Books I've Read
Books Listed by Author
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
A Crack In The Sky
Eli lives in a domed city in the not-too-distant future when most of the planet is suffering the ravages of global warming. Map and diagram are illuminating, and the author's notes on his research, science fact, and the parts he fictionalized, are useful, along with a bibliography. I thought the 'vision' of a ecological savior parts were too un-scientific, but it was a good adventure. I especially like the character Marilyn. Talk about unconditional love!
Read:
9/2011
The Glitch In Sleep
This is the first book of The Seems series. Becker is twelve, becomes a Fixer. Pretty good stuff, nice illustrations, interesting references. I am looking forward to book two.
Quote:
"Crates, bags...all stacked on giant palettes..." -- (pg. 32) Pallets? Read:
3/2008
The Chicken Asylum
A gay spy novel. Doesn't grab me, although the last line is intriguing.
Read:
5/2001
High-Risk Robots
Lots of neat-o pictures, but it mentions medical robots in the introduction but does not follow through with any information!
Read:
2/2010
Dangerous Schools
Tells why paddling and other displinary methods are abusive. A very interesting book. .
Read:
9/2000
PC Roadkill
Anecdotel history of the computer industry. Pretty interesting.
Read:
1/2003
The Island Of The Aunts
Two children are kidnapped and taken to an island of strange creatures. Very good.
Read:
9/2002
The Secret Of Platform 13
A very good story about an island missing its prince. For some reason I thought it was about an oil platform, but it is not!
Read:
9/2002
Which Witch?
The wizard Arriman The Awful decides to take a wife, but she must be the blackest of the black witches. He hold a contest among the local witches, the most proficient gets to be his wife. Belladonna, a beautiful girl, falls in love with him, but how can she, a white witch, win a contest of the black arts?
Read:
12/2010
Cider House Rules
Took me a long time to read, but it was pretty darn good. I bet this would make a good movie!
Read:
4/2018
High school confidential
Twenty-something preppy Stanford grad poses as high school student in Orange County to get the goods. Nothing new here, as far as I can see. Only touching moment, for me, was when Cody didnt beat the crap out of Aram at Disneyland. Book was recommended by a friend.
Read:
1/2007
Burl Ives' Tales Of America
A Discarded Books selection. Only two checkouts in forty years. So I read it. Some pretty good stories in here, but I was uncomfortable with the one about minstrel shows. Are they PC? Do I have White guilt?
Smoke Quote::
"I am glad to see," said Penn, "that you are ashamed of that vile habit."
"Not at all," said a Friend, "we only lay down our pipes lest we should affend a weak brother."
Words I Had To Look Up:
the bed...undoubtedly used by Lafitte as a caprice (pg. 141) -- Acquired as an impulse?
kennebecker (pg. 265) -- A valise for clothes which Maine lumbermen take with them into the wood
bedcats (pg. 264) -- I thought it might be s reference to bedbugs, but I guess it is cats that hangout in the bunkroom. There is a traditional Paul Bunyan tale titles "The Bedcats" that I see referenced on the web. No definitions, though. I guess it is just common knowledge!
Read:
3/2011
Building The Ultimate Dam
The story of John Eastwood, dambuilder, who designed the Lake Hodges and Lake Murray dams in San Diego, among others. Extremely interesting, profusely footnoted.
Read:
12/2017
Raising Demons
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!
Read:
3/2013Read:
10/2018
The Narnian
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.
Read:
10/2007
Skyship Academy
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.
Read:
3/2012
The Broken Kingdoms
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.
Read:
5/2018
The City We Became
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!
Read:
5/2021
The Fifth Season
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!
Read:
8/2018
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
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.
Read:
3/2018
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Akers, pseud.] [Akers, pseud. - Anderson] [Anderson - Ashcraft] [Asimov - Babbit] [Bacigalupi - Baldacci] [Baldacci - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnes] [Barnes - Barr] [Barr - Beanton] [Beanton - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Birdsall] [Birney - Block] [Block - Bonham] [Bonham - Brackenbury] [Bradbury - Bryson] [Bryson - Bujold] [Bujold - Burroughs] [Buzzell - Card] [Card - Carrere] [Carroll - Charles] [Chavarria - Clancy] [Clancy - Coben] [Coben - Coleman] [Colfer - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Cook] [Cook - Cornwell] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Cronley] [Crumley - Cussler] [Cussler - Dashner] [Datlow - Dick] [Dickens - Doohan] [Dorsey - Drake] [Drake - Edsel] [Eggars - Emerson] [Emerson - Faherty] [Faherty - Farmer] [Farmer - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flint - Foster] [Foster - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Freedman] [Freedman - Galli] [Gantos - Gibbons] [Gibson - Gores] [Gores - Granger] [Granger - Greenberg] [Greenfield - Grimes] [Grimes - Haddix] [Haddix - Hall] [Hall - Hallinan] [Hallinan - Hassman] [Haugaard - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Hepler] [Herbert - Hess] [Hess - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hobb] [Hobb - Hornung] [Hornung - Huff] [Hughes - Jemisin] [Jemisin - Jones] [Joyce - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Kidder] [Kienzle - Kingsolver] [Kingsolver - Konrath] [Konrath - Kurson] [Kushner - Larsson] [Lasky - Leckie] [Leckie - Leonard] [Leonard - Lewis] [Lewis - Louv] [Lovelace - Lutz] [Lutz - Magnuson] [Maguire - Marshall] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McBain - McCrumb] [McCrumb - McNab] [McNally - Mikaelsen] [Mikaelsen - Moon] [Moon - Mortimer] [Mortimer - Nance] [Nance - Niven] [Niven - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Brian] [O'Brien - Osa] [Osman - Paretsky] [Paretsky - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Patterson] [Pattou - Pearson] [Pearson - Perry] [Peters - Pohl] [Pohl - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Prineas] [Pronzini - Pullman] [Pullman - Reedy] [Reeve - Richardson] [Richardson - Robinson] [Robinson - Rowling] [Rowling - Russo] [Rust - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Schmidt] [Schmitz - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shaffer] [Shames - Shute] [Sijie - Smith] [Smith - Spiegelman] [Spiegelman - Stark] [Stasheff - Stern] [Stewart - Stross] [Stross - Taft] [Tapply - Thompson] [Thorp - Turtledove] [Turtledove - Van Draanen] [Van Draanen - Varley] [Veglahn - Watts] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Wheeler] [Whelan - Wodehouse] [Wodehouse - Wouk] [Wrede - Zusak]