1. Tipping the Velvet by: Sarah Waters — Enjoyed this enough to buy other books by the same author.
2. Decision at Doona by: Anne McCaffrey
3. Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe by: Graham Allison — Read for school, found it interesting, though a bit one-sided. Copyright 2005 so it’s based upon W.’s regime.
4. Watchmen writer: Alan Moore, illustrator/letterer: Dave Gibbons, colorist: John Higgins — much much awesomeness. Haven’t seen the movie yet, planning to see it soon. Also, mind fuck. Loved it. When asked, compared it to the mind blowing aspect of the end of the Matrix, the first one.
5. Whatever It Takes by: Paul Tough — read for school. It’s about Geoffrey Canada building/beginning the Harlem Children Zone. Awesome for anyone with an interest in social science and American society today.
6. Fables: Legends in Exile. Volume 1 by: Willingham, Medina, Leialoha, Hamilton (comic) – It’s fun. Characters of fables and stories in ‘present day.’
7. ORCS (Bodyguard of the Lightning, Legion of Thunder, and Warriors of the Tempest in omnibus form) by: Stan Nicholls – good book/trilogy – it’s a little different from the way I’m used to fantasy reading. Oh yea, it’s fantasy if you hadn’t figured that out. Great action writer.
8. The High Lord by: Trudi Canavan – Book 3 of the Black Magician Trilogy – good book. easy-ish read. I might have written some of it different but it was still good. Finished the last 150-200 pages in one sitting.
9. Mistborn; The Final Empire by: Brandon Sanderson. If you like fantasy and haven’t read anything by Brandon Sanderson you should fix this immediately. This is book 1 of a series, take your pick. Awesome book. I have realized that his writing style makes the ends of chapters more like commercial breaks than ends. Ends have closure. There is no closure for the ends of chapters. Saying much about the book possibly leads to spoiler like info. I’ll just say read the book.
10. Svaha by: Charles de Lint. The book’s original copyright is 1989 so it’s older. It’s a little fantasy, a little future. It’s a good, enjoyable read. I found it in an independent book store for new and grabbed it because a friend has been looking for the book. It’s also short, only 300 pages.
11. Mistborn; The Well of Ascension by: Brandon Sanderson. Book 2 of the trilogy. Awesome. More awesome. He’s put down more plot lines and teasers. I’m pleased I was right about something I was debating since the beginning of the book. Reading his books are tiring and exciting in ways you usually don’t come across. In depth too.
12. Naamah’s Kiss by: Jacqueline Carey. This is awesome. I love her books. I love her writing style, there is a passion to her writing you don’t often come across. The story has a heroine. There’s love, intrigue, war, epic travel. Betrayal too I think, and yearning. And she’s definitely setting us up for another trilogy. This book comes, in the story line, multiple generations after Imriel’s story.
13. Fables: Animal Farm. Volume 2 by: Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha. Looking forward to the story developing into larger plot lines, hopefully.
14. The Hunter, A Parker Novel by: Richard Stark. This is the book that the movie Payback with Mel Gibson is based on. Very good book. Interesting style. Old book, written in the ’60s. Short book, a little graphic in language sometimes, I think that’s based on when it was written compared to now. He’s written a great deal “Parker” novels.
15. The Man with the Getaway Face, A Parker Novel by: Richard Stark. This follows up The Hunter. Also a good book. Easy, short, different style from anything I’ve read recently. Enjoyable cause I don’t really know where the author is going..entirely.
16. Fall With Honor, The Vampire Earth Series by: E. E. Knight. Good book. This is the first book I have reread in a long time. Yes, this is a re-read. He’s getting better with his characterization I think. I’ll be digging right into the newest book in the series which came out this month.
17. Here Comes Everybody; The Power of Organizing without Organizations by: Clay Shirky. On the front of the book is the quote from the book: “Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technology, it happens when society adopts new behaviors.” This is an awesome book. It makes you stop and go “oh, yes, I see what you mean there.” The book looks like at how people organize into groups and how technology had made it easier, or made it happen. This is the kind of book I want to read a second time and a third even.
18. Gang Leader for a Day by: Sudhir Venkatesh. starts the foreword in the book by Stephen J. Dubner: “I believe that Sudhir Venkatesh was born with two abnormalities: an overdeveloped curiousity and an undeveloped sense of fear.” — This book is violent. This book is about sociology. But really, this book is about life and how life is different depending on where you live and where you live has everything to do with what you look like, what kind of people you hang out with, or don’t hang out with, and who likes you. I think this book is a must read, absolute positive have to read it, for any sociology (college) student. Really, any student, but it’ll be hard to get every student to read it.
19. Winter Duty by: E. E. Knight – Book 8 in Vampire Earth. I liked this one better than the last one. Though, dammit! At the end of the book: Shit hit the fan, then exploded, then someone turned off the fan, mess still to be cleaned up. Or maybe the fan is what exploded? Can’t tell because of all the (metaphorical) shit! Good book. Love this author. Love him.
20. Amusing Ourselves to Death by: Neil Postman. The book is over 20 years old but it’s discourse that is still interesting to apply to today. Basically, tv is entertainment and everything is being put on tv and as tv invades every aspect of our culture then our culture becomes dumbed down to fit into tv because tv producers/etc don’t want viewers to have to think, but to watch, and buy the things advertised in the commercials. Interesting read. I’d suggest it for any one interested in media as a topic of study. (It also mentions 1984 by Orwell and Brave New World by Huxley. I need to read Brave New World, not sure when.)
21. Bait and Switch by: Barbara’s Ehrenreich. Basically, this is her attempt into the white collar world of jobs (after Nickel and Dimed). She attempts to find a white collar corporate type job based on appropriate experience she has had, she does not include “writer” in her experience and uses her maiden name instead. End result? No job. I’d suggest this book for anyone who read Nickel and Dimed and wants a little more and anyone who has been fed up with a job search and going around in circles making their job search like a job.
22. Ender’s Game By: Orson Scott Card. Good book. Sci-fi. It’s about a boy who does quite a bit… and his brother and sister. I’ve heard it’s a book read in high school now. I’ve read it a few times myself, first time was in Jr. High. I hope they cover the sexism if it’s read in school. I’ll probably reread some more of the books from the same universe.
23. The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes (Volume 1) by: Neil Gaiman Illustrated by: Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III – It’s the Sandman. I’m finally getting to reread/read it. (I read a few volumes in high school.) Plowed through this in a few hours in an afternoon.
24. Freakonomics by: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner – good book. It takes a different approach to understanding economics and looking at social problems through the lens of economics. It’s a neat book.
25. Lord of the Flies by: William Golding. It’s one of those must read works of literature. I feel like I must have missed a great deal of the symbolism; but maybe that’ll change.
26. Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else. by: Albert-Laszlo Barbabasi. This book is awesome. I have a new interest in the theory and science in relation to networks. It makes you think about things from a different perspective. Like human bodies are awesome at multitasking. Right now my heart beats, I breathe, my eyes translate the words I’m seeing and my brain translates what I’m thinking intos words and my ears are hearing and my brain is translating the sound to annoying landscaping stuff.
27. The Sandman: The Doll’s House (Volume 2) by: Neil Gaiman Illustrated by: Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Chris Bachalo, Michael Zulli, Steve Parkhouse. I savored this one some, didn’t read it quite so fast. I love this storyline. I want to read it all NOW.
28. The Hero of Ages Final book (third) of the Mistborn series. by: Brandon Sanderson. I’m not going to really say anything about this book cause it would be so easy to spoil something other than to say good finale and good book. I was a little amazed at how it ended. There was a section of set up in the book that good old and started to annoy me, but maybe I was just being impatient, I’m not sure. Anyways, I’d recommend Sanderson to anyone who reads fantasy or sci fi no questions asked.
29. Lick of Frost by: Laurell Hamilton. It’s a Laurell Hamilton book. It’s fluffy. It’s like marshmallow. This was actually better than some of the other books, it was less like soft core porn with plot and more like an actual book where things happened! I managed to find Swallowed by Darkness or whatever the next book is titled at Half Price books but I’m not reading it just yet….
30. Storm Front Book One of The Dresden Files by: Jim Butcher – He’s amusing. He captures your attention. Quick read but boy was it a fun read. Fun.
31. Fool Moon Book Two of The Dresden Files by: Jim Butcher – Everything I said before and more. The book did end with a little reference to an overarching plot line. That was nice to see.
32. Grave Peril Book Three of The Dresden Files by: Jim Butcher – I’m going to get tired of Dresden being the beat up underdog but I do like the plot lines, etc.
33. The Sandman: Dream Country (Volume 3) by: Neil Gaiman Illustrated by: Kelley Jones, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, Malcom Jones III – it’s Sandman. it’s a treat to read. I have up to 6 no thanks to a late birthday present from a friend so I’m reading it again.
34. The Sandman: Seasons of Mist (Volume 4) by: Neil Gaiman Illustrated by: Kelley Jones, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Matt Wagner, Dick Giordano, George Pratt, P. Craig Russell
35. Swallowing Darkness by: Laurell K. Hamilton. Another book in the world of fairy according to Laurell-K-how-much-sex-can-I-put-in-a-fantasy-novel-and-not-have-it-in-romance-Hamilton. Though, she’s done better with the plot in this book and the last one.. and the books aren’t boring. Definitely quick easy reads.
36. The Eye of the World by: Robert Jordan. First read of this. I’m not rereading it. I finally got around to reading it. This is book 1 of the Wheel of Time. There was definitely some things that bugged me. There could have been more closure. Overall it was a good book. It wasn’t amazing though. I suspect I might like book 2 more.
37. Fables: Volume 3 Storybook Love by: Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha. It keeps going. Getting better. I really like this.
38. Fables: Volume 4 March of the Wooden Soldiers by: Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Craig Hamilton, Steve Leialoha, P. Craig Russell Little things happen that I don’t expect keep happening. This is good.
39. Fables: Volume 5 The Mean Seasons by: Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Jimmy Palmiotti. Liked it more than Volume 4.
40. Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by: David Gaider. This is the first prequel for Bioware’s Dragon Age: Origins game. Liked it. Liked it a lot. I’d suggest the prequel to ANYONE playing the game. Good writer too.
