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
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
The Obelisk Gate
The second book in the Broken Earth series. Pretty good, but I didn't weep reading this book.
Read:
8/2018
The Stone Sky
Book Three of The Broken Earth trilogy. Everything seems all tied up neatly!
Read:
8/2018
Lost In A Blizzard
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.
Read:
6/2010
Nam-a-rama
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.
Quote:
My suggestion--that the U.S. commander in chief be constitutionally required to garb him- or herself in full battle dress, replete with facial camouflage and flora-festooned helmet, whilst any U.S. troops are engage in combat--will most likely not be adopted.Read:
8/2006
Three Men In A Boat
Takes place in 1876. Very funny, is referred in a Heinlein book. Classic humour. 250 p.
Read:
10/2001
Three Men On The Bummel.
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.
Read:
8/2007
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 - Bester] [Bingle - Block] [Block - Bond] [Bond - Box] [Box - Brucker] [Bruère - Bujold] [Bujold - Bujold] [Bujold - Card] [Card - Card] [Carey - Chambers] [Chambers - Clancy] [Clancy - Coakley] [Coben - Cohen] [Cole - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Constantine] [Constantine - Corder] [Corey - Crais] [Crais - Crew] [Crichton - Crusie] [Crusie - Cussler] [Cussler - Davidson] [Davies - Dilloway] [Dilloway - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Draper] [Duane - Elkins] [Elkins - Evanovich] [Evanovich - Fairstein] [Fairstein - Ferris] [Ferris - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flynn - Fournier] [Fournier - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Friedman] [Funke - Gardner] [Gardner - Gillin] [Gilman - Gores] [Gores - Granger] [Granger - Greenleaf] [Greenleaf - Grisham] [Grisham - Haddix] [Haddix - Hall] [Hall - Halpern] [Hannah - Haynes] [Hayter - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Herman] [Herrera - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Highsmith] [Hillerman - Hobbs] [Hobbs - Horowitz] [Horowitz - Hyman] [Ibbotson - Jerome] [Jocelyn - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Keene] [Keith - Kienzle] [Kienzle - Klass] [Klein - Korman] [Kostyal - Lahiri] [Lamott - Lawrence] [Lawrence - Lee] [Lee - Lescroart] [Lescroart - Lindsay] [Lindsay - Lowry] [Lowry - Lynn] [M.W. - Maguire] [Maguire - Martin] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McCaffrey - McCrumb] [McCrumb - Medwed] [Meier - Miller] [Modesitt Jr. - Moon] [Moon - Mosley] [Moss - Neville] [Neville - Norton] [Norton - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Brien] [O'Connell - Palacio] [Paolini - Park] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Paulsen] [Paulsen - Pease] [Peck - Peyton] [Pfeffer - Porter] [Portis - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Pullman] [Pullman - Reeve] [Reeve - Riggs] [Ringo - Robinson] [Robinson - Rowling] [Rowling - Rust] [Ryan - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Schmitz] [Schonborg - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shames] [Shames - Sijie] [Silverberg - Smith] [Smith - Spiegelman] [Spinelli - Stasheff] [Stead - Stewart] [Stewart - Stross] [Stross - Tapply] [Tapply - Thorp] [Thurber - Turtledove] [Turtledove - Van Draanen] [Van Draanen - Veglahn] [Villasenor - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Weyn] [Wheeler - Wister] [Wodehouse - Woods] [Wouk - Zimmerman] [Zusak - Zusak]