candidates being confirmed simultaneously for parish offices. When the black and Northern white Republicans in the parish asserted what appears to be their legal right to the offices by occupying the local courthouse, the supremacist whites raised an army of more than a hundred to take back what they viewed as their legal appointments. The result was more than 60 blacks dead and 2 or 3 whites from the supremacist group dead in what appears to have been a very unequal fight.

But the story doesn't end there. The US District Attorney in New Orleans (a Republican appointed by President Grant) wanted to prosecute at least the leaders of the supremacist faction under laws enacted by Congress to allow federal courts to enforce the 13-15th amendments to the Constitution. After significant legal drama, this case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the case was thrown out and the ability to enforce the amendments was gutted except for equal protection considerations. This decision effectively gutted the Reconstruction and put back in place many of the post-war racial policies that lasted until the 1960s and the civil rights movement.

All in all, this was a fascinating book, highly recommended.

62. Christine Falls by Benjamin Black

I liked Christine Falls very much. It's not much of a mystery - I figured out what was going on pretty quickly - but I don't think it was meant to be. The book is more about the characters, the damage resulting from their history, and how their dysfunction affects the events of the book. Black writes in a near-poetic style that sucked me in, I just couldn't put it down towards the end.

The book is set in Ireland and Irish Boston during the early 1950s. There's lots of smoking and drinking, and the Church is involved in everything.The hero, Quirke, is a pathologist who stumbles on his "adopted" brother falsifying the death records of a young woman in the morgue. Things slowly snowball from there as Quirke just can't let the mystery go until he gets to the bottom. While Quirke is at bottom a good person, he's not always a nice person, but the reasons for that are part of the attraction of the story.

There's a second volume I'm now in the process of tracking down. I sure hope it's as good!

Wanted to read your list after your kind note on my list here. Very interesting selections!

I want to add my recommendations on the Koontz Fear Nothing and its sequel, Seize the Night. I really enjoyed both and remember characters, which with Koontz for me is a hit or miss deal. So many of his plots and characters are totally interchangeable. However, I enjoyed these two, and supposedly, there's a third novel in the works.

I am fascinated by the Basque History.... My baby sister moved her family up near those regions a couple of years ago, and I want to know more about the area. The only other reading about the region and its history that I have is a Nicholas Linnear novel many years ago, where he taught himself the language in an Asian prison and then moved to it to live and do caving.

Definitely some books here to look into--thanks.

Benjamin Black also writes under the name of John Banville, whom I believe won the Orange Prize for The Sea. I have not read it yet, it's on my pile...apparently a highly regarded writer.

#113: Just an FYI: The Sea won the 2005 Man Booker prize, not the Orange Prize (which I believe is for women only).

Yeah, I've put The Sea on my list. There's another Quirke book I want read first, but I'm definitely going to look up his non-Benjamin-Black works.

Oops, sorry about the Orange Prize slip.

63. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Scotland Yard was created as a new branch of the Metropolitan Police in London in the mid-1800's. The detectives of the Yard were a new breed of policeman for England - part undercover cop, part spy, part investigator. These "men of mystery" captured the imagination of the public, and yet their methods were viewed as appropriate for the lower class, but not for the middle and upper class. The detectives were used as models for a new kind of fiction - what we call the Victorian detective novel.

In 1860, the young child of a civil servant posted in the countryside was murdered in a case that caused a national stir much like, for instance, JonBenet Ramsey in the current day US. The local police managed to bungle the investigation initially, and one of the Scotland Yard detectives - Jack Whicher - was called in. Through the initial problems with the investigation and Whicher's rough techniques, the case became thoroughly confused, and a number of involved parties were accused of the crime. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher documents the case and the subsequent history of the involved parties.

But Summerscale does more than that. Whicher's inability to bring the case to conclusion became a national scandal that carried over into the detective fiction literary evolution. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher gives some history of the detective story of the time, how the concept of the detective changed in fiction during that time, and how this case changed the public perception of the detective - both literary and real.

Recommended, especially if you like Victorian crime fiction.

#117: Sounds like a very good book, drneutron. I will have to see if my library has it. Thanks for the recommendation.

64. Mainspring by Jay Lake

I got really excited when I saw Mainspring on the list of new items at the public library. I'm a fan of steampunk/clockpunk, and was really intrigued with the idea of a literal clockworks universe. In Mainspring, the clockworks is running down, and a young apprentice clockmaker is tasked to wind it back up. But it's not an easy task since he has to cross the whole world to get to the Earth's mainspring. Jay Lake has conceived of a marvelous world, but things are a little lacking on the "punk" side of things. Instead, there's wonder in the natural world and faith in the Creator so readily demonstrated by the clockworks that everyone can see.

Lake's plotting gets off to a bit of a bumpy start, but once the apprentice, Hathor, gets on board an airship, things smooth out well and the story becomes captivating. The prose was not consistently the lyrical prose of China Mieville, but there were positively brilliant moments. All in all, I had trouble putting it down and was happy that I had a rainy Saturday morning to devote to Mainspring.

65. Vicious Circle by Mike Carey

Vicious Circle is the second in Mike Carey's Felix Castor series - at least I hope it's going to be a series. I'm not a usually a fan of urban fantasy/occult noir books a la Jim Butcher's Dresden. But Carey's work has something that has hooked me.

The characters are involving, with great back stories. The plot of Vicious Circle was a good mix of mystery and action, with some really evil bad guys thrown in for good measure. A word of warning, though. The body count by the end of the book is pretty high. All in all, a good read.

66. The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry

The Charlemagne Pursuit is the latest in the Cotton Malone series by Steve Berry. And it's a pretty good continuation of the series. Many years ago, Cotton's father was lost while commanding a highly classified submarine mission. Now Cotton's called in a favor and gotten some information that indicates the Navy wasn't entirely forthcoming on how and where the loss occurred. Almost immediately after getting the file on this father's mission, Cotton gets wrapped up in a complicated scheme to investigate the sub accident by others trying to take advantage of the situation.

The Charlemagne Pursuit is typical Berry - tight, intricate plots and lots of action. The historical aspects of the book are really intriguing and the mystery involved is downright plausible. Berry's characters, both good guys and villains feel real.

All-in-all, The Charlemagne Pursuit is a very entertaining, captivating book.

67. Watchmen by Alan Moore

I read Watchmen years ago when it first came out and loved it. The deconstruction of the superhero story, the ambiguous morality of "good" and "bad" characters, the inverted nature of the ending all appealed to me. That was 20 years ago, so I thought it would be interesting to see if the story held up.

Mostly it did. Although, I have to say I'm mostly over deconstruction. Still, it was fun, even if it didn't seem nearly as edgy as it did when it first came out. Recommended, especially if you're planning to see the movie coming out soon.

I did not know there was a movie coming out for Watchmen. I just read the book last week. Here's hoping the movie lives up to it!

Here's the imdb page for the movie...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409459/

68. Sacred by Dennis Lehane

As with the other volumes in Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro series, Sacred is wonderfully written. The plot's as dense as usual and the growth of the characters is well done. Lehane's prose is a colorful and engaging as in the previous novels. All in all, a fine addition to the series.

Thanks for the link, drneutron. I will check it out!

BTW - I am also a big fan of the Kenzie/Gennaro series by Lehane, but I have not read any of his other books. Have you tried them and if you did, what was your opinion of them?

Wow, I never realized the Orange Prize was only for women. I guess it speaks well of the award that I've never noticed that, despite frequenting the list for reading ideas; the winners (and short-list) comprise an impressive list. I'm glad to learn this.

#127 alaskabookworm: I double checked to be sure my information about the Orange Prize was correct, and it is. You can check out their website here (http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/home) if you are interested.

Yeah, before my #127 post, I went to the website first for verification. Numerous times I've consulted the website and the winners lists, and never once noted: "Hmmm. These are all women. What a coincidence." Anyway, I hope no one is offended by my saying so, but I'm glad women have their own award.

I guess it never occurred to me that the Orange Proze is for women either...neat!

I haven't read anything else by Lehane yet. I just recently discovered his books, and I want to finish the series before going on to Mystic River and Shutter Island. When I get to them, I'll definitely post what I think here.

69. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

Meh. This one didn't do so much for me. I thought the jump forward in time was ok, but it seemed like it took the first 20% of the book just to catch the reader up on what happened in the intervening years. I also thought the humor and references to other works was weaker this time than in the previous volumes. Fforde also gave away the plot device that wraps up the story as early as the list of other books by Fforde in the first couple of pages. While it was a clever little device in it's way, it sort of spoiled things for me. We'll see if the next one gets back into the groove or whether this series is going to become one of those that's dragged out too long.

The girlybooks group, which despite its tongue-in-cheek name focuses on pretty darn good literature by women, recently had an Orange July challenge to read winners, short & long listed books from the Orange awards.

http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=38936

I think the next one is supposed to occur in January.

70. Stiff by Mary Roach

As you might imagine from the title, Stiff is about what happens to human cadavers when they die, specifically those used in science or medical experiments. There are chapters on use of cadavers in medical training, automobile safety testing, firearms testing for the military - even a chapter on cannibalism. The discussion can get a bit gross at times, but Roach is always entertaining, so the ick factor is downplayed. Although I did have a little trouble reading the chapter on the forensics studies of corpse decay.

Stiff is more commentary on how science is done than science book. There's lots of little nuggets of information buried in there, but the focus of the book is on the work being done and the people that do it. In particular, she was fascinated by the ways that people who work with cadavers maintain distance from the humanity of their subjects and cope with the emotional aspects of working in these fields. I must admit, it was my main interest as well.

Good book, but perhaps not for the squeamish.

As a note of interest, my son's entering college class each year is supposed to read a book for discussion in the literature classes that first semester. His freshman year--it was Stiff.

71. Birdman by Mo Hayder

Birdman is a rather run-of-the-mill serial killer/thriller/police procedural. Like some of the other reviewers, I thought the first third was unnecessarily slow and somewhat adrift. The twist in the middle piqued my interest again, but Hayder gives away the punchline very quickly. The ending felt rushed, but otherwise was good. Not sure I'll read much more of her stuff.

hi
Regarding books with a theme of serial killers, last night I started Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates. Have you read this one?

No, but it's on the TBR list now!

These days I seem to be reading a lot of Joyce Carol Oates I recently finished Black Water which is a book wherein she calls the man character "the Senator" and is based on Ted Kennedy and his abandonment of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick.

It appears that in Zombie she is weaving a tale of a fictionalized character..based on Jeffrey Dahmer.

73. Steampunk by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer

I've been a fan of steampunk for a few years, and so when I heard that this collection of short stories was coming out, I was really excited. Steampunk is a mostly pretty good set of stories with a bit of history up front and at the end. The selection of stories covers a pretty broad spectrum of the genre, with a few surprises - such as Michael Chabon's steampunk vision. Although, the book is worth the price for "Lord Kelvin's Machine" - the original story, not the expanded book - and for "The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down".

The introductory material by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer is a reasonably good history of steampunk stories and books, but the ending pop culture survey was not much more informative than the wikipedia entries on steampunk. And I wasn't interested at all in Bill Baker's comic book survey.

Recommended, especially for anyone who wants a jump start in the genre.

Doc, you always introduce me to new things. Steampunk sounds kinda cool. The closest thing in my experience is the melding of fantasy and westerns from King's gunslinger series. Now that I think of it, I also read something a little like this with The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. Ever heard of it? If so, is that kinda on the same track?

Just catching up. Good review of Mainspring, it's in my never-ending TBR pile (not that I've read much SF in the last few years but I did buy it back when it came out based on a review maybe in Locus). btw, have you read Jeff VanderMeer's novels? Veniss Underground and so on? He's a great writer and needs to get off this editor thing (imo) for a time and write another.

btw, Jeff VanderMeer wrote a fabulous piece on Angela Carter on thescriptorium.com (I think that's the address, but a google search should find it).

I am with blackdogbooks on the steampunk thing - it does sound kinda cool.

The Anubis Gates is one of the "classic" steampunk books. Tim Powers is one of my faves, although it's been a few years, so maybe it's time for a reread...

I didn't realize Jeff VanderMeer had published novels. I'll have to check them out!

Wikipedia has a pretty good write-up on steampunk, including a list of books and other media generally recognized to fall in the genre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

74. Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane

The fourth in Lehane's series is at least as good as what's come before. Kenzie and Gennaro are as screwed up as ever, Lehane's writing is fantastic, and the story is as captivating as they come.

Gone, Baby, Gone centers around the disappearance of a little girl, but like all Lehane books, things are never simple. In this case, the girl's mother is more interested in the media exposure than in her child and the mystery of exactly what happened just keeps getting deeper and deeper. Eventually, the question of just what happened becomes a compulsion with Kenzie and Gennaro. As with most of Lehane's books, part of what's great about this book is the discussion of bigger issues that takes place within the context of a particular story.

Highly recommended, but best if you start from the beginning of the series.

I wasn't really aware of steampunk as a genre, so wasn't sure what it denoted when you first started discussing it, but I'm a big Tim Powers fan also and have read The Anubis Gates several times over. So if that is steampunk, I know more than I thought I did. Would Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night and Traveling with the Dead be considered steampunk? Or are they not punkish enough?

By the way, I liked the latest Thursday Next book, First among Sequels, rather better than you did. Even if she did telegraph a major plot element early on, it was fun to experience the disorientation of details not matching with memory throughout the book, and I loved the part where the text was completely destroyed.

Steampunk usually has lots of gadgets, usually clockwork or steam powered, is often set in a society that is at least somewhat dystopian, and centers on a hero that bucks the system. Jules Verne with attitude...

It's been a while since I read the Hambly books. I don't remember gadgetry, but I might be misremembering. I don't think I've seen 'em on anybody's list of steampunk books, but as with any other genre discussion, a lot is open to interpretation by the individual reader.

Re First Among Sequels - I suspect that I was just a little tired of the series when I read it. I was trying to catch up on the series, and I really need to space out the books in the series more when I do that. I didn't hate it, it just didn't seem as good to me as the previous ones. Still, I'd recommend it (and the whole series) to people.

I have read both of Hambly's books that ronincats mentioned within the past year, and I do not think they are going to be "punkish" (what a great word!)enough to qualify as steampunk.

I am going to have to look for The Anubis Gates and add it to my ever growing TBR list.

Thanks for the link to the Steampunk Wikipedia article, doc. Now I have MORE books to add to Mount TBR - just what I always wanted, lol.

75. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

I went on a two week trip to see family and only took two books. What was I thinking? THen while at the in-law's house, Hurricane Gustav decided to visit. So I scrounged up my copy of ZAMM that I lent to my father-in-law a few years ago. I wondered where it went...

So anyway, this is one of those "classics" that's supposed to be life-changing. It wasn't for me, but it did give an introduction into metaphysics back when I was in high school. The philosophy's pretty good at a layman level and the interwoven stories are pretty captivating. Chapter 25 when Pirsig discusses peace of mind in your work is one I especially picked up on this time through.

This one's met my goal, the rest are lagniappe. It'll be interesting to see how far I get...

Congrats on reaching your goal!

I listened to an audiobook of ZAMM within this past year. It was the first time I had "read" it. I am always suspicious of books that "everyone" seems to be reading which is what ZAMM was in the 70's when I was working at a bookstore.

One of these days, I'll read it in the print form. There were definitely parts I'd like to have the option of going back and rereading.

Edited because I wanted to say that since you're posting, I'm guessing (hoping) Gustav didn't wreak much havoc on your in laws place. Hope you had electricity to read by!

congrats on reaching your goal! I remember my ex being wild for that book, but I never got around to reading it. I don't think it helped him much either.

congratulations on reaching #75 !

seems we have a little peak in #75's ;-)

Congrats......read Zen this year also and had a similar feeling about the book. Not a "Wow" but some parts of it were really very thought provoking.

Yep, both sets of parents made it through Gustav unscathed - it passed right over my parents, but they're pretty far inland and they only got a bunch of rain and some 30 mph wind. My sister lost a little siding from her house, and my parents lost power for a day or so, but other than that, no damage. We were in Shreveport in the northwest corner of the state, and got some rain.

We got back to Maryland just in time for Hanna to visit. So now we're getting rain here at home!

congratulations!

76. Dime Novel Desperadoes by John Hallwas

Dime Novel Desperadoes tells the story of Ed and Lon Maxwell (aka Williams), brothers from the upper Mississippi valley who started as petty thieves and became the focus of one of the largest manhunts in the late 19th century. For a period of time between 1875 and 1881 , they rivaled the James gang and other well known desperadoes from the wild West era in public attention and press coverage. During that time, many myths and folklore grew up around the two brothers, but ultimately, they were forgotten by history. Hallwas attempts to separate out the truth from fiction to tell their true story and provide some insight into their personality and the psychology of turning outlaw.

I both liked and disliked this book. The history of Illinois, Wisconsin, and surrounding regions is more wild West than I imagined, and Hallwas' insights into life in that region during that time was interesting and informative. His discussions of the interplay between the frontier mentality of those who came to the region to farm and the more urban nature of those who wanted to "civilize" the region were also pretty good. The book is obviously well researched, and Hallwas has done a pretty good job of separating what really happened from the folklore that grew up later and the dime novel fiction written about the Maxwells.

Unfortunately, Hallwas wraps this good discussion with an attempt to "understand" the Maxwells. He's obviously sympathetic to these characters, and sees their actions as mostly determined by their childhood, low social status, and lack of opportunity for success. I don't buy it. Many people were in these same circumstances and did not turn to thievery, nor did they get involved in shootouts with law enforcement or chased through the countryside by hundreds. Hallwas makes the mistake of imposing 21st century thought processes, attitudes and morals on a people from a different time and place. This is a fundamental mistake for a historian, in my opinion.

Even though I enjoyed some of this book, the constant injection of Hallwas' attempt to explain or understand people from that era made the work ultimately unsatisfying to me and I do not recommend it except for those interested in the strictly historical portions of the book.

congrats on reaching your goal!

Kudos on making the goal, doc.

You have a wonderful reading list that has provided more books for me to add to my TBR stack, too, so I am glad about that (I think).

77. The Black Hand by Will Thomas

The 5th installment in Will Thomas' Barker/Llewellyn series, The Black Hand tells how our heroes deal with an incursion into London by the Mafia. The series has been a favorite, and I thought this one was easily as good as the rest, both for the plot itself and for the new information revealed about Barker. The plotting was tight, the prose was outstanding, and the characters as real as ever. On top of everything else, I got to read it front-to-back on an airplane ride - a great way to pass the time!

Highly recommended, but those new to the series should start with the first one to get the full experience.

Yet more books for me to add to Mt. TBR, sigh . . .

I'm sorry....ok, no I'm not. 8^}

It's bad enough that I get way too many recommendations on new books, but I read Zen when it came out and was mesmerized by it. It's still sitting on my shelves and I'm interested in the part about work, so I guess it has to go onto Mount TBR.

I remember being fascinated that you could buy it with different colored covers - it seemed an innovation to me at the time.

Just catching up on threads! Congrats on reaching 75 books, if that was your goal (one never knows in these groups).

78. The Billionaire's Vinegar: the Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace

In 1985, Malcolm Forbes and his son paid more than $150,000 for a bottle of wine purported to be owned by Thomas Jefferson. Even before the auction was over, questions started popping up about this bottle and whether it was everything the seller promised it was. The Billionaire's Vinegar is the story of fakery and fraud in the world of very old and very expensive wines. There are some real characters involved in the story, and the excesses of this wine - well, obsession really doesn't cover it - are fascinating to read. Besides the juicy story, there's a lot of info about first tier wines, especially very old ones, and the science that went into detecting the fraud is pretty well described too.

Highly recommended, even if you're not a wine drinker!

79. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

I was on a business trip and managed to run out of reading material. I know, how could I have possibly let that happen?! So I stopped at the airport bookstore and decided to pick up one of the Lehane books on my TBR. Shutter Island jumped out at me, so I got it, and man, did that three hour flight go by quick. Wow, what a book!

It's different from the Kensie and Gennaro books I've been reading, but it's still got the same poetry. The characters are great, and the ending just really grabs you. The direct violence is toned down a bit from others of his that I've read, but the suspense is way up and it's set in an asylum for the criminally insane in 1954, so the creep factor is sky high. Anyway, this one easily makes my top ten list for 2008.

Didn't you love it! nothing better than getting body slammed by a book you didn't see coming.

#164: That sounds like a book even my nonreader husband might like; especially since he just joined a "poor man's" wine club.

Yup. Bodyslammed is a great way to describe it!

I've added both your recent books to my list. I'm actually tagging the books that I'm adding by listing who posted the book. So, drneutron, your name is on the tag in my library for both.
Thanks!

That's a very good idea! I'll have to steal it when collections comes along and I start keeping my TBR/wish list on LT.

Alaska - I'm in the "poor man's wine club" myself. He'll probably enjoy it since it doesn't assume the reader knows much about wine or the people involved in the story. The section on classification of Bordeaux wines was better than most wine books I've read. Let me know what he thinks if he reads it!

OK, I am with Whisper, doc, adding both of your recent reads to my list. I own Shutter Island but have not gotten around to reading it although I have read all of Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro books. The one on the wine sounds pretty good, too, even though I am not a drinker - I suspect that oenophiles' dedication to collection of wine rivals bibliophiles to books!

#170 drneutron: Is LT adding a Wish List feature? It would be so wonderful if they did, although I suspect mine will infinite, lol.

> 172 "I suspect that oenophiles' dedication to collection of wine rivals bibliophiles to books!"

Yes, I can confirm that - my first "proper" job was on a wine magazine. I had to leave before I became truly obsessed; I didn't need wine as well as books! (That wine magazine was the only place I've ever worked, though, where absolute silence descended at lunch-time, when we all got our books out and read for an hour!)

#173 - Word is that collections are coming soon, and one of the "standard" collections is a wishlist. No word on exactly how it'll work, but I have high hopes!

#174 - If the book is any indication, wine obsession can be worse than book obsession, at least at the high end. I can not imagine buying 30,000 bottles of wine, and for some that's a small collection...

80. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hadju

The Ten-Cent Plague is a history of the early days of comic books through the mid-1950s. But more than just a history, Hajdu also gives a history of the response of mainstream America to the comic books of the day, leading up Congressional hearings and the creation of an industry-wide censor organization.

The book itself was pretty well done, with what seems to be pretty thorough research. But for me, the most interesting thing was how much the response to comic books seemed like the reaction to other non-traditional culture both before and since. For instance, the furor over role-playing games in the 80's was similar, if not as extreme. I'm still thinking about what this means for us as a society, but the book does make the reader think.

wine obsession can be worse than book obsession I do not honestly think that is humanly possible, lol!

Doc, I would like to thank you for your recommendation of The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I am only a short way in, but already loving it - cannot wait to see how it turns out!

#176: OK, The Ten Cent Plague goes on to Continent TBR.

Ok, time for a reread of The Anubis Gates...glad you like it! 8^}

81. Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland

Early Reviewer copy...boy, was that a mistake for me.

I knew Any Given Doomsday was in trouble when I looked at the back of the book and saw "I discovered urban fantasy with Laurell K. Hamilton. I wanted to write something just like that." And frankly, Handeland did, except nowhere near as good. Since my opinion of Hamilton isn't all that high, that's saying something. In this book, the characters are weakly conceived, and their actions just don't make sense in context. The writing's so-so at best, and the sex scenes are ripped right out of the pages of a Harlequin romance. The plot seems to have been created by checklist - feisty heroine with magic powers (check), bad boy to which heroine is insanely attracted against her better sense (check), rape that heroine secretly wants (check)...

The urban fantasy scene these days reminds me of the fantasy scene in the 1980's. The genre was just catching on, and there was some really good stuff out there. The market was big enough that pretty much any derivative stuff could get published, and usually did. Thankfully, the fans finally worked through that phase, and a new generation of really creative writers came along. I hope that the urban fantasy genre works through those same issues, but it ain't there yet.

Well crap, I think I'm on the list for this book as well, and I hate Laurell K Hamilton just for the reasons you listed. Thanks for the heads up.

If Laurell Hamilton is urban fantasy, then I will definitely be giving Any Given Doomsday a pass. I cannot stand Hamilton's books, although I must say that I do like Handeland's Moon series. I do read Harlequin romances on occasion, but I never expect more than face value from them - I like books that do not pretend to be any more than what they are.

When I saw the blurb on the book, I hoped that it might rise above the state of the genre today, but it just wasn't to be...Ah well, this was the first ER book I've gotten that was a complete bust. One out of five ain't bad, I suppose.

To clear my palate, I picked up Eight Skilled Gentlemen, the last of the Master Li and Number Ten Ox books. Ah, real originality and great writing shines through!

I just realized that if all 1000 ER participants review Any Given Doomsday, it'll be the top-reviewed book on LT by a large fraction. I think the top right now is Deathly Hallows with ~650 reviews. Well, at least there'll be a good statistical sample for analysis of opinions!

ya know, after checking I'm not getting Any Given Doomsday, which I find interesting as I was like number 162 on the list. I'm not put out, just curious how they decide?

The magic algorithm takes into account what's in your library, whether you've reviewed your previous ER books, and then makes a random selection. There's quite a lot of speculation in the Early Reviewers group about the details, but Abby doesn't talk...8^}

huh? good to know.

82. Eight Skilled Gentlemen by Barry Hughart

Eight Skilled Gentlemen is the third and last of Hughart's Master Li and Number Ten Ox stories. Which is unfortunate, because these are some really great books. Hughart's prose is just as lyrical here as in the previous volumes, and the incorporation of Chinese folklore is just as fascinating as always. Even though the plot is a bit weaker here than in the previous two volumes, Eight Skilled Gentlemen is still better than most and high n my list of keepers.

Highly recommended, but read the other two first to get the full effect.

#189: I have not yet gotten around to Eight Skilled Gentlemen, but it looks like I had better move it to the top of Continent TBR. I loved Bridge of Birds and am so glad I read it - another book I would probably never have read before LT. It is too bad that Barry Hughart is no longer writing.

83. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

House to Leaves is a very different kind of book - several different stories at the same time. One story is about the discovery of a trunk full of papers and the descent into madness of the discoverer. Because these papers are an analysis of a documentary made by a famous documentary maker who discovers his new house is bigger on the inside than on the outside. And it suddenly has doors that weren't there before that lead to a labyrinth that can't possibly exist. The stories here are chilling, with layers of connection

But House of Leaves probably isn't for everyone. Its various stories are told through different typefaces and footnotes to the main text. The text layout varies widely through the book. It is most definitely experimental.

Check it out for something different!

You certainly have such an interesting list of books. I enjoy reading your posts!

Well, I picked The Stand for my trip to Scotland - something relatively normal. Oh wait, that's Stephen King...8^}

#189: I lost track of these books after reading The Story of the Stone. I remember liking it, thinking I ought to keep an eye out for more by the author, and then it got lost in the myriad other reading possibilities. I'll have to reread that and then continue the series.

Baby, can you dig your man!!!!

84. The Stand by Stephen King

I lent my original copy to someone years ago, and of course, I never got it back. So when I saw a copy of the extended version in a used bookstore, I had to pick it up. It was perfect for my recent trip to Scotland - lots of reading time on airplanes!

So the question on the table is this - did King's extension of the story improve the book or not? After all, the new version is several hundred pages longer, and how much better can it get anyway? Well, it turns out that the book holds up pretty well with the extra material. I liked it better, I think. And it's good to get an old friend back again!

Yeah, I think the lengthened version is much better. Part of the fun of his epic writing is getting to know the characters really well and enjoying their journies. The extra material helped there. I felt the same way when I happened on The Gunslinger years ago and began reading about Roland's journey. In some ways, I wish that his journey never ended and that the story could continue. But 7 books is quite a lot.

85. Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler

When I first looked at Full Dark House, I suspected that it wouldn't offer much that was new. After all, it's got the quirky genius detective, the sidekick, an out-of-the-box mystery handed off to the detective and his band of misfits...Fortunately, I was proven wrong. Fowler has conceived of a set of real people in theses pages. Bryant and May manage to escape stereotype and become characters the reader comes to care about. The mystery was a bit weaker than I had hoped - the author admits his debt to an earlier work with a sly reference to Claude Raines. But this in no way spoiled the book for me.

This is the first in a series, and I'm looking forward to the rest!

#199: Cool, another new author for me to start reading. Just what I need :)

I feel your pain. I only picked this one up because I got the 6th one as an Early Reviewer book, and now I've got 5 more to read instead of one more! 8^} One of the reviewers for the latest said s/he read the first 100 pages of The Victoria Vanishes and liked it so much it's on hold while the first 5 get read.

This does not sound like a good plan to me. I will have to start at book one and work my way up to book 6. I hate reading books out of order! Now, all I have to do is hide 6 more books from my hubby, lol.

I've added another of your books to my tbr pile. Full Dark House sounds interesting and I like your description.

Ah, if I only I could take a year off from work and read...because that is about how long it would take to get through the tbr pile.

Only a year? At the rate I am adding books, if I had an eternity of time I do not know that I could finish. By the time I actually ended up with what is on Continent TBR now, I probably will have added Planet TBR!

86. The Victoria Vanishes by Christopher Fowler

The Victoria Vanishes is a very good police procedural, except the Peculiar Crimes Unit profiled in Fowler's series isn't very good at procedure. As investigators, their off-the-wall techniques raise a lot of eyebrows (especially at the Home Office, which is trying to shut them down!) but manages to get to the heart of some unsolvable crimes.

Fowler's characters are very real, and he very deftly manages to avoid stereotypes - the quirky genius is quirky but makes mistakes with the rest of us, the sidekick isn't Watson-ish at all, but manages to actually contribute meaningfully to the solving of the case, the rest of the unit are people with real lives and cares. The plot was a good, although not deep mystery, and I loved that this book is set in London pubs with all the atmosphere and history they contain. And Fowler does have a way with descriptive language.

Highly recommended, but you probably want to read the series in sequence.

87. Hellboy: The Companion

As a reference work, Hellboy: The Companion does a fine job of keeping track of the history of characters and the story timeline. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much else, and I was looking forward to a bit more analysis of the stories, characters and world associated with Hellboy. The one bit that went beyond the reference was a short chapter by Mike Mignola on the influences on him and his storytelling. Even here, though, no surprises: Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, all the big names from the Weird Tales days, with the surprising exception of Pinnocchio that he cites for a combination of absurdist humor and horror.

Recommended for those wanting to learn the back story of characters and explore the world of Hellboy a bit. Having read the actual works first is pretty much a requirement.

As a Hellboy movie fan, I'm not surprised by the references Mignola cited, including Pinocchio because it has some really scary moments followed by relief scenes with bizarre humor. Another book to look for!

88. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

One of the early (1949!) apocalyptic science fiction novels, Earth Abides is a well-regarded classic. I'd heard of it years before and always meant to pick up a copy. There's a new printing out now, and when I saw it at the library, I think I nearly broke an arm snapping it up. It was everything I'd heard it would be.

The story's familiar - supermeasles wipes out most of the population and the book follows a science geek named Ish as he worries about trying to preserve some measure of civilization after the collapse. What's different about this book is the historical scope of the story. It literally occurs over decades from Ish's life right afterward to his collection of a few people to band together into The Tribe through the evolution of their society through raising children and grandchildren to finally end as a very old Ish dies passing the torch on to a great grandchild following in his footsteps as leader. For me, the most interesting thing is the slow change from a scavenger society into a full-fledged tribal culture as time progresses. And as this progression goes, we see that hope in the survival of humanity is never lost, just the nature of civilization is changed.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if there were some oddities due to it's age - radio but no TV or today's techology, etc.

That book has percolated around on my TBR list for a few decades, also. Reading your review, I'll have to dig up a copy.

89. Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt

I had hoped Traffic would explain to me why there are these dead spots in my morning commute where traffic comes to a screeching halt for no apparent reason and why the idiots running down to the end of the merge lane are making life miserable for the rest of us. Vanderbilt did indeed discuss these issues and many more, but ultimately offered weak explanations for the most interesting (at least to me!) traffic phenomena. He's clearly done lots of research, and he tries to balance discussion between the issues of efficiency and safety. He's put together some really good discussion of the human factors and psychology associated with driving and with the interaction between drivers and the rest of the world. The discussion of why what appears to be less safe roads are often more safe is satisfyingly typical - it turns out when engineers make lots of allowances for safety, we tend to drive faster and more sloppily, so have more collisions.

But understanding traffic is also about understanding noncooperative networks and the group behaviors that arise from collective individual actions. Vanderbilt is weakest when discussing these issues. This subject needs a little math to really provide understanding, and he avoids equations and graphs completely. For instance, models of the random stop and start nature of the morning commute are similar to models of lattice disturbances in crystals. While I'm not suggesting he cover soliton theory in solid state physics as a model of traffic, providing more technical discussion would have strengthened the book, although at the risk of chasing off some readers, I suppose.

So what's my verdict? Traffic is a good book, especially for readers interested in human behavior and man-machine interactions, or the design of road features and how this ripples into safety considerations. Readers looking for an introduction to modeling and control of traffic flow and the impact on issues such as road design and urban planning may be a bit unsatisfied.

I read a review about Traffic recently - it sounds interesting! Thanks for the review. It might be a good C'mas gift for my guy...(and then I can read it too!)

I just checked my library site for Traffic - 117 requests! So....might just be buying it.

90. Vampire Zero by David Wellington

Vampire Zero is the third in a series by David Wellington starring Laura Caxton, a Pennsylvania State Trooper turned vampire hunter. The subtitle to this one is "a gruesome vampire tale" and Wellington's not kidding. As with the other books in this series, these are not romantic vampires or vampires as people with superpowers. Wellington's vampires are evil predators that must be stopped. Fair warning - he manages to keep the body count pretty high in this one.

99 Coffins, the previous book left a couple of loose ends. In Vampire Zero, Wellington pulls on those threads and manages to wrap some things up pretty nicely. Then leaves a few more hanging, so as to keep our interest for a fourth book that I'm now impatiently waiting for. Highly recommended for those who like their vampire stories raw, but start at the beginning with 13 Bullets for the full effect.

Good to see you enjoyed this one as well. I thought it was a little better than 99 Coffins, but still short of the original 13 Bullets. Since there really is only one major loose end/storyline now, do you think he will milk the series past the fourth book? As much as I've enjoyed them, I hope he doesn't and moves on to something else.

Wellington seemed to want to build up Laura's love interest, then basically did nothing with her. I wonder if that character will serve a bigger role in the fourth book.

#213: It is not fair! My library does not have any of Wellington's books and I really want to read 99 Coffins. Waaa!! Obviously I am going to have to look elsewhere. Rats.

It seemed like Wellington was prepping Clara for a bigger role in the next one, but it's hard to say just what. She went from love interest to helping out badly, to actually contributing to the search, but all in a low-key, background way. If I had to guess, I'd say she'll be a bigger player in the next one.

It's hard for me to see where he'll take the story after the next one. I agree that there's only the one thread left. Except maybe the marshalls know more than they're letting on...

Sorry for those who have no idea what we're talking about. I'm trying to tread a thin line between discussion and spoiler! 8^}

Yes, I've tried to be careful as well in my short review and questions as I don't want to spoil anything. It seemed like after her contribution, Clara disappeared into the background. I thought she would have played a bigger role in this one. Wellington did say after the next book, the readers will see more of Laura. Whether that is book five, or to spin her off into another series remains to be seen. He's done zombies, vampires and werewolves now. Unless she ends up in the Frostbite sequel, it will have to be something new.

Thanks for doing that. I read a review over on another thread and the first sentence gave away the surprise ending. Oh well, there's one book I don't have to read. :-(

I think I'll give the Wellington books a try; they sound interesting.

91. By the Sword by F. Paul Wilson

For those familiar with Repairman Jack, By The Sword will be a familiar friend. Wilson is working his way to the conclusion of the secret history of the world, and this volume pushes further toward that end. In fact, Wilson has put together a roadmap for the rest of the story, which he gives in an endnote here.

For those not familiar with Repairman Jack, he's an independent agent off the grid, earning a living by "fixing" broken situations for clients. Part of the appeal of these stories is in how Jack creatively resolves the problems presented him. But Jack is much more than that. It turns out that there's a conflict between, well, Evil and Indifferent entities in which the Earth plays a small part. But Jack's a big part of the conflict here, and as the series unfolds, the reader discovers more and more about this secret history.

Recommended, but this is a story arc covering a number of books. Wikipedia or F. Paul Wilson's website has the complete list of works in the series with the proper order. Start at the beginning, if you can.

I keep thinking I'm going to buy the first couple of these and see if I like. I have all The Adversary Cycle and really enjoyed them. I'll have to add it to my Used PB list.

92. The Book of Vice by Peter Sagal

Peter Sagal's The Book of Vice purports to be an exploration of "very naughty things and how to do them", but it's not as shallow as that sounds. It's mostly a sociological and psychological study of people who do these things (and study those who do these things), where the discussion is led by Sagal's dipping his toes, so to speak, into experiencing each of the questionable activities.Unfortunately, it's a flawed study and never really gets to why people do the things they do, which may be an unreasonable expectation on my part. Instead, as I went through each of the chapters, the essential tawdriness of the experience came out. For some reason, I thought temptation would be more, well, tempting. Also disappointing was the lack of humor in the book. Even though he tried, he just wasn't that funny. And this is a subject that seems to me would be hard not to be funny about.

I can't recommend The Book of Vice, really. As I worked my way through it, I kept thinking I could have been reading so many more useful, entertaining things. It's not awful, just not that interesting.

#221 drneutron: Too bad about The Book of Vice. It sounds like an interesting premise that the author just did not know what to do with. I would have been interested in reading it if he had.

Yeah, that's a pretty good summary of the book, at least as I read it.

Hello drneutron--- I'm not sure if have read any of Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series, but they turned it into a miniseries.

Its called "Legend of the Seeker"---it looks pretty interesting, it starts @ 8pm in the NYC area CW11/WPIX......

website is:

www.legendoftheseeker.com

mamachunk

Hmmm. I missed it. I wasn't a fan of the series, but an adaptation may be good. I'll check out the website.

ETA: Looks like I haven't missed it. It's on tomorrow night in Baltimore. I'll have to check it out.

I believe that it is a 2 night event....you can always catch it on reruns I suppose....

mamachunk

Nope, WNUV is showing the first two episodes back to back tonight starting at 10 pm, so I didn't miss it after all!

Yes you are correct, i was mistaken....I turned on my tv expecting to see another episode....lol...silly me...

I thought it was good....of course the books were much better...at least I think so. That was my first foray into fantasy....

I would love to know what you think.

mamachunk

Mmmm, I thought it was a reasonable adaptation, but from the previews, the series isn't trying to follow the books all that closely. Frankly, I wasn't so thrilled with the books, so that's ok with me. The production is on par with other Raimi work, and the acting was better than I expected for a syndicated series. Although, they picked a really ugly guy to play Zedd! Anyway, I'll keep watching for a few more episodes at least, to see where it's going.

93. Forever Odd by Dean Koontz

The second in the Odd Thomas series, Forever Odd, continues the story of a young man who lives up to his name (and yes, Odd is his first name). Odd sees ghosts, and occasionally spirit-like creatures that feed off the hate and violence surrounding particularly evil acts. In Forever Odd, he's led to rescue a friend from kidnappers who've murdered the friend's father. I don't want to say too much so I don't spoil some surprises. But suffice it to say that there's more than meets the eye going on here, and Odd is asked to give all of himself to see things through.

Koontz is one of those big names that sells a lot of books. Some of his stuff can be pretty good beach reads without a lot of depth. But the Odd Thomas series is different - there's considerable exploration of spiritual themes, and an interesting mix of characters that feel real as opposed to the cast of stereotyped characters some authors might have used in what could have been a vanilla Good vs Evil story.

Recommended, but start with the first for best effect.

Hi
I want to thank you for recommending Stiff:The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. I finished this book a few days ago. I found it very interesting.

You're welcome! She wrote Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife - I really enjoyed that one too. There's also Bonk : the curious coupling of science and sex , which is on the TBR pile. I've heard good things about it.

My local library doesn't have Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife so I have reserved this through interlibrary loan and await the arrival.

Some of the parts of Stiff were a bit gory, but I did find the book fascinating and I liked her wry, witting humor.

Thanks again! You have a very interesting library and I enjoy reading your comments and posts.

Great, just what I need (grumbling under breath while smiling) - another book to get off Continent TBR, where Stiff has been residing (and probably getting Stiff-er) for a couple of years now. OK, you have convinced me to dig it out lol.

Hey doc, left a note for you at the What are We Reading - Non-Fiction thread about The Monster of Florence and posted my review. Looks like you enjoyed a bit but perhaps not as much as I did.

Skimming through this thread I noticed your interest in steampunk...have you ever read The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick? I liked that, for the most part...

Yup, read it years ago, well before LT's ability to track the library books I've read! I thought it was really good!

Steampunk is a particular favorite genre of mine. I've read most of the classics, even though some aren't listed in my catalog. Bt I'm always looking for good suggestions! 8^}

94. On the Wrong Track by Steve Hockensmith

Old Red and Big Red are brothers back in the Old West who are a bit more than stereotypical cowboys. Old Red is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes and wants to try his hand at detectifyin'. Big Red writes up their adventures. In "On The Wrong Track", the brothers get jobs as security on an express train watching for train robbers, but things on this train become mysterious right away when the brothers see a head bouncing down the tracks behind the train. Then the train robbers show up and things get much more mixed up...

The second in Hockensmith's series is a pretty good Holmes pastiche with a unique twist in the setting. The brothers are interesting lead characters, and the mystery - while not as difficult to figure out as some - is twisty enough to keep the reader's attention. Hockensmith captures the flavor of the Old West in the collection of supporting cast and their dialog. There's plenty of action to push the plot along - jumping on and off moving trains, fights in the baggage car, gunfights, the whole works!

Recommended. The book's stand-alone even though the second in a series. But for best flavor, start with the first.

You mention that Hockensmith captures the flavor of the Old West with the supporting cast and their dialog. Would you compare this well with other westerns or is it more of a mystery than a western?

More of a mystery than a western, and a little tongue-in-cheek. It's not a western in the classic L'amor or Zane Grey mode, for instance. But the dialog sounds right when I hear it in my head, the settings are gritty like a dusty trail, and the descriptions of the work on ranches sounds right to me. Hmmm. I should probably update the review to make it clear.

#237: Hey, doc, how do you track on LT the library books you have read? I do not want to have to add them to my personal library, but would like a better way to do it other than keeping a journal noting where I am getting the books from.

Thanks for the help!

And thanks for the recommendation of the book mentioned in #238. Sounds like I will have to take a look at Hockensmith's series.

*smile* Here we go! The old "catalog books you own" vs. "catalog books you read" debate!

Just joking!

I'm of the latter school, so I tag them "$Library" until such time as the Collections feature makes its appearance in LT.

Ah, I was under the impression that there was some way to indicate the library books I had read without having to add them to my personal library. I only catalog the books that I actually own.

I think you'll just have to wait for Collections then. You'll still have to enter them but you can suppress them from showing in your displayed library and counting in your statistics...or so the rumors go.

I ended up on the opposite side of the fence because I don't really need a "catalog" of my books (I can always just walk into the library or den and look at what I have), but I did want some way to keep track of opinions and thoughts on all books I read. I have a number of friends who are always asking me about this book or that and sometimes the minds fogs on a particular story after a few years.

I think this will become more and more true for me as I use the library more. I have about 3800 books in the house right now and space is getting a bit short—not to mention I need to stop spending so much money on books when anything not recently published is usually available for free somewhere in the county. Since joining LT, a lot more of my reads fall into that category as I "fill in" things I missed in the past.

I'm using LT pretty much like Tad. I put 'em all in and use tags library, mine, borrowed to distinguish the source. One of the reasons I do this is so I can review library books, the main source of new reading material for me these days. When we get collections, I plan to separate these out into individual collections and add a wish list collection that tracks all the stuff I want to get from the library.

OK. I thought you might have a trick up your sleeve there, doc. I hope that Tim gets the Collections thing up soon!

One thing, alcottacre, there's hearsay that Tim will provide an automatic feature to move things tagged a certain way to separate collections once they are implemented. I'm hoping so, then $Library, $Deaccessioned (I dated a librarian for a few years; the term stuck) and $Borrowed can split off from my main library without a lot of work.

You mentioned you & your wife enjoying books together. What do you mean by that? You both read them & then talk? We do a bit of that, but as hubby's not much of a talker the latter half is on the short side. We are reading aloud in the car tho -- takes a bit to get through books that way, but it eats up the miles :)

Did you read the sequel to Tangible Ghosts? I may have enjoyed it more than the first.

We mostly pass books back and forth read. Our tastes in books overlap to a large degree, so the wife sometimes comes across something she thinks I'll like, or vice versa. Sometimes we'll have a conversation about a book we've both read. We occasionally do long distance driving and will listen to an audio book together. And since the US is about to convert to HD radio (and neither of us have an HD radio receiver our vehicles), our favorite radio stations are going to disappear on us. So we'll probably start doing even more audio books.

Tangible Ghosts was pretty good, and I've got the sequels on my TBR list. But so far other things have been distracting me. I'll have to bump 'em up on the priority list!

doc, thanks for the friend invitation. I accepted but I don't know what that means and how you use the function to keep an eye on my library. I would like to know more. That's the part of LT I wish I had more time for. I have a few interesting libraries marked but don't have enough time to trip through the libraries and see the books. Tell me more, please!?!?!?

The books friends or owners of interesting libraries add, review or rate are shown at your home page, so you can follow their books ;-)

Also, if you go to your profile or home page and then look at the tabs, one says "Connections". Clicking on this gives you all the updates from your friends, interesting libraries and the 50 top similar libraries that LT calculates. Adding you means I can see when you add, rate or review a book without having to go to your profile page.

That and you have buy me a beer whenever I say! Ok, just kidding about that last part...8^}

I have a feeling that buying you a beer might turn into a long evening, and many beers, discussing fiction, literature, and story-telling. Speaking of discussing lieterature, thanks for the heads up on David Wellington's author chat. I have seen your great reviews and thoughts on his vampire series and I am intrigued. I enjoy a good vampire tale, as we all know. I tried Laurell K. Hamilton a couple of times and found her vampire stories sort of surface stuff and didn't enjoy them. So, I may have to try Wellington out!

If the friends thing helps you see when I add stuf, you got a eyeful here in the last couple of days!!!!

Is there a difference between the interesting libraries and friends or do they function the same way??

THanks for the clarification :)

Happy reading,
Susan

"Friends" is a two-way connection and "Interesting Libraries" is a one-way connection. There are probably other differences, especially related to private libraries and groups, but I haven't done much with either.

95. The Summoning by Bentley Little

On the surface, The Summoning is a vampire story, and a pretty good one, at that. In a small Arizona town, bodies start showing up - completely dessicated bodies. And it becomes pretty clear pretty quick that there's a monster on the prowl. But Bentley Little does us a real favor by rethinking the classic vampire and presenting us with a monster that's well beyond Dracula or his descendants. This is an ancient evil that doesn't obey the usual rules.

But there's more to the story than just a good monster hunt. Little touches on blind religious thinking and the ways that the essence of a person - whether good or bad - are brought to the fore by events.

Little keeps the action moving with a crisp plot, and I liked the way his characters respond to some very abnormal experiences. All in all, it was a fun read that I'll recommend.

OK, on to the Continent it goes!

Sounds interesting. I'll have to add it to the Wish List.

96. The New Annotated Dracula by Bram Stoker, edited by Leslie Klinger

Dracula's not a new story for me - or for nearly anyone - but The New Annotated Dracula was a refreshing look at this old story. Leslie Klinger's slight "editorial conceit" is that Dracula is based on actual events described by the Harkers, and that the extant source material shows the evolution of the story as Stoker tries to disguise the people and places involved without destroying the core of the story. He then uses the source material (a set of research notes and an early manuscript showing hand written corrections) and clues from the manuscript to work out timelines and settings for the "real" story, which are described in a great (in number and in interest) set of notes to the text. Add an introduction by Neil Gaiman and a set of appendices discussing the later history in book and film of the Dracula story and a brief introduction to literary analysis of the story, and we get a really nice reference volume.

Klinger's work points out several things that I'd never noticed in previous readings. First and foremost, Van Helsing isn't the know-it-all expert on vampires I expected him to be. We have this picture of him as a wise old vampire hunter, but in reality, Stoker paints him as a very intelligent scientist confronted by a new field with very practical and immediate consequences. Van Helsing needs to go off and do research, he makes mistakes, he misinterprets vampire behavior and constraints. So in reading the story this time, he became a more real character for me. The other eye-opening came with the alternate interpretation of Quincey Morris' behavior, especially as it relates to Dracula's death. It's possible to infer that in fact, Dracula escaped in the end, an idea that really intrigued me. Neither of these ideas are new, but Klinger's work really laid out the cases nicely.

While the notes were great, and Klinger did a great job introducing Stoker's life and the immediate history of the book, I thought the appendices were a bit weak. There are definitely other places to go for a better recounting of post-Stoker Dracula works. There's a lot of analysis of the story out there, but Klinger sticks with the standby interpretation of vampirism as a substitute for sex. Ok, that's fine, but his analysis is a bit shallow, and a bit tired.

If you haven't read Dracula yet, I suspect the format of the book and all the notes will be distracting. If you've read and enjoyed the story, this edition will probably add to the richness of the text and you may want to consider it for your next reread.

hmmm i'll keep an eye out for The Summoning in case it wanders across my path.

97. The Batman Chronicles, vol 2 edited by Alan Grant

Interesting as part of the full collection of Batman stories from the DC and Batman comic books. This volume stories from the golden age of comics before these stories descended into the never-ending battles between superheros and supervillains. Some of the stories are real gems, some are real clunkers. Given the way comics were written and produced, that's to be expected.

98. Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane

The fifth, and presumably last, Kenzie and Gennaro story, Prayers for Rain was right up there with the rest of the series. Lehane is violent and doesn't sugar-coat his heroes. Instead, they make mistakes, do questionable things, and suffer the consequences - physical and psychological. As is usual, Lehane's plotting is crisp and the characters are fantastic. But what really shines is his writing. It's lyrical and horrific at the same time. Fair warning, though. He doesn't pull any punches when describing the violence Patrick and Angela experience.

Recommended, but for best effect, start with the beginning of the series.

Lehane may get moved up to my favorites list, which I am very stingy with. But his writing really captured me! Looking forward to this series.

99. Stardust by Neil Gaiman

The wife and I have been watching the movie over the last week, and have fallen in love with it. So naturally, I went to the library and picked up the book. I'm ashamed to say that even though I've enjoyed Gaiman's stuff for years, I had neglected to read Stardust. So now I'm a fan of the movie *and* the book! I thoroughly it and have even convinced the wife to read it. Ok, so it didn't take much convincing...8^}

I love the book, and thought they did a wonderful job with the movie, how butch did that guy get with just a hair cut?! and the goat man "Billy" too funny, not to mention De Niro as a Nancy. Dang, now I'm in the mood to watch it again.

I'll watch for the book Stardust. Hubby & I just recently added the movie to our collection and enjoyed it. Our friendship developed over movies like that :)

I loved both book and film too. Fantastic.

There's a lovely story in Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu which is set in Wall - nothing to do with the Stardust characters, but it's a nice little hommage and very funny.

100. The Shining by Stephen King

So I ran out of library books with Stardust. Oh, the inhumanity! Fortunately, I had picked up some used Stephen King to replace books lent but not returned years ago, and this one was on the top of the pile. It was as good as always! Classic King.

Next time you run out of library books, head to my house. I have enough stockpiled for 2 (or 3 or more), lol.

101. The Mystery of the Sicilian Sub-Dialect, Sanfratellan, Transformed in the Twelfth Century by the Normans, the Provencals, and the Gallo-Italians by Joseph F. Privitera

I saw this on the list of new items acquired by the public library, and was intrigued by the title. So I put it on reserve sight-unseen, even though it's out of the box for me. Priivitera's book is a philological text studying a unique dialect in the small Sicilian town of San Fratella, mainly trying to determine why that dialect is so different from the languages spoken in the rest of Sicily.

It turns out I learned some interesting things. First, I had no idea that the dialects on Sicily were so varied. Second, I had no idea that the French, especially Old Provencial influence was so strong. All in all, I'm glad I picked it up, even though parts of the discussion were way over my head.

ooh I have a linguist friend in NYC who would love that -- I'll pass it on and at the same time get the title of one I saw her reading when we were in Paris that look fascinating tracking down the first language. Surprise surprise looks like it was in Mesopotamia :)

I've also got Empires of the word : a language history of the world on my TBR list. I think it's time to bump it up on the priority list. I've always been interested in languages and how they change, but never had a chance to study the subject.

drneutron, Empires sounds like a very interesting book -- do bump it up on your list, and let us know your thoughts!

If you like books on languages, I read Spoken Here by Mark Abley a few years ago and really enjoyed it. It's about his travels to areas where the native language is disappearing and some discussion on how different languages convey different world views, and losing the languages loses the perspectives.

I do not know if doc will put Spoken Here on his TBR list, but I have added it to mine. Thanks for the recommendation, TadAD.

Yep, it's on the list...

102. The Madness of Mary Lincoln by Jason Emerson

During her lifetime, Mary Todd Lincoln was often considered odd (and difficult!). Over the years of her marriage, she went through cycles of what appears now to be depression and mania. Until Abraham was assassinated, Mary's oddities were relatively well controlled. After his death, she became more manic about money and possessions, somewhat paranoid, and more obsessive about her youngest son Tad and the deaths of her husband and two other sons. On the 10th anniversary of the assassination, Mary suffered what appears to be a psychotic episode. Her remaining son, Robert, on the advice of the family doctors and after dealing with Mary for years, brought suit to have her declared insane and confined to a private sanitarium for treatment. With the help of a few friends in the Chicago and some newspaper coverage, Mary was able to make enough of a scene that she was sent to live with her sister and, after a year, was able to take over her own financial affairs. After spending some time in Europe, Mary grew sick and died back at her sister's house.

Of course, life is never simple. There was at the time, and still are, a number of people who thought that Mary was not insane, and even if she was an odd person, should never have been confined. Many of these people thought that Robert Lincoln was motivated by greed or the desire to put his mother away to avoid having to deal with her, or both. It's not even clear what Mary's actual condition was. Compounding the problem is Robert's intense desire for privacy, so many of the primary sources historians could use to understand events were destroyed. This has fueled much of the ongoing debate.

In The Madness of Mary Lincoln, Jason Emerson uses letters written by Mary Todd Lincoln mainly to the friends who led the effort to get her out of the sanitarium to sort out some of the doubt about what happened. It seems that Robert's lawyer made copies of a set of Mary's letters before turning them over to be burned. The Madness of Mary Lincoln is an excellent telling of Mary's story in light of these letters.

Recommended, especially for Civil War era history buffs.

Whoa you've read some very interesting stuff since I last visited. Congrats on crossing 100!!! I did not know that Stardust was a book before it was a movie. I think I will be throtting over to the biblioteca to get a copy.

Bk 101 sounds amazing. I took an anthropology of language class in college and it was one of the most fascinating courses that I have ever taken. The class was a requirement for my area of concentration and all the people who I had taken it in the past gave me the impression it was hell on earth but I was shocked as to how much I liked it. It went into so much that I never even had a passing knowledge of.

I really need to get reading on The Stand, no one tell Blackdog as I made this whole thing about reading it for Halloween and never even took it off the shelf. Hey maybe I will read it for Christmas.

So sad about Mary Lincoln. Never knew that about her. Almost reminds me of the Kennedy sister who was lobotomized back when that was considered an acceptable medical procedure.

re #272 - I started Empires of the Word a couple of weeks ago - it is one that I will probably dip in and out of for a few months. It needs close reading!

I am putting both books 101 and 102 on Continent TBR as well as the book TadAD recommended. You're killing me, doc.

book #102 has been added to the mountainous TBR list.
I really enjoyed your review! Thanks!

>277 drneutron: Great review Doc. Sounds like just the sort of book I would like to read, as I am a Lincoln fan. I am reading Rebel by Bernard Cornwell which is telling the story of the Civil War from the Southern perspective. Loving it so far, Cornwell is such an excellent writer.

- TT

TrishNYC, didn't you know dogs have superhuman hearing capabilities. Thankfully, they are also loyal beyond measure. So, while you haven't yet read The Stand, I am not upset in the least. Besides, I have been having the same problem getting through my TBR stacks. All of the ER and ARC books, which I am becoming addicted to, have put me off the course. But I do think you will quite enjoy it once you have time for it.

Doc, as a child, I was obsessed with Lincoln, his life, and his assassination. I read many books on the people in his life. The Madness of Mary Lincoln sounds wonderful. Isn't it interesting how many lives were shattered by the acts of hate around Lincoln's assassination. One of my favorite books was about Dr. Mudd.

I lived for a while down in southern Maryland, where Dr. Mudd lived and Booth was cornered in a barn, so I've always been interested in their story, especially Mudd's. But until The Madness of Mary Lincoln, I'd never paid much attention to the family's story after the assassination. Turns out, Robert Lincoln founded a pretty successful law firm in Chicago and eventually got into government service by serving as Secretary of War for Grant. I think Emerson's working on a follow-on biography of Robert Lincoln, and I'm keeping an eye out for it.

As for the Sanfratellan book, it'll be an easy read - most of the book consists of comparative lists of equivalent words - with pronunciations - in Old Provencial, Sanfrattellan, Sicilian and Italian. I skipped that part...8^} The remaining 20 pages or so was pretty interesting, but somewhat repetitive. The bibliography had some interesting rabbit trails to chase, though.

103. Ring by Koji Suzuki

Ring was my first dip into Koji Suzuki's books, and I'll probably be reading more. This is one of those books that's hard for me to review, because I have a few things I'd love to say about it, but can't without spoiling the ending. Suffice it to say I loved the basic concept, with the extension from the biological realm to the psychical. The sparse writing drove the story forward much like a similar approach in Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Things lag a bit in the middle, but I think that's done on purpose - again, without spoiling things, I can't say much here - just keep going and you'll be rewarded.

Goodness, you've read some interesting stuff since I last checked in!

I loved Stardust and I agree, I thought it was very well adapted for film - I'm always a little nervous when I know they've altered the plot, but I thought that the changes Jane Goldman made just made it work better as a film... I particularly liked the ghostly brothers (but then they had such a fantastic cast!). I presume you've also read The Princess Bride? If you haven't, you really should - even better than the film (which I saw ages before I read it), which I don't say lightly...

You've definitely intrigued me with Dennis Lehane - I've not come across him before - is there any of his work you'd particularly recommend?

Shutter Island was a good single work. The rest on my list are a series about two PIs and if you're interested, start with A Drink Before The War. Really good, but somewhat violent.

Princess Bride, both book and movie are favorites of mine!

I thought the ghost brothers were perfect in the movie version of Stardust. But my favorite was de Niro as Captain Shakespeare. Wow. He really stretched *that* role! 8^}

I've wanted to read The Princess Bride for a long time - its' one of my favorite movies, too. But, as I've seen it about 40 times, I've always held off, thinking that maybe it wouldn't have anything to offer me. What do you think?

Oh, there's definitely more there than the movie. Goldman pretends to be abridging the original text to preserve only the "good parts", so there's lots of commentary asides on the "Unabridged Version", there's more backstory on Inigo and Fezzig, and generally there's more humor in the story than even the movie has. I think Rob Reiner did a better job of preserving the text in teh translation than most directors do, but there's only so much you can put in a two hour movie.

'Nuff said. Onto the pile it goes.

Fourpawz, you'll love the book if you even like the movie of The Princess Bride because you do get all that backstory. Read and enjoy!

Don't know if this is true of all editions (mine was an anniversary copy), but the version of The Princess Bride that I read also included a very, very funny preface about Goldman's legal tussles with "S. Morgenstern" over his publication of the "good parts".

wow! More humor than the movie! Think I'll bump The Princess Bride to the top of my wishlist :)

>294 suslyn: Suse, I have decided to have a "humour" or "humor!" category for 2009, to offset some of my heavier categories, "Kafka" and "Russian Authors"!

Should be fun!

- TT

>295 TheTortoise: sounds good!

The preface to The Princess Bride is part of the story set-up, so you know how "hard" it was to get the original in print. It was in my original copy years ago.

104. The Dracula Dossier by James Reese

The subtitle of The Dracula Dossier is A Novel of Suspense. Wish that it was...Reese imagines Bram's Stoker's inspiration for Dracula to be a bad person possessed by the spirit of the Egyptian god Set who commits the Jack the Ripper murders.

On the surface, this concept has potential, but Reese's execution is fundamentally flawed. He tells the story in the same style as Dracula - through letters and journal entries - but, unlike the original, the action seriously lags through the middle third of the book. Worst of all, the journal entries during that time are mostly Victorian hand-wringing. Stoker as conceived here just can't figure out what to do and so spends all his time in guilt over the murders as they occur. Frankly, I just wanted to slap him a few times. The end of the book had plenty of action, but was so far fetched that it strained belief.

Meh. Don't bother.

OMG--I can hear the pitch for the film version already, about the goddess Set being involved (think "The Mummy" and "Scorpion King") mixed with Jack the Ripper and the Count. See the FX used to create a whole new Dracula!!!

Yeah, I got that feeling as well. They'll have to juice up the action considerably, though.

No problem with the action--in fact, it can be the entire heart of the film!

105. A Fortress of Grey Ice by J. V. Jones

Second in a series by J. V. Jones, A Fortress of Grey Ice continues the story begun in A Cavern of Black Ice with her usual skill. As with the first, the high-level plot is pretty standard fantasy stuff. Evil that has been locked away is breaking out and the first shadow creature has led the way with an unlikely hero led to kill it to save the world. What keeps this well above the level of standard fantasy is the depth of the world Jones creates and the tangled plot with many story threads that she weaves so deftly.

The escaping evil isn't just some monster that needs to be killed. The world itself is changing and becoming more chaotic, even the geology. The clans have begun warring and armies from the cities are invading. Everything is changing, and not for the better. In this mess, Jones also continues the story of Raif and Ash, who must seal all this evil back into the shadow world.

Like the previous book at more than 800 pages, this one's long, coming at 670 pages. The pace of the story and the action flow are better than the first volume, though, so it seems to go quickly. In fact, it's hard for me to see how, given the depth of the plot, how it could have been any shorter.

Good read, but start with the first volume.

I am so glad you posted about JV Jones -- I'm in the States and have been in 3 bookstores in 2 days and FORGOT to look for book 3!! I want it! Thanks a mil!

Cool! I take it you've enjoyed them? So far, so good for me. Have you read any of her earlier books?

106. The Buried Book by David Damrosch

The Buried Book gives the history of the Epic of Gilgamesh from rediscovery in the British Museum to the earliest days of Sumerian epic poetry. Yep, that sentence is correct. Damrosch tells the story backwards, peeling back the layers of history like an archaeologist would study a site. He starts with George Smith, who found the tablets among the hundred thousand or so items in the British Museum's Assyrian collection in the late 1800's. He follows with the discovery of the Ninevah library by Hormuzd Rassam, a Mosul native raised by a British sister-in-law to be very British and shut out of upper British society, whose work was purposefully buried by some of the bigger names in British archaeology of the era. Then Damrosch moves to the Epic itself, along with the story of Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian King who built the library and collected the tablets, among which were those that became the "standard" Epic of Gilgamesh. Finally, the book concludes with older stories collected and edited to become the Epic, reaching back to the earliest records of Sumerian civilization to get glimpses of a possible historical Gilgamesh.

In each chapter detailing a piece of the story, Damrosch focuses on a person at the center of that part of the story, bringing to life these little known corners of archaeology - both British and Assyrian, for Ashurbanipal was in his own way, an archaeologist restoring even older Sumerian and Chaldean works. But he also pays attention to the societal aspects of the work. For instance, George Smith was interested in finding external evidence to support the history in the Bible, and much of his translation and interpretation of the Gilgamesh story was colored by this motivation. These pictures open up the periods he discusses and really makes the times come to life.

Recommended!

I've read everything by JV Jones I could find. I liked The Barbed Coil a lot and appreciated the way it stood alone and didn't require other books to be complete. (at the same time I wouldn't say 'no' to a sequel!!)

Loved The Baker's Boy et al. I found the lighter tone a real contrast to the Ice series and liked the way she weaves the two into the same universe. That last surprised me! :)

The Buried Book sounds like my kind of.... well, book. I'm off the library website right now.....

I just wishlisted The Buried Book in BookMooch.

Of course, I do have a $50 gift card to B&N if I get impatient...

drneutron, you read such interesting books!

>309 karenmarie: So did I!

The Buried Book sounds fascinating.

I've wavered over J. V. Jones numerous times.

I see the trite covers/blurbs and and see the average ratings on LT and Amazon and think, "Yet another clone quest epic," and decide not to waste my time.

Then, I hear several people in a row say they like one of them and think, "I'll try one."

Maybe I should just grab one from the library and see which is right. :-)

I liked both the previous series starting with The Baker's Boy and this latst one starting with A Cavern of Black Ice. I'd suggest starting with the latest. Jones is one of those writers that isn't marketed very well. The books look like run-of-the-mill fantasy, but have quite a bit more depth than expected.

107. WineWise

A decent introduction to the world of wine, WineWise covers all the basics. Wine is introduced by variety, then the major wine producing areas are covered individually. The best part of he discuss for newbies will be the "how to interpret the label" sections. The authors wrap up with chapters on wine-food pairing, interpreting wine lists, and recommendations for bargain and mid-priced wines.

My only complaint about the books is that the discussion is pretty favorable all the way around. The authors concentrate on good wines and good producers, and at times, it seems like they're trying not to offend anyone. This doesn't reduce the value of their advice - they're happy to tell us about the good stuff - but one expects a little snarkiness in wine writing.

Recommended for those wanting to learn about wine or try wines from a new area or of a new type.

I'm giving the husband The Billionaire's Vinegar for Christmas :) Hope he enjoys it as much as you did. Just bought the Fetzer Gewurtz which was a favorite years and years ago -- Looking forward to seeing if I still feel the same way. If so, it's hard to see how you can go wrong at $7/bottle -- that's almost like French prices.

#306: I read The Buried Book earlier this year and enjoyed it, too, although I wish it was just a bit longer. Glad to see that you liked it!

108. No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Very good! The writing is terse and true to the time and place. The atmosphere's dry and dusty as the west Texas landscape. The story's classic Cormac McCarthy. 'Nuff said.

Oh, and I thought the movie was a pretty decent interpretation of the book. So I've got two new faves!

nice, I'm sure I'll put it on the list. I thought the movie was pretty good.

109. The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend by Robert L. Mack

i loved the Tim Burton version of the Sondheim musical, so when I saw this at the public library, I had to get it. I knew that the basic story had been around for a while, but had no idea just how far back it goes. Robert Mack does a very good job of tracking the sources for the original story published in 1847, and nicely compares the theatrical development of Sweeney Todd with the written version. The analytical discussions certainly seemed well done, but it's not my area of expertise and I'm probably not the best to judge in that area. The only real flaw in the work for me was the density of Mack's writing. He (or more likely, the publisher) crammed a lot of words on each page, both from tiny print and from very complex sentences. I found myself having to read sections several time to follow his discussion, especially in the more analytical areas.

I'm a day or so early, but I don't think I'll finish anymore this year. so the wrap-up:

Book Type
Fiction - 81 (74%)
Nonfiction - 28 (26%)

Book Source
Library - 92
Mine - 16
Borrowed - 1

Ratings
5 Stars - 4
4.5 Stars - 17
4 Stars - 27
3.5 Stars - 24
3 Stars - 18
2.5 Stars - 13
2 Stars - 6
1.5 Stars - 1
1 Star - 2

Monthly Breakdown
January - 8
February - 7
March - 11
April - 10
May - 11
June - 10
July - 9
August - 9
September - 8
October - 10
November - 9
December - 7

For an average of 9.2 books per month +/- 1.4 books (1 sigma).

Ok, I admit it, I'm a geek...

I have a great fondness for geeks -- married one too!

Blessings to you & yours and Happy New Year

> 319 to which titles do those 5-star rankings go? just curious...

Shutter Island
The Black Tower
Guns, Germs and Steel
Bridge of Birds

All really good reads!

did you know they're making a movie of Shutter Island? cast sounds great, I hope they do the book justice.

Cool! I checked it out on IMDB. What a cast list!

Glad you enjoyed No Country for Old Men the book and movie. Also favorites for me. They filmed the movie here in my own little home town, neat seeing it in the movie.

Very cool! Did you get to meet Tommy Lee Jones?