The Gemini Effect by Chuck Grossart (completed 4/24/2015)--a mash-up between the Hot Zone and Aliens, I got it free from Amazon Prime and thought it might be cheesy. It was, a little, but also a really fun and fast read. When the military screws us over, thank God for scientists! Or did they start it in the first place . . . ? (read on my Kindle)
Sugar by Deidre Riordan Hall (completed 5/9/2015)--a coming-of-age story about two messed up kids. Engaging but a little painful. The female protagonist uses sugary, fatty foods as a drug--hence the title. Loved it until about 3/4 the way through when a plot twist really ticked me off. Kept reading just to see what would happen and was glad I did. (read on my Kindle)
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies by Matt Mogk (completed 5/12/2015)--a fun read for zombie enthusiasts. Funny, snarky and super useful for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. Remember, it's not if--it's when!
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (completed 5/20/2015)--so funny and compelling! The mystery of a missing mom told alternatively through e-mails, notes, letters and narrated by her gifted daughter, Bee. Hard to put down.
Bon Appetempt: A Coming of Age Story (with recipes!) by Amelia Morris (completed 5/27/2015)--I picked this one up because of the name of the author and because I thought it would mainly be about food. Turned out not to be the case, although there is a recipe or two that I wanted to try. This memoir was mostly about Amelia Morris and her husband meeting, attempting to make a living at their respective arts and growing into their adulthood.
Plague of the Undead by Joe McKinney (completed 6/2/2015)--Yup, it's a zombie book. The good ones, however are about the thoughts and actions of people driven to their extremity by a relentless opponent (in this case, something that never sleeps, never tires and wants to eat you). The novel was followed by four short (unrelated) stories, all well done and fully imagined. McKinney is a true writer, not just a zombie hack. But hey, I've read those too! :-)
Long-Distance Hiking by Dan Feldman (completed 6/5/2015)--In line with my goal to hike about 100 miles of the AT when I'm 50 (4 more years!), I've been doing a good amount of researching and reading about the subject. This was a very practical and texty book, but had both the specific and more general, philosophical advice I was looking for. My next step in preparation is to find the right kind of stove for me and I'm starting at a site recommended in the book (http://zenstoves.net/Construction.htm). If you are thinking about a long distance hike or just like to read about being in the wilderness, I'd also recommend
Wild by Cheryl Strayed. The movie is pretty good too.
Water's Edge (An Alaskan Frontier Romance) by Jennifer McCardle (completed 6/6/2015)--Read this on my Kiindle. A fun diversion. Typical spunky female gets herself in lots of trouble--in this case life-threatening because she's in the Alaskan bush--and discovers that she can handle just about anything. But, of course, she still needs the love of a good man.
Trail Tested: A Thru-Hiker's guide to ultralight hiking and backpacking by Justin Lichter (completed 6/7/2015) --OK, this guy has sponsors and seems to do almost nothing but hike, so obviously not something I'll be doing. This book had lots and lots of pictures and some amusing stories about things that went wrong. Helpful in that I got to see specific pieces of equipment and that I decided I want a tent and not any other kind of shelter.
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman (completed 6/13/2015)--Rooted in fantasy with notes of sci-fi and horror, Gaiman is truly an artist of language. His short fiction is absorbing, disturbing and fascinating. My favorites in this collection were "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" and "The Sleeper and the Spindle" both diabolical little twisty tales. I'd recommend
The Ocean at the End of the Lane or
American Gods if you're just getting started with Gaiman.
Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living by Paul Collins (completed 6/16/2015)--a biography of the sometimes reclusive, always poor and extremely talented Poe. This short volume (107 pages) gave me some insight into the man behind "The Raven" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." Though he considered himself before all things a poet, Poe made very little money in his lifetime by his writing. Most was made by editing newspapers and magazines. I did learn that Poe, a fan of cryptic puzzles, was the originator of the modern detective mystery, publishing "Murder at the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter" almost 50 years before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conceived his Sherlock Holmes character. No new insight on Poe's death, but an interesting read about his life.
Angel Omnibus Volume 1 by Jeff Mariotte, Peter David, Dan Jolley, Scott Tipton (completed
6/16/2015)--collection of longer Angel arcs and shorter one-offs featuring Illyria, Gunn, Wesley, Doyle and Connor (skipped that one). Although Angel doesn't have the same level of fun dialogue as Buffy, it's still a good read. The individual stories were a good insight into the characters, especially Illyria who was a real mystery during the show. An alien character in the body of a much-loved human. Allowed to live because of the attachment to the human (Fred) by the main characters (Wesley, primarily). I've also followed the comic version of season 8 of Buffy and know that season 9 is out as well, but haven't read that one.
Blue Labyrinth by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (completed 6/29/2015)--I had a lot of waiting to do today and finished this one sooner than I anticipated. This is the 14th in the Agent Pendergast series by Preston and Child and I've really enjoyed every one. My all-time favorites are
Relic and
Still Life With Crows which was based in Kansas. Pendergast is such a wonderful character. As he solves mysteries, he brings to light mysteries of his own about his murky background. A sophisticated Southern gentleman and FBI agent, Pendergast is skilled in all kinds of combat, the mental art of Chongg Ra and is independently wealthy. Makes his unorthodox methods that much easier to accomplish. This was a great read--can't wait for the next one.
The Martian by Andy Weir (completed 7/18/2015)--This is a freshman novel by Mr. Weir and it shows a bit. The exposition is a little clunky and I almost put it down after the first chapter, though the first line "I'm pretty much f***ed." certainly caught my attention. Once the main character begins telling his story, the book is hard to put down. There is a fair amount of actual science described, but he avoids confusion by asking the reader to trust him with the math. I was really rooting for the astronaut, but also for the ground support crew, battling to save one human being. Rather than stretching my believability about the science, I wondered if the US would really expend that level of money and personnel to recover one person. But hey, it's fiction.
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (completed 8/21/2015) I enjoyed this book so much! Found it at a book store in Emporia and just devoured it. Although it's from 1989, they're just now making a movie of this book with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte that I'll definitely go and see. The reason I picked it up is that I'm interested in all things Appalachian Trail (in line with my goal to hike part of it when I turn 50). In contrast to
Wild by Cheryl Strayed which was very gritty and sometimes made we want to cry, Bryson's section hikes were warm and funny--sometimes so much so that I laughed out loud. A Brittish man, Bryson views Americans with a sort of curiosity and amazement that demonstrates how we might look to generously-minded outsiders. He's rarely critical even when he meets a completely obnoxious, opinionated, imbecilic American woman also hiking the trail. She gloms onto Bryson and his hiking companion and they feel duty-bound to stay with her until they are able to ditch her in a town where they are taking a zero-day (no hiking). This is an easy read and so light-hearted I found it impossible not to enjoy.
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (completed 9/2/2015). How this man survived his childhood, I will never know. In this part of a multi-part autobiography (
Dry is the book that picks up the story next), Augusten starts out with both parents, one of whom is depressed, the other is manic-depressive/schizophrenic. Before long, his dad leaves, his mom has a melt-down and he is signed over to the care of his mom's psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. And he thought he had problems before! Dr. Finch and his family are all deeply disturbed people who are encouraged to let their anger out in public and to "be who they are," whatever that means. Mostly what it seems to mean is that the children are left without order or direction in their lives. As Augusten says on pg. 264, " The problem with not having anybody to tell you what to do, I understood, is that there was nobody to tell you what
not to do." Reading this was like reading the first-person account of a car wreck except that the car-wreck was his life.
A Slip of the Keyboard by Terry Pratchett (completed 11/01/2015). This was the non-fiction writing of a fantasy/sci-fi writer I enjoy reading. Though I've not read his "Disc-World" series, I've enjoyed other works and thought I'd check out his last words, since he passed recently (March 12, 2015). Many of these were transcripts of speeches he had made and several of them were near duplicates, so I ended up skipping around a fair amount. However, he had some eloquent things to say about the fantasy genre and about his creations specifically that were worth reading. His voice came shining through these pages and what a voice it was! He will be missed.
We Were Brothers by Barry Moser (completed 11/19/2015). Picked this up from the library the week before Thanksgiving and finished it quickly. A short biography of a boy (and his brother) raised in TN just before and during the Civil Rights movement. His family was fundamentally racist and this account is the realization of one part of the family that his views have changed while the rest of the family has stayed mired in a hatred and misunderstanding that they don't even realize they have. Sadly, he never reconciled with his brother before his brother's early death. What this brought home to me was the way families are insular and so self-contained that there might be no room for outside voices. Plus, that it's hard to see inside yourself without first experiencing the world outside yourself.
Zoo by James Patterson (completed 12/28/2015). This one had been on my bookshelf for some time and I picked it up after Christmas for a little light reading. If the end of the world by dog (and other mammal) attack could be considered light reading. Usually, Patterson just goes in for murder, but this was a quasi-scientific apocalypse brought about by our use of cell phones and fossil fuels. Go figure. A fast, fun read.
Eva by Peter Dickinson (completed 12/29/2015). I read this after a student picked it up and did a book talk on it, convinced that the student had not read it but instead copied the description from the internet. This was the case, in fact, but I'm glad I read this, especially just after I'd read
Zoo (reviewed above). Eva is the child of scientists who help run a chimpanzee "Pool" used for testing drugs prior to human trials. The book is set in a world over-run by humans where the animals have been pushed out of existence except for those who could live with or benefit humans. In the opening sequence, Eva, a golden-haired, blue-eyed child, wakes from a terrible car accident to find herself unable to move. She remains paralyzed while she discovers her "new" body. Despite being technically a sci-fi book (3-d technology is everywhere, called "shaper" tech and treated as a substitute for nature and a human tranquilizer), this story is a thought-provoking look at our relationship with our closest relatives and the natural setting that both of us need to survive.
