Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50-Book Challenge 2010

#55 Taming A Sea Horse
#56 Pale Kings and Princes
#57 Crimson Joy
#58 Playmates
#59 Stardust
#60 Pastime
#61 Double Deuce
#62 Paper Doll
#63 Walking Shadow

All Spenser. All fun. All the time.

LabRat

20. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris - Book 10 in the Sookie Stackhouse (a.k.a. TruBlood) series.

41) The Well of Lost Plots
42) Something Rotten
43) First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde. More Thursday Next stories. Quite inventive and very entertaining.
44) Last Gun: The Legend of John Selman by Gene Shelton. A novelized account of the life of the man who shot John Wesley Hardin. These were some violent dudes.
45) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Captivating alternate history of America's sixteenth president.
(Tried to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by the same author, but it was just awful, even though there were some funny scenes.)
46) Thunderbolt! by Robert S. Johnson. The story of air combat in World War 2 by the highest-scoring US P-47 pilot in the theater.
47) Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life by Robert M. Utley. Historical account of the Kid's life. How many of you knew that William (Billy) Bonney was not his real name? His original name was Henry McCarty, but his widowed mother married a man named Antrim when the Kid was in his early teens. A lot of names for such a short life.
48) War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta by Russel S. Bonds. Historical account of Sherman's march to the sea in 1864, with great detail about the actual capture of Atlanta.
49) Hellcat by Barrett Tillman. Combat history of the Grumman F6F carrier fighter in World War 2.
50) The Bomber Boys by Travis L. Ayres. The combat stories of five B-17 crewmen from different aircraft while flying over Europe.
51) In My Sights: The Memoirs of a P-40 Ace by James B. Morehead. The author's account of his days as a fighter pilot in a P-40 against Japan and in a P-38 against the Luftwaffe.
52) Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War by T. J. Stiles. Historical account of the life and career of Jesse James.

As you can probably tell, I like US history, war history, detective stories, and the occasional light fluff.

59.R Is For Ricochet Sue Grafton

60.The Paid Companion Amanda Quick

61.The 9th Judgment James Patterson

62.Break In Dick Francis

63.Bolt Dick Francis

64.The Summer Hideaway Susan Wiggs

65.S Is For Silence Sue Grafton

66.Catering To Nobody Diane Mott Davidson

67.Mum's the Word Kate Collins

68.With This Ring Amanda Quick

69.T Is For Trespass Sue Grafton

70.Dying For Chocolate Diane Mott Davison

71.Chasing The Bear- A Young Spenser Novel Robert B Parker - This is a very short book but very, very good. It shows Spenser as a child and how he grew up to be the man he is.

72.I thee Wed Amanda Quick

73.Lucid Intervals Stuart Woods, Best Stone book in a long time

74.U is for Undertow Sue Grafton, I think this was about the best of the whole bunch

75.Dearly Depotted Kate Collins

Deep in my current X Files/Stargate Atlantis obsessions, I haven't been reading anything at all for weeks. (Other than fanfic). But this little pile of Spenser novels has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be posted for a good while now, so I thought I'd add them in.

#64 Thin Air
#65 Chance
#66 Sudden Mischief
#67 Hush Money
#68 Hugger Mugger
#69 Potshot
#70 Widow's Walk
#71 Back Story
#72 Bad Business
#73 Cold Service
#74 School Days
#75 Hundred Dollar Baby
#76 Now and Then

LabRat

76.The Cereal Murders Diane Mott Davidson
77.Dead Heat Dick Francis
78.10 b. Penalty Dick Francis
79.Affair Amanda Quick
80.Firefly Lane Kristin Hannah
81.Proof Dick Francis
82.Falling Awake Jayne Ann Krentz
83.Dangerous Amanda quick
84.Miss Julia Renews Her Vows Ann B. Ross
85.Snipped In The Bud Kate Collins
86.Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone
87.In The Frame Dick Francis
88.The Danger Dick Francis
89.Salem Falls Jodi Picoult
90.Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets
91.Bulls Island Dorothea Benton Frank
92.Decider Dick Francis

53) The Man from Krypton Glenn Yeffeth, editor - various essays on Superman
54) Wonder Woman by Les Daniels - history of Wonder Woman (who was developed by the same doctor who invented the polygraph).
55) Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Guide to the Amazon Princess by Scott Beatty - the current Wonder Woman mythology (needed to do some research).
56) Batman Unauthorized edited by Dennis O'Neal and Leah Wilson - various essays on Batman (most of them much darker in tone than the essays on Superman).
57) Boeing B-52 by Walter Boyne - a history of the B-52 bomber. A magnificent aircraft.
58) Earthway by Aimee and David Thurlo - series mystery set on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. The books follow the adult life of Ellah Clah, a Native American police officer working on the Rez. The stories combine Navajo mysticism with police procedure, and they work.
59) The Dark Side of the Game by Tim Green. Remembrances of a former player (defensive lineman for the Atlanta Falcons). Not as negative as I expected from the title. Lots of very short chapters, possibly resulting from the ex-football player's brief attention span.
60) When All The World was Browns Town by Terry Pluto. Recounts the last professional championship won by an Ohio team in any sport, the 1964 NFL championship against the Baltimore Colts.
61) The 360-degree Leader
62) The 21 Immutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell - leadership counsel. Very specific and useful.
63) A History of Modern Computing by Paul Ceruzzi. Development of digital computers (mostly larger machines) up to 1995. Interesting from a historical POV, although I would have preferred more personal information on the people involved.
64) The Legend of the Firefish
65) The Hand that Bears the Sword
66) The Battle for Vast Dominion by George Bryan Polivka. A Christian seagoing fantasy trilogy set in something like the 15th century. Very imaginative and entertaining.
67) The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible by Robert J. Hutchinson. This one will go in my personal library, as will
68) The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science by Tom Bethell. Both are full of unexpected nuggets of information, all very logically and convincingly presented.
69) The Big Gundown by Bill Brooks - Western novel.
70) Down the Long Hills
71) West of Dodge by Louis L'Amour. Western novel and short stories, respectively. There are flaws in L'Amour's writing style, but the man could sure tell a story.
72) Gunfight at Cold Devil by Ralph Cotton. Western novel.

His second book, "The Year of Living Biblically," is even better. I read the second one first and was so glad I did. He decided to read the entire Bible and live as it instructs for a full year, including stoning an adulterer. He throws pebbles at the guy, because the Bible never specified how big the stones had to be...

Just finished it yesterday...wish it had more plot!

Wow...I'm gonna have to start keeping a list of what I read.

21. Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mezzanoble
22. Mission of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington, book 12)
23. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

The next three are from David Weber's Dahak series, which I'm pretty sure isn't finished yet, but he just released a book from a different series this year so I don't think the Dahak series is going to be updated soon.

24. Mutineers' Moon
25. The Armageddon Inheritance
26. Heirs of Empire

The rest of these are all by either Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey, or both, and are all from the Dragonriders of Pern series, in story chronology order (or as close to it as I could get without stopping in the middle of an audio book or four), though when I actually read them, I got some of the second and third pass books mixed up and read them out of order.

That's the way I prefer to read the series myself, but when I recommend it to someone else, I usually recommend that they read it in publishing order.

The two short story collections, I read first and all at once, since I couldn't figure out in the recordings where each story began and ended.

27. The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
28. A Gift of Dragons
29. Dragonsdawn
30. Dragonseye
31. Dragon's Kin
32. Dragon's Fire
33. Dragon Harper
34. Dragonsblood
35. Dragonheart
36. Dragongirl
37. Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
38. Nerilka's Story
39. The Masterharper of Pern
40. Dragonflight
41. Dragonquest
42. Dragonsong
43. Dragonsinger
44. Dragondrums
45. The White Dragon
46. The Renegades of Pern
47. All the Weyrs of Pern
48. The Dolphins of Pern
49. The Skies of Pern

I also read Where's My Cow? by Terry Pratchett, but that doesn't count, because it's not a novel--just a children's picture book.

Only one more to go! Now, if I hadn't packed up all my books all ready in preparation for moving this month, I might actually pull one out and read it this week. Or if I had any idea what I wanted to read next, I'd download the audio book. But I don't.

Oh, wait. . . . I started reading a book the other night while I was at a club downtown where I am a member, but it was late and I couldn't get past the third chapter. Plus, it's a really long one (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman), and it's one of those I have to be in the mood to decipher (due to the very British-ness of the language), so it would probably take longer than the rest of the year to finish it, considering I don't have my own copy.

I got that book (the second one, not the first) for Christmas 2008, and thought it was great!

Librarything.com is a wonderful website for keeping track of your books, and which ones you've read and when you've read them.

Guess he forget to include the New Testament. "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone'"

Shuddering at the recent reports that have emerged of just such atrocities being carried out in other parts of the world.

c. (yes, I know, I know - sort of off topic)

Actually, he did both Old and New Testaments--just not at the same time. He started with the Old Testament, then a few months later, added laws from the New Testament.

#77 Robert B Parker - The Professional
#78 Robert B Parker - Rough Weather
#79 William Diehl - Primal Fear
#80 William Diehl - Reign in Hell
#81 F. Paul Wilson and Matthew J. Costello - Mirage
#82 Chris Mooney - The Secret Friend
#83 John Saul - When The Wind Blows
#84 Sonny Whitelaw and Elizabeth Christensen - SGA: Blood Ties
#85 Elizabeth Christensen - SGA: Casualties of War
#86 Chris Wraight - SGA: Dead End
#87 Martha Wells - SGA: Entanglement
#88 Sally Malcolm - SGA: Rising

LabRat

93. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
94. Stork Raving Mad Donna Andrews
95. Sizzling Sixteen Janet Evanovich
96. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
97. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
98. Even Money Dick Francis
99. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
100. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
101. Letter From Home Carolun Hart
102. Murder Carries a Torch Anne George
103. Reflex Dick Francis
104. Glory In Death J.D. Robb
105. Memory In Deaths' Night Out Anne George
107. Murder On a Bad Hair Day Anne George
108. The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax Dorothy Gilman
109. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax Dorothy Gilman
110.The Elusive Mrs Pollifax Dorothy Gilman
111. Hannah's List Debbie Macomber
112. Murder Runs In the Family Anne George
113. Naked In Death J.D. Robb
114. Mrs Pollifax On Safari Dorothy Gilman
115. Murder Makes WavesJoan Hess
117. 1022 Evergreen Place Debbie Macomber

50. On the Edge (Edge series, book 1)
51. Bayou Moon (Edge series, book 2)
52. Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, book 1)
53. Magic Burns (Kate Daniels, book 2)
54. Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, book 3)
55. Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels, book 4)

I'm also currently reading a collection of short stories that I found at Barnes & Noble while I was waiting for my eye doctor appointment time to get closer a couple weeks ago. I saw that it had a story in it by the author of the Sookie Stackhouse series (which is what the HBO show True Blood is based off of), so I bought the book. Ilona Andrews actually had a short story in the book too, which is why I looked up the series--the short was interesting, so I wanted to read more of their stuff. The book is called Death's Excellent Adventure, and I've only read 3 or 4 stories so far, but I'll get through it eventually.

Last month, I started reading the Changeling: The Lost RPG manual, and I'm on chapter 3 (there are 4 chapters, plus some appendices).

I haven't gotten much farther in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel than I was the last time I updated, but I'm determined to finish before New Year's, if at all possible.

45. The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. Interesting book about four plants useful to humans for various reasons. The tulip - beauty. Cannabis - intoxication. The potato - nutrition. And apples. Pollan writes amazing and thought-provoking essays about all. Plus, I learned a lot about Johnny Appleseed - he died owning 32 parcels of land, for one. And everybody wanted his apple trees to make hard cider, not for eating apples.

46. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. "Eat food. Not a lot. Mostly plants." That's the author's advice on what to eat. He talks about how the Western diet has led to epidemics of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, among other ailments. We have gone from eating a mostly leaf-based diet to eating a mostly seed-based diet (corn, soy, meat fed on corn and soy, etc.) What does that mean for us, and for our world? Thought-provoking and disturbing.

47. Covet by J.R. Ward. Hot, hot romance set in the same town as her "Black Dagger Brotherhood" novels. Jim is recruited by the angels to save seven souls. If he wins - good. If he loses - game over, for everyone, all time. This tells the story of the first soul he saves - a man ensnared by one of the seven deadly sins, Covetousness. Rated M for Mature.

48. Dreamers of the Day by Maria Doria Russell. Rather pedestrian book about (I think) the Cairo Conference after World War I, which drew boundaries for the Middle East, thus setting up generations of conflict. Not all that enthralling. I much preferred the author's previous book, The Sparrow and its sequel, Children of God which I read in a previous year.

49. Oryx and Crake and
50. The Year of the Flood both by Margaret Atwood. Dystopian novels about an ecologically shattered future world, where genetically engineered plagues carry off most of humanity. The same event, told from two different points of view, in the two novels. Good story, but depressing.

51. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Winner of the Hugo Award, it's another dystopian novel about a "calorie man", a fixer from a multinational corporation sent to Bangkok to search out new sources of calories. The Petroleum Era has Collapsed, and genetically engineered plagues have destroyed major portions of the world's foodstuffs (no nightshades - no potatoes, tomatoes, or tobacco). The "Windup Girl" of the title is a genetically engineered New Person - legal in Japan, but here in Thailand she is illegal and is liable to be "mulched" (mulching is widely practiced and the methane generated is captured for fuel.)

Much, much more than I can say in this tiny post. Another dystopian novel (I'm on a roll with those lately) but well worth reading.

52. Love and Capes Vol. I. and
53. Love and Capes Vol II. Terry Leatherwood put me onto this - the comic strip is on-line http://loveandcapes.com/lnc/?p=3]here . Great fun. Abby Tennyson is an independent bookstore owner. Mark Spencer is her mild-mannered accountant. He's fallen in love with her, and he's going to tell her tonight that he's actually "The Crusader", the superhero that patrols Deco City. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman fans will instantly get the comic tropes. A really fun romantic comedy. The whole thing isn't posted on-line yet, so I had to run out and buy the books!

54. Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred In Modern India by William Dalrymple.
As the blurb goes: "Historian-travel writer Dalrymple (The Last Mughal) knows his Asian subcontinent, having moved to New Delhi in 1989. The engine of Indian economic development is bringing rapid change, and Dalrymple spotlights changes and constancies brought about in India's dizzyingly diverse religious practices. The titular nine lives are those of a variety of religious adherents: a Jain nun, a sacred dancer, a Sufi mystic, a Tantric practitioner, among others. His subjects, for the most part, do their own show-and-tell in explaining their religious paths, which differ but share the passionate devotion (bhakti) that characterizes popular religion in India. Dalrymple has a good eye, a better ear, and the humility to get out of the way of his subjects." Well worth reading. Very different to my Western, Christian viewpoint. And yet the search for the sacred seems to be a universal human quest.

55. Vampire Taxonomy by Meredith Woerner. How do you tell your fanged freaks from your vampires-with-a-soul? Read this and you'll know. Fun light reading, good for some laughs.

56. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
57. The Girl Who Played With Fire
58. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest all by Stieg Larsson.
Good thrillers about Lisbeth Salander, computer hacker and Mikael Blomqvist, journalist. If you haven't read them already, I don't want to give away any of the plots. Let's just say that they had me on the edge of my chair.

59. The Devil's Alphabet by Daryl Gregory.
Ten years ago, Paxton Martin left his hometown of Switchcreek, Tennessee after a plague. Many died, and others were changed into eleven-foot tall argos, parthenogenetic betas, and grossly obese charlies. Paxton is there to attend a funeral of an old friend, but he gets caught up in the residual weirdness. Better than I'm making it sound.

60. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman, died over fifty years ago of advanced cervical cancer. The cells taken from that cancer, now called HeLa cells, have been one of the most successful cell cultures of all time, and incredibly important in research. Skloot goes into the ethics of tissue donation, what was expected then and what's expected now, and brings up some troubling questions, all set against the background of Henrietta Lacks' family and what became of them.

61. The Red Door by Charles Todd.
An Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery. The inspector suffered from severe shell shock during WWI. Now the war is over, but Ian still hears the voice of Hamish, one of the men who died under his command. Long ago, he's made a pact with himself - he hears Hamish's voice, that's OK, but if he ever sees Hamish, he's going to kill himself. He has to investigate a murder. Well plotted, excellent characterization, good description. The entire series is recommended.

62. Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane.
What were the great biological inventions that led to life on Earth as we know it?
Thought-provoking and interesting.

63. An Irish Country Doctor and
64. An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor. An OK read, but James Herriot did it better.

65. The System of the World by Neal Stephenson. Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, and other characters clash in the era 1660-1714. Audacious, world-spanning, and rewarding if you can get through Stephenson's weighty trilogy (the first two are Quicksilver and The Confusion.) I've been reading Stephenson ever since his Snow Crash, back in 1991, predicted the Internet and much of today's computer stuff. Plus, how can you not like a book where the main character is called Hiro Protagonist?

66. Lover Mine by J.R. Ward. Smut, smut, and more smut. Plus a decent plot to hang the smut episodes on. Warning: sex scenes are so hot there is risk of spontaneous human combustion.

67. Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded by John Scalzi. Just what it says. Scalzi writes a blog - he writes every day, he says, to keep his proficiency up. It's like doing scales for a pianist. His blog is at Whatever.scalzi.com, and it's worth a look. The book is ten years of some of the best posts from the blog, and is great fun. Scalzi is also known for taping bacon to his cat and then photographing her.

56. Death's Excellent Vacation
57. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
58. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, book 38 - I actually read this one, since I couldn't get a good audio copy in time, and I really wanted to read it a.s.a.p.)

These next seven books are the Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony.

58. Split Infinity
59. Blue Adept
60. Juxtaposition
61. Out of Phaze
62. Robot Adept
63. Unicorn Point
64. Phaze Doubt

I liked that septology, but I liked this next trilogy by Suzanne Collins a whole lot more. It's listed as a Young Adult series, but it's so awesome, with dark parts which made me surprised at the genre listing (in fact, the whole series is rather dark), that I would recommend it to anyone.

65. Hunger Games
66. Hunger Games 2 - Catching Fire
67. Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)

I've started reading a book about Chess, which is looking like it will be finished within a day or two, and will therefore be my first book for 2011. I've decided that I'm not going to finish reading the Changeling: The Lost RPG manual though; I've gotten stuck in the middle of chapter 3, which is the longest of four, and is so dry I just can never concentrate on it properly.