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2015 in Books
This year I took ebooks and comics with me when visiting the in-laws and took advantage of having books on my phone to read in idle moments when listening to podcasts wouldn’t make sense – say I needed to be able to hear my name being called. So I was able to read 86 books…
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Review: Level Zero
Level Zero by Jaron Lee Knuth My rating: 3 of 5 stars I understand what Mr Knuth was trying to accomplish with this narrative. While the plot twist was neither original nor unpredictable, it really wasn’t the point of this story. In fact, while reading I was thinking this book would warrant a 1 or…
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Review: Zoe’s Tale
Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi My rating: 5 of 5 stars First of all, I strongly recommend reading this right after The Last Colony. It’s been as long time since I read it and so it took some effort for me to remember the original story beats this was supposed to be referencing. Second, Scalzi…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have not been a part of the Harry Potter fandom, so I don’t know if anything I’m going to mention here has been answered in interviews or wikis, etc. I doubt Ms Rowling had the entire seven book series…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling My rating: 4 of 5 stars Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a character study; a respite from the almost non-stop action of the last five books and the action that must follow in the next one. Therefore, barely anything happens in this book. It…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling My rating: 4 of 5 stars Harry’s always been wary of his celebrity status, but this book is the first time he’d really rather not be Harry Potter anymore. We learn more than ever about the wizarding world and finally see the Ministry of…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling My rating: 4 of 5 stars Everything Ms Rowling’s been setting up since at least book two came to a head in this book. Death Eaters, Dementors, the return of Lord Voldemort, why Snape is trusted by Dumbledore, and more. She had me on the…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling My rating: 5 of 5 stars First a quick note for when this appears outside of Goodreads (on my blog, for example): This review will have SPOILERS and outside of Goodreads I don’t think the spoiler tag is going to work to shield you from…
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Book Report 2015 Q3
A mixture of a growing Ebook library, tracking my goals in Goodreads, and Calibre’s ability to generate a catalog have made me decide to start tracking things quarterly in the book dimension as well. Here’s my second report. Total Ebooks: 419 (includes catalogs; increase of 2 books) Total Unread: 304 (decrease of 9) Goodreads 2015…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling My rating: 5 of 5 stars Thanks to insomnia this morning, I am now done with book 2. Ms Rowling has hit another one out of the park. While the beginning seemed a bit repetitious for a series that I doubt would have had many…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling My rating: 4 of 5 stars What can I say that hasn’t already been said? This is a good middle grade book that hits a lot of topics that are important for children and resonant to adults: fitting in, feeling different, when courage and bravery serve…
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Review: Alternity
Alternity by Mari Mancusi My rating: 3 of 5 stars There are a few things in this book that are a bit on the nose – for example, there’s a distinct Moon theme going on with a bunch of things and the main characters are Skye and Dawn. However, the deeper you get into the…
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Review: This is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death
This is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death by Ryan North My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book was more than just more stories in the Machine of Death world. It was also the Machine of Death in fantasy worlds and science fiction worlds and all kinds of…
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Review: The Rapture of the Nerds: A tale of the singularity, posthumanity, and awkward social
The Rapture of the Nerds: A tale of the singularity, posthumanity, and awkward social situations by Cory Doctorow My rating: 3 of 5 stars Once, a long time ago, I starting reading The Illuminatus Trilogy. I’m not sure why, but I think someone who was also into scifi had recommended it to me. Between its…
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Review: The Sagan Diary
The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is best read right after the original trilogy so you can get all the references. As these are Jane Sagan’s BrainPal diary entrees, Scalzi doesn’t over describe the references. It’s much more poetically written than other Scalzi stuff I’ve read, so it…