Books Read
Click here for newest entriesRatings Guide: 0 to 5 ★s reflects how much I liked it (worst to best); 0 to 3 ☢s represents a content advisory (mildest to strongest).
2011
- The Vintage Bradbury: Ray Bradbury's Own Selection of His Best Stories by Ray Bradbury ★★ ☢
- Confessions and Reflections of a Traveler by Brett R. McLean ★★ ☢
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien ★★★★★
- Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks by Ben Goldacre ★★★ ☢
- Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card ★★★ ☢
- How to Be a High School Superstar by Cal Newport ★★★★★
- The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson ★★★★ ☢
- Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson ★★★★
- Sabbath by Dan B. Allender ★★
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell ★★★ ☢
- The Raw Milk Revolution by David E. Gumpert ★★★★
- Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss ★★★★
- North to Freedom by Anne Holm ★★★★
- The Longevity Project by Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin ★★★
- At Home by Franz Hohler ★★★
- Introverts in the Church by Adam S. McHugh ★★★★
- Shakespeare by Bill Bryson ★★★★
- The Rocket's Shadow: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by John Blaine ★★★
(This link is for the review of all the Rick Brant books, plus Tom Swift and Tom Quest.) - Sea Gold: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by John Blaine ★★★
- The Caves of Fear: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by John Blaine ★★★
- The Electronic Mind Reader: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by John Blaine ★★★
- The Scarlet Lake Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by John Blaine ★★★
- The Pirates of Shan: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by John Blaine ★★★
- The Flaming Mountain: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by John Blaine ★★★
- The Flying Stingaree: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by John Blaine ★★★
- Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X by Victor Appleton II ★
- The Mystery of the Timber Giant: A Tom Quest Adventure by Fran Striker ★★
- Secret Water by Arthur Ransome ★★★★★
- The Crime of the Century by Kingsley Amis ★★
November
Did I really complete no books in November? Seems unbelievable, but then again, it was a busy month.
December
- The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu ★★★ ☢☢
- The Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson ★★★ ☢☢
- Christmas at Fairacre by Miss Read ★★★★★
- Village Affairs by Miss Read ★★★★★
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Previous Years
2010
- Born to Run by Christopher McDougall ★★ ☢☢
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon ★ ☢☢☢
- A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett ★★★★
- It Happened in Italy by Elizabeth Bettina ★★
- Eugenics and Other Evils by G. K. Chesterton ★★★★★
- Theatre Shoes by Noel Streatfeild ★★★★★
- Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick ★★★★
- The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan ★★★★★
- The Selfless Gene by Charles Foster ★★★
- Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto ★★★★★
- Just Courage (audio book) by Gary Haugen ★★★
- A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe ★★
- Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin ★★★★★
- Saint Patrick by Jonathan Rogers ★★★★
- Homeschooling for the Rest of Us by Sonya Haskins ★★★★
- The Brothers Karamazov (audio book, abridged) by Fyodor Dostoevsky ★★★ ☢
- In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan ★★★★★
- Between Heaven and Hell by Peter Kreeft ★★★★
- The Philosophy of Tolkien by Peter Kreeft ★★★★
- Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson ★★★★ Unrealistic, but a delightful vision and a fun book.
- The Abernathy Boys by L. J. Hunt ★★★★ Hard to believe this was published in 2004—no cussing worse than "Aunt Annie's fanny!" A little hard on the girls, but the author does his best while being true to the times. A book for Free Range Kids.
- The Gobblestone School by Jacob Schriftman ★★
- Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson ★★★★★
- The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge ★★★★ ☢☢
- In Tune with the World by Josef Pieper ★★★★★
- Food Rules by Michael Pollan ★★★ If this is the only one of Pollan's food books you read, it rates five stars. I give it three because In Defense of Food is better.
- Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection by Isaac Asimov ★★★
- Stained Glass Elegies by Shusaku Endo ★★★
- Magic: The Final Fantasy Collection by Isaac Asimov ★★★
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card ★★★ ☢
- Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card ★★
- Covenant and Communion: The Biblical Theology of Pope Benedict XVI by Scott W. Hahn ★★★
- Common Sense 101: Lessons from G. K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist ★★★
- Getting Things Done by David Allen ★★ The content rates three stars, or maybe more; I won't know till I've worked with his ideas. The book itself only rates two, however.
- The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer ★★★★
- Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin ★★★★
- The Chronological Guide to the Bible ★★★★
- Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers ★★★★★
- The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright ★★★★★
- The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright ★★★★★
- Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright ★★★★★
- Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze by Elizabeth Enright ★★★★★
- Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites ...and Other Lies You've Been Told by Bradley R. E. Wright ★★★★
- Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis by Rowan Jacobsen ★★★★★ ☢
- Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy ★★★★★
- Non Campus Mentis by Anders Henricksson ★★★
- Ready for Anything by David Allen ★★★★
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien ★★★★★ Some books are worth reading annually, for inspiration and refreshment of the spirit. This is one of them.
- Healing Through Exercise by Jörg Blech ★★★★★ Extremely important book, though short on practical exercises..
- Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (audio book) by Francis Chan ★★ This might have been just what I was looking for, but it wasn't.
- No More Christian Nice Girl by Paul Coughlin and Jennifer D. Degler ★★
- Martin Luther: In His Own Words (audio book, includes The Small Catechism, 95 Theses, On Faith and Coming to Christ, On Confession and the Lord's Supper, Of the Office of Preaching, Excerpt from Luther's Tower Experience, and The Last Written Words of Luther) ★★★ It's much more interesting to read what Luther said than to read about what Luther said.
- Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird ★★★ That three stars only means I actually have no idea how to rate this.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Jove) by C. S. Lewis ★★★★★ Like The Hobbit, a book worth reading annually. This time I read a more recent edition and the changes, e.g. Maugrim for Fenris Ulf, and stones instead of the World Ash Tree, were jarring.
- Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin ★★★★
- The Pursuit of God (audio book) by A. W. Tozer ★★★
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Mars) by C. S. Lewis ★★★★★
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Sol) by C. S. Lewis ★★★★★
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair (Luna) by C. S. Lewis ★★★★★
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy (Mercury) by C. S. Lewis ★★★★★
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew (Venus) by C. S. Lewis ★★★★★
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle (Saturn) by C. S. Lewis ★★★★★ I've always loved these books, but re-reading them after having read Planet Narnia is an even richer experience.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien ★★★★★ 'Tis the season for re-reading the best-of-the-best. I need uplifting literature to calm my fevered brain, especially at bedtime, and don't have time to take a chance on something new.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien ★★★★★
- Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven ★★ ☢
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December
