Really interesting history of the homo genus and sapiens species. So many interesting ideas and things I didn’t know. Possibly the most atheist book ever.
The Guardians
by John Grisham
Read
★★★
Would not recommend.
The pitch of this book is that there are some secret forces working against the exoneration of Guardian Ministries’ clients, but those people never show up. It’s really more of a weak mystery where they follow some leads to find evidence. It wasn’t an especially interesting mystery, courthouse drama, or crime novel, but rather a milquetoast mix of the three.
The City We Became
by N.K. Jemisin
Read
★★★★★
The Last Emperox
by John Scalzi
Read
★★★★
The City of Brass
by S.A. Chakraborty
Read
★★★★
The Lazy Dungeon Master
by Michael E. Shea
Read
★★★
Exit Strategy
by Martha Wells
Read
Rogue Protocol
by Martha Wells
Read
★★★★
Broken Angels
by Richard K. Morgan
Read
★★★★★
Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
Read
★★★★
The Splendid and the Vile
by Erik Larson
Read
★★★
I didn’t enjoy this like I did Devil in the White City.
Civil War
by Mark Millar
Read
★★★★
S.
by J.J. Abrams
Read
★★★★
Provenance
by Ann Leckie
Read
★★★★
Tyll
by Daniel Kehlmann
Read
★★★
The City Born Great
by N.K. Jemisin
Read
★★★★
The Shining
by Stephen King
Read
★★★★★
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Read
★★★
The writing is excellent. Unfortunately there isn’t much of a plot beyond “life comes at you”.
City of Thieves
by David Benioff
Read
★★★★
Raising Good Humans
by Hunter Clarke-Fields
Read
★★★★★
I really think that this is a book on better communication and understanding oneself disguised as a parenting book. It’s my first book on parenting so I don’t have much of a point of reference, but I’d recommend this broadly.
The Gifts of Imperfection
by Brené Brown
Read
★★★
So You Want to Talk About Race
by Ijeoma Oluo
Read
★★★★★
Shōgun
by James Clavell
Read
★★★★
Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris
Read
★★★★
Talking to Strangers
by Malcolm Gladwell
Read
★★★★
How To
by Randall Munroe
Read
★★★★
Randall is always good for an absurdly in-depth and technical answer to questions I didn’t have. I did learn a bit about how fake snow is made, which was apropos to my current ski trip!
Dog Songs
by Mary Oliver
Read
★★★★
First book of the year! Dog Songs is a funny, easy, familiar read that will resonate with dog people.
2019 (42)
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
by Ken Liu
Read
★★★★
The Silent Patient
by Alex Michaelides
Read
★★★★★
Alicia is the silent patient, a successful painter who seemingly killed her loving husband of a happy marriage and tried to commit suicide, and who has been unable or unwilling to speak ever since. Theo Fabre is a psychotherapist who wants to help and understand his patient. To do this, he seeks to understand what happened on the day of the murder-attempted-suicide, what is going on in Alicia’s mind, and how the lies of the people he speaks with can fit together into a truth.
As a bonus, the main narrator for the audiobook sounds like Alexander Siddig, so I imagined Doctor Bashir trying to solve a murder.
A Clash of Kings
by George R.R. Martin
Read
★★★★
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman
by Carol F. Karlsen
Read
★★
I was hoping for a description of the powers ascribed to real-life women accused of witchcraft, but this is a dissertation on mostly demographics of who was accused. Interesting in a vague sense but long-winded for most readers.
The Thief
by Claire North
Read
★★★★
The Serpent
by Claire North
Read
★★★★
I enjoyed The Serpent, and it was made more interesting by a point of view I couldn’t quite pin down. It appears to be third-person at first, but we quickly realize that it is a mixture second-person and third: “We watch the lady, and we feel...” but by the end I wonder if it isn’t a frame story of sorts and if “we” aren’t a bigger character than I had thought.
The Master
by Claire North
Read
★★★★
Barren
by Peter V. Brett
Read
★★★★
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Read
★★★★
Lots of wonderful ideas about raising a child to be very tolerant, very curious, and very fair both to herself and others.
The Institute
by Stephen King
Read
★★★★★
Tim is an ex-cop turned drifter. Luke is an abductee who can move things with his mind. They fight crime!
Lord Foul's Bane
by Stephen R. Donaldson
Read
★★★
Never had a book been so good at putting me to sleep.
Songs of Giants
by Mark Wheatley
Read
★★★★
Evocative monochromatic illustrations enhance rhymes of eldritch literary titans of yore.
The Adventure Zone
by Clint McElroy
Read
★★★★
TAZ is why I’m interested in D&D, and the Rockport Limited, itself hearkening to the Orient Express, immediately had me imagining my own train-bound murder mystery.
The comic adaption is beautiful, but loses some of the je ne sais quoi, humor, and rapport between the boys.
The Vine Witch
by Luanne G. Smith
Read
★★★★
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
Read
★★★★★
We are a country of immigrants and we brought our gods with us.
I read this book a long time ago, and it’s one of those books that you don’t realize you like until you’re almost done with it and you can’t remember everything so you feel like there’s something you missed out on.
Listening this time to the full cast audiobook and with Gaiman’s preferred text, the experience was very good, especially since it has been long enough that I didn’t remember the plot entirely.
One of my favorite parts of this is to try and figure out which character is which god. The depth of America’s mythology, with its roots in so many other mythologies, is incredible.
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Read
★★★★★
Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic
by Nick Carr
Read
★★★
This audiobook was narrated by William Jackson Harper from The Good Place. It’s a great coming of age story with a twist: Wally is a genius school kid who, with a glorified box cutter, cuts open reality to fix problems as a quantum mechanic.
The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent
by Larry Correia
Read
★
The Fifth Elephant
by Terry Pratchett
Read
★★★★
Artificial Condition
by Martha Wells
Read
★★★★
All Systems Red
by Martha Wells
Read
★★★★
Fuzzy Nation
by John Scalzi
Read
★★★★
Lost Gods
by Brom
Read
★★★★
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
by J.K. Rowling
Read
★★★★
The Adventure Zone
by Clint McElroy
Read
★★★★★
Born a Crime
by Trevor Noah
Read
★★★★★
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
Read
★★★★★
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J.K. Rowling
Read
★★★★
Fire & Blood
by George R.R. Martin
Read
★★★★★
Black Klansman
by Ron Stallworth
Read
★★★
Wonder Woman Unbound
by Tim Hanley
Read
★★★
An Unkindness of Magicians
by Kat Howard
Read
The Seascape Tattoo
by Larry Niven
Read
★★★
Watchmen
by Alan Moore
Read
The Consuming Fire
by John Scalzi
Read
★★★★
Glory Road
by Robert A. Heinlein
Read
True West
by Sam Shepard
Read
★★★
Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain
Read
★★★★★
Strongholds & Followers
by Matthew Colville
Read
★★★★
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
by J.K. Rowling
Read
★★★★
The White Rose
by Glen Cook
Read
★★★★★
Dangerous Women
by George R.R. Martin
Read
★★★
2018 (20)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
by J.K. Rowling
Read
★★★★
Shadows Linger
by Glen Cook
Read
★★★★★
Engraved on the Eye
by Saladin Ahmed
Read
★★★★★
War and XPs
by Rich Burlew
Read
The Effigy Engine
by Scott Lynch
Read
★★★★
Hard Contact
by Karen Traviss
Read
★★★
Star Wars
by Elizabeth Schaefer
Read
★★★★
American Prometheus
by Kai Bird
Read
★★★★
Waterdeep
by Wizards of the Coast
Read
★★★★★
The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Read
★★★★
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
Read
★★★★★
In the Stacks
by Scott Lynch
Read
★★★★★
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Read
Norse Mythology
by Neil Gaiman
Read
★★★★★
A Higher Loyalty
by James Comey
Read
★★★★
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
Read
★★★
The Punch Escrow
by Tal M. Klein
Read
★★★★★
Thief
by Matthew Colville
Read
★★★★★
How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps
by Jared Blando
Read
★★★★
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Read
★★★
2017 (26)
Priest
by Matthew Colville
Read
★★★★
On Tyranny
by Timothy Snyder
Read
★★★★★
Dungeon Master's Guide
by Mike Mearls
Read
Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie
Read
★★★★★
Dark Force Rising
by Timothy Zahn
Read
All These Worlds
by Dennis E. Taylor
Read
Mort
by Terry Pratchett
Read
Good Omens
by Terry Pratchett
Read
★★★★
Legend
by David Gemmell
Read
Game Night
by Jonny Nexus
Read
The Last Command
by Timothy Zahn
Read
1984
by George Orwell
Read
★★★★★
Heir to the Empire
by Timothy Zahn
Read
Algorithms to Live By
by Brian Christian
Read
Aftermath
by Chuck Wendig
Read
★★★★
Notorious RBG
by Irin Carmon
Read
★★★★★
Wizard and Glass
by Stephen King
Read
Ringworld
by Larry Niven
Read
★★★★★
The Waste Lands
by Stephen King
Read
★★★★
The Collapsing Empire
by John Scalzi
Read
Bloodline
by Claudia Gray
Read
★★★★★
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler
Read
★★★★★
Altered Carbon
by Richard K. Morgan
Read
★★★★
Necronomicon
by H.P. Lovecraft
Read
11/22/63
by Stephen King
Read
★★★★★
Grokking Algorithms An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People