Date
Title
Comments
12/27/05 - 02/18/07
2/18/07 - 2/21/07
Gone
by Lisa
Gardner
Pure popcorn, beach read thriller. Pager turner that keeps you turning, and once you get to the end your kinda like, hmmm well that didn't make as much sense as it should have. At the conclusion I mused that the "reason" for the entire plot wasn't as grand as it should have been. But it was enjoyable fluff while it lasted, you never pick one of these up not knowing what your getting: filler.
2/22/07 - 2/25/07
I have read a couple of Connelly books prior to this, Lincoln Lawyer and Closers. I originally bought this for my wife for Christmas and she hadn't got around it so I picked it up to read. Like Closers, this was a Harry Bosch novel, and perhaps others in the series are similar, but based on what I had read prior I was a bit taken a back by how dark this story was. It felt much more like a serial killer extravaganza like Hannibal lector than your typical hard boiled detective novel. Obviously the fact that its about a serial killer denotes much of the difference. It was very well written, with a lot of suspense and mystery to boot.
2/26/07 - 3/18/07
I recently made a trip to China. Knowing in advance I decided to read up on recent events in China. Ian Johnson has done a great job of taking three tales about Peasants and Taxes, Destruction of Hutongs (alleys) in Beijing and Falun Gong and showing the strain of economic development in China and the tension of the rule of law with a government who maintains total control over all aspects society, while promoting capitalism. You can read more about my trip to the Hutongs in my blog and see photos here.
3/18/07 - 3/24/07
Larry Niven is one of my favorite Sci Fi writers. His The Mote in Gods Eye, is still one of my all time fav's. The expanse of this story was grand (humans fleeing a technology and AI overun Earth for a far away star only to become crippled in space before reaching their destination where they engineer a new moon to recover fuel), there is a lot of depth and detail in a great tale. I loved it up until the last 75 pages (its 500 pages long), when things seemed to kind of become a bit contrived or pushed as if they couldn't figure out a good way to bring things to a head and resolve issues. Still a great good read, recommended to Sci Fi fans.
3/25/07 - 3/29/07
This was interesting to read about the history of the Mountaineers. I especially enjoyed the stories of the early outings, to Mt. Olympus and how it took a day to get from Seattle to Mt. Si, something we now take for granted in about 35 minutes. However I felt that the book had a lot of repetitive text in it, there were at least 4 or 5 different treatments of skiing, when only one was needed. Additionally I felt that the book had a "written by committee" feel to it. However the pictures were fantastic, for them alone the book is worth it.
3/30/07 - 4/20/07
Chinese
Lessons :
Five Classmates and the
Story of the New China
by John
Pomfret
Much like Wild Grass this was another modern China book. Pomfret's narrative is not as tight as Ian's, due to its much broader scope and longer time perspective. However it provides deeper insight into the Chinese psyche, at least of the highly educated. Pomfret's story also reaches back into the Cultural Revolution and shows the devastation as echoes through the lives of students he studied with at Nanjing University in the early 80s. I also enjoyed his brief recap of the Tiananmen incidents, he was right there and it had been some time since I had recounted those events. I was particularly struck by the spiritual void that seems to occupy so much of the China pomfret describes and yet how much the traditional beliefs hang on in the country side. I did find it a little hard to follow some of the story lines as there were so many people and he (as books tend to) switch between tales. A timeline piece with major events would have helped keep it straight. Upon finishing I felt I had much deeper sense of the struggle of being Chinese in modern China than I did reading Wild Grass, though not as much a sense of the party's direction as in Wild Grass.
4/21/07 - 5/5/07
Haunting. Psychologicaly introspective. Evocative. The last chapter was moving in his search within for the value of climbing.
5/5/07 - 5/7/07
When an author's name is bigger than the title, you know what they are pushing. :) Despite this another fine popcorn read in one day suspense thriller from Coben. Not his best, but still well written. He manages to write without cliche, though he has a definite "theme" or fell to his books, not sure if I can adequately identify what it is, but its usually a series of past events that come crashing into the present of a character. There is usually deep tragic loss, and love and romance. This one ends with less "happy ending", more ambiguousness, which I liked. I am sure I wont remember the plot of this one a month from now, but its an entertaining read.
5/7/07 - 5/28/07
So McDevitt writes a so so lackluster sci fi mystery about an ancient ship that is dug up in a field in South Dakota and leads to the discovery of a port on an ancient lake shore that is a portal to other worlds. He accuratley shows the chaos and destabilization that such an event could bring to a stable carbon based economy, but fails in the end to provide any real interest and not a lot of depth to the main story. He introduces a lot of individual story lines that demonstrate his point of the effect on the external world and yet they just dont point to the whole.
5/29/07 - 6/06/07
This was a striking tale of survival. The story of a sailor who solo sailing from England to the Caribbean when his ship's hull was cracked. He was able to salvage his emergency bag and his life raft. He was adrift for 76 days in the Atlantic. He had 3 solar stills for distilling water. And most importantly a spear gun for fishing. He was able to kill Dorado's (sold commercially as Mahi Mahi) and keep himself alive. What struck me was how he was stripped to the barest essence of need, and how much of what we have in this life is want, want want. It was a great perspective on the priorities and things we put value on and how often we take for granted so very many things. A great read that I highly reccomend.
6/06/07 - 6/16/07
Crusader's
Cross:
A Dave Robicheaux Novel
by James
Lee Burke
The sad thing, and thats the essence of these kind of books, is that I can't even remember what this book is about. Did I waste my time? I don't think so, I read it because it was a distracting engaging read, like frootloops, they don't stay with you but you enjoyed them while they lasted. That's why I alternate between a good book of non-fiction and a fiction book. Now occasionally the fiction books are more substantitive and stay with me. This was not one of them.
6/17/07 - 9/9/07
Providence
of a Sparrow:
Lessons from a Life Gone to the Birds
by Chris
Chester
Whew! This book took me a long time to finish. I took this book to the Olympics and to Ross Lake twice, once with the Young Men and once with my family. The book took such time, not because its boring, but because its such a dense read. ALmost every other sentence is a literary gem of wit full of grace and allusive reference to a thousand novels read till they flow from Chris's pen as naturally as rain from a cloud. That the subject matter is about a bird, is somewhat irrelevant and at the same time makes the book that much more interesting. Its clear after reading the book, that as Chris admits, he was crazy. Sadly he passed away, not too long ago. In fact it was in reading the story of his passing that I came to purchase this book. And yet as that eloquent byline stated : "Who are we to judge the form of anyone else's happiness, however odd, however fleeting." My happiness for example comes from being in the outdoors, I love walking trails that I have never trod and feel sometimes on a Saturday when I haven't gone to the mountains that I am wasting an opportunity to walk a path less taken. Who am I to judge that my activity of choice is any less odd than sitting with a bird each evening. I throughly enjoyed this book, even though it took me a long time to finish, I was educated and touched deeply.
6/21/07 - 6/22/07
By now (3 months later) I assume most people that are not interested in spoilers have already read the book.
10/07
Lone Survivor:
The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL
Team 10
by Marcus
Luttrell
11/07 - 12/25/07
12/25/07 - 12/30/2008
12/30/2007-01/03/2008