1. The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence
Gerald Blaine with Lisa McCubbin (Has some problems, but the overall narrative is pretty sound - a valuable addition to any tinfoil hat's JFK library. A Christmas gift from my loverly wife.)
2. The Help
Kathryn Stockett (Liked it very much - her people sound like real people; read it during a snowstorm.)
3. 7 Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin
James Sullivan (Not the best bio of George, but probably the most linear.)
4. Big Nate Strikes Again
Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate's a worthy successor for Calvin, and one of Max's favorites. Read during a night spent in his room, crashing in the bottom bunk.)
5. Clock Without Hands
Carson McCullers (Loaned to me by Cayce Callaway, and a great read. Deals with the same themes as The Help, does it a lot earlier, and while the people in The Help talk like real people, Carson's peoplethink like real people.)
6. Doors Open
Ian Rankin (Always love me some Rankin, but this one's a little weaker than most.)
7. The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard
Eddie Campbell & Dan Best (A graphic novel and a gift from Mitch and Becky, and a fun read. Sat around for way too long before I just picked it up and read it.)
8. The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama
Will Bunch (Well written & horrifying. Some good stuff about Beck and the genesis of the Tea Party.)
9. How Did I Get Here: The Ascent of an Unlikely CEO
Tony Hawk (Simple, revealing and silly. Awesome in its way.)
10. Falling Man
Don DeLillo (Thanks, Dug, for introducing me to DeLillo. This one's a hard but rewarding read about post 9/11.)
11. Catwoman: Selina's Big Score
Darwyn Cooke (Comics: Darwyn Cooke's style is like the late 50s, and fits this story well.)
12. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
Philip Pullman (From the man who brought you the Golden Compass, a new take on the life of Christ.)
13. One Knee Equals Two Feet
John Madden (BOOM! BAM! Esoteric and strange, John Madden also writes in Football as opposed to English.)
14. It's Only a Game
Terry Bradshaw (Self-deprecating and only useful to people who want to know more about Terry's take on stuff that happened while he was QBing the Steelers.)
15. The Physics of Star Trek
Lawrence M. Krauss (Star Trek? Physics? Awesome, right? WRONG. The most boring thing I've read all year.)
16. X-Men: Messiah Complex
Mike Carey, Ed Brubaker, et al. (Comics: an overblown and somewhat forgettable X-Men story.)
17. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
Christopher Moore (Moore's hilarious, and his Xmas tale is extra fun.)
18. The Lampshade: A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans
Mark Jacobson (A gut-churning account of the origins & fate of a lampshade constructed from human skin. I felt weird even having this book around my kids, as though the evil described within had a transitive property.)
19. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Alison Bechdel (Comics: honest and sad family story.)
20. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip & Dan Heath (The Heaths have something to say, and it's worth hearing, but they wish they were as interesting or insightful as Gladwell, and they're not.)
21. Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier
Michael Fertik & David Thompson (Just terrible. A fear letter to an older generation uncomfortable with the Internet.)
22. Beyond!
Dwayne McDuffie & Scott Kolins (Comics: Following up with the Beyonder in one of McDuffie's best Marvel works.)
23. The Adventures of Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty
Fabian Nicieza & Kevin McGuire (Comics: A solid if simple Cap story. Given to me as a gift for helping someone move.)
24. Doctor Strange: Beginnings and Endings
J. Michael Straczynski & Brandon Peterson (Comics: Good Dr. Strange story. Worth your time.)
25. Creatures Of The Night
Neil Gaiman & Michael Zulli (Comics: a small taste of Gaiman.)
26. X-Men: Manifest Destiny
Jason Aaron, et al. (Comics: Another chapter in the mutant saga - not one of my faves.)
27. Spider-Man: Mystery Date
Peter David, et al. (Comics: a compendium of Mysterio and aftermath of "The Other" stuff.)
28. Theories of International Politics and Zombies
Daniel W. Drezner (A gift from my mom, and in spite of the apparent silliness, actually makes some good points.)
29. Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama
Wayne Greenhaw (An excellent history with interviews and 1st person accounts.)
30. In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church
Gina Welch (Weird and twisted, you'll be uncomfortable the whole time as Welch goes inside of Falwell's empire. With her behavior and theirs.)
31. The Elephant to Hollywood
Michael Caine (Direct, funny, fascinating.)
32. Star Island
Carl Hiaasen (Hiassen rules, and this is no exception.)
33. Flirting with Disaster: Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental
Marc S. Gerstein (Simultaneously interesting and boring.)
34 - 42. Transmetropolitan (Complete Series, 9 volumes)
Warren Ellis & Darick Robertson (Comics: If you haven't read this yet, then you are wrong.)
43. JLA/Avengers
George Perez & Kurt Busiek (Comics: this is the one with EVERYONE in it.)
44. The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World
A.K. Dewdney (A long-ago gift from Eric, just read this year. Awesome.)
45. The Delta Anomaly: Star Trek - Starfleet Academy
Rick Barba (A YA book, but okay - the characters are strong, the story weak.)
46-57. The 39 Clues, Books 1 - 12
Rick Riordan, et al. (YA stuff from Max's library, read by me and his mom at his request. The books are all by different authors, and the story is epic by definition. Good stuff, like watching Republic serials.)
58. Manhunter: Unleashed
Marc Andreyko & Javier Pina (Comics: A gift from Sandy, and a solid story.)
59. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Douglas Adams (A re-read, and will always be one of my favorite books.)
60. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Douglas Adams (A re-read, and the sequel to the above, but nowhere near as strong.)
61. Batman: Face the Face
James Robinson, Don Kramer & Leonard Kirk (Comics: Good stuff - A Two-Face story.)
62. Batman: Cacophony
Kevin Smith & Walt Flanagan (Comics: I was disappointed.)
63. Batman: Rules of Engagement
Andy Diggle & Whilce Portacio (Comics: Solid, but not special.)
64. Batman and the Monster Men
Matt Wagner (Comics: Wagner's spot-on when it comes to DC's big three, and this is no exception.)
65. Fool
Christopher Moore (Moore's take on King Lear. Kind of.)
66 - 68. The Hunger Games (trilogy)
Suzanne Collins (Between Cayce and Emily Lloyd, there was no way I was not reading these. I liked them in spite of some rather big problems, and think that the movies will screw them all up.)
69. Poor Sailor
Sammy Harkham (Comics: A strange read; knocked it out in about 10 minutes.)
70. Planetary Vol. 1: All Over the World and Other Stories
Warren Ellis & John Cassaday (Comics: Just because I hadn't read any Planetary in a while.)
71-72. Batman: Under the Hood, Vols. 1 & 2
Judd Winick & Doug Mahnke (Comics: I keep coming back to these - I love parts and hate parts...)
73. The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead
Paul Elwork (A moody period piece that I randomly plucked off the New Arrivals library shelf and loved.)
74. Batman: Death and the City
Paul Dini, et al. (Comics: a collection of Batman issues with the Joker, Zatanna, and Robin.)
75. Batman and the Mad Monk
Matt Wagner (A sequel to the above Wagner Batman. More tragic, not as clean.)
76. Chef
Jaspreet Singh (A meditation on lives, love and food in the thrall of the dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir. Excellent.)
77. Beauty Queens
Libba Bray (YA, and an Emily Lloyd recommend - one of the best, funniest things I've read in a LONG while. I loved it.)
78. Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
Christopher Moore (Excellent. Not as knee-slappingly funny as many of his, but I learned a lot about whales.)
79. Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Ed Brubaker & Doug Mahnke, et al. (Comics: retconned early Batman stories with Joker and GL - okay.)
80. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes
Deepak Chopra with Gotham Chopra (So amazingly bad I blogged about it all by itself. Go look.)
81. Gifts of The Body
Rebecca Brown (1st book for the NiH book club, a very fast, sad, and uplifting read, if a bit voyeuristic.)
82. Unfamiliar Fishes
Sarah Vowell (Just as good, but not as funny, as her last 2 books.)
83. Between Shades of Gray
Ruta Sepetys (YA: Compelling and addictive story about a Lithuanian family torn apart by Stalin's NKVD. Recommended by a Books A Million employee.)
84 - 85. The Losers: Ante Up & Double Down
Andy Diggle & Jock (Comics: Losers is always good, 1/2 of this was a re-read.)
86. George's Secret Key to the Universe
Stephen and Lucy Hawking (YA: One of Max's library books, very elementary and very British. Read 'cause Vin made me.)
87. Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan
Del Quentin Wilbur (Excellent re-telling of the day that Reagan was shot - sets the mood historically, and is very honest. Slows down time for the day of the assassination to really nail down small events that made bigger ones.)
88. Along Came a Spider
James Patterson (I'd rather be nibbled at by carnivorous fish than read anything else by James Patterson.)
89. Daytrippers
Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba (Comics: Excellent graphic meditation on life and death; the mundane made special. Borrowed from Kate Pritchard, who let me read it even before she had.)
90. The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse
Steven C. Schlozman, M.D. (Many graphic illustrations, but done by a real doctor, so very much informed fun)
91. A Great and Terrible Beauty
Libba Bray (YA: I only sought out more Libba b/c of Beauty Queens. This was okay; Book 1 of 3, apparently, but I'm not filled with a desire to attack the rest of the trilogy.)
92-94. Green Lantern: Rebirth, No Fear & Revenge of the Green Lanterns
Geoff Johns & Ethan Van Sciver, et.al. (Comics: three graphic novels deep; reviewing these for Max)
95. Identity Crisis
Brad Meltzer & Rags Morales (Comics: A re-read of the tragic hero story, two game changers ago for DC before the latest game changer)
96. Identity Disc
Robert Rodi & John Higgins (Comics: re-read also - Marvel's take on "The Usual Suspects." Vulture, Sandman, Bullseye, Sabretooth, Juggernaut and Deapool get pulled in for the job.)
97. Doctor Strange: The Oath
Brian K. Vaughan & Marcus Martin (Comics & a re-read: One my absolute favorite Dr. Strange stories.)
98. Robopocalypse
Daniel H. Wilson (The fact that this is World War Z except with robots shouldn't deter you from reading it anyway.)
99. While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction
Kurt Vonnegut (Variations on classic Vonnegut themes from early in his career - also has his line drawings!)
100. The World Is Flat: A Short History of the 21st Century
Thomas Friedman (Read and critically analyzed for a class; hated it. Friedman's a cheerleader for capitalism, a shoddy researcher, and a shitty writer.)
101. Breaking Up With God
Sarah Sentilles (A very raw and emotional memoir of one woman's process of coming to terms with her religious upbringing and training, and how that enmeshed with other aspects of her life. Anyone who raises kids with religion should read books like this one.
102. Guy Fieri Food: Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin' It
Guy Fieri with Anne Volkwein (Everyone either loves or hates Guy - I got this book for my birthday from Mer/San & Jo, because I happen to dig Guy and his food creations. Fun stuff, will be trying some of this stuff soon.)
103. The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary
Andrew Westoll (Good writing, good history and emotional storytelling, makes me wonder why chimps aren't of more value to most people.)
104. The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin
Joe McGinniss (She's much worse than you thought, and I don't care what you thought. She's worse.)
105. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
Rob Bell (a book about alternative views in Christianity written by an evangelical. Wore me out because the typeface was a terrible choice, and because most of what's in it are good arguments if all you want is a good Biblical argument. Not useless, but close. Recommended by Mitch.)
106. Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain
Portia de Rossi (Had been on my library hold list for so long I had forgotten why I wanted to read it. Didn't care for it as much as I'd wanted to.)
107. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer (More clever than it is good, but the typography is fun and the book is an emotional ride. Ultimately, I kind of wish I hadn't read it.)
108. Christmas Slaughter
Mark Grant (a re-read: Mutant apocalypse, sex and death and jokes. Terrible, but a holiday tradition for me on and off since 1991.)
109. The New Yorker Book of Kids Cartoons
edited by Robert Mankoff with an introduction by Roz Chast (Sporadically funny; picked up from the basket at the Guy Family Xmas breakfast.)
110. Return of the Dapper Men
Jim McCann & Janet Lee (Graphic novel, kind of. Surrealist fantasy, disorienting fable. Nice.)
111-112. Green Lantern: Wanted: Hal Jordan & The Sinestro Corps War Vol. 1
Geoff Johns & various artists (Comics, things Max got for Christmas that now that I'm reading anyway, seek to continue.)
