The 2014 Nightly Reading Revelry

[Cashmere]

Welcome to the Reading Revelry - the best place to keep track of the books you read in 2014. Set a goal, start a list, and get reading!

 

To get things started, here is my 2014 list:

Completed:

1. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1/1)

2. Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore -A- (1/13)

3. Have a Little Faith: A True Story by Mitch Albom -A- , -C- (1/14)

4. Unpublished book by Unnamed Author (1/26)

5. The Catcher in the Rye -C- (2/5)

6. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness -A-, -C- (2/6)

7. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt -C- (2/9)

8. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer -A- (2/14)

9. True Colors by Kristin Hannah -C- (2/15)

10. The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood -A- (2/18)

11. Loyalty in Death by J.D. Robb -C- (2/22)

12. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See -A- (2/28)

13. Private by James Patterson -A- (3/6)

14. The Kite Runner: Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini -C- (3/6)

15. Witness in Death by J.D. Robb -C- (3/6)

16. City of Thieves by David Benioff -A- (3/21)

17. Judgement in Death by J.D. Robb -C- (3/23)

18. Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper -A-, -C- (3/28)

19. Crazy Little Thing by Tracy Brogan -K- (3/30)

20. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham -A- (4/3)

21. The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom -A- (4/8)

22. Look Again by Lisa Scottoline -A- (4/16)

23. The Candidate's Daughter by Catherine Lea -K- (4/16)

24. The Misremembered Man by Christina McKenna -K- (5/11)

25. At Night we Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcon -A-, -C- (5/13)

26. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky -C- (5/19)

27. The Woods by Harlan Coben -A- (5/20)

28. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs -A- (5/27)

29. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon -K-, -C- (6/6)

30. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling -A- (6/9)

31. The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta -A- (6/20)

32. Betrayal in Death (In Death #12) by J.D. Robb -C- (6/20)

33. Skin Game by Jim Butcher (7/5)

34. Hidden by Catherine McKenzie -K- (7/6)

35. The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina -A- (7/8)

36. The Prodigal Son by Colleen McCollough -A- (8/4)

37. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (8/18)

38. The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann -A- (9/4)

39. Still Missing by Chevy Stevens -A- (9/15)

40. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (9/22)

41. The Interestings -A- by Meg Wolitzer (10/6)

42. Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed -K- (10/21)

43. The Betrayers by David Bezmogis -A- (10/27)

44. Drown by Junot Diaz -A- (11/10)

45. Written in my own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon -K-, -C- (11/11)

46. The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle -K-, -C- (11/28)

47. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordin -A- (12/6)

48. Power Play by Catherine Coulter -A-, -C- (12/20)

49. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein -A- (12/30)

In Progress:

Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac -K-, -C-

Next Up:

 

 

-A- = Audio book
-R- = Reread
-K- = On my Kindle
-C- = Read for the Nightly Reading Challenge

[Poisin]

Cashmere, you'll have to tell me how Sacre Bleu is. I bought it when I went and saw Christopher Moore read at my local book store, but then set it down and never read it. Is it good?

[NumberSix]

1. Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Kurt Huggins, et al., The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice. In the world of the long-running series The Unwritten, Tom Taylor grew up the bitter child of a best-selling YA author who gave the same name to his ridiculously famous boy-wizard protagonist. When Tom finds out that he and the fictional hero-kid may not be separate creations, stories become people and vice versa in a complex epic with echoes of Fables but with a broader literary scope and an existentialist viewpoint all its own. This new hardcover original story is likely incomprehensible to new readers but indispensable to fans, who'll get to see the true story of Tom's secretive birthing and a comic-book adaptation of the first "Tommy Taylor" novel, and the ties that bind them both. The series' final, climactic arc is due to begin and conclude this year. Highly recommended only if you start at the beginning.

 

2. Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Shawn McManus, et al. Fables, vol. 19: Snow White. In which Bigby Wolf and Stinky Badger search the multiple realms for his two missing children, while his wife Snow White must face a long-forgotten face from her young-adulthood: her first betrothed. Meanwhile, we finally see the complete story of how Bufkin the Winged Monkey led the revolution that overthrew the tyrant King Roquat of Oz once and for all. I swear this all makes sense and thrills mightily in context.

[Cashmere]

I'll be sure to post a review of Sacre Bleu when I'm done. I'm not yet halfway into in and I'm having trouble getting into it. It might just be because I haven't been running in nearly a month, so I'm too busy huffing and puffing and feeling pain to concentrate on it. (I listen to audiobooks while I run.) It's always surprising how different Christopher Moore's books are from one another. I recently read Practical Demonkeeping and it was way different than Sacre Bleu. And Lamb, my all time favorite of his (and one of my favorites in general) is completely different than both of those.

[NumberSix]

3. Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, The Sixth Gun, v. 1: Cold Dead Hands

4. Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, The Sixth Gun, v. 2: Crossroads

 

Ongoing horror/Western series about six mystical guns prophesied to be the tools of Armageddon in America's 19th-century old West, and a lady and her gunslinger companion stuck keeping them away from undead Civil War generals 'n' demons 'n' such. As genre-crossing experiments go, this one's lively 'n' well-paced -- gunfights and cliffhangers scheduled in all the right places, and with its secrets 'n' revelations properly doled out in even shares.

[Cashmere]

Looks like I'm ending January with a total of three.

1. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This was extremely interesting and fairly disturbing. It's written by a muslim woman who grew up in a traditional home, but chose a different lifestyle when she got the chance. I originally planned to read it for the 2013 challenge, but I didn't finish it in time, so I just read it for fun.

2. Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore -A-

I was a bit disappointed with this one. Mainly because I absolutely love some of Moore's other stuff. (Lamb, for instance, is one of my favorite books of all time.) It's not that the story was particularly bad, it's just that the pacing seemed a bit off. I spent half of the book not really knowing what was going on and wondering why we were following all of these artists' stories. It ended up getting better, but it wasn't laugh out loud funny like some of his other stuff.

3. Have a Little Faith: A True Story by Mitch Albom

I listened to this audiobook for the reading challenge. It filled the category for a nonfiction book. I expected it to be a bit dry, but I found it entertaining and enjoyed it a lot.

[Cashmere]

I also decided to add a book here that I'm not putting on my Goodreads list. I proofread and edited a book that a friend of a friend is hoping to have published. If it does get published, I will come back and change it to proudly announce that I was one of the first to read it, but for now, I'll just list it as "Unpublished book." Now that I'm done with that, I can get on to the business of reading again. It takes so many hours to edit a whole book, even if it is a book for teens that's in the 350 page range.

[NumberSix]

5. Nathan Edmondson and Tonci Zonjic, Who is Jake Ellis? The action-packed adventures of an everyday spy on the run and the mysterious voice in his head that keeps him alive. I'm pretty sure I guessed the nature of the voice by page ten, but it's still an interesting treatment.

 

6. Joe Harris an Steve Rolston, Ghost Projekt. Russian espionage horror involving a botched Cold War experiment, an evil hypnotist, and a murderous Mongol ghost horde. Not bad except for numerous head-scratching bits where translated-Russian dialogue is for some reason rendered as broken immigrant English.

 

7. Alex De Campi, Igor Kordey, et al., Smoke/Ashes. Actually two books in a single collection, about a British albino government assassin caught in a near-future web of evil and the Pakistani journalist he has to keep bailing out of trouble. Smoke was the better, more consistent read of the two, though clearly set up as Part 1 in a series. When the original artist for Part 2 dropped out of the project, his place was taken by several different collaborators dividing the work between them, resulting in a fair amount of disjointedness, especially when Our Hero began appearing off-model and looked too much like the other characters. Kinda lost me.

[R.CAllen]

1. Norwood by Charles Portis. A headstrong hick nurses a dream of becoming a country singer while he travels far to collect a debt. Good.

 

2. True Grit by Charles Portis. The true account (told in her own words) of how Mattie Ross avenged her father's blood over in the Choctaw Nation when snow was on the ground. Better than the movie(s).

 

3. Splitting the Difference : Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India by Wendy Doniger. A re-read. Needless to say : good.

 

4. The Shark Infested Custard by Charles Willeford. Four amoral friends, without any interest in anything other than their own wants and needs, commit and then cover-up various acts of social trespass. Crime pays, I guess. Good.

 

5. I Am Not Jackson Pollock by John Haskell. Nine stories, well told, piggybacked on persons familiar to the reader.

 

I started but was unable to finish or continue with the following : Gringos and The Dog of the South by Charles Portis, Nothing But The Night by John Williams, Harvest of Despair : Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule by Karel C. Berkhoff, The Bedtrick by Wendy Doniger, Selected Letters of Dawn Powell 1913-1965 edited by Tim Page, The Diaries of Dawn Powell 1931-1965 edited by Tim Page, and Sunday, Monday, and Always by Dawn Powell.

[NumberSix]

8. Guy DeLisle, A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting. Fun comic strips by a Quebec cartoonist, about a dad who's awful in a wacky-not-monstrous way.

9. Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, Moving Pictures. I bought this last year without knowing that Monuments Men would exist as a work about the same general idea, so the synchronicity is surprising. It's about the growing (and then fading) relationship between a Canadian curator working in a French museum during WWII and the German henchman who's assigned to interrogate her about the works she guards and sometimes hides away. There's no humor or George Clooney involved, and it's viewed through a tighter, ground-level lens from within instead from the viewpoint of France's sarcastic American saviors.

10. Paul Jenkins, Ramon Bachs, Shawn Martinbrough, et al., World War Hulk: Front Line. Once upon a time there was a Marvel crossover where the smartest heroes shot Hulk into space so they wouldn't have to worry about him anymore, but then he established a happy new life for himself in outer space that they retroactively destroyed without realizing, so he and a small army returned to Earth, smashed Manhattan to pieces, and nearly stomped your favorite Marvel heroes to death. This book was a side story about events as witnessed through the mundane eyes of journalists Ben Urich and Sally Floyd, who for several years made a habit of playing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern inside each of Marvel's major crossover events. Unfortunately, removed out of context from the event so many years later, it depends heavily on references to particular moments in the crossover that I no longer remember. Also, one major crossover too many has turned Sally into a pitiable alcoholic who drinks her way through the last half of the book. Poor, dull Sally.

11. Charles Schulz, The Complete Peanuts 1989-1990. The latest, twentieth volume in the 25-volume series has two great things going for it: (1) a series of strips in which Charlie Brown, for the first time in his life, has a girlfriend, and it's not that standoffish little red-haired girl, who's obviously a dimwitted monster in need of some shaming; and (2) the introduction by Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, which is the funniest introduction any volume has had to date. Sample observation:

Even the neighborhood dog, who by all rights should remain clueless of the goings-on, is ravaged by the local madness. When not talking to a bird who utters nothing but apostrophes, he fantasizes that he is fighting in one of the world's most horrifying conflicts, one that claimed millions and millions in bloody casualties and provoked a sequel that still stands as a benchmark for the greatest catastrophe known to man. The dog prefers such a daydream to watching these children treat each other with indifferent barbarity.

[Cashmere]

Time to play catch up!

 

5. The Catcher in the Rye

This was a book that I read for the reading challenge as my book I was embarrassed to not have read yet. It was okay. Not exactly sure why it's such a classic.

 

6. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

I listened to this for the challenge as my book I have heard bad things about. My husband hated it. I found it interesting and even engaging for the most part. It just ended without a lot of closure though. Not sure if I'll keep going with the series.

 

7. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

The story of a little boy who grew up in hard circumstances primarily in Ireland. It's sickening to think that so many little kids grow up with empty bellies because they have alcoholic fathers.

 

8. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

An audiobook recommended by a friend from church. Probably my favorite autism book that's not billed as an autism book.

 

9. True Colors by Kristin Hannah
I read this for the reading challenge as my book recommended by a librarian. I liked how it started with the familiar chick book format of three sisters on a ranch with three love interests, but quickly moved along to show more "real" relationships. It's still not a perfect portrait of real life, but it was a refreshing change from all the other chick books I have read.

[R.CAllen]

6. Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald and (mostly) Bob Hall and Paul Ryan. When civilization tottered on the brink of collapse, they stood united against the forces of darkness… men and women of vast power who solemnly vowed to do what no group of beings had ever done before --- to create a paradise on Earth! A long time favourite, re-read twice over with great pleasure.

 

7. Joe the Barbarian by Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy. Also a re-read. A moment that always sticks with me (among many others) is the stammering rat prince standing up to his vicious father in the depths of the deathly basement realm. Strange, beautiful, haunting.

 

8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A return to the classic prompted by the disappointment felt after watching a recent failed attempted franchise-izing of the legend for today’s audiences. This strange book. These strange broken murderers spilling the stories of their lives She wrote this at nineteen! And pregnant!

 

9. Collected Poems, 1948-1998 by D.J. Enright. Excellent. I particularly enjoyed his Milton work from 1978 and the childhood stuff from 1973.

 

10. Complete Poems by Andrew Young. Proper rhyming poetry. Nature! God! Isn’t stuff outdoors pretty!

 

11. Balloon Pop Outlaw Black by Patricia Lockwood. Three sequences. I liked the last one best.

 

12. The Isles by Norman Davies. A history. Two chapters for each period; one about it and one about how historians later came to see it. Comprehensive work. Full of enjoyable trivia and enlightening parries of the established popcultural views of notable peoples and times. Should have taken notes.

 

I started but was unable to finish or continue with the following : My Work Is Not Yet Done by Thomas Ligotti, Star of the Unborn by Franz Werfel, The Ghosts of Medak Pocket by Carol Off, Psychotic Reactions And Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs, I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks, The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller with Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley.

[NumberSix]

6. Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald and (mostly) Bob Hall and Paul Ryan. When civilization tottered on the brink of collapse, they stood united against the forces of darkness… men and women of vast power who solemnly vowed to do what no group of beings had ever done before --- to create a paradise on Earth! A long time favourite, re-read twice over with great pleasure.

I smile every time I see a copy of this in a convention dealers' room. Warm, happy memories.

 

I started but was unable to finish or continue with the following [...] Psychotic Reactions And Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs,

I tried reading that in college, but didn't get far into it either. I appreciated his unique writing style up to a certain point, but most of the bands he wrote about meant nothing to me, so it was hard to share his enthusiasm.

[R.CAllen]

Oh! That wasn't my reaction. Five of the books I've mentioned as being unable to finish or continue with are ones I've read before; indeed, they're books I've enjoyed enough to prompt me into re-reading them. More and more I've found that even work I am enjoying or have enjoyed in the past has begun to feel unsatisfying and difficult to endure for more than a few minutes at a time - but I do hope to return to all the books mentioned so far and am writing their titles down in this thread for just that purpose. The fact that I felt I couldn't keep reading them says more about me than the books involved, indeed, I suspect that feeling comes about regardless of the choice of book in front of me.

 

Oh, and I forgot...

 

13. The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Hah hah this is awful stuff, really. Why not just print out twelve issues worth of nearly-blank pages containing only the words JEPH & TIM THE GODFATHER MOVIES and be done with it instead of going through the trouble of pretending to tell a story? Why does Catwoman lead Batman and Harvey Dent to a warehouse full of money instead of taking it for herself? How does Holiday (whoever he/she is at any of the particular killings) possess the skill to do away with armed criminals without ever being seen? How does the Calendar Man, sitting alone in Arkham Asylum, have any possible knowledge or insight into events happening in the city? Why does Alberto Falcone, a Harvard educated Rhodes Scholar, choose to deal with his daddy issues at a mature age by coldly slaughtering members of his own family? How can the World's Greatest Detective not anticipate the actions of a serial killer whose shortlist of likely potential victims is basically limited to prominent members of Gotham's underworld? If the police department is so corrupt why aren't the gangsters being protected 24/7? More holes than plot.

[Cashmere]

10. The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood

I listened to this one on the recommendation of a friend. The story was slightly convoluted, as it was told from different perspectives in different time periods. The whole book was about death, but the one part about infant loss made me actually cry. Despite being depressing, I thought the book was really good.

 

11. Loyalty in Death by J.D. Robb

The first of my 3 books in a series for the reading challenge. I am getting back into these after promising Copper I would for at least a few years. I think all of the books in the series thus far have been pretty solid, and I liked this one quite a bit.

 

12. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Another audiobook. So many parts of this book horrified me. It was a sad, gruesome story. That didn't stop me from appreciating the book though. In essence, it's a story about family, and specifically the experience of having a sister. I don't have a sister, but I still found it enlightening when it comes to family dynamics and communication within families.

 

13. Private by James Patterson

A random audiobook selection based on my love of crime fiction. Nothing special, but still fast paced enough to keep my interest.

 

14. The Kite Runner: Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini

I read this one for the reading challenge. I remember enjoying it in book form, so I thought I'd give the graphic novel a try. Graphic novels aren't really my thing, so I admit I probably didn't spend as much time looking at the drawings as I was supposed to. Also, I realized I forgot a good portion of the plot when reading through this. It was well-done, but again, not my thing.

15. Witness in Death by J.D. Robb

One of my favorites in this series! I am excited to see what happens in the next installment.

[Darth Krawlie]

1. Crossing Midnight Vol 1: Cut Here, by Mike Carey

2. Crossing Midnight Vol 2: A Map of Midnight, by Mike Carey

3. Crossing Midnight Vol 3: The Sword in the Soul, by Mike Carey

4. Justice League Dark Vol 1: In the Dark, by Peter Mulligan

5. 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne

6. Thor: The God Butcher, by Jason Aaron

7. Thor: Godbomb, by Jason Aaron

8. At the Mountains of Madness, by HP Lovecraft

9. The Call of Cthulu, by HP Lovecraft

 

Next up is probably the Once and Future King by TH White. Taking a reading break and starting to write again.

[Cashmere]

Thanks for playing along, Krawlie! If you write anything you're willing to share, I'd love to check it out.

[Darth Krawlie]

Well, it's all wrestling related. I wasn't able to get anyone in the Arena interested, so I really doubt anyone here would be. There's a small community for the kind of stuff I write, but I'm really just doing it for me.

[Cashmere]

Ahh, yes, the interest you pursue in the one forum I'm pretty sure I've never visited. I'd still be willing to give something a read even though it's not really my thing. I'm up for trying something new every now and again. Happy writing!

[pavonis]

Let's see...so far in 2014, I've completed

 

Existence by David Brin

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Clouds of Saturn by Michael McCollum

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis

Burning Dreams by Margaret Bonnano

The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian by Robin Lane Fox (nearly finished)

 

Starting The Physics of Wall Street by James Weatherall next.

[monkeygirl]

wait-you've read FIFTEEN books already this year?

[Cashmere]

Quite a few are audio books that I listen to during my commute or when I run, but I read plenty from the library or on kindle too. I try to read 50 every year!

[Guest]

1 The Hobbit

2 Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial by James Luceno

3 Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse by James Luceno

4 Balance Point by Kathy Tyers

5 Recovery by Troy Denning

6 Edge of Victory I: Conquest by Greg Keyes

7 Edge of Victory II: Rebirth by Greg Keyes

8 Star by Star by Troy Denning

9 Dark Journey by Elaine Cunningham

10 Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream by Aaron Allston

11 Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand by Aaron Allston

12 Traitor by Matthew Stover

13 Destiny's Way by Walter Jon Williams

14 Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams

15 Force Heretic I: Remnant by Sean Williams & Shane Dix

16 Force Heretic II: Refugee by Sean Williams & Shane Dix

17 Force Heretic III: Reunion by Sean Williams & Shane Dix

18 The Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes

19 The Unifying Force by James Luceno

20 The Joiner King by Troy Denning

21 The Unseen Queen by Troy Denning

22 The Swarm War by Troy Denning

23 Betrayal by Aaron Allston

24 Bloodlinesby Karen Traviss

25 Tempest by Troy Denning

26 Exile by Aaron Allston

27 Sacrifice by Karen Traviss

28 Inferno by Troy Denning

29 Fury by Aaron Allston

30 Revelation by Karen Traviss

31 Invincible by Troy Denning

32 The Fellowship of the Ring

33 The Two Towers

34 Veronica Mars: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas

35 Divergent: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

36 Beowulf

37 Reasons to Believe by Scott Hahn

38 The Great Divorce by CS Lewis

39 Odd Interlude by Dean Koontz

40 Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz

41 Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis

 

There are at least a few more, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

[Cashmere]

Wowzer, that's quite a list. I am familiar with maybe 4 of them.

 

16. City of Thieves by David Benioff

Not sure how this got on my "to read" list, but I needed something to listen to and the library had it. It's about 2 teenage kids who walk around a war-torn city talking about sex. Not terrible, but not really my thing.

 

17. Judgement in Death by J.D. Robb

Solid enough, but I didn't like it quite as much as the last one in this series. I'm sure I'll pick up the next one at some point.

 

18. Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

I know I read this when I was a kid, but I had no recollection of anything that happened. It was a great re-read and well done on audiobook.

 

19. Crazy Little Thing by Tracy Brogan

A random book I got for free on Amazon Prime. Typical love story but fairly well written. A few colorful characters added interest. I enjoyed it well enough.

[Guest]

Most of my list is horrible Star Wars stufft hat I've read primarily for the sake of my friend Anthony.

 

It's a matter of forcing my way through it.