Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge 2020/What I've Read in 2021

#39 Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner


These guys have an interesting view point. I like that they emphasis the difference between correlation and causation with variables. I didn't agree with all their conclusions but it got me thining.

#22, 23, 24, 25 - Where Is The Eiffel Tower?, Who Is Steven Spielberg?, Who Was William Shakespeare?, What Was The Age of the Dinosaurs? by Various Authors

More informational reading. The kids liked the dinosaurs the best. I enjoyed it too. They were less enthused about the Eiffel Tower book, even though they picked it. They refused to listen to Spielberg and Shakespeare, but as a wannabe filmmaker and a literature nerd, I absolutely loved reading them for my own benefit and learned quite a bit, to be honest.

49) Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter provides great insight into the Middle East peace process and it’s complexities. The choice of the word ‘apartheid’ in the title is an interesting choice given the ugly history behind it, but reading this I found quite appropriate.

50) Barbarians at the Wall: The First Nomadic Empire and the Making of China by John Man The Great Wall was built as a means of keeping these nomadic tribes from China (although what is now known as the Great Wall was built during the Ming Dynasty some 1400 years after Emperor Qin united the smaller kingdoms under one emperor). Man pieces together an interesting look into the origins and history of these tribes, but I found it rather tedious especially compared to his other books.

51) Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern South East Asia by Michael Vatikiotis this started out promising especially since as an Australian this region is of particular strategic importance and as someone from Taiwan China’s increasing influence is also of concern. Though timely and relevant, this book ended up being rather disappointing with sloppy presentation.

#40 A Burning by Megha Majumdar


This book gave a very detailed picture of the lives of lower class people in India. The poverty. The corruption. The utter lack of options. I didn't especially like the characters. It reminds me that it's easier to have moral principles when you have a home and food.

#41 Southern Discomfort by Tena Clark


The summary for this book was deceptive. It was a story about a girl with a chaotic upbringing. I loved "Educated" and "The Glass Castle" which focused more on the authors and how they escaped/dealt with such chaos. This book focused more on the author's parents, who had lots of issues. While the author is able to forgive her parents for their past deeds, I would've liked to have read more about that emotional journey.

#26 The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Every year, the youngest baby in The Protectorate is left out in the woods to be sacrificed to the witch, who is evil and will curse the town if she doesn't get the child (according to the Elders). Every year, the witch, Xan, finds an abandoned infant in the woods, though she doesn't know why. She takes these children across the woods to the Free Cities and gives them to families who want a child. On the way, she feeds the babies starlight to keep their bellies full. These Star Children are adored by all who know them. Except one year, Xan accidently feeds moonlight to the infant she finds, which gives the baby girl magic. Xan decides to raise the baby as her own granddaughter, because children with magic can be dangerous to others until they learn to control their magic. And so the girl, Luna, grows up in the woods with a witch, a well spoken and gentle swamp monster, and a perfectly tiny dragon. Meanwhile, a man from the Protectorate grows up and decides that he will hunt down the witch to prevent any further yearly sacrifices...

My husband picked this one out to read to our girls and, while it is definitely simplistic in sentence structure and plot, it is a delightfully engaging tale. And the language! SO beautiful. The descriptions are just so flowery and gorgeous, sometimes I would just lose myself in the imagery. Highly recommend as a short and fluffy read.

#55 The Perfect Smile: Jessie Hunt #4 by Blake Pierce Jessie has to deal with her serial killer father and her father's serial killer acolyte to survive. Interesting psychological thriller with nice twists and a plot that doesn't make me throw my Kindle across the room.

#56 Convince Me by Nina Sadowsky This tale is told from the viewpoints of the widow, the widow's mother-in-law, and the decedent's best friend and business partner. But nothing about the dead man was what it seemed. Actually kinda creepy, in a good "what's gonna happen next" way.

#57 Go The Distance by Jen Calonita Another Disney girl power tale, this one about Megara, who is forbidden by Zeus to follow Hercules into Olympus because she's mortal and then gets a chance from Hera to join the pantheon. A lot of familiar characters show up, including a couple of new ones. Herc doesn't get the idiot male treatment, either. A nice light read.

#58 Part Of Your World by Liz Braswell Arial didn't get her voice back in time to stop the wedding. Ursula is the princess on land and Arial rules in her father's stead with no voice. Four years pass. Things are about to change. Girl power with some retaliation for past wrongs thrown in.

#59 The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg Widow Joanna Blalock, the out-of-wedlock daughter of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, meets Dr. John Watson Jr. and solves crimes in WW1 London with the original Watson's assistance. Very much in the spirit and tone of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories. If you like Holmesiana, you might enjoy this series.

#60 The Perfect Lie: Jessie Hunt #5 by Blake Pierce Jessi helps the LAPD solve another murder by literally putting herself in the killer's crosshairs. Tight psychological mystery and some cautious relationship development. I plan to read all the ones Pierce has released to date.

#61 Midnight in the Pacific : Guadalcanal by Joseph Wheelan Every time I read a World War 2 book I learn more than I knew before. This history volume is spiced by quotes from American, Japanese, Australian, and native sources, and I felt the tension of the defending Marines every time the Japanese tried to retake Henderson field. Tight, comprehensive story of the land, sea, and air campaign to stop the Japanese war machine in 1942.

#62 Alone At Dawn by Dan Schilling On March 4th, 2002, Combat Controller John Chapman was airdropped into a firefight in Afghanistan where he saved a number of his comrades' lives at the cost of his own. The story of his Medal of Honor action all but made me jump out of my seat a few times, not to mention the training he underwent to become one of the most exclusive combat fraternities in the world. Highly recommended.

#63 The Girl on the Velvet Swing by Simon Baatz This was the crime of the 20th century back in its first decade. Stanford White, famous architect, was shot by layabout heir Harry Thaw because White was accused by Thaw's new bride, Evelyn Nesbit, of raping her when she was sixteen. White was apparently what we'd label today a "sexual predator." Thaw was certifiably insane. Evelyn was a young country girl thrown into the insanity of the lifestyles of the rich and famous and might as well have been a tennis shoe in a running clothes dryer. Despite the inclusion of a lot of testimony from Thaw's various trials, there was no mention in the book of a velvet swing, red or otherwise. Interesting tale of wealth and jealousy and perversion and victimization of the innocent. They weren't that different from us.

#64 Videssos Cycle: Vol. 1-2 by Harry Turtledove A detachment of Romans from Gaul is magically transported to another world where they must learn to deal with the different factions and opponents while also learning how to deal with magic workers, both good and evil. Turtledove does his usual good job following the action from a third person singular POV, where we know only what Marcus knows or surmises. I plan to read the next two volumes also.

52) The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk I will admit I wasn’t expecting a book of 1366 pages when I bought this, but I’m glad I did. Robert Fisk was a British journalist who spent his career following the conflicts in the Middle East an interest of his that came about through his father’s enlistment in WWI and the subsequent Balfour Declaration following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. This is a long winded book, but Fisk does deliver with an analysis that doesn’t shy away from being critical where need be. Given recent upheavals, it serves as a look into what has lead to the current geopolitical climate of the region.

53) America’s Coming War with China: A Collision Course Over Taiwan by Ted Galen Carpenter I started this book knowing full well that much has changed in the years since it’s publication. Despite knowing this, it was still rather disappointing as I found myself thinking ‘what else is new?’ as what was presented was pretty much the same tune that has been sung for so many years and that it presented a rather over simplistic view of the potential danger that may lie ahead especially when one looks back on recent events in Hong Kong and how the ‘one country, two systems’ model will work. This seemingly draws you to that conclusion that the author feels that this will be the best outcome for all parties involved, but as a Taiwan born Australian I can safely say that I would sooner keep the status quo than any thought of a Hong Kong style of government.

#27 - Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

Peter Hatcher has a problem - his younger brother Farley, aka Fudge. Fudge can turn even the dullest day into a nightmare. Read this to my girls. It was one of my favorites as a kid. It was surprisingly nice to go back and kind of remember the details of it as the story progressed. And the kids loved it!

#28 - Project Hail Mary by Any Weir

A man awakens from a coma only to find himself in space, alone, in a desperate bid to save the Earth from an alien species that is literally eating away at the sun's ability to sustain life on our planet. The only problem is, he can't remember who he is or what he's doing in another solar system at first...

Loved this book! My husband and I sort of read it together, separately. He had his audiobook version, I had the printed version. This is the same author behind The Martian, and it really shows that he's done his research into making life in space (or on another planet, as the case may be, as realistic and believable as possible. He presents an engaging story and gives us glimpses into the main character's past in an effective way that works well with the present-day action. And when he introduces "Rocky," well, I for one, was in love with the character. (I also totally heard his dialogue in the voice of Baymax from Big Hero 6, and hubby agreed that he could see why.) Totally recommend this fantastical, interesting sci-fi book.

#42 Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward

The summary of this book describes it as a 'beautiful marriage gone wrong'. This wasn't the case. It described two badly damaged people in a relationship over many years which culminated in tragedy. The story teased us that some one had been murdered and showed us bits and pieces as the book moved along. I didn't like any of the characters and the story seem to move a bit unevenly.

#43 The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

This novel was based on the life of Hedy Lamarr. It was interesting to learn about her life - being married to a wealthy arms merchant, being in a position to overhear conversations between people of power. I enjoyed the book but wished it would've included more of her life - her other husbands and inventions other than the torpedo radar.

54) Old Testament Times: A Social, Political and Cultural Context by R. K. Harrison this I picked up years ago out of a love of history despite the fact that it is a Christian text. The present lockdown in Sydney has given me the opportunity to go through and cull my huge collection of books that I’ve amassed over the years and this was one that sat in said collection. I found this very interesting placing the Old Testament events in context of where they fit in with the other civilisations of the day.

55) The Histories by Herodotus my knowledge of Ancient Greek history is rather limited, though I’ve always been interested in it. That said despite Herodotus being referred to as ‘The Father of History’ I didn’t really enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Whether the translation had something to do with it, I cannot say for sure, but I found it rather choppy in presentation.

56) Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple the recent events in Afghanistan need no hashing over, but to understand what is happening now, I decided to read this as it parallels the failures of the west to fully understand the deeply rooted cultural and tribal beliefs in Afghanistan. Dalrymple here again delivers a superb recounting of how the British Empire (through the East India Company) sought to gain a foothold in Afghanistan as a means of protecting India from falling into Russian hands. The First Afghan War or as Rudyard Kipling would call it ‘The Great Game’ would ultimately end in disaster for the British (that said this also is how the Koh-I-Noor diamond which is a part of the British Crown Jewels would be ‘acquired’) and the eventual downfall of the East India Company.

57) China: A History by John Keay it is of course difficult to write a complete history of China and condense it into one volume, but Keay does a pretty good job. That said though, I did feel at times that he did gloss over parts to do so especially when he spent a great portion of it looking into the history prior to its unification under the first emperor.

#44 The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave


An entertaining mystery.

58) Zhou Enlai and the Xian Incident: An Eyewitness Account by Jui Ch’ing Lo, Luo Ruiqing and Wang Bingnan my knowledge of the Xian Incident only really extends to the fact that Chiang Kai-Shek was detained by his subordinate generals in order to force him to work with the communists to fight off the invading Japanese army in the Second Sino-Japanese War so this was a surprise find for me. As expected this obviously exalted the role of Zhou, but that said this was good insight overall into what occurred

59) The Silk Road by Norma Martyn honestly I can’t even remember where I found this book, I only know that like others it has been in my collection for a while. Martyn combines travel with history as she journeys along the three main routes that were used for the Silk Road.

60) Journeys on the Silk Road: An Explorer, Buddha’s Secret Library and the Unearthing of World’s Oldest Printed Book by Joyce Morgan and Conrad Walters I first heard about Aurel Stein and the Mogao Caves near the Chinese city of Dunhuang when I watched an old National Geographic documentary. A one time pit stop along the Silk Road, the caves like Tutankhamen’s tomb were almost lost to history until they were rediscovered. Amongst this discovery, is the Diamond Sutra dating from the Tang Dynasty and is the oldest printed book in the world preceding the Gutenberg Bible by some 500 years. This faded a little in the end, but was still enjoyable

#45 Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon


I wasn't impressed by this book. It was pretty obvious who the anonymous researcher was. The main character made ridiculous choices and was unlikeable. From reading the comments at the end by the writer, I guess we were supposed to think it was funny. It wasn't .

#65 The Perfect Look: Jessie Hunt #6 by Blake Pierce Mystery series like this one is always a little predictable, but Pierce does manage a few surprises along the way. Jessie kills escaped serial murderer Bolton Crutchfield and rescues her half-sister Hannah from him. But she's oh-so-hesitant to begin a relationship with the detective she works with nearly every day, and she won't quit risking her life to solve the case (or sometimes other related cases). Well-written for the genre and entertaining.

#66 The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams Some of the 22 stories in this volume are funny, some are kinda scary, some are touching, and some make you think "It could happen!" It was an uneven but fun read.

#67 At Study in Treason by Leonard Goldberg The second tale about the original Watson, his son and namesake, Holmes' daughter who is married to Watson Jr., and their efforts to save England from murder and foreign intervention. Fun for a Holmesian, which I am. There are more in the series, all of which I plan to read.

#68 The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Pointless SF about aliens shaping Earth history to get a spare part to their robot messenger to other civilizations. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. It never did. It was worse than a non-SF person watching 2001 and hoping for some action somewhere. If this is representative of Vonnegut's work, I haven't missed anything by not reading his other tales.

#69 The First Team by John B. Lundstrom A comprehensive retelling of American Naval aviation in the Pacific theater of WW2 from before Pearl Harbor through the battle of Midway and its aftermath. Lots of information on the men and the planes they flew.

#70 Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange The battle for Midway Island was the turning point of the Pacific war for Japan, even though no one could see it at the time. The Japanese lost four full-sized aircraft carriers, more than 330 aircraft, and most of the crews. They could not replace the ships, the planes or especially the experienced aircrews, and the U.S. forces just ground them into the dust over the next three years. Prange is also the author of "At Dawn We Slept" which is a comprehensive account of the Pearl Harbor attack. This book draws from American and Japanese military sources and brings the reader into the middle of the shooting. Long book but a great read.

#29 Dangerous Secrets by Mari Mancusi

Queen Iduna never told her husband, King Agnarr, what really happened that fateful day in the Enchanted Forest, or that she was the one to save him when the Northuldra and Arendalian soldiers came to blows. At least, not until they set off on their ill-fated quest to find Ahtolhallan, where they hoped to find answers to Elsa's growing ice powers.

I really, really enjoyed this book. It PERFECTLY filled in the gaps left by Frozen 2, answering things like why Agnarr doesn't know Iduna is the one who saved his life, why he doesn't know she's Northuldra, even how they knew to seek out Grand Pabby and the rest of the trolls when Anna is struck by Elsa's powers in the first movie. The chapters switch up every so often between Iduna telling her side of the story and Agnarr telling his, so a nice, comprehensive story is told - there's no half-butting it here. I found myself wanting more once the story was over, because I was just so engrossed in it.

#30 Artemis by Andy Weir


Jazz is a small-time smuggler living in Artemis, the only civilization/city on the moon. But when the chance to become a millionaire arises, she sets aside her smuggling operation for a time to become an industrial saboteur...and gets in WAY over her head.

I'm...undecided on this one. I blitzed through it and found myself mostly enjoying the tale. But Jazz is a bit of a butt and kind of stupid to get mixed up in what she does, so my sympathy was muted. Still, I was rooting for her not to die. But the ending left me unimpressed and cold. Not that I wanted to see her raised to hero-status, but with her ending up in basically worse shape than she began, I felt like the whole ordeal was an absolute waste. Overall, not nearly as good as The Martian or Project Hail Mary, and definitely not as memorable.

Terry, it's been a while since I read it but I thought Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughter House 5" and "Welcome to the Monkey House" were interesting.

#46 The Wrong Family by Tarryn Fisher



I didn't have high expectations for this thriller. I didn't care about the characters and the reveals were underwhelming. It was an easy read.

#47 Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

This was a book club selection. I've seen this author before and was curious to read one of her books. Jackson Brodie, a retired detective, is now doing PI work in a seaside village in England. However, the peaceful seaside village is hiding dark secrets. After reading the book, I realized this was the fifth book in the series, which might have explained how some characters seemed to come out of nowhere. There were a lot of characters. A lot of coincidences. The writing felt a bit disjointed - you read a scene from one POV and the next chapter starts earlier, joining the same scene later from a different POV. I might try a different book from this author but probably not from this series.

#71 The Perfect Affair: Jessie Hunt #7 by Blake Pierce Jessie deals with her half-sister Hannah while solving a murder that unravels corruption in the DA's office and the upper police ranks and makes another new enemy in the doing of it.

#72 Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner How economic analysis reveals some startling ideas, many of which have drawn severe professional critique. Is it really possible - or even likely -that at least one major factor contributing to the reduction in crime in the 1990s was the legalization of abortion in 1973?

#73 On Writing by Stephen King Talks about writing - his own process and how we might do it - his life, his near-death when struck by a van while walking down a narrow road in rural Maine, thoughts on life and living it. Interesting peek into this best-selling author's psyche.

#74 The Reckoning by John Grisham In rural Georgia in 1947, a decorated WW2 vet walks into a local pastor's office and shoots him dead. Not Grisham's usual legal procedural, but compelling and has a twist ending. I was kinda fooled.

#75 Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove 21st-century white supremacists travel back through time to give the Confederate States of American AK-47s so they can win the American Civil War and retain slavery. Things don't go as anyone plans. Fun alternate history. This was Turtledove's first published novel, and it turned into a sucessful trilogy. Fascinating story of people in the Union and the Confederacy who are trying to do the right thing for their countries.

#76 The Guardians by John Grisham Former lawyer turned Episcopal priest now works to free the innocent from prison. Compelling legal procedural combined with a complex but understandable plot about South American drug cartels and corrupt law officers at multiple levels and locations. A tense and satisfying read.

#77 The Perfect Alibi: Jessie Hunt #8 by Blake Pierce Jessie investigates a murder, but a meeting request from a killer she put away, a hacked Facebook account with horribly offensive content, and a harassment campaign she's sure is being orchestrated from prison by her ex-husband distracts her from her main focus, which of course is risking her life to solve the crime and catch the murderer.

#78 The Perfect Neighbor: Jessie Hunt #9 by Blake Pierce Jessie gets involved with a serial strangler, a case which envelops her boyfriend Ryan, younger sister Hannah, and ex-husband Kyle, with overtones from drug cartels and the murder of her profiler mentor Garland Moses. Jessie comes close to death again but barely escapes again - just not unscathed.

#79 The Star Beast by Robert Heinlein Juvenile SF about a centuries-old creature John Thomas Stuart thinks is his pet Lummox. Lummie, though, thinks he (or she, or something else - the Hrooshii have six apparent genders) has spent all this time raising John Thomases. It's a fun youth-oriented adventure which sneaks in an advanced primer on diplomacy and the value of bureaucracy when good people are in the right jobs.

#80 The Perfect Disguise: Jessie Hunt #10 by Blake Pierce Guess I like this series. Jessie's mentor is dead, she killed her ex-husband in self-defense, her little sister is injured, her boyfriend is in ICU, and she's been beat up again. She had enough pain and stress and decides to quit the LAPD to go back to teaching, but a desperate call from her old police captain brings her back for one more dangerous case. The victim is a screaming diva actress who was strangled on her movie set after hours. It's a deep dive into the slightly crazy world of Hollywood and the peripheral nonsense that goes along with it.

61) The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia by Frances Wood in keeping with my recent reads on Central Asia and the Silk Road this is an overview of the history of the Silk Road. This particular edition of mine is by the Folio Society and is beautifully illustrated and presented.

62) Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger wonderful travel memoir of a journey through the Arabian desert. Of course much changed in these parts since then, but it was great to look at the lives of the nomadic Bedu people.

63) Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World by Thomas F. Madden I will admit to having higher expectations for this when I picked it up, but ended up rather disappointed as it didn’t quite provide a more in-depth history of Istanbul as I would have liked.

64) Genghis Khan: Conqueror of the World by Leo de Hartog I was again hoping for a more thorough biography of Genghis Khan, but while it does offer snippets into his life, it concentrates more on his exploits rather than the man himself

65) The Ottoman Empire by Lord Kinross great volume into the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire.