Books I've Read

The story of John Eastwood, dambuilder, who designed the Lake Hodges and Lake Murray dams in San Diego, among others. Extremely interesting, profusely footnoted.

I do not know how this is not already in here as I have read it AT LEAST three times! Well, I read it again. Absolutely charming!

Jackson's last book, I understand. Mary Katherine Blackwood lives in a big old house with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian. Her parents are dead (and her younger brother and Aunt), and her sister was tried for the crime and found not guilty.

A biography of C.S. Lewis. I fought my way through this for three weeks. It is pretty good, but very hard for my little brain to comprehend. I felt I was that putting forth the effort to understand what the author had spent so much energy creating. I feel bad about that, but it's certainly not the first time! The last two chapters went very well, and I was in tears at the end.

Volume one of The Pearl Wars. Engaging story of foundling recruited to travel to the surface of Earth to acquire the "Pearls" that are used to power technology.

Book two of the trilogy, it takes place ten years later with a different main character, a blind woman named Oree. It was pretty good, then it got a whole lot better at the end.

First book in series. The city of New York is under attack and the avatars of the borough (who didn't know they were the avatars of the boroughs) work together (mostly) to repel the Enemy. Pretty good, and certainly different!

First book in the The Broken Earth series. Very nice storytelling. Some people have the power to control the earth, like stopping earthquakes and volcanoes. Seem vaguely Earth-like, we shall see what happens!

Book one of The Inheritance Trilogy. Yeine is summoned, by her estranged grandfather, to the ruling city were he is effectively the ruler of pretty much everything. Really good, I'm looking forward to the next book.

The second book in the Broken Earth series. Pretty good, but I didn't weep reading this book.

Book Three of The Broken Earth trilogy. Everything seems all tied up neatly!

Historical story, with made-up dialog, of the so-called Towner Bus Tragedy of 1931 in which several children and the school bus driver died in a blizzard. Written at just the right level for me, third grade, there are lots of pictures and explanations of how life was back then. I enjoyed this very much, even though I cried a bit.

Very interesting, but a lot was over my head. The author writes a good book, though!

A rather unlikely novel of the Viet Nam war involving two Marine helicopter pilots, a president name Larry Bob, an actress named Barbonella, and the president of North Viet Nam that drives a Corvette.

Takes place in 1876. Very funny, is referred in a Heinlein book. Classic humour. 250 p.

Three guys take a bicycle trip through the the Black Forest in Germany. Very amusing. Read as a Project Gutenberg e-book. Not amusing, because, basically, one is staring at a light bulb for hours on end.

Mable and her sister Viola take rooms on a dairy farm in a distant village when Viola becomes the new teacher in the small school. Mable meets a rabble-rousing woman who wears bloomers and rides a bicycle. I enjoyed Mable's adventures very much.

Co-author Roy Johansen. A woman shot and hit by a car trying to deliver something to Kendra. Kendra and Lynch (and a bunch of others) try to figure out what is going on. Almost OK. Didn't care for it.

Joe Bailey is a bunco squad police detective and former professional magician. He is trying to figure out how an eight-year-old boy came to murder a man by using psychic powers. Pretty ok, learned some stuff.

A student at work told me that he really like John Ringo's books, so I thought I had better try another after the disaster of Sister Time. This title caught my eye, and I checked it out even thought it is book two of the series, book one, Looking Glass, not being available. I was prepared to dislike it, and in fact was annoyed by several things. The artificial cursing (grapping, maulk) bothered me, but I see a need for soldiers (Marines!) cursing, so I can't think of another way around it, this book being intended for teens. Older teens! Anyway, lots of physics (the author says, hey, it's science fiction!), lots of shooting, almost everyone dies. The last hundred pages were real page-turners!