Well, that was 2014. Thanks to everyone who shared their books with us during the year - as always, it was fascinating and fun.

Here are the details of how this works

So, let's get on with 2015! And, talking of which:

Famous - Blake Crouch

An entertaining look into the obsessive and pychopathic mind of a celebrity stalker who only wants to be famous. This seemed to be very short, so I think it may have been a novella rather than a novel, but I did like the ironic twist at the end.

LabRat

Perfect Little Town - Blake Crouch

Feeling really ticked off with this one. It was an excellent little horror story - but I believed I was paying for a novel. It ended at 50% and the remainder of the 'book' was taken up with an author interview and reviews of other books. Feeling pretty cheated right now.

LabRat

1. Revival, by Stephen King

A former minister loses his faith and seeks to find out what lies beyond death. The answer is horrifying.

1. Driving with the Top Down by Beth Harbison

Three women on a road trip grow closer and help each other deal with life issues.

"Revival" sounds like a good one, Annie B. That's definitely on my list for this year.

Joan

Abandon - Blake Crouch

I greatly enjoyed this rollercoaster thriller. More twists and turns than...a twisty, turny thing, as Blackadder might say.

Over a century ago, the entire population of the town of Abandon vanished without trace. Now, a small party are going back to find out why. They'll wish they hadn't.

The solution to the disappearance was quite ingenious. My only irritation was that the author's attempts to make the Old West language of the town's characters authentic often left me struggling to understand their meaning. A case of being too clever by half.

LabRat

2. The Hunger Games Tribute Guide, by Emily Seife

This book gives a brief overview of the novel/movie The Hunger Games. It was worth the twenty-minute read, though it would not have been worth spending money on. (Fortunately, I got it for free with another book I ordered from a book trading site, due to the fact that the trader was offering a 2-for-1 deal.)

3. Falling in Love, by Shirl Henke

A beautiful young con artist, Chastity O'Roarke, poses as a wealthy widow in order to find a rich husband. Meanwhile, an English earl, Ian Warfield, poses as a stable hand in order to avoid marriage. They fall for each other -- and fall, and fall, and fall: off a trellis, into a pond, off a horse, out of a tree, down a mineshaft ... always accompanied by his dog, Samson, and her cat, Delilah.

The book was supposed to be humorous, but I think this kind of physical humor is better as a visual than as text. Shirl Henke has written some excellent historical romantic thrillers, but she's not so good at writing humor.

4. Song of the Magdalene, by Donna Jo Napoli

A young adult novel about Mary Magdalene's childhood and teenage years, before she met Jesus.

5. How I Got This Way, by Patrick F. McManus

A collection of humorous essays by outdoor writer Patrick McManus, describing his grandmother, who cooked for a logging camp, his schoolteacher mother, and his aptly named dog, Strange.

#1 The Revenge of Seven by Pittacus Lore

Latest installment in the "I am Number Four" series. It's an interesting concept, kids sent from a dying planet to Earth where they learn to use their powers (sound familiar??). There's lots of action. The characters are likeable but sometimes blend together. When the author switches POV it can be difficult to figure out who is talking. It ended with a big revelation.



#2 Joss Whedon: The Biography by Amy Pascale

I'm a huge Buffy fan so I was excited to read this. I was aware of many of Joss' accomplishments and this book revealed even more.

Joan

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson.
Readable, entertaining overview of well, yes, English and how it got that way. English is kind of a "sweep it all up and throw it together" kind of language, with words, spelling, and grammar often borrowed from other languages. Bryson explains some of these.

Maisie Dobbs
Birds of a Feather
Pardonable Lies
A Lesson In Secrets
Among The Mad
Messenger Of Truth all by Jacqueline Winspear.
Series of mysteries set in the 1930's involving Maisie Dobbs, Psychologist and Investigator. Maisie, daughter of a London costermonger, becomes a nurse in Flanders in WWI, and also becomes a detective. Excellent series detailing the changes in post-war England, a decade or more after the Great War.

Year Of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.
Anna Frith's village, in 1665-1666, is stricken by the Plague. How does she cope when all seems lost?

Masques of Gold by Roberta Gellis.
Lissa de Flael, apothecary, is married to goldsmith Peter. Why should he want to marry her when she is not trained to his craft? Why is Peter murdered six weeks later? And how will Lissa deal with her attraction to Sir Justin FitzAilwin, the lord of the London Watch, who is investigating Peter's murder? Set in London of 1215 with the rumblings of baronial dissatisfaction which will lead to the signing of the Magna Carta.

Wood Sprites by Wen Spencer. Latest in the Tinker series.

Spheres of Influence by Ryk Spoor. Classic space opera with a twist.

Rolemaster RPG rules.

6. Forrest Gump, by Winston Groom

The book is quite a bit different from the movie, with a lot of things that weren't in the film and quite a bit of profanity. That said, it was also pretty funny, and Forrest comes across as being smarter than most people around him. It's a good story, and I like both the original book and the film interpretation.

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
World Without End - Ken Follett

I'd caught the TV adaptations of these on Netflix last year so thought I'd try the books. These being richer and more complex in plot and character, I enjoyed them even more and the wealth of detail on medieval life was fascinating without ever overwhelming the plot. Easy to see why these are considered classics of the genre.

LabRat

7. Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.

This is a prequel to Peter Pan, the third of five books in a trilogy (yes, you read that right). The story reveals how Peter came to be orphaned and how it is that no one ever ages on the island where Peter and the lost boys live. It also has Hook in a temporarily heroic position and shows how the crocodile swallowed the clock. Though Dave Barry is one of the authors, the book doesn't have his usual humor, so I think Ridley Pearson was the main author -- although one scene definitely shows Barry's influence, where a camel, given the ability to fly via starstuff, helps defeat the bad guys by doing its business all over them.

8. Gump & Co., by Winston Groom

The sequel to Forrest Gump, in which Forrest accidentally becomes involved in many of the major historical events of the 80s and early 90s, including New Coke, the Iran Contra scandal, the insider trading scandal, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, and Whitewater.

I found this book funnier than the first book, possibly because I can remember a lot of these events.

#3 The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

A hypnotist starts a relationship with a man who has a stalker. Entertaining story about relationships. I've enjoyed other books by this author as well.

Joan

Furnace - Muriel Gray

I've been a long-time fan of Gray's irreverant wit on TV so when I learned she'd become an author of horror novels I was intrigued. I did enjoy this. Loved the ironic twists - my favourite thing in a horror novel - and the steadily building air of the bizarre and sinister she created.

LabRat

9. Huggly and the Toy Monster, by Tedd Arnold

Huggly is mistaken for a toy called Ugzilla, wrapped up, and given as a birthday gift.

10. Oh, No!, by Candace Fleming

Various creatures fall into a deep hole and can't get out. Tiger comes to eat them, but Elephant saves the day.

11. Charlie Goes to the Doctor, by Ree Drummond

Charlie the ranch dog wakes up feeling sick. His owner takes him to the vet, where he finds out that the vet isn't as scary as he thought. (I wish my dog would learn this lesson. She has to be muzzled at the vet so she won't bite anyone.)

I was baby-sitting for my 3-year-old niece and she wanted me to read some stories to her. These children's books are actually pretty interesting (at least the first couple of times you read them).

Interesting, Annie. My little nephew was born on December 25th so I tend to buy him toys for Christmas and books for his birthday - best of both worlds. <g> So I'm always looking for good, interesting book recommendations for his age group. I'll keep these in mind for next year.

LabRat

I recommend 'The Gunniwolf', by Wilhelmina Harper. That's a good one.

12. The Stepford Wives, by Ira Levin

This is one of the few books that I really, really did not like. It's creepy, disturbing, and unpleasant.

That said, I had to laugh a little at the idea that the animatronics at Disneyland (the supposed inspiration for the perfect wives) were so realistic they could fool anybody. I've seen those things, and they are definitely in the uncanny valley.

If you haven't seen the movie (the original, not that horrible comedic remake with Nicole Kidman), it's very creepy too.

I thought about watching the movie, but after reading the book, I think I'll avoid it. (Then again, movies based on books I did like often prove a disappointment, so maybe the original film version of The Stepford Wives will be an improvement.) I read about the Nicole Kidman remake on TV Tropes. It sounds like a mess.

13. Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet Welsch goes around spying on people and writing everything she observes in a notebook, but when her classmates find the notebook, trouble ensues.

Harriet makes me think of a young Lois Lane -- curious about everything (including things people would rather she didn't stick her nose into), takes risks to learn things, and when her notes are read, the fur flies.

#4 One Second After by William r. Forstchen

Life in small Carolina town after an EMP takes out all of
everything electronic in America. I enjoy post-apocalyptic books but this one seemed extremely grim.

Joan

A Dark And Twisted Tide - Sharon Bolton (Lacey Flint #4)

Another intriguing and exciting outing for one of my favourite heroines. Incorporated into the plot were a lot of disturbing true details about the lives of some Afghani women which made it possibly the darkest tale yet.

LabRat

Lamentation - C J Sansom (Shardlake Series)

King Henry's health is fading fast and social tension and religious persecution in Tudor England is at fever pitch. Queen Catherine Parr is in the midst of dangerous court intrigue and Matthew Shardlake is embroiled in aiding her, to the peril of himself and his companions.

Reading a Shardlake story is like visiting with an old friend. I love this series. The sense of time and place is impeccable and the cast of regulars and new characters always enjoyable.

LabRat

Castaway Planet by Ryk Spoor a dSF novel dedicated to Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson and The Mysterious Island. Interesting characters and a nice alien biosphere.

14. Bubble Books! The Clownfish

15. Bubble Books! The Hippopotamus

Author unknown for both. These are books for very young children that take roughly 30 seconds to read out loud in their entirety. I bought them a few years ago for my nieces, who still enjoy hearing the stories as they play with the matching toys in the bathtub (a clownfish and a hippopotamus, of course). The books are plastic, waterproof, and inflated, so they are good bath toys. Each book gives a little bit of information about the habitat of the animals (ocean for the clownfish, savannah for the hippo).

Dead Stop - D. Nathan Hilliard

Having been impressed by the author's quirky horror Spiderstalk last year, I was really looking forward to this zombie horror novel. But it was a massive disappointment. From a great start, it rapidly descended into boring and repetitive with a cast of characters I really couldn't work up much feeling for. A nicely ironic ending didn't save it for me, sadly.

LabRat

#5 The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen

I knew this was going to be a sad one. A family copes with the death of an infant.

Joan

16. American Savior: A Novel of Divine Politics, by Roland Merullo

Jesus reincarnates as a U.S. citizen and runs for president. This novel is a political satire, told from the POV of TV newsman Russ Thomas, and has a lot of characters which are thinly veiled versions of actual media personalities. It's a pretty good book, and fairly recent -- it was written in 2008.

The Breakers Series - Edward W. Robertson:

#6 Cut Off
#7 Captives
#8 Relapse
Outcome (Novella)

I loved this PA series. Particularly the clever ways in which the author's plot and character choices made each new book as fresh as the first. Really sorry to have caught up, although apparently there's at least one more to come. I'll be eagerly waiting for my email alert. Meanwhile, think I'll check out the author's other fantasy series.

LabRat

17. Lunatics, by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel

Two guys from New Jersey, Philip Horkman (so named because he's so nice and PC that he makes you want to puke) and Jeffrey Peckerman (so named because he's a total word-that-is-not-allowed-in-this-part-of-the-forum), get into an argument over soccer, get mistaken for terrorists, meet real terrorists, escape on a cruise ship, and accidentally solve most of the world's geopolitical problems by dint of coincidence, sheer incompetence, and frequent grossness (especially on Peckerman's part). Sometimes funny, sometimes bizarre, sometimes both.

The Good Earth by Pearl Buck.

It's decades old but it's still a great book.
"Though more than seventy years have passed since this remarkable novel won the Pulitzer Prize, it has retained its popularity and become one of the great modern classics. In The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck paints an indelible portrait of China in the 1920s, when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-Lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during the last century."

Traitor - Mark Eller (The Turner Chronicles #1)

Aaron Turner is storekeep in the little town of Last Chance. But he has a secret. Able to travel between the country of Isabella and his own world, he is a spy for a militia intent on invasion. But Aaron is about to rethink his plans....

A really enjoyable fantasy. It could have worked as a stand alone novel but I'll be checking out the next book to find out where Aaron goes next.

LabRat

Among The Dead And Dying - A. R. Wise (Among The Masses #1)

Given the cover/description of ths one, I was expecting a basic schlock horror zombie novel. What I got was a fairly superior fantasy novel with complex characters and an intriguing plot. Eager for book 2 now.

LabRat

18. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman

I finally got an up-to-date public library card (my old one was about 25 years old and no longer valid), and this was the first book I picked out. It was a good selection, too -- Neil Gaiman is a good storyteller.

A middle-aged man returns to the neighborhood where he grew up, visiting some neighbors. Once there, he remembers a strange experience he had about 40 years earlier, one that he had forgotten more than once. That experience is the story.

Neil Gaiman makes me think of a British Stephen King.

#6 The Practice of Deceit by Elizabeth Benedict

After two years of marriage, a man suddenly learns his wife has been hiding things from him. I ususally love this type of story. And it was a doozy. It just seemed a bit rushed.

Any one here read Barbara Delinsky? I ususally love her books. I picked up her new one, "Sweet Salt Air" and I'm having a terrible time getting into it.

Joan

Never Go Back - Lee Child

Jack Reacher finally makes it to Virginia in his quest to meet Susan Turner. But Susan isn't where she should be and in short order Reacher finds himself inducted back into the army, implicated in more than one serious charge and facing court martial. Big mistake! All the usual elements that make a Reacher adventure so much fun are here. In particular, the rumble with the Claughton clan in the motel lot was hilarious.

LabRat

19. Big Trouble, by Dave Barry

This book is absolutely hilarious, and can get you some weird looks from nearby people when you giggle out loud at it. It's a satire of hardboiled crime novels, Miami, teenagers, rich people, poor people, Miami International Airport, and dogs. Barry's first novel, and his best.

20. 11/22/63, by Stephen King

A high school English teacher named Jake Epping learns about a portal back in time to 1958, and decides to use it to save JFK from assassination. Of course, this being a Stephen King novel, you can imagine how well that went.

21. Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far), by Dave Barry

Dave Barry satirizes the events of the second millennium, then goes on to satirize the years 2000 to 2006 (excluding 2001, which had some very unfunny things happen).

22. Weird California, by Greg Bishop, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci

This book details all sorts of weird things from the state of California, including historical anomalies, reports of strange creatures, odd buildings, and notable crimes. I've seen a few of these things in person, including the Hemet Maze Stone, which dates back to circa 500 A.D., but looks nothing like the rest of the Native American art of the region (though it does look a great deal like Chinese designs of that era, leading to speculation that the Chinese may have visited California a millennium before Columbus landed in the New World).

Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn.
"Alone and in shock after the death of her father, Zoe Ardelay is invited to the capital to become the king's fifth wife and create a much needed numerological balance both politically and at court, where the four queens vie to promote their children for the role of heir to the throne. Then Zoe learns she is the new prime of the Lalindar clan, which saves her from the marriage, but thrusts her into a world of dangerous political scheming, secret agendas, and an increasingly risky attraction to royal adviser Darien Serlast."

Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn
"Josetta is a princess of one of the Five Families. But she is far from the throne, so she is free to spend her days working in the poorest sections of the city. Rafe Adova lives the life of a career gambler in those slums. He has no real ambition—until the night he helps a girl named Corene, who looks like she’s stumbled into the wrong bar. Josetta is fascinated by the man who has helped her sister. Rafe is unlike anyone she’s encountered—someone seemingly devoid of elemental blessings. Rafe is also drawn to Josetta, but when he is assaulted by foreign mercenaries and they discover the reason behind the attack, Rafe and Josetta realize that the truth could endanger not only their newfound love, but also their very lives…"

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan.
"Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher and miracle worker walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.” The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was captured, tortured, and executed as a state criminal.

Within decades after his shameful death, his followers would call him God.

Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history’s most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry—a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews. And few figures better exemplified this principle than the charismatic Galilean who defied both the imperial authorities and their allies in the Jewish religious hierarchy.

Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction; a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious “King of the Jews” whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime. Aslan explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity."

Well worth reading; very thought-provoking.

American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism To Main Street by Paula Rabinowitz
"Published in vast numbers of titles, available everywhere, and sometimes selling in the millions, pulps were throwaway objects accessible to anyone with a quarter. Conventionally associated with romance, crime, and science fiction, the pulps in fact came in every genre and subject. American Pulp tells how these books ingeniously repackaged highbrow fiction and nonfiction for a mass audience, drawing in readers of every kind with promises of entertainment, enlightenment, and titillation. Focusing on important episodes in pulp history, Rabinowitz looks at the wide-ranging effects of free paperbacks distributed to World War II servicemen and women; how pulps prompted important censorship and First Amendment cases; how some gay women read pulp lesbian novels as how-to-dress manuals; the unlikely appearance in pulp science fiction of early representations of the Holocaust; how writers and artists appropriated pulp as a literary and visual style; and much more. Examining their often-lurid packaging as well as their content, American Pulp is richly illustrated with reproductions of dozens of pulp paperback covers, many in color."
My opinion: This was a little esoteric for me, but still a good read.

Work Done For Hire by Joe Haldeman
"Wounded in combat and honorably discharged nine years ago, Jack Daley still suffers nightmares from when he served his country as a sniper, racking up sixteen confirmed kills. Now a struggling author, Jack accepts an offer to write a near-future novel about a serial killer, based on a Hollywood script outline. It’s an opportunity to build his writing career and a future with his girlfriend, Kit Majors.

But Jack’s other talent is also in demand. A package arrives on his doorstep containing a sniper rifle, complete with silencer and ammunition—and the first installment of a $100,000 payment to kill a “bad man.” The twisted offer is genuine. The people behind it are dangerous. They also prove that they have Jack under surveillance. He can’t run. He can’t hide. And if he doesn’t take the job, Kit will be in the crosshairs instead."

My opinion: Disappointing in that plot threads didn't really seem to be tied up. Good thriller most of the way through, then it seemed like the author lost interest.

Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" by Corey Olsen
"Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a fun, thoughtful, and insightful companion volume designed to bring a thorough and original new reading of this great work to a general audience. Professor Corey Olsen takes readers on an in-depth journey through The Hobbit chapter by chapter, revealing the stories within the story: the dark desires of dwarves and the sublime laughter of elves, the nature of evil and its hopelessness, the mystery of divine providence and human choice, and, most of all, the transformation within the life of Bilbo Baggins. Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a book that will make The Hobbit come alive for readers as never before."

My opinion: Definitely worth reading. This book gave me some new insights into one of my favorite books ("The Hobbit") and helped me see old things anew.

1) Dewey. The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched The World. By Vicki Myron.
2) Lying in Wait by Ann Rule. True Crime Files # 17.
3) The Icarus Agenda by Robert Ludlum
4) Beginnings by David Weber.

23. Green Lantern: Sleepers, Volume 3, by Christopher J. Priest

The final volume in an epic trilogy, Sleepers, Book 3 features Hal Jordan, the most famous of Earth's modern-day Green Lanterns. Hal has been stripped of his powers, but it is up to him to fight the clones of the villain Sinestro, set loose by actions in the trilogy's first volume. In order to save the Earth, he may have to sacrifice himself by taking the Sinestro power rings on a one-way trip to the anti-matter universe.

I found this book hard to get into (maybe I would have liked it better if I'd read the first two books, but this was what the library had, so this was what I checked out). There were a lot of pop culture references that dated the book. I managed to finish it, but it just didn't click for me.

Personal - Lee Child

This has to be the first Reacher book that I found hard to get through. Mostly because it was full of elements that usually bore me. I've never been a fan of the political spy thriller or London gangster genres. There was a lot of sitting around in rooms talking military strategy instead of Reacher tackling the bad guys head and hands on.

I only slogged my way through to the end so as not to miss any important biographical info. But it was painful.

Thankfully, the synopsis for book 20 seems to get us back on track and Reacher back to familiar territory. I'll look forward to it.

LabRat

Twisted Souls - Nancy Lee Parish

Adam finds himself inexplicably lost in the bizarre town of Appleton. A town no one ever leaves.

This was an intriguing little ghost story/thriller. It was all very surreal and convoluted and I'm still not sure I understand half of what was going on but I still enjoyed it.

LabRat

#7 City of Glass by Cassandre Clare
Third book in the Mortal Instruments series. Clary returns to the City of Glass to save her mother's life. Valentine organizes a demon army to take down the Clave.

There were a lot of exciting developments in this story along with the resolution of several conflicts from the first two books. This volume was pretty engaging. It will be interesting to see how the author continues this series.

24. Tangled, by Ben Smiley
This is the Golden Book adaptation of the movie Tangled, which is itself an adaptation of Rapunzel (though it's far less disturbing than the original fairytale). My 3-year-old niece had me read it to her twice. It was a good story the first time, repetitive the second time, and when she asked me to read it a third time, I said twice was enough and she found other books for me to read to her.

25. The Hungry Frog, by Peter Tovey
A hungry frog looks and looks for something good to eat, rejecting a bee, a moth, and a fish before gobbling up a firefly. This book has a pair of puppet eyes you can stick your fingers in so the frog can look at his potential prey.

26. Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, by Dr. Seuss
Mr. Brown demonstrates all the outlandish sounds he can make, including mooing, hooing, and cock-a-doodle-doing. My niece was embarrassed when I showed her that I could make most of those sounds, too.

It's not properly a book, but I really enjoyed Haruki Murakami's last short novel (plus, it's free, which is always nice):

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/kino

Black Wood - S J I Holliday

I found the setting and main character in this depressing and the rest of the cast strangely unconvincing but I stuck around because I wanted to know the solution to the mystery of what happened in the woods. Sadly, the denouement was as unexciting as the rest of it.

LabRat

27. Doctor Sleep, by Stephen King

This is the sequel to 'The Shining', telling what happened to Danny Torrance. It's a good book, and reveals more of the Torrance family tree, but there is a plot hole in the novel that pulls the reader out of the story.

Wow - you are absolutely right! I read this book last summer. I'm usually really good at catching these things. I can't believe I missed that.

Joan

28. Dave Barry in Cyberspace, by Dave Barry

A hilarious book about computers and the Internet, written in 1996. In spite of the passage of nineteen years, some of the jokes are still relevant (the Internet is still full of bizarre stuff, new computers are still almost instantaneously outmoded, and technical support is still the pits). Other jokes are funny in retrospect, like jokes about AOL and the slowness of the Internet (I was in college when this book was written, so I remember most of this stuff).

Atomic Awakening: A New Look At The History and Future of Nuclear Power by James Mahaffey.
"The American public's introduction to nuclear technology was manifested in destruction and death. With Hiroshima and the Cold War still ringing in our ears, our perception of all things nuclear is seen through the lens of weapons development. Nuclear power is full of mind-bending theories, deep secrets, and the misdirection of public consciousness, some deliberate, some accidental. The result of this fixation on bombs and fallout is that the development of a non-polluting, renewable energy source stands frozen in time.

Outlining nuclear energy's discovery and applications throughout history, Mahaffey's brilliant and accessible book is essential to understanding the astounding phenomenon of nuclear power in an age where renewable energy and climate change have become the defining concerns of the twenty-first century."

The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built The World's Most Important Company by Michael S. Malone.
"Based on unprecedented access to the corporation’s archives, The Intel Trinity is the first full history of Intel Corporation—the essential company of the digital age— told through the lives of the three most important figures in the company’s history: Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove.

Often hailed the “most important company in the world,” Intel remains, more than four decades after its inception, a defining company of the global digital economy. The legendary inventors of the microprocessor-the single most important product in the modern world-Intel today builds the tiny “engines” that power almost every intelligent electronic device on the planet.

But the true story of Intel is the human story of the trio of geniuses behind it. Michael S. Malone reveals how each brought different things to Intel, and at different times. Noyce, the most respected high tech figure of his generation, brought credibility (and money) to the company’s founding; Moore made Intel the world’s technological leader; and Grove, has relentlessly driven the company to ever-higher levels of success and competitiveness. Without any one of these figures, Intel would never have achieved its historic success; with them, Intel made possible the personal computer, Internet, telecommunications, and the personal electronics revolutions."

Lost In A Good Book by Jasper Fforde.
"The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde’s magnificent second adventure starring the resourceful, fearless literary sleuth Thursday Next. When Landen, the love of her life, is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative of Jurisfiction—the police force inside the BookWorld. She is apprenticed to the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens’s Great Expectations, who grudgingly shows Thursday the ropes. And she gains just enough skill to get herself in a real mess entering the pages of Poe’s “The Raven.” What she really wants is to get Landen back. But this latest mission is not without further complications. Along with jumping into the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth. It’s another genre-bending blend of crime fiction, fantasy, and top-drawer literary entertainment for fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse."
If you're a reader at all, don't miss this book. It's hilarious.

7) Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O’Dell. A novel for children about an Indian girl, left behind for 18 years, on San Nicholas Island when the others all left. In 2012 a Naval archeologist thought that he had found the cave that she lived in. Recently Naval commanders halted his investigation. There was a movie adaptation in 1964.

8) Finding Me by Michelle Knight Story of one of the Cleveland kidnapping victims.

#8 Leaving Time by Jodie Picoult

For over a decade, Jenna Metcalf obsesses on her vanished mom Alice. Jenna searches online, rereads journals of the scientist who studied grief among elephants. Two unlikely allies are Serenity Jones, psychic for missing people who doubts her gift, and Virgil Stanhope, jaded PI who originally investigated cases of Alice and her colleague.

I've enjoyed many books by this writer. This wasn't one of them. There were lots of credibility issues including the surprise ending twist.


#9 Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

My son was very excited about this book and he encouraged me to read it. It was an engaging, fast-paced read. Now I've got to read the sequel.

Joan

Midnight Harvest (Seasons of Blood #1) - Elias Anderson

This was a fantastically bone-chilling horror novel. I couldn't put it down and rushed over to buy book two in the trilogy, soon as I was done. Be aware that he does love to linger on the gruesome details though. I pretty much skipped over those bits. .

LabRat

29. Rain Makes Applesauce, by Julian Scheer

This is a favorite of my nieces, and was one of the books read to me when I was very young. The art is beautiful, and the "silly talk" is very imaginative.

30. A Wicked Way to Burn, by Margaret Miles

A mystery set in 18th century Massachusetts. A man walks up the road, bursts into flames, and then vanishes. Is it witchcraft? Murder? Optical illusion? Who murdered the man (or was it natural causes? Did anyone die at all?) This is a very satisfying mystery that keeps the reader guessing to the end, and also has a lot of information on 18th century science.

31. The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw, by Patrick F. McManus

This is a very funny collection of Patrick McManus's columns from Field and Stream. The title refers to a column about a camping trip he made a child, in which his sleeping "bag", an old fur coat, caused him to cast a shadow that got him mistaken for a bear and inspired mass panic.

32. Dave Barry is From Mars and Venus, by Dave Barry

I love reading Dave Barry's work. It's almost always funny, and yet right on point (he won a Pulitzer for social commentary in 1988). This book is no exception.

Seasons of Blood - Elias Anderson

#2 She Devours
#3 Darkling Spawn

The rest of this trilogy didn't disappoint. Some of the best horror I've read recently. Again, very gruesome at times, but great characters and evocative prose more than make up for it. Couldn't put these down.

LabRat

33. Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, by Dave Barry

This book was published in the 80's, but though the names of the people involved change, the situations really don't. It's timeless humor because the same things keep happening over and over.

#10 The Ocean at the end of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

A boy remembers a mystical childhood experience.

The writer does a good job capturing the perspective of a 7 year old - how the world seems very different. Yet, I'm not sure what's off but the book didn't fully engage me.

Joan

34. Insane City, by Dave Barry

I've been reading a lot of Dave Barry books lately, and this one is pretty good. A groom-to-be arrives in Miami with his three groomsmen, who are idiots. The groom can't figure out why the bride wants to marry him, since she's a successful lawyer and the daughter of a multi-billionaire, while he still lives with his parents and makes a living tweeting ads for feminine hygiene products. Over the next couple of days, things are complicated by lost luggage (with the ring in it), his idiot friends losing their shirts (literally, as well as their wallets and everything else), a stripper with a heart of gold, Haitian refugees, marijuana brownies, and an orangutan.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

A lovely romance between a very proper English gentleman of a certain age and an Indian lady. Sweet story I highly recommend.

#11 City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

#4 in the City of Bones series

Jace isn't himself after his latest experience and Simon learns to cope with being a vampire. Add to that an ancient vampire is pursuing Simon.

Okay....It's official. I'm finally hooked on this series. With the way this one ended, I may have to start the next one. Soon.

Joan

35. Naked Came the Manatee, by Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry, James W. Hall, Edna Buchanan, Les Standiford, Paul Levine, Brian Antoni, Tananarive Due, John Dufresne, Vicki Hendricks, Carolina Hospital, and Evelyn Mayerson

In South Florida, everyone wants to get a head. But not just any head. A very famous human head--severed and snugged away in a cryonic container. A head that could spark a revolution and change the course of history.

Everybody wants a piece of the noggin: rotund gangster Big Joey G., a 102-year-old environmentalist, hard-boiled Miami reporter Britt Montero, lawyer Jake Lassiter, and a would-be dictator in exile--with ex-president Jimmy Carter and a lovable manatee named Booger thrown in for good measure.

With bodies piling up it's anybody's guess what will happen from one chapter to the next, as an all-star line-up of Florida's finest writers take turns at taking this outrageously original novel to the limit--and beyond.

Inspired by the earlier Naked Came the Stranger

I'm going to have to try that one.

36. Go the F to Sleep, by Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortes
37. You Have to F'ing Eat, by Adam Mansbach and Owen Brozman

These books parody children's books, with the same sort of illustrations and simple words, but with one key change -- the F word. These books aren't meant for children, but are suitable for any adult who has had to deal with a child who refuses to sleep or who is a finicky eater.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
"The story is set in a near-term future in which the new, new form of the Internet is a realistic virtual multi-verse called the OASIS. Most human interaction takes place via goggles and gloves in millions of unique worlds, including the boring (and free) “public education” world from which our teenage protagonist must escape.

Our unlikely hero is an overweight trailer park kid who goes by Wade Watts in real life, and “Parzival” to his best friends and mortal enemies--all of whom he interacts with virtually. Just like the Arthurian knight that is his namesake, young Wade is on a quest for an incredible treasure guarded by mythical creatures. Specifically, the creator of the OASIS and richest man on the planet, James Halliday, stipulated in his will that his fortune be given to the first person who can find an “Easter egg” hidden somewhere in the OASIS. The catch? Every devilishly complex clue on this treasure hunt is rooted in an intimate knowledge of 1980s pop culture."
Fun, fascinating, and quick-moving. I couldn't put it down.

Everytime I need a good laugh I go and re-read my Jasper Fforde books:
Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde.
" Now in the fourth installment, the resourceful literary detective Thursday Next returns to Swindon from the BookWorld accompanied by her son Friday and none other than the dithering Hamlet. But returning to SpecOps is no snap—as outlaw fictioner Yorrick Kaine plots for absolute power, the return of Swindon’s patron saint foretells doom, and, if that isn’t bad enough, The Merry Wives of Windsor is becoming entangled with Hamlet. Can Thursday find a Shakespeare clone to stop this hostile takeover? Can she vanquish Kaine and prevent the world from plunging into war? And will she ever find reliable child care?"

Hilarious Fforde as usual. "Hamlet" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" are getting mixed up in the Bookworld. As Thursday says, "It takes a long time to get funny and then everybody dies." Politicians go on the TV interview show, "Evade the Question" and do just that. Don't miss the Thursday Next series.

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde.
"Meet Inspector Jack Spratt, family man and head of the Nursery Crime Division. The dedicated but underappreciated investigator in the Reading, England, Nursery Crimes Division, is depressed because the court finds the three little pigs "not guilty of all charges relating to the first-degree murder of Mr. Wolff. He's now investigating the murder of ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Dumpty, found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Yes, the big egg is down, and all those brittle pieces sitting in the morgue point to foul play."

38. Violence in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games Trilogy

This book is from Greenhaven Press's Social Issues in Literature series. It contains essays written by various people about the Hunger Games series. Some of the essays were very good (and I may use some of the concepts in my fic Panem), but others suffered from such issues as confirmation bias and Did Not Do the Research (as in it was obvious the person writing the critique hadn't read the whole series).

39. Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, by Dave Barry

This book is pretty funny. Barry writes about the results of a survey of songs people hate. The funniest part is the chapter on misheard lyrics, which contains such gems as:

Not a book to read when you're supposed to be solemn.

40. Plum Lovin', by Janet Evanovich

One of the Stephanie Plum 'Between the Numbers' novels. Diesel pops into Stephanie's life just in time for Valentine's Day, as she is trying to catch a self-styled Cupid who is also FTA. In order to catch her, Stephanie and Diesel must take on her caseload, finding romance for a number of people while searching for an "Unmentionable" (person with paranormal powers), who is at the root of the trouble.

The Republic of Thieves (The Gentleman B**tards Series #3) - Scott Lynch

As with book two in this series, I enjoyed it, but not as much as book one. Once again, there was a chunk that bored me. In this case, the entire theatre troupe subplot. But the arrival of the fabled and until now unseen Sebetha and the machinations of the election dirty tricks and backstabbing along with some pretty shocking character revelations were enough to keep me on board.

LabRat

Suspect - Robert Crais

I hate reading about animals being hurt. Especially dogs. So the summary of this one gave me pause. But I've always loved Crais' detective novels so decided to chance it. So glad I did. I loved this tale of Maggie - a military explosive dog whose handler is killed and who is partnered with Scott, a cop whose partner was shot.

Now they face twin challenges. To find the killers of Scott's partner and find a way past the grief, mourning and PTSD both are suffering from. More uplifting than tragic but I did snuffle a bit here and there.

LabRat

41. Explosive Eighteen, by Janet Evanovich

In this installment in the series, Stephanie is pursued by the FBI, two fake FBI agents, and a terrorist named Razzle Dazzle, all of whom want a photo that was accidentally slipped into her bag while she was en route from Hawaii to Trenton. There are brief descriptions of her Hawaiian vacation, which would have made a better novel than this one.

42. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James

This is the famous erotic work adapted from a Twilight fanfic. It had its moments, but frequently I found myself going, "Seriously? That's supposed to be erotic?" I guess I don't quite understand BDSM (although from what I've read, this book gets a lot of things wrong about the BDSM scene, so who knows). Anastasia's subconscious and "inner goddess" war for her attention, which I think is supposed to be like devil vs. angel but which frequently make her sound like she suffers from multiple personality disorder. Still, there was something of a plot, and I felt sorry for the characters at the end of the book.


In spite of everything, the book had enough good moments that I think I'll read the next two books in the trilogy to see what happens.

#12 Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

Second in the Reckoners series. David and the Recknoner go to Babilar (Former New York City) to battle the epic Regalia. Lots of exciting revelations about the mysterious epics and how to defeat them. Can't believe I have to wait a year for the next installment!

Ravished Armenia - a biography

This is a first person account of the attempted genocide of the christian Armenians in that area controlled by the Ottoman Turkish Muslims. It is a rather horrific, though factual account of the brutality practiced by what some recently have called the religion of peace. Reading this book you come to realize that the only peace you can have under Muslim domination is the peace of death.

Following is the Wiki write-up:

Biography
A film poster/flyer for the 1919 film "Auction of Souls"

Aurora Mardiganian was the daughter of a prosperous Armenian family living in Chmshgatsak (Çemi&#351;gezek), twenty miles north of Harput, Ottoman Turkey. Witnessing the deaths of her family members and being forced to march over 1,400 miles, during which she was kidnapped and sold into the slave markets of Anatolia. Mardiganian escaped to Tiflis (modern Tbilisi, Georgia), then to St. Petersburg, from where she traveled to Oslo and finally, with the help of Near East Relief, to New York.

In New York, she was approached by Harvey Gates, a young screenwriter, who helped her write and publish a narrative that is often described as a memoir titled Ravished Armenia (full title Ravished Armenia; the Story of Aurora Mardiganian, the Christian Girl, Who Survived the Great Massacres (1918).[1]

The narrative Ravished Armenia was used for writing a film script that was produced in 1919, Mardiganian playing herself, and first screened in London as the Auction of Souls. The first New York performance of the silent film, entitled Ravished Armenia took place on February 16, 1919, in the ballroom of the Plaza Hotel, with society leaders, Mrs. Oliver Harriman and Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt, serving as co-hostesses on behalf of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief.[1]

Mardiganian was referred to in the press as the Joan of Arc of Armenia, describing her role as the spokesperson for the victims of the horrors that were then taking place in Turkey and the catalyst for the humanist movement in America. In the 1920s Mardiganian married and lived in Los Angeles until her death on February 6, 1994.

Sorry, Ken, had to delete that paragraph in your post. Just a little too graphic for the PG side of the boards.

LabRat

No problem. I didn't mean to offend. It was just a quote from Wiki, not what I wrote.

No worries. It's easy to forget the rating at times, when you're absorbed in posting. It was easy to fix.

LabRat

43. The Bear in the Attic, by Patrick F. McManus

Most of the stories in this book are re-printed from McManus's column in Outdoor Life. It's pretty funny, although the titular story takes a while to make sense.

44. The Poe Shadow, by Matthew Pearl

Following Edgar Allan Poe's death, his lawyer becomes obsessed with clearing Poe's name and proving that he did not die a drunkard. The book is densely worded and reads much like a Victorian novel. A lot of research went into it, and it has more twists and turns than a pretzel, but I have to agree with the other characters who thought the protagonist was crazy for throwing everything away to pursue the case of a dead man he'd never met in person.

A Team of Rivals by Doris Goodwin Kearns

Excellent historical account of Lincoln and the men who served on his cabinet.

45. Notorious Nineteen, by Janet Evanovich

This was a much better read than Explosive Eighteen. There were two plot threads in this book, one involving a skip who embezzled $5 million from a retirement home, then disappeared, the other involving a member of Ranger's old Special Forces team who has some serious mental health issues.

46. The Double-Jack Murders, by Patrick F. McManus

This is the third book in the Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery series, but the first one I've read. It's an okay read, but not as funny as the crime novels and murder mysteries of some other humor writers (like Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiaasen). McManus does better at short, humorous tales. Still, the story isn't bad. The sheriff of the fictional Blight County, Idaho (which readers of McManus's short stories and columns will recognize) is the number-one target of an escaped killer (although the guy enjoys murder, so he murders several other people while hunting for the sheriff), plus an old friend wants him to look into the disappearance of her father and a young employee some 80 years earlier. He manages to combine both rooting out the killer and looking for the answer to the very cold case, while camping, fishing, and doing things that are not completely legal in the bargain.

47. How to Live With a Neurotic Dog, by Stephen Baker

This humor book had its funny moments, but a lot of it was kind of meh. Still, the parts about where dogs like to sleep and how they like to travel were spot-on, judging from my dog (although, to be fair, my dog gives every indication of believing she's a cat).

The Wolf In Winter (Charlie Parker #12)
A Song Of Shadows (Charlie Parker #13)
By John Connolly

Connolly is an author whose every new book sends me dashing to read, soon as I can. And every new adventure in his Charlie Parker series - part supernatural horror, part detective thriller - just seems to be better than the last.

These two were superb additions, with Charlie, Louis, Angel and the rest doing what they do best. Wish #14 was out.

LabRat

Planet Urth (book 1) - Jennifer and Christopher Martucci

I quite enjoyed this YA PA fantasy. The premise was intriguing and although the writing style was somewhat rough around the edges at times that didn't spoil things too much. Can't say I'm rushing to get book two, but if it came my way I wouldn't mind reading further.

LabRat

#13 Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams

I'm a fan of the apocalypic genre so this was fun.


Joan

48. The Pigeon Needs a Bath!, by Mo Willems

A very grimy pigeon is in dire need of a bath (even flies avoid it), but doesn't want to take one.

49. Top Secret Twenty-One, by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum, the world's most incompetent bounty hunter, has to track down a used car salesman (and human trafficker) who skipped bond and may now be murdering his friends and employees. She also has to help track down a Russian terrorist who had someone smuggle polonium into Rangeman. There's also a subplot involving Chihuahuas. It's pretty funny overall. There's also a short story at the end of the novel about an FBI agent who is trying to track down a con man who she is attracted to.

The Soul Fixer - D M Mitchell

This psychological thriller reminded me a lot of the old Hammer horror movies. A naive couple, an isolated island, nefarious hosts, a creeping sense of foreboding and growing sense of things not quite right... The ending got a little hysterical but that, too, seemed in keeping. Hugely enjoyable.

LabRat

How To Be A Heroine, or What I've Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis.

"While debating literature’s greatest heroines with her best friend, thirtysomething playwright Samantha Ellis has a revelation—her whole life, she's been trying to be Cathy Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights when she should have been trying to be Jane Eyre.

With this discovery, she embarks on a retrospective look at the literary ladies—the characters and the writers—whom she has loved since childhood. From early obsessions with the March sisters to her later idolization of Sylvia Plath, Ellis evaluates how her heroines stack up today. And, just as she excavates the stories of her favorite characters, Ellis also shares a frank, often humorous account of her own life growing up in a tight-knit Iraqi Jewish community in London. Here a life-long reader explores how heroines shape all our lives."

Recommended - a very good book. I thoroughly enjoyed the author ripping on Beth in "Little Women" - "Beth is just there to die and be an example!" The author quotes books ranging from "Clarissa" by Henry Fielding up to "Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann. Loads of fun.

A Horseman Riding By - Book 1 - Long Summer Day by RF Delderfield

I read this when I was a teenager and re-discovered it during my recent house move. Written in the 1960s and set in the early years of the 20th Century, I found myself noticing more than just the story. Delderfeld paints a world rapidly changing and does it through the eyes of a man who would, quite honestly, prefer that it stayed the same.

The writing style is a bit loose and even rambly at times, but it suits the slower pace of the story. I think an editor today would demand some heavy pruning, and the story would be lesser for it.

Delderfield's strength, in this and other books of his I have read, is his ability to create a cast of diverse and fascinating, but still real, characters. I remember loving Ikey Palfrey, and all these years later, I was still charmed by his down-to-earth acceptance of where life took him.

I intend to try to track down Books 2 and 3, although my memory is that they aren't as good as Book 1. However, whether I actually get time to read them is another matter altogether!

50. The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

The residents of a small town participate in a lottery to determine who will be sacrificed to ensure a good crop.

51. A Sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradbury

In the future, technology has been developed to allow people to go back in time (to any era) and go hunting. The only stipulation is that the hunter can only kill an animal that was about to die anyway, so as not to interfere with the natural processes that made the future world what it was. Of course, it takes only a very small mistake to upset everything ...

#14 Saving Faith by David Baldacci

Feared by some of the most powerful men in the world, Faith has been targeted to die. But when a private investigator walks into the middle of the assassination attempt, the shooting suddenly goes wrong, and an FBI agent is killed. Now Faith Lockhart must flee for her life – with her story, her deadly secret, and an unknown man she’s forced to trust…

Lots of twists in this political thriller. Not my genre of choice, but entertaining.

Joan

52. The Blight Way, by Patrick F. McManus

The first book in the Sheriff Bo Tully series. Bo Tully, the sheriff of Blight County, Idaho, is a man who has been widowed for ten years, believes most women to be in love with him (but has little luck with them), and sometimes plays fast and loose with the law, calling it "the Blight way." There's a very funny scene where he tries to charm a woman by giving her a "warm look" (which he read about in a Danielle Steele novel), only to have her look at him strangely and wonder if he was okay, because he looked like he was about to erp on the table. The novel also handles profanity in a humorous way -- instead of actually saying the word, it says that the character uttered a ten-letter profanity, or a six-letter profanity, etc. Pretty funny.

53. Darth Vader and Son, by Jeffrey Brown

One of the students told me I should read this, and he was right -- it's a short, cute, funny take on what might have happened if Darth Vader had raised Luke.

#15 The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand

48 year old Dabney has a gift for match making, except when it comes to herself. Her true love left her on Nantucket years ago. Years later, after she has remarried, her life is turned upside down when her true love reappears.

This author always does a nice job of showing the lives of wealthy people on Nantucket and their interpersonal relationships. Her books are always an enjoyable read. I just don't always agree with her take on human nature and behavior.

Joan

54. I Fish, Therefore I Am: And Other Observations, by Patrick F. McManus

This volume collects three of McManus's books: A Fine and Pleasant Misery, Never Sniff a Gift Fish, and They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? I'd read all those books before, but I must have missed or forgotten some of the stories in them, because some of the stories were new to me. Very funny, and a very good read overall.

55. Takedown Twenty, by Janet Evanovich

This book was pretty good. Stephanie Plum has to find and bring in "Uncle Sunny," who is related to the Morellis and loved by a lot of people. He also got caught on camera running over a guy twice. Meanwhile, a giraffe is on the loose in Trenton, and someone is murdering old ladies and putting them in dumpsters.

56. Time and Again, by Nora Roberts

This book contains the novels Time Was and Times Change. The first novel is about a pilot who accidentally travels back in time from the 23rd century and, after meeting the love of his life, decides to stay in the 20th century. The second novel is about his brother, an astrophysicist who goes back in time deliberately in order to bring his brother back. He meets his sister-in-law's sister and falls in love with her. The second novel was better than the first ... I think the author's writing had improved by the time she wrote the sequel.

#16 Fatherless by Dr. James Dobson and Kurt Bruner

The year is 2042, and the long-predicted tipping point has arrived. For the first time in human history, the economic pyramid has flipped: The feeble old now outnumber the vigorous young, and this untenable situation is intensifying a battle between competing cultural agendas. Reporter Julia Davidson-a formerly award-winning journalist seeking to revive a flagging career-is investigating the growing crisis, unaware that her activity makes her a pawn in an ominous conspiracy.

Plagued by nightmares about her absent father, Julia finds herself drawn to the quiet strength of a man she meets at a friend's church. As the engrossing plot of FATHERLESS unfolds, Julia faces choices that pit professional success against personal survival in an increasingly uncertain and dangerous world.

Interesting projection of how current trends may impact our future. While it was sometimes a little preachy, it was an engaging read. I'll be reading the next two books in this series.

#17 These Things Hidden by Heather Gundenkauf

When teenager Allison Glenn is sent to prison for a heinous crime, she leaves behind her reputation as Linden Falls' golden girl forever. Her parents deny the existence of their once-perfect child. Her former friends exult her downfall. Her sister, Brynn, faces whispered rumors every day in the hallways of their small Iowa high school. It's Brynn—shy, quiet Brynn—who carries the burden of what really happened that night. All she wants is to forget Allison and the past that haunts her.

But then Allison is released to a halfway house, and is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister.

Now their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden.

Sad and engaging story.

Joan

#18 Childless by Dr. James Dobson and Kurt Bruner

The second installment in the trilogy transports readers to a not-too-distant future when the young and healthy strain under the burden of a rapidly aging population.

Joan

#19 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

After watching the movie with my daughter, we decided we had to read the book. She told me it was darker than the movie. After reading it, I would agree.

Joan

57. Barricades: The Journey of Javert, by C. A. Shilton

This self-published novel tells the story of Les Miserables' Javert from childhood on, showing how he became so strict and letter-of-the-law. The fact that it is self-published occasionally becomes evident (the book could have used a good editor), but overall it's a good read.

58. Brooklyn Rose, by Ann Rinaldi

This young adult novel tells the story of the author's grandmother, who left her childhood home at age 15 to marry a man of 30. Some reviewers have been offended by the fact that the protagonist marries a man so much older than her, but the story is based on fact, and such marriages were far more acceptable in 1900 than they are now. (At the same time, the author shows the protagonist's essential immaturity -- she spends much of the story wanting to go around with people her own age and play rather than act like an adult; according to the author's note, her grandmother was so immature that she had to be called in from skipping rope in order to feed the baby she had at age 16.) It's an engaging story, one I read through in a very short time.

#20 Godless by Dr. James Dobson and Kurt Bruner

Things are finally looking up for Matthew Adams. As the top earner at MedCom Associates he has started to crawl out of the financial hole created during his "dark days." And now, out of the blue, a mysterious woman invites him to join a confidential research initiative. She says it will ease the mounting economic crisis. But at what cost to Matthew's fragile sanity, and his tortured soul?

Final book in the trilogy.

Joan

59. Dave Barry is Not Taking This Sitting Down, by Dave Barry

Another book of Dave Barry's hilarious columns. The best one is the column he wrote about dressing up as Batman for a kid's birthday party and learning why no one goes around wearing black rubber in Miami in August.

60. Frazz: Live at Bryson Elementary, by Jef Mallett

An anthology of comic strips about Edwin "Frazz" Frazier, a brilliant, underachieving elementary school janitor who discusses literature and philosophy. Some of it is pretty funny, and a lot of the educational commentary is right on the nose.

61. Dave Barry Talks Back, by Dave Barry

Another book of Dave Barry's columns, poking fun at everything from the IRS to Barry himself.

#21 Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

First book in the Infernal Devices trilogy

I finally got hooked on the Mortal Instruments series. When I finished the fifth novel and eagerly reached for the sixth, my daughter told me I couldn't read it until I read the prequel (a series with three books).

This story occurs in the 1800s with some of the same characters (and some which have been alluded to). It's got gothic romance and steam punk. I'm not hooked but it's an interesting setup. Just started the second novel.

Joan

62. From a Buick 8, by Stephen King

A stranger pulls into a small gas station, walks away, and is never seen again. The car, which should not be able to be driven, is towed to the police station and put in a shed. Soon, it becomes apparent that there is something not quite right about the car ...

#22 Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Book 2 in the Infernal Devices series

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when it becomes clear that the mysterious Magister will stop at nothing to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, tortured Will and the devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal and fueled by revenge. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

I'm officially hooked. Off to read the next installment...

Joan

63. Dave Barry Does Japan, by Dave Barry

This is Dave Barry's account of his trip to Japan in 1991 (paid for by Random House). Some of it is funny, but there's more serious stuff here than in most of his writing, especially in the chapter about Hiroshima.

64. Getting Rid of Bradley, by Jennifer Crusie

High school physics teacher Lucy Savage is finally getting rid of Bradley--and his hideous green recliner. In fact, her front lawn is littered with her cheating ex-husband's belongings. Because despite standing her up in divorce court, Bradley is out of her life for good. Or so she thinks.

When her sister takes her to lunch to celebrate Lucy's single status, all their talk of a no-good louse named Bradley catches the attention of a cop--who wants to arrest the very same Bradley for embezzlement. And Officer Zack Warren figures the lovely Lucy can lead him straight to his target.

65. Dave Barry Turns 40, by Dave Barry

Dave Barry takes a humorous look at getting older.

#23 Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.

Final installment in the Infernal Devices series.

I must admit I enjoyed the middle book of the trilogy the most. But this one was well done and had lots of exciting stuff happening.

Now back to finish the Mortal Instrument series.

Joan

#24 Something about Sophie by Mary Kay McComas

Answering a call that summons her to a stranger's deathbed, a reluctant Sophie Shepard is too late to hear what he was so anxious to tell her. What was so important that a dying man would think of her in his final moments? With the help of Dr. Drew McCarren, Sophie begins to dig into her past, setting off a chain of events that chills the quiet town of Clearfield, Virginia to its roots.

Normally I like these types of mystery books. The tone was a little more light romance oriented. But then it just got a bit silly.

Joan

66. Rain Makes Applesauce, by Julian Scheer and Marvin Bileck

The classic, dream-like children's book about rain making applesauce ("Oh, you're just talking silly talk!") This was one of my favorites when I was a little kid, and I read it to my nieces, who now love it, too.

67. Fallout: Lois Lane, by Gwenda Bond

I finally got a chance to read this! This is the Lois Lane we know and love -- she's stubborn, fearless, nosy, smart, and determined. At her new high school, Lois quickly uncovers a cyberbullying ring and, in spite of wanting to play it safe, starts investigating. She has a little help from someone she only knows as Smallville Guy ...

A good book, and one I recommend for LnC fans.

68. I'll Mature When I'm Dead: Dave Barry's Amazing Tales of Adulthood, by Dave Barry

A book about adulthood, by Dave Barry, so you know it's funny. It has all original material, except for the chapter about colonoscopies (which is available online; Google "Dave Barry colonoscopy" if you want a funny, spot-on description of, well, colonoscopies.

69. The Bachman Books: Four Novels, by Stephen King

A collection of four novels Stephen King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, all of them disturbing. The first novel, Rage, is about a mentally ill high school kid who shoots two teachers and holds his class hostage (and that's not the most disturbing part). King started writing this book when he was in high school himself, though it wasn't published until the 1970's. It has now been out of print for years, due to the fact that some kids who conducted school shootings called it a source of inspiration (like I said, disturbing). The second novel is The Long Walk, about a dystopian world in which a large group of boys compete in a long walk, where the lone survivor gets anything they want, and everyone else is shot along the way for walking too slowly or other infractions. It makes the Hunger Games series look WAFFy. The third novel, Roadwork is about a guy whose home is about to be torn down to make way for a highway -- and he decides to fight back. This is actually the least disturbing of these novels. The fourth novel, The Running Man, is another dystopian novel where people take part in game shows that pretty much guarantee their deaths, because it's the only way to make enough money to survive.

70. There Will Come Soft Rains, by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury's classic story about a futuristic "smart home" where the house keeps functioning after the family that lived there are nothing more than the shadows on a wall left by a nuclear blast. The title comes from the poem by Sara Teasdale about the world after the extinction of mankind (but the poem is a lot more positive than the story).

71. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

The second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, which I decided to re-read before writing the next chapters of Panem. I knew I had a copy of this book but couldn't find it anywhere, so I went to the school library to check out a copy and discovered that I had neatly shelved my copy there along with the school's copies after a co-worker who had borrowed it returned it. Being on "It's almost summer break!" mode, I'd just automatically shelved it without checking for the spine label that identifies library books.

72. Avalanche, by Patrick F. McManus

This is the second book in the Sheriff Bo Tully series. While investigating a disappearance, Sheriff Tully and his father, Pap Tully, are cut off from the rest of the world by an avalanche. While staying at the West Branch Lodge, the luxurious ski lodge owned by the unlikable missing person, they start to investigate, and soon everyone looks like a suspect (including the missing person).

This book is good -- funny, a fast read, and with a mystery that keeps you guessing.

73. Kerplunk!, by Patrick F. McManus

A book of columns by Patrick F. McManus. The title comes from the first column, about a young McManus learning about fishing when you can't see the water (always listen for the kerplunk, because that means your line is actually in the water, as opposed to caught in the brush, hung up in the trees, etc.)

74. Dragon's Halloween, by Dav Pilkey

Dragon celebrates Halloween in three short stories guaranteed to interest small children and make anyone over the age of five roll their eyes.

75. Bears, by Kate Petty

A short children's book on bears, with lots of pictures of bear cubs. The information is presented in an easy-to-read format, and is enjoyable by both kids and adults. (It's amazing how much more comprehensible these scientific-type books for small children are than ones written for an older audience. Anyone can learn from them, although it tends to annoy the child if the adult keeps stopping to exclaim over a new bit of information.)

I just finished 'Go Set a Watchman' by Harper Lee which is the sequel to 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is one of my favourite books of all time. I was somewhat disappointed in this sequel. I'm eager to hear from others how they felt about it.

#25 City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Claire

Last in the series - a very satisfying read! Sebastian and his army of Dark Shadow Hunters try to take over the world.

I'm curious about "So Set a Watchman". Your comments sounds similar to other people's. I plan to check it out.

Joan

I just read Fallout. It was fine as a young adult novel, but there was nothing about it that required the characters to be Lois and Clark. "Smallville Guy" never did anything with super powers, so the author honestly could have changed the names of the characters and had the exact same novel.

L White, that is the perfect way of describing reading "Go Set a Watchman". 'I think I'm glad that I read it.'

Yes, I too didn't like what I found with the character development. I was also upset that a character I liked in "To Kill a Mockingbird" had been killed off in this sequel.

I've been meaning to catch up with this for a while, now.

Stargate Atlantis Legacy Series - 1 - 7
Various Authors

I adored SA and it'd been a while since I'd read any of the Fandemonium novels, so when I came across the first of these unaired season 6 novels I decided to give it a go.

Despite some minor irritations and character issues, they worked very well, keeping to the spirit of the show and moving the plot along in intriguing ways that could easily have worked on screen, and did keep me coming back for more.

Open Minds: The Mindjack Trilogy I
Susan Kaye Quinn

In a not too distant world where a generation ago everyone suddenly became telepaths, Kira believes she is a Zero. One of the pitied few who never develop the ability at puberty. Instead, she turns out to be something most of the world doesn't even know exists yet - a Jacker. Someone who can control other minds.

Suddenly, Kira isn't a despised outcast any more - with underground Jacker rebels, a sinister FBI agent, government agencies and more all trying to catch her and use her abilities for their own ends.

Throw in a teen love triangle and you have an exciting YA novel which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble's Braids.
Michael McClung

I just loved this fantasy novel. A feisty, intriguing heroine and a well-imagined, though sordid world, coupled with rounded, interesting characters. Although it finished as a complete novel, with no cliffhanger, I immediately bought the sequel.

LabRat

#26 The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

orn to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.

The reviews on this book compared it to "Gone Girl". It was an interesting book but I would not put it in the same league as Gone Girl.

Joan

76. Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need, by Dave Barry

Dave Barry writes humorously about travel and includes "maps" of various major cities that are identical and feature happy and sad faces. Some of it is very funny.

77. Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week, by Dave Barry

How to succeed in business without really trying, as written by a great humorist. It reads like a funny take on Lex Luthor's rise to the top.

78. Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys, by Dave Barry

This was absolutely hilarious. Dave Barry writes about guys (not men, guys) behaving badly.

79. Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, by Dave Barry

A history of politics told in the most ridiculous way possible. It points out, quite accurately, that our tax dollars pay for top-of-the-line entertainment in the form of political shenanigans and scandals. This book was written around the time of the Bush/Gore presidential election debacle, which was indeed very entertaining (especially in retrospect).

80. The Huckleberry Murders, by Patrick F. McManus

Three farm workers are found murdered in a huckleberry patch on an Idaho mountainside. Sheriff Bo Tully must solve the crime while preventing further murders, dealing with the FBI, and flirting with every woman around.

81. Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States, by Dave Barry

Dave Barry interprets American history in a humorous fashion. This book is definitely not for the "history is serious business" crowd.

82. Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex, by Dave Barry

Just what it says on the cover.

83. Dave Barry's Homes and Other Black Holes, by Dave Barry

The pitfalls of home ownership, as told by Dave Barry. The best part was on lawns. If you fail to fertilize, water, and care for your lawn, it will die. On the other hand, if you do fertilize, water, and care for your lawn, it will die.

84. Dave Barry's Money Secrets, by Dave Barry

Why is there a giant eyeball on the dollar? Who knows? Dave Barry writes about finance in a way that makes roughly as much sense as anything leading economists say, except more comprehensible and funnier.

85. The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper

A little train engine says "I think I can! I think I can!" as it pulls a long over a steep mountain after all the big engines decline to do so. Of course, it succeeds. (There's a fanfic sequel to this story called The Little Engine That Couldn't. Don't read it if you love the original.)

#27 The Remaining by Travis Thrasher

Just after a young couple says their vows, the earth shakes, and some people die suddenly and are taken away. The rest of their wedding party and friends are left to wrestle with what happened and with their faith. Characters struggle with secret love, dreams, hopes, and beliefs as they continue to evaluate their faith.

I was a big fan of the "Left Behind" series so I wasn't sure what I'd think of this fictional version of The Rapture. It was interesting but I liked "Left Behind" much better.

Joan

#28 The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain

Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. Now, over twenty years later, her father has passed away and she's in New Bern, North Carolina cleaning out his house when she finds evidence to the contrary. Lisa is alive. Alive and living under a new identity. But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now? As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought she knew about her family.

Okay, I must confess that instead of doing what I was supposed to do today, I just couldn't put this book down and finished it in less than a day. Great story! Gotta read more by this writer.

Joan

86. Babies and Other Hazards of Sex, by Dave Barry

A humorous look at child-bearing (and rearing) from conception through age 3.

The Thief Who Spat In Luck's Good Eye (Amra Thetys #2) - Michael McClung

I think I enjoyed this even more than book one. It's refreshing in this age of epic fantasy series to have each book a complete adventure. The author has really settled into his world and characters now and I love the relationship between our cocky thief and her mage partner. I've already dl and started on book three.


The Thief Who Knocked On Sorrow's Gate - Amra Thetys #3

Loved this. Amra carried most of the plot on her own - which only proved she's a strong enough character to do it - but the reunion with Holgren towards the end was more than satisfying. The author chose this one to start using cliffhangers, and given the hints of what's coming in book 4, I want to be first in the queue.


LabRat

87. Sizzling Sixteen, by Janet Evanovich

Vinnie has gotten himself into debt with his bookie, who has kidnapped him and is threatening to kill him if the money isn't paid. It's up to Stephanie, Lula, and Connie to come up with the cash. Hilarity in the form of a guard alligator, a stink bomb in a funeral home, and a yard sale of not-quite legal items (including some really good brownies) ensues.

This is one of the funnier books in the series, and a good thing to read at lunch at work while unwinding from the beginning of the school year.

Blood Tempered - The Sword Monk Saga - Michael McClung

Another fantastic fantasy series from McClung. Great characters, intriguing plot, twists and turns ...think I've found that rare reading pleasure - a new favourite author!

LabRat

On the Accidental Wings of Dragons: Dragons of Eternity #1 - Julie Wetzel

I really enjoyed this fantasy romance. Basically, any author can reel me in with dragons and these were of a particularly interesting variety. Carisa and Michael were a cute, amusing couple.

Although it's marketed as a series, each book seems to be standalone, focusing on a new couple each time. I might well return to Wetzel's dragon world sometime soon.

LabRat

#29 Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum

Anna Benz, an American in her late thirties, lives with her Swiss husband Bruno and their three young children in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zürich. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences: German language classes, Jungian analysis, and a series of sexual affairs she enters into with an ease that surprises even her. Tensions escalate, and her lies start to spin out of control.

I was expecting to have a lot of sympathy for the main character. Moving to an area where you know no one and raising small children is tough. I've done it. Yet Anna kept making bad choice after bad choice and ultimately she didn't really try to make a life for herself.

Joan

Blood and Roses: Comes The Conquerer #1 - Michael McClung

Another great fantasy adventure. My only issue with it is that it's not a novel but a serial, being realeased in episodes. No sign of when #2 will be released, which is irksome. I felt I was just being drawn into the story when it ended. Might wait till a few more episodes/chapters have been released before I read more. This format is too frustrating.

LabRat

#30 Inhumans by Kat Falls

In a world ravaged by mutation, a teenage girl must travel into the forbidden Savage Zone to recover lost artifacts or her father’s life is forfeit.

A virus slowly turns people into animals - an intriguing concept. I liked the characters and I'm looking forward to the next book in this series.

Joan

88. Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book, by Dave Barry

This is one of Dave Barry's earlier books, containing columns he wrote when he lived in Pennsylvania, but the humor is just as funny as after he moved to Miami.

Manroot - Anne Steinberg


To be honest, the description doesn't really do this one justice. Rich prose, fully rounded characters and a slow pace that suited the era it was set in. I really enjoyed it.

LabRat

89. Dreamcatcher, by Stephen King

I've been working on reading this one for most of the summer. Other books kept getting my attention.

Alien life forms land in (of course) Maine, and start taking over people and animals. (It reads like Jason Trask's worst nightmare.) It's the Grays (or is it?) There's also a red, moss-like thing that grows on people called a byrus (or the Ripley). It can also grow inside the intestines, but I won't repeat the name for that permutation here.

It's a decent book, more of a psychodrama than things that go bump in the night.

90. Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

We all know the plot. Read this in High School. Its been a few decades, glad I decided to give it another shot.

#31 The One and Only by Emily Giffin

Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade.

But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her.

I picked up this book because I wanted something light. I'm not into football and this book had way too many references to football. The love interest felt wrong - really wrong for a variety of reaasons. Not one of her better books.

Joan

90. The Little Book of Farmyard Tales, by Stephen Cartwright and Heather Amery

Short, cute farm stories for little kids. I read this to my 4-year-old niece yesterday, and when I'd read all the stories, she insisted she had to hear them again. Once was cute, twice was boring.

91. The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

The classic tale of a hero with a secret identity. Sir Percy Blakeney pretends to be a foolish socialite who cares only for fine clothing and having a good time. Secretly, he is rescuing French nobles from the Reign of Terror in France. When his wife unwittingly outs him to his greatest enemy, he must use all his wits to survive.

#32 The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

This book was a NY Times best seller. It's set in Paris and follows the lives of a 52 year old concierge and a 12 year old girl who both live in the same building. Both are highly intellegent and feel isolated. The plot involves events which bring them together and changes their lives.

This wasn't an enjoyable read. The characters were not likeable. The author tried to impress us with tons of prentenious references to classic books and arts and subjected us to tons of 'deep' thoughts from the characters. Towards the end, you could see the author made some interesting points but it wasn't a pleasant journey getting there.




#33 The Weight of Silence by Heather Gundenkauf

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.

Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.

Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice.

The writer does a nice job creating characters and their voices are distinct. Her books always flow well. There wasn't much suspense in this book, it felt more like a character study.

Joan

92. Coyote Blue, by Christopher Moore

Samuel Hunter (formerly Samson Hunts Alone), a Crow Indian turned insurance salesman, has his life upended by Coyote, the Trickster, who first appeared to him in a vision in the form of a vacuum cleaner salesman.

It -Stephen King

My favourite ever King novel. Possibly my favourite horror novel, bar none. Certainly in my top three. My poor paperback edition got pretty ratty with rereads before I switched to Kindle. As ever with King, so much more than a horror novel. A study of childhood and friendship, a dollop of dark humour and some genuinely creepy scares and ironic twists. And, as ever, sad I've finished it. Ah, well...till next time.

LabRat

If you've ever read the book 11/22/63, it's partly set in Derry and has some "Easter eggs" related to It. Dreamcatcher also has parts that are related to It.

Thanks, Annie. I haven't gotten to 11/22/63 yet - but it's top of my list. Heard good things about it.

LabRat

It's excellent. King did a lot of research on both the era (which he also lived through) and the Kennedy assassination.

I highly recommend 11/22/63 as well. It was exceptional. One of King's best works.

Joan

Well, I so enjoyed revisiting It, that I've just dumped a pile of other King old favourites onto my Kindle. Starting with Christine. I had put 11/22/63 on my wishlist with the intent of including it in my annual Xmas Book Treat, when I usually buy myself around a dozen or so books from my top favourite authors. But...may have to buy it sooner than that, since it comes so highly recommended.

LabRat

93. Dave Barry Turns 50, by Dave Barry

This is a satirical take on aging and the Baby Boomer generation, complete with a history of the Boomer generation through the 70's. There are a lot of Buffalo Bob jokes, which I would probably have found funnier if I'd ever seen the Howdy Doody Show, but it wasn't available in reruns when I was growing up in the 80s.

#34 Earth Abides by George Stewart

A disease of unparalleled destructive force has sprung up almost simultaneously in every corner of the globe, all but destroying the human race. One survivor, strangely immune to the effects of the epidemic, ventures forward to experience a world without man. What he ultimately discovers will prove far more astonishing than anything he'd either dreaded or hoped for.

A different perspective for a post-apocalyptic saga. At first I wondered if that was due to the fact it was written in 1949. Then I realized that most post-apocalytic books I"ve read deal with many survivors while these one deals with a very small group.

Joan

I normally don't post to this thread, but I couldn't resist commenting on Joan's most recent post. I first read "Earth Abides" when I was in junior high school and was extremely impressed by it. I am not past the half-century mark and decided to re-read it recently. I did so with a little trepidation, not knowing whether I would enjoy it as much as an adult. I did.

Another book I read recently which strikes me as similar is EMP. Rather than having a supervirus destroying most of mankind, EMP just has modern electronics wiped out. In both novels, however, we see how the precipitating events destroy modern life and how, over time, civilization develops a new norm.

Joy,
Lynn

I really liked 11/22/63, and I generally don't read Steven King novels. But I am a huge conspiracy theorist. I'd actually be interested in your opinion on the book, from the perspective of a non-American and someone who hasn't grown up with the mythos of the Kennedy assassination.

#35 Mars Inc. The Billionaire's Club by Ben Bova

How do you get to the Red Planet? Not via a benighted government program trapped in red tape and bound by budget constrictions, that’s for sure. No, what it will take is a helping of adventure, science, corporate powerplays, a generous dollop of seduction—both in and out of the boardroom—and money, money, money!

Bova always does a decent job creating a plausible scenario with a cast of interesting characters. Not his best book but not his worst either.

Joan

#36 All in by Josh Levs

How our work-first culture fails Dads, families, and businesses - and how we can fix it together.

Interesting discussion about modern day fatherhood

Joan

#37 All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner

Allison Weiss got her happy ending—a handsome husband, an adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the suburbs. But while waiting in the pediatrician’s office, she opens a magazine to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder…Is a Percocet at the end of the day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump&Pump class…or if your husband ignores you? She tells herself that the pills help her make it through her days…but what if her increasing drug use, a habit that’s becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all?

I had issues with this story. Having seen my sister go through addiction and rehab, this portrayal seemed almost flipant. This writer tends to have a lighter style but that doesn't excuse the fact that Allison never seemed to completely own up to all the damage she'd done.

Joan

#38 Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

This was an excellent psychological thriller. The author does a great job of planting seeds of ideas and letting them grow. This book was very engaging and kept me guessing as to who the murder was.

#39 Weed the People: The Future of Marijuana in American by Bruce Barcott

I've been curious as to the ramifications of legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington State. While this book provided some interesting historical information and some aspects of legalization, I would've liked to have seen more data.

Joan

#40 Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer

Making the startling discovery that her family finances are in dire straits is only the latest shock endured by Carley Winsted after her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack. Resisting her in-laws’ well-meaning overtures to take in Carley and her two daughters, the young widow instead devises a plan to keep her family in their beloved home, a grand historic house on the island of Nantucket.

This was decent light fare - if you don't look at it too critically. Some aspects of the story were comically unrealistic.

Joan

#41 Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg

A young man named Jay lies in a coma after suffering a freak accident, and his wife, Lainey, is the only one who believes he will recover. She sits at his bedside, bringing him reminders of the ordinary life they shared: fragrant flowers, his children’s drawings, his own softly textured shirt. When Lainey’s faith in his recovery falters, she is sustained by two women, Alice and Evie, who teach her about the endurance of friendship—and the genuine power of hope.

I liked the characters in this book but it felt like there were many concepts that could've been explored in more depth.

Joan

#42 Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins

An airborne Boeing 747 is headed to London when, without any warning, passengers mysteriously disappear from their seats. Terror and chaos slowly spread not only through the plane but also worldwide as unusual events continue to unfold. For those who have been left behind, the apocalypse has just begun.

I read the entire Left Behind series when the books first were published. After seeing some of the movie tie-ins, I was curious to re-read the books. I enjoyed this first book but I'm not sure if I'm up to completing all 16 books in the series.

Joan

#43 Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu—beautiful, self-assured—departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze—the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor—had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion—for their homeland and for each other—they will face the toughest decisions of their lives.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I had hoped it wasn't America bashing. And it wasn't. The characters were well developed and it was interesting to experience a different perspective.

Joan

Um...

1. Warm Bodies: by Isaac Marion. Did I mention ? I don't like zombies, usually, in any way, shape, or form. This story though is different and that's what caught my attention. Firstly, it tells the story of a zombie's life through the eyes of the zombie (cool POV, by the way). Secondly, it's the cure to all those dystopic novels plaguing our bookshelves. No, literally, it contains a cure to dystopia... or zombie-ism, whichever you prefer. Anyway, .

I tried to read "Life of Pi" earlier this fall but it was so overwhelmingly BORING I could hardly make it through Chapter 4. It's now in my "to be donated" pile. I'll just rent the movie.

I tried to read "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies" last year. I'm a huge fan of the Jane Austin novel, and everything I read had said that this was a funny spin-off. It wasn't funny. It was gory and horrible and I didn't make it through Chapter 1. I'm going to skip the movie.

Sometimes, I wonder how these books make it onto the NYC best seller list. I'm going to stick with writing and reading for the LnC Message Boards and the Archives. (To explain why I'm only on book 1.)

Oh, and I'm currently reading Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (again), this time to my kids. I finished Book 4 back in the spring (I think).

The movie adaption of Warm Bodies is good too. Not scary or terribly gory. Certainly going to bore die-hard Walking Dead fans, but that's not its audience. I am. I liked it so much I went out and read the book it was based on.

Okay, now I'm rambling... Back to reading...

#44 Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

I loved "To Kill a Mocking Bird". Given what I heard about this book, I wasn't expecting much. It was the same characters but it just didn't work for me. It breaks my heart to hear Atticus Finch saying such things as he doesn't want blacks in office. It just seems wrong.

Joan

It's been too long since I've updated this.

Christine
Pet Semetary
The Tommyknockers
The Shining
Salem's Lot

I did enjoy my revisiting of some of Stephen King's early classics. So much so, that I bought Dr. Sleep as well as 11.22.63 for myself for Christmas.

Nellie (Brides of San Franciso I - Cynthia Woolf

Dedicated Romance isn't normally my go to genre (I like it to be a major part of other genres like Fantasy or Thrillers). But something about this one intrigued me when it appeared on my free Kindle book list, so I gave it a go.

It was a simple, undemanding read, but I did enjoy it - right up until the last 10 pages when the author seemed to lose interest and wrapped everything up at breakneck speed with maximum contrivance. I was particularly aggrieved about a particular conflict being resolved by a major heel turn by a character who had been presented throughout as a thorough villain. But...ha ha...it was all a joke, didn't mean it. Um...yeah. Okay.

All Creatures Great and Small
All Things Bright and Beautiful
All Things Wise and Wonderful
The Lord God Made Them All
Every Living Thing

I fell in love with 'James Herriot's 'little cat and dog tales' back when I was a teen and they were first published. For some reason, I'd missed that another two volumes had been published in later years, so I picked up no. 4. So thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia trip and reacquainting myself with these wonderful little stories of his life as a vet from the 30s to 50s in the Yorkshire Dales, that I bought the Kindle editions of the rest and had a real wallow.

Whether they are poignant, tragic, joyous, laugh out loud funny - the abiding thing that comes across and links all of the tales is Heriott's obvious, deep and abiding affection for the animal and human characters that shared his life and for the vast, sweeping landscape they lived in.

LabRat

When No One Is Watching - Joseph Hayes


A competently written thriller, which was all the more entertaining for not going in the cliched direction I assumed it would. It loses a few points for having an ending that was all sorts of contrived, but that didn't spoil it.

LabRat

#45 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love—and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

I didn't like the main character of this book but the author did a wonderful job describing his world and the events that shaped him.

Joan

#46The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty

Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high school senior Kara. Their relationship is already strained for reasons Leigh does not fully understand when, in a moment of carelessness, Kara makes a mistake that ends in tragedy -- the effects of which not only divide Leigh's family, but polarize the entire community. We see the story from Leigh's perspective, as she grapples with the hard reality of what her daughter has done and the devastating consequences her actions have on the family of another teenage girl in town, all while struggling to protect Kara in the face of rising public outcry.

I haven't read anything by this author before. This was an engaging story about relationships. I'm going to look for more of her books.

Joan

#47 Unwind by Neal Shusterman

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

Definitely a YA book but it brings up intriguing questions. It's at least a trilogy so I'll try the others.

Joan