Books I've Read
Books Listed by Author
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Perdido Street Station
New Crobuzon, #1. Good book, long book. I may or may not read any more of the series. Rich descriptions, scary beings, hard decisions made.
Read:
8/2024
Countdown
An American teen trains to be the first Junior Astronaut on the Space Shuttle. He has a bit of an attitude, and gets into an argument on ham radio with a Maasai teen. When the Shuttle has to land in Africa they meet. An informative book, but the writing is not as good as his other books.
Read:
4/2016
Jungle Of Bones
Teenage jerk Dylan finds himself in the company of his uncle in the jungle of Papua New Guinea searching for the remains of the B-17 bomber his grandfather crashed in during World War II. Lots of action until the last chapter.
Read:
4/2014
Petey
A baby with cerebral palsy is mis-diagnosed and left in an insane asylum for many years. As an old man he meets a teen who he befriends. A very moving story. Highly recommended.
Read:
3/2003
Touching Spirit Bear
A nasty J. D. gets sent to an island in Alaska to ponder his sins. Very good story.
Read:
7/2002
Darkness Falls
Some eco-terrorists mutate another eco-terrorist's bacteria to do more damage than the one she created from another eco-non-terrorist's work. The bacteria? It eats oil.
Quote:
"Head shots are unreliable. You'd be surprised how often the bullet just deflects off your skull." (pg. 245) Good to know! Also, this is the only sentence I laughed with.
Quote:
"Look at the electrical insulation on these. It's cloth. This stuff's been obsolete for decades. The only thing it had going for it is that it wouldn't be affected by the bacteria." (pg. 254) I wonder why the bad guy didn't use knob and tube wiring?
Read:
8/2009
Destiny Of The Republic
A really good non-fiction about the assassination of President Garfield in 1881. Not something I would have picked out for myself, but it was really good!
Read:
11/2018
Newfound
Short chapters recount a boy's life growing up in Tennessee until he leaves home for college. An enjoyable read.
Read:
3/2016
I Cover The Waterfront: Stories From The San Diego Shore
Enjoyable stories, I almost recognize San Diego from my childhood. I'm still looking for the liner sinking with 496 passengers rescued, though. I hear the movie "based" on the book has almost nothing to do with the book.
Quote:
The copy-desk is discouraging about dots. The desk prefers verbs and nouns and things like that.Quote:
But Mrs. Lafferty is Mrs. Lafferty, and with her the best way is to accept with eagerness and to hope to get out of it later by having something unavoidable happen, such as a ship explosion.Read:
9/2024
Archform: Beauty
Claims to about the appreciation of "beauty" in the arts, but I think it is a futuristic detective story. Lt. Chiang investigates odd deaths, some murders, and financial hanky-panky.
Read:
9/2009
Eternity artifact
A verbose professor travels to study the first alien artifacts ever discovered. Author doesn't seem too keen on religions.
Read:
4/2006
Haze
Roget drops to the mysterious planet Haze on behalf of the Federation (ChinoFeds). I liked the story, but some folks on Amazon.com did not care for it.
Earth society seems very like now, but a millennium has passed since the Chinese took over the United States. Seems odd.
Words I Had To Look Up:
the Omelas requirement (pg. 182) -- Refers to a story by Ursula K. LeGuin about scapegoats. Read the Wiki article!
Read:
9/2009
Adventures Among Ants
Really good non-fiction book about ants. Lots of science stuff, yet pretty readable by the average idiot, like me. Lots of interesting anecdotes, too.
Read:
3/2019
Wish
Bee, her mother, and her brother who has CF go on a Make-A-Wish kind of trip to San Francisco to see Great White Sharks near the
Farallon Islands. Things don't quite work out as they planned. Good story, read it right through. Now what do I do?
Read:
8/2014
Anne Of Green Gables
I thought I read this charming story of a charming girl many years ago, but it seems, in the reading, not. Perhaps I am thinking of the charming television series with Megan Follows.
EDIT August 25, 2022: Read the Project Gutenberg e-book edition. Still a great book!
Read:
8/2011Read:
8/2022
Chronicles Of Avonlea
Anne is mentioned a few times, but these stories of Avonlea are about other people. Mostly good stories, some great ones, I'd rate it three stars.
Quote:
But her doughnuts could not minister to the mind she had diseased. Old Man Shaw took them up; carried them to the pig-pen, and fed them to the pigs. -- VI. Old Man Shaw’s Girl
Read:
8/2022
Dead Air
Will Ross finds himself the target of the bomber again in the fifth book of the series. Took a while to get into it, but enjoyed it when finished. Thought it was going to be humorous, for some reason, but it is not.
Read:
7/2004
Man of the family
Autobiographical story of boy in 1910 Littleton, Colorado, who is quite the little cowboy. In fact, the first book of the series is Little Britches. Very Little House On The Prarie-ish. Very good.
Read:
5/2006
The Fields of home
Ralph goes to live with his Grandfather on the family farm. And meets a girl!
Quote:
And I wished that Uncle Levi hadnt said anything about kisses and red hair ribbon going together.Read:
5/2006
The Home ranch
Ralph spends the summer working for Mr. Batchlett at his ranch.
Quote:
I couldn't help thinking he and I were a good deal alike. Maybe he was trying to do things too big for him so people wouldn't call him an old man. Maybe he bragged about things he used to do because he couldn't do them any more, and because he wanted the same thing I did: to have other people think he was as smart and able to do things as they were.Read:
5/2006
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Addison] [Aiken - Alexander] [Alexie - Anderson] [Anderson - Asimov] [Asimov - Backman] [Backman - Baldree] [Balf - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnes] [Barnes - Barr] [Barr - Beanton] [Beanton - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Bender] [Benedict - Block] [Block - Block] [Block - Bohjalian] [Bond - Bova] [Bowen - Briody] [Brodie - Buchanan] [Buck - Bujold] [Bujold - Cain] [Cain - Card] [Card - Carlson editor] [Carr - Chambers] [Chambers - Choldenko] [Clagett - Clarke] [Clearly - Cody] [Coel - Colfer] [Colfer - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Constantine] [Constantine - Corcoran] [Corder - Cornwell] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Crichton] [Crichton - Curry] [Curtis - Cussler] [Dahl - Dean] [Deaver - Disilverio] [Dixon - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Dowell] [Dozois - Duncan] [Dunning - Elkins] [Elkins - Evanovich] [Evanovich - Fairstein] [Fairstein - Ferris] [Ferris - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flynn] [Foer - Fournier] [Fournier - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Freedman] [Freedman - Gaiman] [Gaiman - Gayle] [Geist - Gold] [Goldberg - Grafton] [Grafton - Grant] [Grant - Greenwald] [Greer - Grimes] [Grimes - Haddix] [Haddix - Hale] [Hale - Hallinan] [Hallinan - Harland] [Harper - Hebden] [Hebden - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Henry] [Henry - Herriot] [Herriot - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Highsmith] [Hillerman - Hobb] [Hobb - Hornung] [Hornung - Huff] [Huff - James] [Jemisin - Jones] [Jones - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Kellog] [Kellog - King] [King - Kline] [Klise - Kowal] [Kowal - Lamott] [Lampman - Lawrence] [Lawrence - Lee] [Lee - Lescroart] [Lescroart - Liebster] [Lindsay - London] [Long - Lowry] [Lowry - MacDonald] [MacDonald - Maguire] [Mallios - Martin] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McBain - McCrumb] [McCrumb - McInerny] [Mcmanus - Miéville] [Miéville - Moody] [Moon - Morden] [Morden - Mullane] [Muller - Niffenegger] [Nimmo - Norton] [Norton - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Connell] [O'Conner - Otto] [Owens - Paretsky] [Paretsky - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Patron] [Patterson - Paulsen] [Paulsen - Pelletier] [Pennac - Philbrick] [Pickard - Posey] [Powell - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Preiss, Editor] [Prineas - Pullman] [Pullman - Quinn] [Quinn - Reeve] [Reeve - Richardson] [Richter - Robinson] [Robinson - Rostkowski] [Rothfuss - Russell] [Russo - Sampson] [Sampson - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Scott] [Scott - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shelton] [Shepard - Simak] [Singer - Smith] [Sneider - Spinelli] [Spoor - Steinberg] [Steinhauer - Strahan] [Strahan - Stross] [Stross - Tapply] [Tapply - Thompson] [Thorp - Turtledove] [Turtledove - Van Allsburg] [Van Draanen - Varley] [Varley - Wasdin] [Watkins - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Wheeler] [Whelan - Winchester] [Winchester - Wollheim] [Wood - Zahn] [Zahn - Zusak]