zola/content/books.md

19 KiB

+++ title = "Books Past and Present" +++

Particular favorites are bolded, books I particularly despised are in italics.

2020: currently reading

  • The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, by Shoshana Zuboff
  • The Long Utopia, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

2020: read

  • The Long Mars, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
  • The Long War, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
  • The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
  • Makers, by Cory Doctorow
  • First Among Sequels, by Jasper Fforde
  • Something Rotten, by Jasper Fforde
  • The Well of Lost Plots, by Jasper Fforde
  • Lost in a Good Book, by Jasper Fforde
  • The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
  • A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, by Orlando Figes
  • La Conquête du Pain, by Peter Kropotkin
  • Anarchism, by Ruth Kinna
  • Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, by Ronan Farrow
  • Calypso, by David Sedaris
  • Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, by Anand Giridharadas
  • The Telling, by Ursula K Le Guin
  • Four Ways to Forgiveness, by Ursula K Le Guin
  • The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K LeGuin
  • On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

2019: read

  • Fear: Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward
  • The Mueller Report, by Robert S Mueller III

2018: read

  • City of Illusions, by Ursula K Le Guin
  • Planet of Exile, by Ursula K Le Guin
  • Rocannon's World, by Ursula K Le Guin
  • The Word for World is Forest, by Ursula K Le Guin
  • The Dispossessed, by Ursula K Le Guin
  • Bloodchild and Other Stories, by Octavia E Butler
  • Parable of the Talents, by Octavia E Butler
  • Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E Butler
  • Fledgling, by Octavia E Butler
  • Kindred, by Octavia E Butler
  • The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri
  • Towards Zero, by Agatha Christie
  • Ordeal by Innocence, by Agatha Christie
  • Murder is Easy, by Agatha Christie
  • Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, by Michael Wolff

2017: read

  • Prelude to Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
  • Foundation and Earth, by Isaac Asimov
  • Foundation's Edge, by Isaac Asimov
  • Second Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
  • Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
  • Hard Choices, by Hillary Rodham Clinton
  • The Sheperd's Crown, by Terry Pratchett
  • Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett
  • Snuff, by Terry Pratchett
  • I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett
  • Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett
  • Making Money, by Terry Pratchett
  • Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett
  • Thud!, by Terry Pratchett
  • Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
  • A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett
  • The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
  • Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett
  • The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett
  • The Last Hero, by Terry Pratchett
  • Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett
  • Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams
  • The Truth, by Terry Pratchett
  • The Fifth Elephant, by Terry Pratchett
  • Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett
  • The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett
  • Jingo, by Terry Pratchett
  • Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
  • Feet of Clay, by Terry Pratchett
  • Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K Jerome
  • Maskerade, by Terry Pratchett
  • Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett
  • Soul Music, by Terry Pratchett
  • Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Men at Arms, by Terry Pratchett
  • Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
  • Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett
  • Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett
  • Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett
  • Eric, by Terry Pratchett
  • Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett
  • Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett
  • Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett
  • Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett
  • Mort, by Terry Pratchett
  • Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett
  • The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett
  • A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki
  • The Color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett
  • Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie
  • Candide, by Voltaire
  • Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, by Bradley K Martin
  • The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio
  • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, by Bertolt Brecht
  • To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis

2016: read

  • Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Men Explain Things to Me, by Rebecca Solnit
  • Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
  • Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
  • I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
  • The Twelve, by Justin Cronin
  • The Passage, by Justin Cronin

2015: read

  • Jia, by Hyejin Kim
  • Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi
  • The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood
  • Poirot's Early Cases, by Agatha Christie
  • The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever, by Greg Sestero
  • The Dark and Hollow Places, by Carrie Ryan
  • The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan
  • Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, by Jenny Lawson
  • Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith
  • Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions, by Neil Gaiman
  • Why Not Me?, by Mindy Kaling
  • That Hideous Strength, by CS Lewis
  • Perelandra, by CS Lewis
  • Out of the Silent Planet, by CS Lewis
  • The Last Battle, by CS Lewis
  • The Magician's Nephew, by CS Lewis
  • The Horse and His Boy, by CS Lewis
  • The Silver Chair, by CS Lewis
  • Prince Caspian, by CS Lewis
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis
  • Lady Chatterley's Lover, by DH Lawrence
  • Sons and Lovers, by DH Lawrence
  • Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
  • Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore
  • A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
  • The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, by Agatha Christie
  • Five Little Pigs, by Agatha Christie
  • Life after Life, by Kate Atkinson
  • Curtain, by Agatha Christie
  • Elephants Can Remember, by Agatha Christie
  • Hallowe'en Party, by Agatha Christie
  • The Clocks, by Agatha Christie
  • Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie
  • Dead Man's Folly, by Agatha Christie
  • Hickory Dickory Dock, by Agatha Christie
  • After the Funeral, by Agatha Christie
  • Mrs. McGuinty's Dead, by Agatha Christie
  • The Labours of Hercules, by Agatha Christie
  • Sad Cypress, by Agatha Christie
  • The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • The Screwtape Letters, by CS Lewis
  • The Great Divorce, by CS Lewis
  • The Devil of Nanking, by Mo Hayder
  • Birdman, by Mo Hayder
  • The Hollow, by Agatha Christie
  • Evil Under the Sun, by Agatha Christie
  • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, by Agatha Christie
  • Hercule Poirot's Christmas, by Agatha Christie
  • Appointment with Death, by Agatha Christie
  • Dumb Witness, by Agatha Christie
  • Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie
  • Murder in Mesopotamia, by Agatha Christie
  • Cards on the Table, by Agatha Christie
  • The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie
  • Death in the Clouds, by Agatha Christie
  • Three Act Tragedy, by Agatha Christie
  • Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
  • Peril at End House, by Agatha Christie
  • Lord Edgware Dies, by Agatha Christie
  • The Mystery of the Blue Train, by Agatha Christie
  • The Big Four, by Agatha Christie
  • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie
  • Poirot Investigates, by Agatha Christie
  • The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie
  • Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace
  • Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
  • The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters, by BR Myers
  • Atonement, by Ian McEwan
  • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
  • Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami
  • The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
  • The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Levels of Life, by Julian Barnes
  • Miss Marple's Final Cases, by Agatha Christie
  • Sleeping Murder, by Agatha Christie
  • Nemesis, by Agatha Christie
  • Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick
  • At Bertram's Hotel, by Agatha Christie
  • A Caribbean Mystery, by Agatha Christie
  • The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, by Agatha Christie
  • 4:50 from Paddington, by Agatha Christie
  • A Pocket Full of Rye, by Agatha Christie
  • They Do It With Mirrors, by Agatha Christie
  • A Murder is Announced, by Agatha Christie
  • Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things that Happened, by Allie Brosh
  • The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag, by Chol-Hwan Kang
  • The Moving Finger, by Agatha Christie
  • The Body in the Library, by Agatha Christie
  • Drinking and Tweeting and Other Brandi Blunders, by Brandi Glanville
  • The Thirteen Problems, by Agatha Christie
  • Murder at the Vicarage, by Agatha Christie
  • The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith
  • The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith
  • Landline, by Rainbow Rowell
  • The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese, by Kathe Lison
  • Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda, by Omar Nasiri
  • Good Omens, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

2014: read

  • Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, by David Sedaris
  • Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church, by Lauren Drain
  • Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields, by Wendy Lower
  • Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders, by Neil Gaiman
  • Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
  • American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
  • The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
  • The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga
  • The Ocean at the End of the Road, by Neil Gaiman
  • Yes Please, by Amy Poehler
  • Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
  • A Mercy, by Toni Morrison
  • The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
  • The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, by Umberto Eco
  • Neuromancer, by William Gibson
  • The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
  • Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, by Mindy Kaling
  • Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
  • Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain
  • A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
  • Silas Marner, by George Eliot
  • Roughing It, by Mark Twain
  • The Prince and the Pauper, by Mark Twain
  • Goodbye Mr Chips, by James Hilton
  • Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians, by Mark Twain
  • The Mysterious Stranger, by Mark Twain
  • A Double Barrelled Detective Story, by Mark Twain
  • A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage, by Mark Twain
  • Tom Sawyer Abroad, by Mark Twain
  • Pudd'nhead Wilson, by Mark Twain
  • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain
  • We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin
  • After Dark, by Haruki Murakami
  • After the Quake, by Haruki Murakami
  • The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
  • Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours (Around the world in Eighty Days, read in French), by Jules Verne
  • Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett
  • Middlemarch, by George Eliot
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
  • Burmese Days, by George Orwell
  • Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America, by John Waters
  • Dear Leader, by Jang Jin-Sung
  • The Fault in our Stars, by John Greene
  • Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • The Pearl, by John Steinbeck
  • Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d'une femme (Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman, read in French), by Stefan Zweig
  • Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
  • The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë
  • The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
  • Bringing up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting, by Pamela Druckerman
  • Shadows in Flight, by Scott Orson Card
  • The Manson Murders, by Martin Fido
  • Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Shadow of the Giant, by Scott Orson Card
  • Shadow Puppets, by Scott Orson Card
  • Shadow of the Hegemon, by Scott Orson Card
  • Ender's Shadow, by Scott Orson Card
  • Children of the Mind, by Scott Orson Card
  • Xenocide, by Scott Orson Card
  • Speaker for the Dead, by Scott Orson Card
  • Ender's Game, by Scott Orson Card
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
  • An Artist of the Floating World, by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • A Pale View of Hills, by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
  • The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • His Last Bow, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Sign of Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
  • Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
  • Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, by Blaine Harden
  • Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, by Reza Aslan
  • Re Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett
  • Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
  • The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett
  • The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
  • Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev
  • The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks, by Amy Stewart

2013: read

  • Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism, by Naoki Higashida
  • Priestess of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • Lady of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler (I am not a nazi kthx, I read this by historical curiosity - fwiw, even writing-wise it was absolutely terrible)
  • I am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban, by Malala Yousafzai
  • The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
  • Hitler, by AN Wilson
  • The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
  • Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, by Simon Sebag Montefiore
  • The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
  • The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
  • Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, by Simon Schama
  • The History of Witchcraft, by Lois Martin
  • MaddAddam, by Margaret Atwood
  • Under the Volcano, by Malcolm Lowry
  • Don't Get too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems, by David Rakoff
  • Dress Your Family in Coruroy and Denim, by David Sedaris
  • When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
  • Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris
  • The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler
  • The Odyssey, by Homer
  • The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
  • Oh Myyy!, by George Takei
  • Up from Slavery, by Booker T Washington
  • The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books I-II, by Akeksandr Solzhenitsyn
  • The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books III-IV, by Akeksandr Solzhenitsyn
  • The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books V-VII, by Akeksandr Solzhenitsyn
  • The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth
  • The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt
  • Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell
  • The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
  • War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
  • The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk
  • Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
  • Villette, by Charlotte Brontë
  • Shirley, by Charlotte Brontë
  • The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
  • Life and Times of Michael K, by JM Coetzee
  • The Iliad, by Homer
  • Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, by Cheryl Strayed
  • The Castle, by Franz Kafka
  • The Trial, by Franz Kafka
  • A Dance with Dragons, by George RR Martin
  • A Feast for Crows, by George RR Martin
  • Eleven Minutes, by Paulo Coelho
  • At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson
  • Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
  • Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
  • The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
  • The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka
  • The Breast, by Philip Roth
  • The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays, by Chinua Achebe
  • Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson
  • A Storm of Swords, by George RR Martin
  • A Clash of Kings, by George RR Martin
  • A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin
  • Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
  • The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Bossypants, by Tina Fey
  • In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin, by Mark Twain
  • Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
  • Veronika Decides to Die, by Paulo Coelho
  • A Journal of the Plague Year, by Daniel Defoe
  • The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
  • I am America, by Stephen Colbert
  • The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Agnes Grey, by Anne Brontë
  • Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe
  • The Forest House, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë
  • The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

2012: read

  • I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, by Amy Sedaris
  • Zodiac, by Robert Graysmith
  • Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
  • Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
  • World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooke
  • A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
  • The Casual Vacancy, by JK Rowling
  • The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
  • La Chute, by Albert Camus
  • Amerika, by Franz Kafka
  • Come September, by Arundhati Roy
  • Wigfield: The Can-Do Town that Just May Not, by Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Dinello
  • Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Breakfast at Tiffany's, by Truman Capote
  • My Life in France, by Julia Child
  • The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood
  • American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis
  • Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
  • The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood
  • Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
  • Moral Disorder and Other Stories, by Margaret Atwood
  • Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
  • Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
  • The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Books important to me that I read previously (in no particular order):

  • A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M Miller Jr
  • Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
  • La peste, by Albert Camus
  • L'amant de la Chine du Nord, by Marguerite Duras
  • Hiroshima Mon Amour, by Marguerite Duras
  • Huis Clos, by Jean-Paul Sartre
  • The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
  • The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
  • Gender Troubles, by Judith Butler
  • Feminism is for Everybody, by bell hooks
  • Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
  • Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
  • The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  • Zazie dans le métro, by Raymond Queneau
  • Germinal, by Émile Zola
  • The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
  • The Importance of Being Ernest, by Oscar Wilde
  • Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Books I was unable to finish reading:

  • Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
  • Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie
  • The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
  • A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway