Personal Education
Recent Reading - 2020
Click the occasional spoiler buttons only if you wish to see plot-revealing material.
2020-11-18
Lent
320 pages
Walton, JoJo Walton
Giralomo Savonarola, first brother of the Dominicans in Florence, Italy has to deal with Lorenzo Medici's control of the city as he attempts to make Florence the city of God. Giralomo can see and banish demons, but his powers (and self awareness) suddenly change when he comes across a flat, green stone hidden in a book.
Recommended
2020-10-25
Devil Said Bang
398 pages
Kadrey, RichardRichard Kadrey
Sandman Slim, snookered into taking over as Satan in hell, does everything he can to get out, back to Earth. Things don't go well for those who oppose him, but he cannot claim comfortable success, either.
Recommended
2020-09-27
Next to Last Stand
320 pages
Johnson, CraigCraig Johnson
Old age beckons as Longmire tries to come to grips with his overlong recuperation. It does not help that somebody dies at the regional veterans home. He was old, but Longmire can't let the feeling rest that something more is going on. The infamous George Armstrong Custer and his final battle play a big role in this story.
Recommended
2020-09-20
Dead on my Feet
231 pages
Konrath, J.A.J.A. Konrath
Phin Troutt solves other people's problems, but cannot solve his own. He drinks, does drugs and has abandoned chemotherapy for cancer. Still he takes a job to protect an abortion clinic doctor from death threat. (A re-read from several years back, enjoyed again)
Recommended
2020-09-15
Cygnus 5: The Complete Trilogy
650 pages
Oliver, AlexAlex R. Oliver
Disgraced and demoted, relegated to transporting prisoners, to a prison planet, Cygnus 5, Captain Aurora Campos must deal with the rejection by her superior officer, the one who impregnated her and then denounced her as a slut. She wants redemption.
This is an omnibus edition of three novels Lioness, Destroyer and Phoenix. The ebook price works nicely, too!
Recommended
2020-09-02
The Thirst
535 pages
Nesbø, JoJo Nesbø
The one who got away. That is the only thing which can coax retired police detective Harry Hole back into service for the Oslo, Norway police.
Recommended
2020-08-18
Mississippi Blood
694 pages
Iles, GregGreg Iles
When your father is in prison awaiting trial for murder, and a Klan-linked motorcycle gang is out to kill the rest of your family, being mayor of Natchez, Mississippi isn't going to do too much good, especially when the local sheriff is closer to the bikers than to the court system.
Highly Recommended
2020-07-31
A Song for a New Day
360 pages
Pinsker, SarahSarah Pinsker
Bomb threats and a few actual bombings of crowded places were not enough by themselves, but add in a horrible viral plague, and the country just shut down except for those online giants like Superwally who were able to deliver goods directly to you in the "safety" of your home. Life stumbled along because VR "hoodies" a ghost of live interaction while real gatherings got banned and criminalized. Luce, an almost-famous musician wants to fight back.
Highest Recommendation
2020-07-28
The Girl Who Lived Twice
347 pages
Lagercrantz, DavidDavid Lagercrantz
A street person dies drunk in Stockholm with Michael Blomquist's phone number on a scrap of paper in his pocket. Lisbeth Salander is poised to end her sibling battle with Camilla. Neither Michael nor Lisbeth can predict what trouble is to come.
Recommended
2020-07-22
Masked Prey
408
Sandford, JohnJohn Sandford
A call from your state senator would be a surprise for most people, but not for Lucas Davenport. His job as a U.S. Marshall is not quite free from politics. The senator calls; Lucas answers. Politics swirls through this hunt through alt-right websites and the gun toting militias who read them. Lucas remains as politically neutral as possible.
Highly Recommended
2020-07-15
Breaking Point
367
Box, C.J.C.J. Box
Bureaucracy and politics mix badly when federal EPA agents attempt to serve compliance papers to a local family in Twelve Sleeps County. Joe cannot come to grips with both his job and his sense of justice. A game warden is a law enforcement job, but Fish and Game doesn't always play nice with FBI, BLM, and EPA. Friction is a good thing when the forests of Wyoming are full of dead, dry trees killed by preventable beetle infestation. Troubles ignite. Death and taxes are hard to escape.
Recommended
2020-07-10
Falconer
226 pages
Cheever, JohnJohn Cheever
Off to jail, a drug addled murder, or was it really just an accident his brother's head hit the corner of the hearth after the the hit from the fire poker?
So we begin a rambling journey through the time that Ezekiel Farragut will pass in Falconer prison. By the end of the book, we know Farragut isn't a very nice person. His wife does not visit him. His family was disfunctional before the book began. He has no real friends in prison. He's sexually conflicted. It seems to have been written about the first half of the 20th century even while zip codes are mentioned (inaugurated in 1963) and was published in the 1970s, not as historical fiction. According to the cover, it was a #1 best seller and "great American novel". Maybe the hard cover was a different book and I read a cheap knock off?
Not Recommended
2020-06-25
Bloody Genius
372 pages
Sandford, JohnJohn Sandford
Virgil Flowers gets pulled into a Twin-Cities murder case by the governor. He'd rather stay close to home in Mankato, but being an investigator for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is his job, after all, and writing the occasional magazine article about fishing or nature does not pay the bills for a man whose wife, Frankie, is expecting twins.
Highly Recommended
2020-06-21
Blue Moon
356 pages
Child, LeeLee Child
When you have no particular destination, it does not matter if you get off the bus early. Jack Reacher decides it is a good idea when he sees an old man about to be robbed. There's a city full of crime figures who wish he had not.
Recommended
2020-06-17
Network Effect
285 pages
Wells, MarthaMartha Wells
SecUnits are not supposed to care or feel or doubt. Without a Governor Module, SecUnit does those things, but is NOT comfortable about it. His "clients" like him too much and it is confusing. Mix in a Corporate Rim colony with little bit of interdicted ancient alien technology attacking him and his clients.
Recommended
2020-06-09
Middlegame
467 pages
McGuire, SeananSeanan McGuire
Lonely, but feeling it was not always so, Roger worries he's crazy because he has an imaginary friend with whom he can "talk" when he closes his eyes. It cannot be normal, can it?
Alchemists and the quest for an Impossible City fill this fine fantasy novel.
Highly Recommended
2020-05-07
Come Tumbling Down
135 pages
McGuire, SeananSeanan McGuire
When there are doors to alternate realities (with VERY different rules) in your school, just how safe is it to troop off through the doors you should not carelessly open? Perhaps you should in order to save your sister.
Highly Recommended
2020-05-27
The Last Emperox
236 pages
Scalzi, JohnJohn Scalzi
Too young to take on the job, too abrasive to be accepted by the nobility, and asked to preside over the destruction of the Interdependency. What could go wrong?
Highly Recommended
2020-05-27
Sparrow
395 pages
Russell, Marie DoriaMarie Doria Russell
First contact with an alien culture requires language skills and also much more than you should be asked to give.
Highly Recommended
2020-05-27
iD (The Second Machine Dynasty)
235 pages
Ashby, MadelineMadeline Ashby
Just what does it take to have personality when you are an artificial human, an android?
Highly Recommended
2020-05-27
Roboapocolypse
321 pages
Wilson, DanielDaniel Wilson
If you're an enhanced human, fighting against "pure" robots is challenging. Where does your humanity end. Where does it start?
Highly Recommended
2020-05-27
Imaginary Numbers
374 pages
McGuire, SeananSeanan McGuire
If you are a "cuckoo" with immense telepathic powers, it is very difficult to fly in an airplane.
Highly Recommended
2020-05-27
Long Range
274 pages
Box, C.J.C.J. Box
When the wife of the acerbic county judge is shot, it's all hands on deck to track down the killer.
Highly Recommended
2020-05-27
Books and Bone
312 pages
Corva. VictoriaVictoria Corva
What would you be like if you were brought up in a town of necromancers in a burial crypt?
Highly Recommended
No, I did not stop reading in February. I just got busy and let the addition of new book notes slide. I do not remember when I finished the books later than February and right on through May. I've assigned them all the same date. I may add more details about them, too.
2020-02-21
Children of a Dead Earth III: Children of the Divide
350 pages
Tomlinson, Patrick S.Patrick S. Tomlinson
Benson and his wife Theresa are attempting to be good adopitive parents to Benexx. He's a typical adolescent, except for also being a native Atlantian. Twenty years into the colonization of the continent, humans have been surrounded by a self-slected "refugee" population, headed by The Bearer with No Name. Bearers generally are third class Atlantians, dominated by the breeding pairs who use the bearers as carriers of broods of offspring. Three genders is just one of many issues to handle as the colony struggles to provide resources for themselves and the indigenous population. They also must develop an early warning system on one of the planet's moons in case the unknown hurlers of the black hole realize humanity has escaped destruction.
Highly Recommended
2020-02-10
Children of a Dead Earth II: Trident's Forge
419 pages
Tomlinson, Patrick S.Patrick S. Tomlinson
Humanity has survived the interstellar passage and the Ark now serves as a power station and manufacturing base on the planet they have named Atlantis. Far off on the other major continent, the native race is effectively unaware of the humans' arrival...until a boatload of them/us show up on their shore!
Highly Recommended
2020-02-01
Children of a Dead Earth I: The Ark
328 pages
Tomlinson, Patrick S.Patrick S. Tomlinson
A black hole is on its way to the solar system. Earth cannot survive it's arrival. Only a united planet can provide the solution, a generation ship sent off to a distant star. The book begins generations later, just as the Ark is about to make its final approach. Chief Constable Benson just has to solve the mystery of a missing member of the flight crew. In the meantime, an unexpected sentient race is revealed on their target planet.
Highly Recommended
2020-01-12
Tripwire
384 pages
Child, LeeLee Child
I enjoyed this re-read from 2014. My darling wife also read it and wanted to discuss fine points as I went along. It is a book which does not disappoint.
Highly Recommended
2020-01-05
Testaments
402 pages
Atwood, MargaretMargaret Atwood
Following after The Handmaid's Tale, this novel reveals what happened after that story ends. It does so in documents revealed by later researchers who are studying the history of Gilead. I felt vaguely disengaged and I think the writing strategy as historical documents played a part. Of course, it has been many years since I enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale which I remember enjoying very much.
Mildly Recommended.
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The count is for my personal convenience. It's not a competition.
How it was done.
This year's authors in alphabetical order with duplicates removed.
It may not be very useful to anyone, but was good for ongoing JavaScript practice.
How it was done (in part)