Book Lists 2020 Book • Page 2

January: Total - 13

1) Markus Zusak – Bridge of Clay (***)

I’ve never been so meh about a book from one of my favorite authors. It was fine, I guess, but nothing about this grabbed me in the same way that I Am The Messenger or The Book Thief did.

2) Stephen Chbosky – Imaginary Friend (*****)

GOODNESS. This was absolutely phenomenal, vintage King-esque story-telling. O B S E S S E D.

3) Amy Meyerson – The Bookshop of Yesterdays (*****)

Fantastic contemporary story about a young adult inheriting her uncle’s bookstore…and a mystery unraveling her entire family across decades and literature. Adored this.

4) Mark T. Sullivan – Beneath A Scarlet Sky (*****)

WHERE DID THIS BOOK COME FROM?! Historical (semi-non?)fiction set in the Catholic resistance during the Nazi occupation of Northern Italy during WW2. Shocking. Heartbreaking. Inspiring. Beautiful novel. This needs to be adapted.

5) Rachel Jones – Is This It? (***)

A Millennial writing a memoir about their twenties through a Christian lens felt like a must-read as someone who just finished drafting his very own version of that story. I enjoyed bits and pieces, but this felt campier than real at times.

6) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Americanah (***)

It's so important to read outside your culture, gender, race. Where I found myself not liking many of the plot elements due to personal reasons, I found myself constantly amazed at the new things I learned about the Nigerian, immigrant, female, and black experiences-which is just as important as plot.

7) C.J. Leigh – The Ninjabread Man (*****)

I have to read Children’s books as part of my job—and this is one of the absolute best.

8) Aaron Reynolds – Creepy Carrots (****)

What a ridiculous book that I adored. The drawings are absolutely hilarious.

9) Walter M. Miller, Jr. – A Canticle for Leibowitz (**)

As a progenitor of my favorite genre of fiction, I was excited to dive into this classic. But man, it did not land. The third act I found the most intriguing, but getting through the first two was a slog that I do not want to relive again.

10) Barnabas Piper – The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life (****)

I love how this connected curiosity and creativity to worship—which was the focus of my thesis on Tolkien and Lewis back in college.

11) Tony Evans – Explore the Bible: Joshua (***)

A Bible study focusing on certain parts of one of my favorite books of the Bible. Nothing too special, though.

12) Dan Simmons – Carrion Comfort (****)

This book was an absolute behemoth—and worth it for the most part. It was always on the verge of feeling too long, but it was an absolutely engrossing. Parts of the “mind vampire” actions made me extremely uncomfortable—that was the point, though.

13) Peter Clines – Dead Moon (****)

This series of books (“Threshold”) are all related, but not the same at all. Except they’re all like candy that you have to devour entirely. So fun, so diverse, and clearly an author having the time of his life just being weird.

 

How do you typically acquire the books you read? Library? Purchase them? Through work?

Also, my son loves the Creepy Carrots book!

 

Big proponent of buying books to support writers, even if the traditional publishing system is totally corrupt and morally bankrupt. Most of my book buying these days is Audible. I cleaned house when Lifeway went out of business with Christian stuff—it’s gonna make up the majority of my physical reading for the next two years

I bought all of these except the two kids ones—they were donations that caught my eye.

I’m not opposed to the library, I just never use it/have a huge backlog of stuff I already own that’s continuously growing because I have a problem.

 

Just bought Imaginary Friend the other day, i've heard good things. And I read Scarlet Sky about a year ago, it's one of my favorite books I've read from the last couple years. So good.

 

IF was stunning.

BASK: I remember encouraging someone to read it on here at one point, but then forgot to read it myself for a year, haha.

 

Imaginary Friend ROCKS. Definitely my favorite novel of 2019.

 

Books

1. Alice Isn’t Dead - Joseph Fink
2. I Told You I Hated New York - Molly Louise Hudelson
3. Make Noise - Eric Nixon
4. Creative Calling - Chase Jarvis
5. Rose Madder - Stephen King
6. Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular - Matt Singer
7. Catch and Kill - Ronan Farrow
8. Thrawn: Treason - Timothy Zahn
9. Monster, She Wrote - Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson
10. The Green Mile - Stephen King
11. The Death and Life of Bobby Z - Don Winslow
12. Desperation - Stephen King
13. The Regulators - Stephen King
14. I Will Tech You To Be Rich - Ramit Sethi
15. Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass - Stephen King
16. If It Bleeds - Stephen King
17. Before the Fall - Noah Hawley
18. Bag of Bones - Stephen King
19. Storm of the Century - Stephen King
20. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - Stephen King
21. Gravity Falls: Pining Away - Tracey West
22. Bring That Beat Back - Nate Patrin
23. Hearts in Atlantis - Stephen King
24. Black Klansman - Ron Stallworth
25. Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson
26. The Passion Economy - Adam Davidson
27. The Plant - Stephen King
28. Road Seven - Keith Rosson
29. Dreamcatcher - Stephen King
30. Larger Than Life- Maria Sherman
31. Black House - Stephen King and Peter Straub
32. Everything's Eventual - Stephen King
33. From a Buick 8 - Stephen King
34. Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla - Stephen King
35. Hardcore Zen - Brad Warner
36. Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah - Stephen King
37. Rock Bottom at the Renaissance - Mike Henneberger
38. Star Wars: Dark Legends - George Mann
39. Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower - Stephen King
40. The Colorado Kid - Stephen King
41. The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw - Henry James
42. The Science of Stephen King - Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence
43. Cell - Stephen King
44. The October Boys - Adam Millard
45. The Stitchers - Loren Lawrence
46. Lisey's Story - Stephen King
47. Casino Royale - Ian Fleming
48. Blaze - Richard Bachman
49. From the Basement - Taylor Markarian
50. Show Your Work - Austin Kleon
51. Live and Let Die - Ian Fleming
52. A Small Town in Germany - John Le Carré
53. Miles Morales: Spider-Man - Jason Reynolds

Comics

1. Atomic Blonde: The Coldest City - Antony Johnston
2. Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion Vol. 3 - Gerard Way
3. The Wilds - Vita Ayala
4. American Vampire Vol. 1 - Scott Snyder ad Stephen King
5. The Dark Tower Vol. 1 - Peter David
6. Stephen King's N - Marc Guggenheim
7. The Talisman Vol. 1 - Robin Furth

 

The year's off to a good start, y'all. I finally read all the sequels to The Giver (one of my top 5 of all time) and enjoyed them. None of them reached the level of the first, but I liked seeing the universe fleshed out more. Other than Son, the connections to The Giver are minimal, so Gathering Blue and Messenger could be read without reading The Giver (but honestly, you need to read it if you haven't).

The Institute wasn't peak King, but it was a fun read. Definitely more of a thriller than horror, so this could be a good entry point for new fans.

I'm currently 40% of the way through Tomi Adeyemi's "Children of Blood and Bone" and it's very good so far. Any and all recommendations are welcome!

 

CoBaB has so much potential, but man did I wish it was so much more after I finished it. I’ve heard the sequel is very bad, but don’t know anyone who has read it yet.

 

The Wild Card books are so damn fun and I'm obsessed, which really sucks because I haven't even read half of them but there's only one book left that has been published to kindle so far and the book after that is like $60 for a used copy so I guess I'll be waiting a long time to finish that. Fun ride though. I'm loving the Osten Ard books, yet another thing that I blew through but now am going to have to wait for a conclusion. The Rage of Dragons fuckin ruled. Brutal and captivating, pumped for more.

The complete series of Fables is a bit of a lie since I started it years ago but I finally finished. I don't know. I know it's super loved and everything, there's a lot that I did love, but after about that halfway point the stories really started to drag.

Most of my comic reading this month was just my weekly new releases.

 

Gonna try and keep a better list this year

Novels
1. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox & The Horse - Charles Macksey
2. Strange Planet - Nathan W. Pyle
3. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
4. Starsight - Brandon Sanderson
5. The Rage of Dragons - Evan Winter
6. The Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan

Graphic Novels
1. My Hero Academia Vol. 8 - Kohei Horikoshi
2. My Hero Academia Vol. 9 - Kohei Horikoshi
3. The Sandman Vol. 1 - Neil Gaiman
4. The Sandman Vol. 2 - Neil Gaiman
5. The Sandman Vol. 3- Neil Gaiman
6. The Sandman Vol. 4 - Neil Gaiman
7. The Sandman Vol. 5 - Neil Gaiman
8. The Sandman Vol. 6 - Neil Gaiman
9. The Sandman Vol. 7 - Neil Gaiman
10. The Sandman Vol. 8 - Neil Gaiman
11. The Sandman Vol. 9 - Neil Gaiman
12. The Sandman Vol. 10 - Neil Gaiman
13. Weathering With You - Makoto Shinkai
14. your name. Vol. 1 - Makoto Shinkai
15. your name. Vol. 2 - Makoto Shinkai
16. Locke & Key Vol. 1 - Joe Hill
17. Locke & Key Vol. 2 - Joe Hill
18. Locke & Key Vol. 3 - Joe Hill
19. Locke & Key Vol. 4 - Joe Hill
20. Locke & Key Vol. 5 - Joe Hill
21. Locke & Key Vol. 6 - Joe Hill
22. The Sandman - The Dream Hunters - Neil Gaiman
23. My Hero Academia Vol. 10 - Kohei Horikoshi

 

Just editing Dune into my list and I noticed you read it recently as well, haha.

 

Yep, just finished it earlier today. What did you think of it?

 

I had some issues in the middle where I was really worried that it was going to meander since I know there's a bunch of sequels and not come to a conclusion, but by the end I loved it. I loved the opening act as well. I was very surprised that to me it really read like a fantasy book so I felt pretty at home as apposed to being super heavy on the Sci Fi. Alia was dope, I'm interested to see how she'll be represented in the upcoming film. Oh, I also have to watch the old movie now, I haven't seen it.

What about you?

 

I thought the first half with all of the political thriller stuff was incredible. It lost me a bit after the time jump but overall I liked it. Alia is definitely what I’m most curious about for the movie too, but I assume she won’t show up in the first part coming out this year. I also need to watch the Lynch movie. I could have sworn it was on HBO until pretty recently.

 

Yeah waiting for the sword to drop in that first act was great. Didn’t know the movie would be in two parts. I’ve purposely stayed away from any movie news until I read it.

 

So this year I'm trying to read things that I actually feel like reading instead of things that I feel obligated to read if that makes sense.

January:

1) Clue: Candlestick*
2) In An Absent Dream(Wayward Children #4) by Seanan McGuire
3) Locke & Key Vol 1: Welcome To Lovecraft*
4) Locke & Key Vol 2: Head Games*

February:

5) Locke & Key Vol 3: Crown of Shadows*
6) Locke & Key Vol 4: Keys To The Kingdom*
7) Locke & Key Vol 5: Clockworks*
8) Locke & Key Vol 6: Alpha & Omega*
9) One Of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus
10) Merry Christmas, Steve by Ruth Ware(short story)
11) Come Tumbling Down(Wayward Children #5) by Seanan McGuire


* denotes graphic novel/comics

 

UPDATED
There There by Tommy Orange was amazing

1. Recursion- Blake Crouch
2. Ghosts of the Tsunami - Richard Lloyd Parry
3. Fall of Giants - Ken Follett *Started in 2019*
4. Cibola Burn - James S.A. Corey
5. Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA - Amaryllis Fox
6. House of Chains (Malazan #4) - Steven Erikson
7. There There - Tommy Orange
8. Elevation - Stephen King
9. Exhalation - Ted Chiang
10. Watership Down - Richard Adams

 

Post updated to include February in a drop quote.

 

Updated! Hoping to make more of a dent this month if I can stay on pace with my King reading.

 

Tim Akers fantasy trilogy was great, brutal as all hell and a lot different than copy/paste fantasy. I loved the Horrorstor it was so fucking cool. Felt like reading the Blair Witch. Sort of like a lite-House of Leaves. Hendrix's other book I read We Sold Our Souls was also a lot of fun. Love a good Rock-Horror-Opera. Going to be diving through the rest of his books asap. The Grip of It had some of the most beautiful horror prose I've read since John Langan. I didn't love the story as much as I loved the writing, however. Kill Creek was pretty good, very much reminded me of the Haunting of Hill House tv series, though it didn't land quite as well. I'm trying to decide if I want to continue with the Dune series, I've always heard praise for the first book but never heard anything about the sequels so it's totally uncharted waters.

Goddammit I wish I liked Glen Cook more. Seriously, the book is called With Mercy Toward None and I'm still fighting to like it. What is wrong with me?

Mean Business on North Ganson ruled. Everything S Craig Zahler does is absolute perfection. If you want a ridiculously violent cop noir, check this one out.

And the best book I read this month that I recommend to ALL HORROR FANS The Chain, by Adrian McKinty. Checked it out for the dope cover and the plot summary and loved every second of it. Incredibly thrilling from start to finish. It's more on the realism side of horror than the supernatural.

Still having a super light year on reading comics besides my weeklies. From Hell was absolutely fantastic. Alan Moore blows me away every single damn time, there really is nobody like him.

Oh also, I realized that on my last update I forgot to mention Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which I LOVED. It was really tough getting all the names straight but once you get into it everything rolls along nicely. I read an abridged version so I'm thinking that someday I'll read the full version, it was a good 700 pages abriged.

 

Managed to add a few more Graphic Novels to the list but my reading pace is a lot slower these days.

 

I’m looking for a book rev: The quintessential Frank Sinatra biography, which one is it?

Thanks!

 

Did you like Coffin Hill? I remember enjoying it first released but never finished it

 

As you can probably tell I've been reading graphic novels pretty heavily during this quarantine time. They are much easier for me to put up/put down while I'm dealing with my kids and such and can read them easily digitally.