75 Books...More or Less! discussion
Archive (2017 GR Completed)
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Stacie's 2017 Challenge
30.
The Sleeper and the Spindle I love how Neil Gaiman can take a tiny little tale filled with magic and whimsy and turn it into a meditation on the weight of expectations and the power in choices. Add the beautiful Chris Riddell illustrations and you have something that reminds you of childhood but feels true to your older self. This was one I borrowed, but I think I need to own a copy for myself.
31.
The Modern Scholar - Odyssey of the West II: From Athens to Rome and the Gospels This is a series of lectures by different Professors, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Then I discovered that the largest contributor is impossible for me to sit through: he sounds like he's drunk with a mouth full of marbles. Ugh.
Stacie wrote: "Elyse wrote: "Stacie wrote: "2. 
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood"This is in my TBR, How was it?"
It was very good, another "t..."
So this is a Wookiee book?? Excellent. I will wait until I have read a couple of HAPPY books before starting this one!! LOL
Stacie wrote: "3. 
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind An interesting survey-type book. I listened to the audiobook and there are a few g..."I have read WAY more 1 & 2 star books than I care to admit. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE your rating system. Wish they had never been born indeed!! I know several authors I feel that way about!
Stacie wrote: "5. 
Star Wars: The Perfect Weapon I found this in audiobook form. It's a short, fast paced adventure about a very peripheral charact..."My ex loved SW and this author is one of his favorites. I can barely watch SW [STILL, after 6 years...sigh] without thinking of him so I have not seen anything of the new ones [I even have missed ALL the spoilers]. Someday I will be able to watch them again. But YAY for all this cool reading.
Stacie wrote: "8. 
Purple Hibiscus I can't believe it has taken so long to pick up something by Adichie. I've been hearing so many good things about her books, but i..."This just got bumped up in my list; I read "We all should be Feminists" by her and I LOVE her style of writing.
Stacie wrote: "17. 
Norse Mythology I adored this. I went with the audiobook- because, if you can have Neil read to you, why wouldn't you? It was fantastic. I'd ..."Oh I so want to read/listen to this. I am with you; if you can have Neil read to you, why would you want anything else? LOL I would listen to that man read the phone book. Glorious.
I bought this for a friend who is teaching this next semester and so now I am officially jelly of you both. :-)
Stacie wrote: "29. The Sleeper and the Spindle I love how Neil Gaiman can take a tiny little tale filled with magic and whimsy and turn it into a me..."I DID NOT even know about this one!!! Oh that look gorgeous. I cannot wait to get this one and read it. YAY for more Mr. Gaiman!!! ♥
And now I am done filling your feed with all my crazy posts. :-)
Mod
The Sleeper and the Spindle I love how Neil Gaiman can take a tiny little tale filled with magic and whimsy and tu..."This is also part of his collection, Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances.
Stacie wrote: "3. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind An interesting survey-type book. I listened to the audiobook and there are a few g..."Great rating criteria!
Elyse wrote: "Dawn Michelle wrote: "Stacie wrote: "29. The Sleeper and the Spindle I love how Neil Gaiman can take a tiny little tale filled with m..."I have that on the Kindle, but I do think I want this as a separate purchase; it just looks so gorgeous. I am sure that I could read and get rid of a couple books to make space for it on my shelf. ;-)
Mod
Haha I'm sure you could! I have faith in you! ;)
Elyse wrote: "Dawn Michelle wrote: "Stacie wrote: "29. The Sleeper and the Spindle I love how Neil Gaiman can take a tiny little tale filled with m..."I have, and love, Trigger Warnings. there's something about his text and Riddell's illustrations that is magical, though.
Dawn Michelle wrote: "Stacie wrote: "17. Norse Mythology I adored this. I went with the audiobook- because, if you can have Neil read to you, why wouldn't you? It was ..."Do yourself a favor and get your hands on this! <3 <3
32.
Blueberry Girl33.
InstructionsThese were purchased for my soon-to-arrive great-niece and they are delightful- though to be honest, an adult audience will get more from them than children will. The Charles Vess illustrations are a-MAY-zing! If you like Gaiman and haven't seen these, I recommend picking them up. They're short (under 40 pages each) but beautiful.
34.
Star Wars Rogue One Rebel Dossier A nice peripheral addition to a SW fan's stash. The pictures were good, the dossier style added texture to the immersion in the SW universe but my favorite part was a tiny technical bit the author threw in. He stated that some of the information (i.e. anything that can't be sourced directly from the finished movie) was rumor... fairly reliable but not completely confirmed, which both supported the dossier style and protected the book against contradictions that might come up in future movies. It was a clever touch and not one you usually see in movie tie-ins.
35.
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones Well, this is just as bad in book form as it was in movie form :/ The narrator was good but he was handicapped by the author using actual dialog from the film. That dialog is even worse when you don't have the beautiful visuals to distract you.36.
Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature This one was really good, and now I want to revisit some Octavia Butler.
37.
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race I liked this so much! But, I'm no longer sure I want to see the movie... I don't see how you could compress this into a film and have it do any justice.
Mod
[book:Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Unt..."I plan on listening to the audiobook soon! I will see the movie but probably after I listen to the book.
38.
The Magicians Pretty much hated this, though since I never wished death and destruction upon the author for unleashing this on the world it's a two star instead of a one ;) I'm very glad I didn't buy any of the sequels while waiting to get around to reading this (I've owned it for about five years, so at least it counts as a "Read What You Own" title)
The Magicians was a DNF for me. Very disappointing, I wanted to love it.
39.
Watership Down I started this on Easter because... bunnies! :) Also, I needed something good after The Magicians and this fit the bill perfectly. As a comfort read, this never lets me down.
I love it when there's enough labor scheduled that my boss goes "why don't one of you read to the kids in the store?" and everyone just looks at me :)40.
5-Minute Marvel Stories I'm not sure that is the best choice for children who are still in the stage of learning that you can't just hit everything that makes you mad... but for kids that understand that hitting is not an ok first response, it's fun.41.
Star Wars: 5-Minute Star Wars Stories This one has one story from each of the movies and is pretty accurate for it's 3+ age range. Also, it got the better response from its audience (although that might have been because I apparently provided sound effects, much to the amusement of my co-workers).
Stacie wrote: "3. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind An interesting survey-type book. I listened to the audiobook and there are a few g..."Reading your star system made me crack up!!
Mod
39. [bookcover:5-Minute Marvel Stories|162351..."
How fun!
42.
That Which Should Not Be A fun revisiting of Lovcraftian mythos. Told in a frame narrative this story incorporates each of the Lovcraftian horror tropes, so while it's not spectacularly "original" it is a well told homage to victorian horror.
45.
The Oblong Box I listened to this off of Audible- it's part of their "Masters of Fiction" channel. The story is good, but, seriously guys, find this by any other narrator!
46.
The African Experience: From 'Lucy' to Mandela Well laid out and interesting. It turns out that I knew a lot less about the subject than I thought I did!47.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future This was well written and compulsively readable. The biggest take-away, for me at least, was that (like most great innovators) I'm really glad that he's around doing what he does... and even more glad that I don't have to work or live with him personally! I suspect that his energy and drive would completely consume 'lesser mortals' ;)
Mod
I enjoyed the Musk book as well. He;s truly an innovator but yeah, I have no desire to meet him. lol
48.
The Black Death : The World's Most Devastating Plague The material is fascinating and the Professor lays out her lectures clearly and is enthusiastic about sharing her knowledge (I've loved all of her lecture series so far!). It does occur to me, though, that maybe listening to this while my yard is in the middle of our standard summer flea infestation was not the best timing 0_o
49.
Lion in the Valley I really enjoy these. Old fashioned, light hearted, great narrator. A nice bit of fluff :)
50.
Darth Vader, Vol 1: Vader Tells the story of what Vader did between "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back". The art is good (ok, so Vader looks weird in some of his action scenes but everything else looks good) but the 'voice' of Vader is... off. Mostly, this seems to be about introducing a new character that can then be followed in hew own series (Aphra, who is, in fact, enjoyable).
It seems that I've missed logging some of my reads because my numbers here and on my GR challenge tracker don't match. Grrr... I hate that. Time to comb through the lists and balance the books, so to speak. Heheheh. (it's early, and bad puns amuse me ;p )
51.
Star Wars: Darth Maul #152.
Doctor Strange, Vol. 1: The Way of the Weird53.
Doctor Aphra54.
C-3PO - The Phantom Limb*So, not only do I forget to log things (though to be fair, most of those were utterly forgettable- Aphra was fun, the others are a 'pass') I can't freakin' count >:[ *sigh* Well, now that I've added the four that I forgot about and corrected my numbering back through #16, this list is correct. For the moment. *sigh*
55.
Star Wars, Vol. 1: Skywalker Strikes56.
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal57.
Mass Effect: Nexus Uprising Every time I read the Mass Effect books I really hope they are going to be good- or at least fun- and am almost always disappointed (and yet I keep reading them...). This time I was pleasantly surprised. It's not fine Literature, but it has the right feel for the Universe and it manages to flesh out people and situations in the game without clashing with the actual gameplay (...much. There are some things in the timeline that don't line up... but it did that in the actual game, too). I listened to the audiobook and it was narrated by one of the voice actors, so that was nice.
Mod
61.
One Past Midnight: The LangoliersThe story itself is good, but Audible version is terrible. The voices the narrator comes up with are outright painful to listen to! I had to give up on the audiobook and go find it in print to finish.
62.
A History of Russia: From Peter the Great to Gorbachev It was all new information to me, which I love (my knowledge was limited to what we covered in school- basically, being able to find it on a map and the vague idea that "they" were once our biggest competitor for global influence, "we" had the upper hand and still held a grudge ;) ).
63.
The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History Interesting, lightweight pop-sci. Just what I needed after the heavy history I just finished.
65.
A Children's Guide to Folklore and Wonder Tales The stories are told in a manner appropriate to Story Time at the library which was not unwarranted as this is dealing with tales specifically designed to be told to young children. What was disappointing that that the 'discussion' and 'analysis' for the tales was so unfocused- it was too high level for a young audience and much too low level for an adult audience.
66.
Between the Rivers: The History of Ancient Mesopotamia I was kind of surprised at how much of this I didn't know, considering how many of my history classes throughout my life have had sections covering Mesopotamia. 67.
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales68.
Captain Marvel, Volume 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More 69.
Time Enough at Last: Revised Edition of Original Version This was the source of one of my all-time favorite Twilight Zone episodes and it was neat to read it in it's original form.70.
The Defenders It's weird- I've read several things by Philip K Dick that I've enjoyed (this included), but my dislike of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is so great that my first reaction to seeing his name is "oh, I don't like him."71.
I am graalnak of the vroon empire, Destroyer of galaxies, Supreme Overlord of the planet Earth Tiny, fast and hilarious if you've ever followed anything on Reddit.
72.
The Skull73.
Salvage Completely forgettable. As in "I read this a while back and completely forgot about it. On re-reading, I can see why."74.
Mother Bears75.
House of Bones Not my favorite thing by Robert Silvergerg, but definitely not my least favorite either!
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The Skull73.
Salvage Completely forgettable. As in "I read this a while back and completely forgot ab..."Have you read other O. S. Card? I've only read Pathfinder but I hated it. I want to read Ender's Game but I'm not sure if I'll like it!
Elyse wrote: "...Have you read other O. S. Card? I've only read Pathfinder but I hated it. I want to read Ender's Game but I'm not sure if I'll like it! "I loved Ender's Game and Speaker For the Dead, and the first of the Alvin Maker series was good (I believe it was Seventh Son), but the rest of his works that I've read... not so much. The more recent something is the less I seem to like it.
76.
Albert Einstein: Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian A book that is marketed as a history should never contain the sentence "But before we can do more Physics let's first do just a little more history." While I appreciate the importance of it, I do not enjoy doing math and I do not tackle physics thought experiments for fun. Approximately eight chapters into this I was ready to take a hammer to any head in range, my own included. Beyond that, it seems to be well researched and written, so if physics is your ball of wax I recommend picking it up. If not, launch this straight into a volcano.
75 Books...More or Less!
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So good!!