The Everyday Catholic's Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours:

The Everyday Catholic's Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours By: Daria Sockey
Non-fiction: religion, NYR 115 pages
Book Count: 34

This book goes over the basic things you need to know in order to pray the Liturgy of the Hours or the Divine Office.  (As for some reason both the book and digital forms of the breviary don't bother to include this information in them. The book forms even have other books to buy just to know where in the book you should be reading each day.)  It covers: what it is, why pray the hours, resources, a break down of the hours and seasons, and common issues and problems people have with this method of prayer.  As you can tell from the page count this book is a quick read, but it does a good job as a starting point and the listing of resources included is helpful for people that want more information.

Note to Self: The Four Loves:

The Four Loves By: C.S. Lewis
Non-fiction: Religion, Classics 141 pages
Book Count: 33

C.S. Lewis's classic book on human and divine love.

The Calorie Myth:

The Calorie Myth: How to Eat More, Exercise Less, Lose Weight, and Live Better By: Jonathan Bailor
Non-Fiction:  Food, Science, 278 pages
Book Count: 32

I was going to say that friends following my diet should add this book to the recourse list, but I do already have a video about it on the list.  Along with all the diet info that it has in the video it has a short amount of information on the exercising method that he suggests for the maximum amount of results in the shortest time. I wish that it included more on this as like most diet books I have been reading it starts with the idea that conventional ideas on weight lost haven't been working, and so the way of working out is unusual.  It also has a listing of many different people in the back for you look up their current websites/blogs/books/etc, who might not follow the same diet but include many of the same ideas.

This diet is most concerned with getting lots of non-starchy veggies and protein, while not eating processed foods, starches, and sugary foods.   It is based on the ideas that different types of food affect weight more then the calorie count and that bodies have natural set-points that can be changed based on what you eat.  It can get a little annoying with the constant use of talking about SANE vs. inSANE foods and hormone clog, but it does have some good info on how to pick foods that will fill you up and are high in nutrients.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer:

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer By: Lish McBride
Fiction: YA, paranormal, Audio Book

Sam was your average college drop out working at a fast food joint, until he caught the attention of Douglas a necromancer that insists that Sam is one too and Douglas is not happy about it.  Now Douglas is ruining Sam's life and Sam needs to learn about: his past, powers and many other things he never knew was real, and he needs to do so fast.  Also each chapter title is a song title, or based on one.


9 CDs 10.25 hrs

SHORT STORY: From FIRST Draft to FINAL Product:

SHORT STORY: From FIRST Draft to FINAL Product by: Michael Milton
Non-fiction: Writing, E-book

This book has an interesting way of showing the writing process.  It is a short story that the author wrote in the rough draft to the final copy with notes that readers gave on it as well as info on his writing and editing process and how to use other's notes to help your work.

Shapeshifters Anonymous:

Shapeshifters Anonymous by: J.A. Konrath and John Kilborn
Fiction: Paranormal, Short Story, E-book

It's Santa Claus verses the were-people. . . No, really that is the plot of the story.  Including a disclaimer at the start that Salvation Army Santas are not murderers, and the Book of Bob isn't a lost book of the Bible.

Note to Self- 33 Days to Morning Glory:

33 Days to Morning Glory - A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration By: Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC
Non-fiction: Religion, NYR 180 pages
Book Count: 31

First, for my friend that found this book gave you more questions then answers might I suggest the original book on the subject by St. Louis de Montfort, (review of e-book including book here.)  It will not answer anymore questions, but will let you know why the author had a hard time explaining things.  Also, you might like the writing style more.
For everyone else, I'm only posting this for the NYR count. And yes, this post is way after I finished this time of reading it, my posts are a little late with trips and such.

The Woman in the Photograph:

The Woman in the Photograph By: Mani Feniger
Non-fiction: History, Memoir, E-book


A women goes on a mission to find out about the history of her mother and family after seeing a picture of her from when she was younger and totally different then the woman that she remembered her mother being. As her family were Jewish Germans that came to America right before WWII, this was a harder task then it would be for many.  

Note to Self Book: Be A Man!:

Be A Man!: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be By: Fr. Larry Richards
Non-fiction: religion 195 pages
Book Count: 30

First, I read most all the physical books that my husband does to make book conversations easier.  So that is why I read this book that is clearly geared only for guys.  Although, as one would expect 90% of the things in the book would work for anyone, but was just written in a more guy friendly way.  (And 10% is people getting hit along side the head. Just kidding, that's 5% tops, the rest is pointing out to guys that all the passages they like from the Bible about being in charge of their wife/family mean the exact opposite of what they think they do.)

Everything is Going to Kill Everybody:

Everything is Going to Kill Everybody: The Terrifyingly Real Ways the World Wants You Dead By: Robert Brockway
Non-fiction: Science, humor 243 pages
Book Count: 29

This book is written by one of the writers for the website Cracked and reads much like a really long article on the site.  It is also a  book on dozens of different ways that we all could die any moment now.  Some ways we are doomed include: supervolcanos, asteroids, pole shifts, nanolitter, vernshot, biotech, and of course the robot up rising.  The most scary thing about this book is that there is a bibliography detailing the fact that the author is not making this stuff up. (Or maybe scientist's sadistic need to make robots feel pain and sadness.)

Consoling the Heart of Jesus:

Consoling the Heart of Jesus - A Do-It-Yourself Retreat Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius By: Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC
Non-fiction: Religion, NYR 381 pages
Book Count: 28

First, for the purpose of my New Year's Resolution, I am counting all the books I read that I own a physical copy of.  (Some of you may have already noticed that I do not usually include books from classes or devotional books.)  But in the cases of books that I read more then once, I am only counting/noteing one reading of it.

Second, this was actually the second time that I have read the book, because it is so crammed full of things.  This book condenses a 30 day retreat into a weekend (although I read it over a much longer time.) But also with the additions of the little way of St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy.  And just a little bit of Mary, because as those of you doing Fr. Gaitley's 33 Days class know, he's going to put something about Mary in it.
Also, you aren't expected to read all 381 pages in a weekend, only the first 195 pages are the actual retreat and the rest are appendixes to read afterwards. (If you read all the references and notes it come to 428 pages.)

The League for the Suppression of Celery:

The League for the Suppression of Celery By: Wendy Russ
Fiction: E-book

The info on this book made it sound like it was a humorous book with a touch of romance in it. In truth it was a romance novel with some weird anti-celery subplot, that in the end turned out to be sad not funny.

Haunted Georgia:

Haunted Georgia: Ghost Stories and Paranormal Activity from the State of Georgia By: Sarah Ashley
Non-fiction: Paranormal, E-book

This book is a collection of real world ghost stories from the state of Georgia.  It is divided by city/ type of area haunted.  It is a rather short book that mainly glosses over many places.

Zombie Powder Vol 4:

Zombie Powder Vol 4 By: Tite Kubo Art by: Tite Kubo
Non-fiction: Manga, 192 pages
Book Count: 27


This book is the end of the Zombie Powder series.  As such it is a bit of a disappointment.  This book reads like there should be more books in the series. In fact I looked on-line to see if maybe there were more, but no.  The short story at the end of the book was interesting, and I liked more then the main story.

40 Top Paleo Recipes:

40 Top Paleo Recipes - Quick and Easy Paleo Diet Recipes For Weight Loss & Optimum Health By: Jenny Allan
Non-Fiction: Cooking, E-book

This book actually has a table of contents, it's at the end of the book, but still it is nice to have a e-book cookbook that you can actually find things in.  It also has variations on recipes that include foods that people on Paleo may or may not eat, so if you eat potatoes you can add them, but the recipes work without them as well. Besides that it didn't have any amazing looking recipes and a lot of them used veggie oil even when more Paleo friendly fats could be used.

Murder, Money & Marzipan:

Murder, Money & Marzipan (A Lexy Baker Bakery Cozy Mystery.) By: Leighann Dobbs
Fiction: Mystery, Short Story, E-book


A judge gets murdered at a baking competition show's set. The person who found the body is of course the star of the book and an amateur detective (with the help of her grandmother and her grandmother's friends.) But she's not at home where she's friends with the police, she's in Vegas where the lead detective considers her a good suspect.

The Opposite of Poverty is Friendship:

The Opposite of Poverty is Friendship By: Duran Price
Non-fiction: Memoir, Self-Help, Religion, E-book

Another free short e-book that I picked up and read to get off the machine.  This one a group of the author's life stories about the importance of true friendship.

Zombie Powder Vol 3

Zombie Powder Vol 3 By: Tite Kubo Art by: Tite Kubo
Non-fiction: Manga, 208 pages
Book Count: 26

This volume also has a stand alone short story at the end of it.  This volume is basically the fights that are set up in volume 2.  Also I forgot to add that each book includes a couple of page or less studies on the main and not main characters that for some reason includes everyone's blood type.

Zombie Powder Vol 1:

Zombie Powder Vol 1 By: Tite Kubo Art by: Tite Kubo
Non-fiction: Manga, Western-Action, 189 pages
Book Count: 24

This manga is by the same person that does Bleach, it also uses the term Shinigami in the first 30 pages.  In this world a collection of 12 Rings of the Dead create something called zombie powder that is said to be able to bring the dead back to life and grant immortality onto the living.  Gamma is a man collecting the rings. He is also a man that has a metal hand that he uses to stop bullets with as they are being fired, brings a sword to a gun fight and wins, and has a partner who is honestly trying to kill him.  When he gets his "wallet" stolen by Elwood, a boy who is working with a gang to save money to help his sickly sister, their lives get interwoven.  The gang shoot Elwood's sister to get the reward money on Gamma's head and Elwood vows to help find all the rings to bring his sister back.

Scheduling Mix-up:

I had scheduled a number of day's post as I was not sure if I would be on-line over the holiday weekend.  It appears that when doing so I somehow posted vol. 2 before vol. 1 on the series of manga I am currently reading.  The post for vol. 1 will be out today.

Zombie Powder Vol 2:

Zombie Powder Vol 2 By: Tite Kubo Art by: Tite Kubo
Non-fiction: Manga, 182 pages
Book Count: 25

In volume 2 Gamma runs into a crime fighting journalist with knowledge of the location of another ring.  Also, at the end of the book is Tite Kubo's first short manga story that they made when the were 18.

Paleo for Weight Loss:

Paleo for Weight Loss By: Sampson Sharpe
Non-Fiction: Food, E-book

When I first started reading this book, I was going to say that the information is OK, but it reads like it was written by some one that does not speak English as their first language.  But as the book goes on, the author goes against the basics of all versions of Paleo and even things he wrote earlier and does things like suggest that industrial seed oils are some of the best fats to eat, that you should be eating both low-carb and low-fat, and that if you don't work out 3-4 times a week you will never loose weight as you will be puffy with water weight from the sugars in your muscles.

International Paleo Recipes For Two:

International Paleo Recipes For Two By: Tag Powell and Chef Cutting
Non-fiction: Food, E-book

This book does have a collection of world flavors with a Paleo twist, but it is clear that they just took non-Paleo recipes and changed out the milk and grains with substitutes as a number of the notes include ideas like serve with tortilla chips or bread.  Also savory muffins are not desserts, they may be a breakfast but bell peppers are not dessert.

Death By Food Pyramid:

Death By Food Pyramid By: Denise Minger
Non-fiction: Food, Science 247 pages
Book Count: 23

This book is much like Good Calories. Bad Calories,  (link to review here. ) It also deals with all the politics that resulted in the food pyramid, what different scientific studies actually show, and ways to better your life with food.  It differs from the other book in that it is not as set in their ideas of how you should eat.  It details how diverse diets like Paleo, the Mediterranean diet, and whole-foods plant- based diets can all work for different people by discussing genetics and what the diets have in common. (Which is largely about what they all don't include.)   

Coconut Oil: The Quick & Easy Guide:

Coconut Oil: The Quick & Easy Guide by: Joey Cardillo
Non-fiction, Food, E-book


This is a book that I am glad that I got when it was being given away.  Although, it is written using proper grammar, it reads like it should be written in caps lock with five !'s after every line.  This guy loves coconut oil, he's too busy to give you all that many details on the studies that found out how it is good for you, but there are links.  I was hoping that it might include some recipes, but not really.

Bloodsucker Bay:

Bloodsucker Bay (Vol 1 The Demon Isle Witches) By: Rachel Humphrey- D'aigle
Fiction: Paranormal, Short Story, E-book


This book is set in modern times on an island that has a strange magic power on it.  A family of witches is charged with protecting the inhabitants of the island as they have done for generations.  However, unlike other families in this situation, they want out to live a normal life. (Or at least as normal as you can have when you dream people's deaths, or can see how people died by touching their bodies.)  Although their family friend / guardian is a vampire that is not what the title refers to. As in this book they deal with a body thought to be killed by a sea hag, the possible magic caused death of a close friend and the disappearance of their parents a couple of years ago.

How to Budget: The Rich Mama Family Spending Plan:

How to Budget: The Rich Mama Family Spending Plan by: Andrea Stein
Non-fiction: Economics, e-book

I have decided that I have way too many e-books on my reader, and so I am working on reading some of the shorter ones to remove them.  This book is a quick and fast read on budgeting that includes multiple ways to do things depending on what would work best for you.

Low Carb Diet Handbook:

Low Carb Diet Handbook - The Ultimate Low Carb Diet Plan And Cookbook To Lose Weight Fast And Enjoy The Process By: Michael Sean
Non-fiction: E-book

This book reads like a Middle School report: complete with many typos, mis-information, and most likely a large amount of just re-wording information from websites like Wikipedia.  I would say that I was glad that I got this for free, but even that was too much for this.  I only finished reading this, so I could know all the ways that this book is bad. (And it only took 10 minutes to read.)  For example, as a "cookbook" there are no recipes in this book, just names and nutritional info on recipes that you can find some where else.  Also it includes such useful advice as a drink with 10 grams carbs is good for the start of an Atkins diet when you are only eating 20 grams of carbs a day.   And it was an almost incomprehensible jumble of words and thoughts, relating to low carb diets and not low carb diets that they think might be low carb.

Dying to Get Published:

Dying to Get Published ( The Jennifer Marsh Mysteries) By: Judy Fitwater
Fiction: Mystery, E-book

Jennifer Marsh has written many mystery novels, but none of them have been published.  When she hears about a person that got a book deal after they were wrongly accused of murder, she decides that she is going to do the same thing.  So she found a horrible book agent who no one would be sad about dying and starts sending her threatening letters, then she plots a way to kill her while she also had an airtight alibi.  She decides that she can't go threw with actually killing her, but in the mean time some one else kills her, leaving Jennifer the prime suspect.  So she has to prove that she wasn't the killer in true mystery book fashion, by finding the real killer.

The Infernals:

The Infernals By: John Connolly
Fiction: YA, fantasy, paranormal, humor 309 pagesBook Count: 22

This book is the sequel to The Gates which is reviewed here.  In this book Samuel and his dog Boswell, the heroes from the first book, get sucked into Hell, as well as two police officers in their cop car, an ice cream truck and driver, and some ill tempered, drunken dwarfs in a van.  Once there they need to escape the demon from the first book, which has taken to calling itself Mrs. Abernathy and wearing dresses and a mostly human like body, as well as finding a way back out of Hell.  They meet back up with Nurd and his helper Wormwood, who are driving Samuel's dad's car around disguised as a rock.  (As a moving rock isn't the weirdest thing in Hell.)  And we also learn about the effects of the failed invasion in Hell, which could result in a all out war.

The Hitwoman Gets Lucky:

The Hitwoman Gets Lucky (Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman) by: J B Lynn
Fiction: E-book, Mystery, Short Story,  Fantasy

This shorter story is about a hitwoman who can understand animals, going on a mission with her mentor. In which she also brings along a co-worker from her day job as cover and her niece's pet lizard, Godzilla. (Because he was complaining that he would get lonely without her.)  This book is part of a series, but it goes over everything that you might need to know from other books in the series.

No-Cook Paleo! - On the Go Recipes:

No-Cook Paleo! - On the Go Recipes: By: Ben Plus Publishing
Non-fiction: E-book, Cooking

I am glad that I got this book when it was free, as the title is completely misleading.  Most all of the recipes call for cooking the food for hours in a dehydrator. Now I know some people could argue that dehydrating is not cooking, but even it points out that if you don't have a dehydrator using an oven on low would also work, as commercial dehydrators do use heat and cook the food some what.  Also, if a recipe takes hours to make it isn't all that on the go. The recipes themselves sound OK, but a number of them are super simple, like how to dehydrate fruits.

Your Personal Paleo Code:

Your Personal Paleo Code By: Chris Kresser
Non-fiction: food/cooking, diet 392 pages
Book Count: 21

I read this book because it was the only Paleo-Primal book that the library also had on audio book, as I read it in the hopes that someone that only "reads" audio books would like it, but although it did have a lot of useful information in it, at the start it is too strict for them.  So this book wouldn't be my first choice for someone interested in this diet.  It would; however, be great for someone that has already started the diet and wanted to adjust the diet for their own body, medical conditions and likes.

Best of Grain Free Meal Plans, Vol 1:

Best of Grain Free Meal Plans, Vol 1 by: Cara Faus
Non-fiction: Cooking/food, E-book


This book is clearly written as a Paleo (or similar diet)  cookbook and not just for people with gluten issues.  As such it has non-dairy options for most times that dairy is used.  It does use fermented dairy, which  many lactose intolerant people can still eat.  And it even has a section on how to make many different fermented foods; as well as breakfast, lunch, dinners, snacks and desserts.  The recipes look good, but a number of them I have seen elsewhere, also the e-book has some formatting issues so a number of recipes are jumbled up.

Pope John XXIII : The Good Pope

Pope John XXIII : The Good Pope By: Wyatt North
Non-Fiction: E-book, History, Biography

This book is a  biography of Pope John XXIII, who by the time that this post is published will be officially a saint.  This book goes over his life before he was pope, how unexpected his papacy was, how he was sainted without the customary number of miracles and how his papacy and Francis's have many similarities.  It also includes the first 2 chapters on the same author's book on Pope Francis.  Some of the similarities between the two popes: unusual name choices with questions on numbering (there was an anti-pope called John XXIII, and no one had taken the name John since him),  they were older when elected,  they are/were known as more pastoral popes and visit(ed) the poor, sick and imprisoned, they have appointed a diverse mix of cardinals, and many other things.

Simon's Cat:

Simon's Cat by: Simon Tofield

Non-fiction: Cartoon, humor 240 pages 

Book Count: 20

This book is a collection of the Simon's cat comics that are popular around the Internet.  Some are part of larger arcs in the book and some are just of a cat acting like a cat. 

Why We Get Fat:

Why We Get Fat: and What to do About it by: Gary Taubes
Non-fiction: food, science 225 pages
Book Count: 19

First, a list of things that I ate while reading this book that conventional wisdom would say is bad for weight loss: bacon, McDonald's cheeseburgers (sans bun and ketchup), full fat cheese, coffee with whipping cream in it, veggies cooked in bacon grease, and something called a fat bomb.  Weight lost when reading this -0, but I lost a pound the day after I finished it.

This book is mostly a easier to read and shorter version of Good Calories. Bad Calories.  It is much less detailed in all the science involved and more about how you can use this information.  Also as it was written after the other book, there was a major study that included a comparison of 4 diets: Atkins, LEARN (a traditional diet), Ornish, and the Zone.  This was called the A TO Z Weight Loss Study and it found that the low carb Atkins diet had the most weight loss and the greatest reduction in triglycerides and blood pressure.   

The Elements of F*cking Style:

The Elements of F*cking Style: a helpful parody By: Chris Baker and Jacob Hansen
Non-fiction: writing, humor, NYR, 86 pages
Book Count:18

Eighteen books and four months and I am finally onto one of my NYR books. (remember my new year's resolution post on reading books I own?)  For other people that have studied writing you might notice that this book title is much like that of THE BOOK to read to learn all the details of proper written grammar. And this book has the same goal as the original, only it's much, much shorter and full of sex and drugs and rock and roll (and so many swears.) In short it is transgressional non-fiction. (Transgressional fiction is the genre of books that things like Fight Club fall into. They deal with breaking free of societal norms and often deal with taboo subject matter.)  So it is somewhat ironic that a book on the rules of writing uses a anti-rules format to teach them in; however, which can you name, the first two rules of fight club or what a gerund is? I know some of you can answer both, but I bet you didn't have to think about one at all.  This is why the authors picked the way of writing they did, so maybe you remember some of these rules and not just fall asleep trying to read it.

Also, although this should go without saying do not give this book to your grandmother or a five year old, unless your grandmother is a very unusual little old lady.

Paleoista:

Paleoista : Gain Energy, Get Lean, and Fell Fabulous with the Diet You Were Born to Eat By: Nell Stephenson
Non-Fiction: Food/Cooking 257 pages
Book Count: 17

First, I am glad that this wasn't the first book on the Paleo diet that I read.  As if it was I would never be interested in it.  The author insists that the Paleo diet is not in fact low carb, but that you eat almost the same amount of carbs as the standard American diet.  And also that the fat and protein amounts aren't that different either.  She then sticks fruit in most everything to up the carb count and insists on lean meats as well.  Also for some reason she hates salt, not the added salt in pre-made and canned food, but all salt.  So the only people that are allowed a pinch of salt on any of their food is pro level athletes. (as salt is an important electorite that you need and loose during exercise.[Which is true for everyone and not just people working out for hours a day, who need a lot more then a pinch of salt with dinner.]) Which might have you thinking, so what I'll just add a pinch of salt to my food so it tastes good, well her answer to that is that if you ever eat even a bite of non-Paleo food you have complexly ruined your entire diet. She also makes random comments about how this or that is horrible and not food with out explaining why, (even with foods that other Paleo writers are fine with.)
Now there are some good bits in the book.  As you get into the book she does talk about what fruits are lower GI and talks about eating more lower GI foods than high ones.  She also includes information on other books on the Paleo diet that have more information in them. And she has stories of women that went Paleo peppered throughout the book, that are more realist then the rest of the book.
In short, I wouldn't recommend this book to any of my friends that want to know more about my diet.

Coffee with Jesus:

Coffee with Jesus By: David Wilkie
Non-fiction: Religion 118 pages
Book Count: 16

This book is a collection of the popular Internet comics called Coffee with Jesus.  Along with the comic strips there are short bios on the characters having coffee with Jesus and a set of questions at the end.

Primal Blueprint Cookbook:

Primal Blueprint Cookbook by: Mark Sisson with Jennifer Meier
Non-fiction: cooking 279 pages
Book Count: 15

This book has a wide variety of meals, sides, desserts and misc. recipes that all fit with a primal/paleo diet.  They all look fairly easy to make and tasty.  The book is divided up by main ingredient or type of dish, but it could use a table of contents or index to making it easier to re find a recipe.

The Primal Blueprint 21 Day Total Body Transformation:

The Primal Blueprint 21 Day Total Body Transformation By: Mark Sisson
Non-fiction: Food 192 pages
Book Count: 14

This book starts with a shorten description on the primal diet/ lifestyle and then has a 21 day challenge on how to jump into following the primal blueprint.

The Primal Blueprint:

The Primal Blueprint By: Mark Sisson
Non-fiction: food, science 273 pages
Book Count: 13

I started reading the web site that goes with this book, before reading the book, so not only does this book go over a number of things that all the other diet books that I have been reading, but also other writings from the same author.  However, this book also deals with more then just diet, but a whole lifestyle based on the best things that were part of early human life. Also the next two or so books that I read in paper form will also be from the same author as this diet works for me. 
The primal diet is much like that of the paleo diet, (no grains, lower carbs, based mainly on veggies, meat, and fruits.) But also allows for dairy for those that do not have issues with dairy and understands that you aren't going to follow the diet 100% of the time and lets you know the best options of non-primal foods.  It also includes a large amount of exercise info that also goes against conventional wisdom like the diet itself.  It includes most of your exercising time spend on lower energy exercising like hiking, walking, slower bike rides or playing backyard pick-up games of your favorite sports.  Plus, every once in a while going all out with sprints, fast biking and other similar work outs for a short time.  And last some level of strenght training. This book is a bit more strict then the website, (http://www.marksdailyapple.com ) so some of the things I said may be more about the website then the book, as see last entry on having read the book weeks ago. 

The Steampunk Gazette:

The Steampunk Gazette By: Major Tinker
Non-Fiction: Sci-fi/Fantasy, History, Pop Culture 249 pages
Book Count: 12

This is a book on all things steampunk.  It includes chapters on the main things of steampunk, with shorter two or so pages sub-chapters on many things with a lot of pictures and examples on all these things.  It deals with the history of steampunk, sub-groups, conventions, living steampunk and much more. 

It was a very quick and fun read which I would have posted about in the middle of the month, with more details, but as many of you know I was a bit busy. 

Wheat Belly:

Wheat Belly By: William Davis, MD
Non-fiction: Science, Diet 266 pages
Book Count: 11

Yes, I did check out a whole bunch of books from the same section of the library at once and now I feel like I have to read them all, even thought a lot of the information repeats itself, why do you ask?

Anyway this book as well as dealing with the importance of the effect that foods have on your blood sugar also deals with the way that modern wheat has been made and how it seams to be effecting people.  As some of you may know scientist and farmers have been working on grains that will make more food in less time for the last 50 years (they were working on it some since people domesticated plants, but in a slower less engineered way.)  This has lead to wheat that is much easier to grow, but also that has a different genetic make up then earlier wheats.  And it has also lead to an increase of people that have shown problems with eating this wheat (Celiac disease, gluten intolerance, other medical issues).  The author's belief is that the two things are connected.  This book first deals with the science and anidotial evidence to support his claim and then becomes a diet book about how to eat wheat free, including a few recipes.

The Golem and the Jinni:

The Golem and the Jinni By: Helene Wecker
Fiction: Fantasy 484 pages
Book Count: 10

This is the story of a female golem (clay person brought to life to serve their master in Jewish mythology.) and a male jinni (based largely on the original jinni found in Muslim stories.)  They both end up in New York City at around the turn of the century (1900's) The golem was made to be the wife of a man who brought her to life on the boat ride over to America and then died of a ruptured appendice.  She is found by a kindly old rabbi after she accidentally steals food because without a master she can hear the wants of everyone and a small boy was hungry. The jinni pops out of an oil bottle in a metalworkers shop having no memory of how he got there or why he is stuck in his human form.  From there the story is of two fish out of water in an intertwining circle with an unexpected ending.

Good Calories. Bad Calories:

Good Calories. Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease By: Gary Taubes
Non-fiction: Science, Food 460 pages
Book Count: 9

This book starts with the idea that much of what the public is taught about healthy eating is the product of bad science.  Not that the test done on diet were all that bad (although do to the inability of doing double blind test on what people eat there are limitations to using normal scientific protocols in the tests.) But that people have consistently interpreted the results of tests to fit their hypothesis/the current ideas on food. (Some he argues do to blindness, some to save face, some to save their job, and some because the test wasn't even testing what they thought it was. He also goes into detail on why they did this.) To argue this point he deals with the actual raw data relating to diet from the last century.  This makes this book very dense reading with a lot of footnotes, bibliography entries, and a large index.  They author's main point is that carbs and especially the highly processed carbs of the modern diet are the reason that people in Western and Westernized countries are getting fatter and dealing with weight related health problems like heart problems and diabetes. Because there are not large number of large scale studies that have looked at the possibility that a low-carb diet can help one lose weight or improve health or that compare the low-fat, low calorie diet with a low-carb one (At least not when this was written) when he deals with proving why he thinks this he has to use more individual cases and observations.   But, after dealing with the problems in the use of low-fat, calorie reducing diets, his theory comes across as something that at least looks promising.

Note to friends: Yes, I have lost weight, twice the amount that I ever lost on a traditional diet, also I am not hungry, and I'm only working out because I have more energy now. :)

15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes:

15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes By: Dana Carpender
Non-Fiction: Cooking 245 pages
Book Count: 8

Yes, more diet books. . .  I would apologize, but as most of my friends reading this are also dieting, enjoy. This book has a wide variety of quick meals, drinks, desserts and condiments all with info on their carbs, fiber and protein.  The ingredient list for most every thing can be found at the grocery store of a good sized town.  (Even many of the odder things I've seen at places like Wal-mart.) The most carb filled recipes have around 15 net carbs (total carbs minus fiber and/or other non-digested carbs.)  

Darth Vader and Son:

Darth Vader and Son By Jeffrey Brown
Fiction: Graphic Novel, Humor 64 pages
Book Count: 7

This book is a series of comics about what would it be like if Darth Vader had actually raised Luke and Lei. In the comics Luke is 4. It's cute and funny with lots of Star Wars jokes included.

TCIGT: Low-Carb Meals:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Low-Carb Meals By: Lucy Beale and Sandy G. Couvillon, M.S., L.D.N., R.N.
Non-fiction: food, 364 pages
Book Count: 6

This book is not for any particular type of low-carb diet and so has a range of meals with between a couple to 30 net carbs per dish.  It also has sections for things that are less low carbs with ideas and cheats to make some of them lower; however, it also has some just  messing with the serving size, things like a corn and black bean "salad" with a serving size of a couple of spoon fulls (they note that it is more of a salsa but put it in with salads like that is going to be one of your veggies for a meal.) It also has meal plan ideas and all the normal sidebars that this type of book normally has.

Long Live the Queen:

Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire #3) By: Kate Locke
Fiction: Mystery, Sci-fi/Fantasy 311 pages
Book Count: 5

This is the end of this book series.  Info on book 2 can be found here. In this book she is still looking for the people behind the labs running tests on halfies.  She has also taken her role as the queen of the goblins and is dealing with a near revolution of humans.  And then there is the monster that almost kills Vex, the alpha of the werewolves and her boyfriend, who looks like her and might be her daughter.

You on A Diet:

You on A Diet by: Michael F. Roizen M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz M.D.
Non-fiction: Food, Science 354 pages
Book Count: 4

This book has a lot of the science of how a diet works with info on the way the body processes food as well.  Also I used a fast food receipt for the bookmark and left it in the book to mess with whoever checks it out of the library next.

Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails:

Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails By: Ted Haigh
Non-Fiction: Food, History 331 pages
Book Count: 3

This book not only has 100 recipes for drinks you may have never heard of before, but it also has the stories behind the drinks and info on where you can find some of the hard to find ingredients and more drink related info.  The drinks are from the earliest bartender's guides, to drinks that with a few changes and new name you can still find today. Some require unusual bitters, liqueurs, and fortified wines; but some you could make with things that a decently stocked home bar would have.

Style Me Vintage:

Style Me Vintage By: Belinda Hay
Non-Fiction: 109 pages
Book Count: 2

This book uses British words and names for things, which mostly are easy to guess the American word for.  It also has step-by-step instructions for hairstyles from the 20's to the 60's, as well as pictures of many of the steps and the finished look.  

The Glycemic Load Diabetes Solution:

The Glycemic Load Diabetes Solution By: Rob Thompson, MD
Non-Fiction: Health, Food, Science 242 pages
Book Count: 1

First, a note to my friends that read this blog.  I am not diabetic.  In the normal New Year's Resolution, "I'm going to lose weight/ get healthy this year," thing I decided to use the diet that in the past had giving me the easiest weight loss, which was watching my carbs, expecily the ones that don't come from whole fruits and veggies. . . You can eat all the broccoli you want, it doesn't count as a sugar.

Now about the book.  This book is written based off of the idea of the glycemic load, which is a lot like the glycemic index in that it is all about how a food spikes your blood sugar compared to a slice of white bread; however, instead of using the same amount of sugars for the test they used a serving size.  So although in the index carrots are a high index food, you have to eat 7 full sized carrots for the amount to equal a slice of bread.  In the glycemic load tests they used one carrot and their numbers were a lot better than bread. In fact most all foods that are not full of grains (and potatoes) are lower on the glycemic load, so the main point of the diet is to not eat many starches or sugary drinks (the drinks because your body doesn't notice the sugar and calories from drinks as well as foods).  It is not like the Atkins diet in that fruits and veggies are encouraged in this diet and even for foods that are discouraged, eating a little is OK. This book was also written by someone that eats the diet and has had weight loss and improved health because of it.  The book also has a ton of information on diabetes which would be helpful for someone with diabetes.
(Not: he also has books on this subject for people that don't have diabetes, but the library didn't have it in, and I wanted to read some books at the start of my diet to refresh my memory.)

New Year's Resolutions:

I noticed that I did not actually post what was my reading New Year's Resolution last year, making the posts labeled with NYR (for new year's resolution) look like a random collection of books with no connections, so for this year I will let you in on what gets the NYR label for 2014.  After reading an article that talked about a book that I have been meaning to read and even own I decided that this year I would read 12 books that I actually own a physical copy of.  As so often I end up reading the books that I get from a library first and then e-books and then never get to the books I own unless it's something that I just bought for a class or group, as when I go to return the library book I fine half a dozen more books that I want to read and start the cycle all over again.

Fortunately the Milk:

Fortunately the Milk By: Neil Gaiman
Fiction: Children's, Fantasy 114 pages
Book Count: 48

A funny thing happened on the way to pick up some milk from the corner store for this dad. . .

Pierre Toussant:

Pierre Toussant By: Arthur Jones
Non-Fiction: Biography 323 pages
Book Count: 47

This book is a modern biography of Pierre Tousant.  Pierre was born a slave in what is now Haiti. He moved to New York in the early days of America. and became a hairdresser at the command of his owner.  He ended up providing for his owner and their family with the money he made styling hair. Later he was freed and became a rather wealthy man for the time, but still had to deal with the racism and religious bigotry of the day. And is not in the process of being officially canonized a saint. It takes info both from earlier biographies and letters and news reports from the time.

Insane City:

Insane City By: Dave Barry
Fiction: Humor, Audio Book

This is the story of a lavish destination wedding. This is the story of a family of illegal aliens trying to make it to America. This is the story of an ape that does not like men.  This is the story of pot brownies and billionaires.  But above all it is the story about why it is important  that your cabbie knows how to get to the hotel, because if he did, none of this would happen.


7 CDs, 8 hours

Dec E-Books:

The Grimm Diaries Prequels Vol 1-6 By: Cameron Jace
Fiction: Fantasy, E-book

I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory By: Julie Dawn Cole
Non-fiction: Memoir, E-book

Voyage with the Vikings: 1 AIO Imagination Station Books By: Paul McCusker and Marianne Hering
Fiction: Children, Religion, Sci-Fi, E-Book

To Kill An Armchair Husband, a dark comedy By: Terri Weeding
Fiction: E-Book

The Invention of Murder:

The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime by: Judith Flanders
Non-fiction: History, Mystery 466 pages
Book Count: 46

A proper Victorian house was not complete with out figurines of murders on the mantel, well that is not completely true, copies of the houses were the murder took place, or pieces of the victims clothing that you cut off their cold, dead body were also completely acceptable.  This book is all about the way that the press and public dealt with and felt about murder, as well as how this resulted in the beginning of forensic science.  It starts with a quadruple murder in 1811 and ends with Jack the Ripper. There is lots of information in the dense pages of the book about famous and less well know cases.

America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't:

America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't By: Stephen Colbert
Non-fiction: Humor
Audio Book

Another book on America by Stephen Cobert.  This one on how we were the greatest nation on the earth and we will be the greatest nation on earth, its just the now that looks less than greatest.  Like all of his books it is very funny while still being social commentary at times.  Over all it was full of truthieness.

3 CDs c.3 hours

The Fairy Ring:

The Fairy Ring or Elsie and Frances Fool the World By: Mary Losure
Non-fiction: History, Paranormal, Biography
Audio Book

This is the story of the two girls that made the fairy photos that fooled people for years, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who believed in fairies even before seeing the pictures.) It tells of their lives from the time that the cousins first started living together due to WWI, to after the truth of the photos came out decades later.
2 CDs 2 hours 26 min

The TAO of Martha:

The TAO of Martha By: Jen Lancaster
Non-fiction: Memoir, Humor
Audio Book

This is the story of a woman that spends a year trying to live like Marta Stewart in the hopes that it will improve her life. Only instead of living in a country estate with well behaved balls of fluff, she lives in the suburbs in a house with a kitchen gun safe (from the last owners) and a mix of a sick dog, other dogs and crazy cats at war with the rest of the house.  So things don't always turn out "Marthay".
7 CDs 8 hours 57 min

A Note to Self: Too Busy To Comment

As you my know I am super busy right now, and so I have A. not been reading that many stories and B. not had time to work on my blog. So before I forget the books that I have some how been able to read I am just going to list them so I can check to see if I read them if I see them later and think, "That book looks familiar" I can see that I read it.

Easy Bake Coven By: Liz Schulte
Fiction: Fantasy, e-book

Catching Fire (The Second Book of The Hunger Games) By: Suzanne Collins
Fiction: Sci-Fi, YA, 391 pages
Book Count: 46

(I HAD to read this before the movie came out, so if we don't end up seeing this I am going to be upset!)

When God Whispers Your Name By: Max Lucado
Non-Fiction: Religion, audio book
4 CDs 4.25 hours

Rebuilt:

Rebuilt By: Michael White and Tom Corcoran
Non-Fiction: religion 280 pages
Book Count: 45

This book is the story of changes that one church in Maryland made in order to "rebuild" their parish. This is also a book that everyone working at my church office has read, and has been in part the subject of more then one homily as well.  So that is why I read it.  It was an interesting look at how modern people often view church and ways that changing that can improve the life of a parish as well as make it a place where the unchurched people can feel welcome to investigate church.  It deals a lot with seeing what is working in other churches, but not blindly coping things, rather looking at what is the underlying reason that something works.  It also has a lot of on-line resources for more information.

Wise Blood:

Wise Blood by: Flannery O' Connor
Fiction: religion, 248 pages
Book Count: 44

First, a warning for people that do not know this author. This author was a Southerner that wrote about Southerners during the 1940's -50's. She also explored issues of race in her works, so it includes characters that say things that can only be said by rap stars today.

The story itself is odd and haunting.  It is a story of many people who are lost, not usually physically but in the very essence of their being.  It is also a social commentary of many things, using a combination of comedy, tragedy,and drama to make the readers think much more then anyone in the book does. It is the type of book that is hard to write about.

The Saint Louis de Montfort Collection:

The Saint Louis de Montfort Collection By: St. Louis de Montfort et al, Ed. by: Catholic Way Publishing
Non-fiction: e-book, religion, biography, c.762 pages
Book Count: 37-43 (a 7 book collection)

This book is a collection of books by and about St. Louis de Montfort.  It includes all of his major works as well as a biography of his life.  There are some issues for readers in this edition of the books. One there are a number of passages that have not been translated from the Latin and there is no in text translation for them. (And no Le Ann I can not translate them all for you.) Also there are a number of typos in the books.  Most of them are small and easy to tell what it should be, but towards the end of the book there are more typos and a few cause the passage to mean something different/opposite of what it should read.  But given the small price I still would recommend it to people that are interested in the works of St. Louis de Montfort.

Al Capone Does My Homework:

Al Capone Does My Homework By: Gennifer Choldenko
Fiction: children’s, historical 212 pages
Book Count: 36

This is book three in the series. Click here for book two's info.  In this book the dad gets a promtion, thier house sets on fire and Al Capone "helps" with homework. 

The Gnome and Mrs. Meyers:

The Gnome and Mrs. Meyers By: Susan Klein
Fiction: E-book

This is a light read about a middle aged widow who wins the job of being the first human in an gnome exchange program.  A gnome comes to live with her and they have related adventures.  It is a fun story, but clearly is self published and includes sketches at the end of each chapter.

The Ghost and Mrs. Hobbs:

The Ghost and Mrs. Hobbs By: Cynthia DeFelice
Fiction: Mystery, Children's, Audio Book

This is the second book in a series about a young girl, Allie, that can see ghosts.  You do not need to read the first book in the series to enjoy this book.  In this book Allie,  is haunted by a younger good looking man, who seams to have something to do with the old, scary lunch lady at her school.  It also is connected with fires.

3.75 hrs 3 CDs

Dave Barry I'll Mature When I'm Dead:

Dave Barry I'll Mature When I'm Dead : Dave Barry's Amazing Tales of Adulthood By: Dave Barry
Non-fiction: Essays, Humor, Biography, Audio Book

These essays are almost all new stories about being any adult.  It includes info o dating, being a parent, technology, and his versions of a couple of famous TV shows and books.

4 hrs. 16 mins. 4CDs

The Shadows:

The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere By: Jacqueline West
Fiction: Children's, Fantasy, Audio Book

When Olive moved into an old Victorian mansion, she knew something was odd.  There were all sorts of old, odd things left over from the last owner, a little old lady that died in the house. There were paintings that just didn't look right, and were glued onto the walls.  And then she found the magic glasses and the talking cats.  She learns that she can explore the paintings, going into them with her glasses, and she learns that there is something sinister behind the house and the paintings, but she has a hard time finding out who and what. 


5 hrs. 30 mins. 5 CDs

Sovereign:

Sovereign The Book of Mortals- Book #3 By: Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee
Fiction: Sci fi/Fantasy, religion, 327 pages
Book Count: 35

The review of the second book in the series can be found here. This book is the ending of the series. 

The book picks up years after book two.  There are only a few Mortals left and they are being hunted by both the Dark Bloods and the Immortals.  Then one of them make a virus that will kill both the Dark Bloods and the Immortals, the only down side is that it could turn them back to what they were before they ever encountered Johnathan. The scientist will not listen to anyone that points out that that will destroy them too, and is going to release the virus no matter what.  Rom runs to Feyn to try to save her and Jordin runs to the desert to find Roland and save the Immortals.

Thank You Notes:

Thank You Notes by: Jimmy Fallon with the writers of Late Night
Non-fiction: Humor 164 pages
Book Count: 34

This book is a series of "letters" written to various things, places, and people in the style of the thank you notes on the show.

Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese:

Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Recipes, and Pairings By: Tenaya Darlington
Non-Fiction: Cooking/Food, 243 pages
Book Count: 33

This book is a guide to artisanal cheeses.  It includes info on the taste, "personality", food to eat with, and wine and beer to drink with each cheese.  It also has info on many cheese makers, the store Di Bruno Bros., recipes using cheese, and other beginner info on cheeses.

Note to Self: The Great Gatsby:

The Great Gatsby By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fiction: Classics 180 pages
Book Count: 32

Born To Kvetch:

Born To Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods By: Michael Wex
Non-Fiction: Religion 303 pages
Book Count: 31

This book deals with many common Yiddish words and phrases, their meanings, history, and pronunciation.  Do to the nature of the language you also learn about the history of Jews in Europe, the Jewish religion, and Jewish way of thinking.

The Queen is Dead:

The Queen is Dead (The Immortal Empire 2) By: Kate Locke
Fiction: Mystery, Sci-fi/Fantasy 333 pages
Book Count: 30

This book is the second in the series of the book that I reviewed 2 days ago.  In this book Xandra's half brother, Val (same Vamp dad, different courtesan mother) is kidnapped in connection with the group that is running test on half-bloods.  Once again Xandra must work to find him. Although this time she has the help of Vex her werewolf Alpha of a boyfriend, Penny Lane (Val's half sibling who is the best cross-dresser in London and also works at the club he disappeared from), her half sisters, and the goblins, she is still wrapping her head around what she learned about herself in book one.  And not only do unknown aristocrats hate her, the Human League (an anti non human terrorist group) are after her, and she and Queen Victoria aren't all that friendly. 

Better Than Fiction:

Better Than Fiction: True Travel Tales From Great Fiction Writers Edited By: Don George
Non-fiction: Travel, Memoir 320 pages
Book Count: 29

The title of this book tell you most everything you need to know about this book.  It is 32 true stories about travel that were written by fiction authors. Before each story is a short Bio on each writer including things that they have written in the fiction world.  The stories themselves cover a range of emotions and locations.

God Save the Queen:

God Save the Queen (The Immortal Empire 1) By: Kate Locke
Fiction: Mystery, Sci-Fi/Fantasy 348 pages
Book Count: 28

The main premise of this story is that the plague caused changes in the DNA of the royalty. Some became vampires, some werewolves, and some goblins.  Queen Victoria is still on the throne in her 175th year of rule.  She is a vampire, the werewolves live in Scotland and the goblin live in the London underground and are seen more as animals then people.  Most of the people are still humans and there are half-bloods, which work mainly at jobs protecting the vampires and werewolves.   As you can tell this book is alternative history book, that feels a little steampunk at times (their clothing is still Victorianish) but although there are different names for things cars run on gas, computers and cell phones on electricity etc.

The main character is Xandra a half-blood with a vampire duke as a father and a human courtesan who is a carrier of the plague DNA as a mother.  Her half sister (same father different courtesan mother) is taken to Bedlem (with is still a mental hospital in this world) and then kills herself.  Or at least that is the story.  Xandra doesn't believe that she is dead.  First because of her gut feeling, but when she sees the horribly burnt  body she notices that one of the few parts of her body that is still recognizable (her teeth) aren't right.  This sets her up on a mission to find the truth that leads her to find our much more then she wanted to about herself, her family, and the world around her.

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong:

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong By: Prudence Shen & Faith Erin Hicks
Non-fiction: Graphic Novel, YA 280 pages
Book Count: 27

The first thing you need to know about this book is the title on the cover runs out of space and does the curve down to fit it in. So you know it in fact will go wrong.  This story is a twist on the classic nerds vs. jock story.  Both the robotics club and the cheerleaders want the same money for each of their groups. The captain of the basketball team is friends with the leader of the robotics club and dated the captain of the cheerleaders, so he gets stuck in the middle of the argument. First the robotics club leader runs for student president to get the money.  So the cheerleaders sign the basketball captain for president and campaign for him as he won't. Both campaigns get messy and that's when the story takes a surprising turn.

The Henchmen's Book Club:

The Henchmen's Book Club By: Danny King
Fiction: Humor, Literature, Pop Culture, E-book
Book Count: 26

This book is about a British guy who starts a book club.  Sure he works for a secret organization that supplies super villains with their help. Sure he is a henchman, goon, hired thug, etc. He isn't really a bad guy or anything, most of the time he's guarding the vending machines.  In short this book is a humorous spoof of movies like the James Bond series and Arnold Schwarzenegger films. And fact two of his nemeses in the book is a British spy that has to always makes witty comments and innuendos (but don't call him a civil servant) and an American with unusually large muscles who's answer to everything is violence.
 But he only wants to get out of the job alive and with some money, which he only gets if the boss doesn't screw everything up with their need for drama and overly complicated plots.  To pass the time he and some other henchmen start a book club. Then his book club becomes a secret organization with in a secret organization which leads to the dramatic ending.

Other People's Rejection Letters:

Other People's Rejection Letters: Edited By: Bill Shapiro
Non-fiction: 192 pages
Book Count: 25

As the title points out this book is full of rejection letters.  There are from people of all ages, from the many different years, and on many different things.  It includes break up letters, firings, and much more.  Some famous rejection letters include a military report on Jimi Hendrix, F. Scott Fitzgerald's opinions on his daughter, and an art museum rejection for Andy Warhol. Although, there is only the actual letters in the body of the book, there are some that are groupings for one person's many rejections and at the end there is stories and more information on some of the letters.

Gross America:

Gross America - Your Coast-to-Coast Guide to All Things Gross (Featuring Brains in Jars, Frozen Dead Guys, Candy-Coated Insects, the World's Only Poop-fueled Streetlamps, and much more!) By: Richard Faulk
Non-fiction: travel 250 pages
Book Count: 24

This book is a lot like the show "Mysteries at the Museum" but only dealing with gross things.  Sadly, there is apparently no gross things in my state and the near-by states are filled with museums filled with STDs. It includes things that you would expect in a book like this; the Mutter Museum, the SPAM Museum, and the Cockroach Hall of Fame and Museum.  And it includes less famous things like; a restaurant named after a cannibal, flameless cremations (which are a lot like pressure cooking someone into goo), and a biography bound in the subject's own skin.

At Large:

At Large By: Lynne Murray
Fiction: Mystery 288 pages
Book Count: 23

Josephine Fuller is a plus sized women that is comfortable in her skin.  But when she runs into the husband of the woman that her ex-husband was last with, things go down hill fast. First, she gets fired from the charity that she was volunteering at. Next her ex's lover gets killed and she's the one that finds the body. From there she is at the center of a murder mystery that leads her to piss off a group of vegan lesbians, get offered a job in the pron industry, have her home cleaned by a medium, and much more. Over all I liked the book, but the ending seamed a bit hurried.

Murder in the Place of Anubis:

Murder in the Place of Anubis By: Lynda S. Robinson
Fiction: Mystery, Historic 218 pages
Book Count: 22

As you might have guessed this book is a murder mystery that takes place in ancient Egypt.  It takes place during the reign of King Tut and deals with the issues that his father/father-in-law Akhenaten caused with his changes to the country's religion and capital, and is not just in King Tut's lifetime because he is so well known. This book is the fourth book in the series, but is a read alone book.

Point Your Face at This:

Point Your Face at This By: Demetri Martin
Non-fiction: Humor, Art 288 pages
Book Count: 21

This book is a collection of humorous pictures. Which made the book reading for this book that I attended interesting, as you really can not read the book out loud. So, in short always go to book reading for books without words.

The Tinkerers:

The Tinkerers: The Amateurs, DIYers, and Inventors Who Make America Great By: Alec Foege
Non-Fiction: Biography, Econ, History, Science 198 pages
Book Count: 20

This book is on America's history of tinkering, how it changed history and modern tinkering.  It deals both with physical tinkering and non-physical tinkering.  It does this by telling the story of many different people, groups and products connected to tinkering.  Some things it covers include Edison (although it is light in pointing out what a jerk he was,) the PARC corporation, MP3s, derivatives, Angry Birds, Ben Franklin, and Segways.

400 Calorie Fix:

400 Calorie Fix By: Liz Vaccariello
Non-fiction: Food, 414 pages
Book Count: 19

I read this book as a friend recommended it as a book that was helpful for eyeballing the size of food and the number of calories in it.  They did not recommend the diet itself.  After reading the book I can see why.  The book does have a number of useful guides to how big a serving size of different things are and it does help you see the number of calories in different things.  But the diet itself is something I can not believe would make it past the ask your doctor first stage.  For starters the author suggests that you eat 400 calories at a time (hence the book title). This works fine if you are having 4-6 meals a day, but for when you are dieting they have a 2 week plan where you eat 3 meals a day, or 1200 calories. Even they point out that you need to take a vitamin with this, as it is impossible to eat all the nutrients you need with so few calories.  And the recipes that they have in the book, for the most part do not use the swap outs and changes that most diet books use.  For example the meal salads will be 2 cups of lettuce and then a couple of tablespoons of cheese and nuts, using up all your calories on small amounts of high calorie foods instead of large amounts of different low calorie veggies.  A meal might be a couple of deep fried chicken wings and a beer or it could have 2 peaches for a side, because that's how many calories are left, and the fact that most people wouldn't eat two whole peaches at one time is irrelevant.  They also make the outrageous claim that you won't feel hungry on this plan even though you are on a starvation diet and their preset 2 week meals has days where both your lunch and dinner are a salad or a sandwich so it isn't even varied foods.

Hungry Souls:

Hungry Souls Supernatural Visits, Messages, and Warnings from Purgatory By: Gerard J. M. Van Den Aardweg

Non-fiction: Religion 151 pages

Book Count: 18

First a religious book of ghost stories is either the most boring book of ghost stories, or inversely the scariest. It's not scary as it is all true stories most with some level of documentation and often told by religious people who gloss over all the strange noises, moving objects, odd dark humanoid forms that make ghost stories scary. (Not that the author isn't saying that those things and other things that people think about when talking about ghost or even other paranormal events aren't true. As he is.) But it is also the most scary in that the ghost often describe their suffering in purgatory, or in one case Hell, which is worst then some dead guy jumping out and yelling "Boo!"

As you can tell this book is mostly a theology book that deals with the afterlife by telling stories of people that came back. Some stories are from near-death experiences, some from souls in Hell or Purgatory, and a couple from Heaven. It also deals with the Purgatory Museum in Rome, which is a part of a church that has things like prayer books with hand prints burned into them from visions/ghosts/souls of people in Purgatory. Mostly it’s a lot of dead people asking family members or holy people to pray for them, and then some important theological information relating to their requests.  It has a large number of in depth footnotes and also a bibliography of books in multiple languages.  Also although unlike many religious books having to deal with ghosts it’s answer isn’t “they are all fakes” or “they are all demons” it does point out that like all supernatural visions and visits it’s not something you should try and force to happen by doing things like going to a psychic.

Who Was Dracula?:

Who Was Dracula? Bram Stoker's Trail of Blood
Non-Fiction: History, Classics, Biography 298 pages
Book Count: 17

As you can see from the title this book is on Dracula the book / vampire and not on Vlad Tepes a.k.a. the Impailer.  This book looks at who Dracula was by looking at the life of Bram Stoker and devoting a chapter to each person in his life who might have influenced his classic story.  It also managed to do a good job of interweaving the life story of Stoker as well as his famous book throughout, so although each chapter is mainly about one person in his life it also tells his story in a largely chronological order.

June E-Books:

Edible History: Easy Ancient Celtic, Gallic and Roman Techniques for Leavening Bread Without Modern Commerical Yeast By: Cassandra Cookson
Non-Fiction: Cooking, E-book

The title of this book is almost longer then the book itself.  It has one Celtic, one Gallic and one Roman method for gathering wild yeast to make bread with. Each method is rather easy and it has a good amount of historic information in it as well, but I am glad I picked it up for free as the methods used can be found quickly on-line or in more comprehensive books on the subject.

Miracle at the Museum of Broken Hearts By: Talli Roland
Fiction: Chick Lit, E-book

What happens when a hopeless romantic gets a job setting up a museum dedicated to broken relationships? And her boss has a broken relationship with his mother? And her boyfriend is a jerk? Craziness, that's what.

Armed Gunmen, True Facts, and Other Ridiculous Nonsense: A Compiled Compendium of Repetitive Redundancies By: Richard A. Kallan
Non-Fiction: Writing, Humor, E-book

This book is about tautologies, which are a form of redundant phrases. It has a phrase followed by humorous definition and then similar phrases.  As well as some areas of prose filled with tautologies.  Most of the book is slightly funny by it's noting of redundant phrases that we use in day to day life without thinking about how redundant they are.  However there are a few phrases that aren't necessary redundant.  For example it lists good Samaritan as one, however a Samaritan is simply someone that was from Samaria and even in the Biblical story where we get the phrase from it in no way implies that Samaritans are noted as especially good, in fact it was a surprise that the Samaritan was the good guy in the story.  It also lists Easter Sunday, because Easter the day is on Sunday, but Easter the season is much longer in a number of churches and so they do have Easter Monday etc.

There's no taste like home: Beer-making for the complete novice By: Jan Colombini
Non-fiction: Cooking, E-book

First this book appears to be written in the UK. Which if this book is a true example of the home brewing movement in the UK, it's about 40 years behind America in home brewing.  The simple beer making in this book is buy a can of pre-hopped malt, add water and table sugar, heat, cool and add the packet of yeast from the top of the can. So it is not a good book if you want to learn how to make beer.  It is very useful on information on the history of beer, starting with the 1st beers up to modern times.

The Bad Catholic's Guide to the Catechism:

The Bad Catholic's Guide to the Catechism: A Faithful, Fun-Loving Look at Catholic Dogmas, Doctrines, and Schmoctrines By: John Zmirak
Fiction: Religion, Humor 272 pages
Book Count: 16

This book is part of the Bad Catholic's series which we have already reviewed the one on holidays and the one on booze.  This one is a little less humor and more on the actually beliefs. (There is a sidebar of "questions from your stoner neighbor" and the humor within the main writing its self, but as it is dealing with such heady and complex subjects there is less joking around.) As such I did not enjoy it as much as the others, as the thing that I like about the whole series is the way it is a funny book that also sneaks in some interesting things that you might not know about the faith.  But it was a good intro to how a catechism works and some of the things in it, which is a book that can be daunting to anyone that isn't an expert on religion, so it is a very good book for that.

Rembrandt's Ghost:

Rembrandt's Ghost By: Paul Christopher
Fiction: 347 pages
Book Count: 15


I got this book expecting it to be a Dan Brown type novel, but about art.  From it's first sentence-paragraph it did not disappoint on following that formula. There were insane amount of coincidences, the main characters almost died over and over again only to be fine a couple of paragraphs later, there was tons of danger, "facts" all over the place and as a plus everyone had at least 5 names and maybe a couple of titles. 

May E-Books:

Note: All titles are written the way that they appear in the e-books.

Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century By: Sean Patrick
Non-Fiction: History, Biography

Although this book is in part about Tesla, it is mostly about how the creative mind works and things that you can do to increases your creativity.  It does this by going over the main points of Tesla's life. But if you were looking for an in dept biography of Tesla or wanted more details on how much of a jerk Edison was this is not the book you want.

How Much Do You Weigh?: The Stigma Defying Photobook By: Erin Nieto
Non-Fiction

This book is a series of photos of women of all sizes and ages along with how much they weigh. It was made to work on ending the taboo on talking about weigh. It also includes quotes from the women about why they wanted to do this and what they hoped it would do.

Beginners' Guide To Coffee At Home: Coffee basics for coffee enthusiasts. By: A. Edward Gur
Non-Fiction: Cooking

The title tells you all you need to know about this short book.  It's on making coffee at home.

So Easy Herbal: Ten Herbs How To Grow Them Use Them And Save Money By: Karon H. Grieve
Non-Fiction: Cooking, Home Ec.

This short book is about ten herbs that are easy to grow at home and have a number of uses.  If you know nothing about herbs and gardening this book doesn't have quite enough information in it.  If you are experienced on herbs and growing plants this book is too simple. It would work as a quick refresher for more beginner level herb users.

Seven Exes Are Eight Too Many By: Heather Wardell
Fiction: Humor, Romance, Chick Lit.

A woman desperate to find love signs up for a dating TV show.  She gets picked for the show and after signing a contract that requires her to pay thousands if she backs out she finds out that the show is more like "Survivor" mixed with the dating and all her teammates are exes of hers, and the other team is another ex and all his exes.  Also everyone else there was also tricked into being on the show and can't leave without paying either. So she is stuck on a island with a suitcase full of sexy dresses and 7 men she never wanted to see again who don't want to be there either.

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells:

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy Edited By: Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Fiction: Fantasy, Short Stories, Historic 336 pages
Book Count: 14

This book is an anthology of fantasy short stories that take place in the Victorian era.  Like many anthologies there are some great stories and some less then great ones.  A few stories have almost no fantasy in them. One only hints at a myth that people that are into Celtic Mythology would know, and another starts out like it was going to be something big, and turns into an analogy. There was a rather surprising story about what happened after "A Christmas Story." There were also a number of more typical stories in the genre with magic, or fairies and things like that. And at the end there is information about the writer and editors as well as other books to read.

Hell:

Hell By: Robert Olen Butler
Fiction: 232 pages
Book Count: 13

This book is written following the quote that, "Hell is other people." Sure the rain in hell dissolves you into a pain filled blob, and sometimes you get burned up, and if you think it is hard to keep up with modern technology, try going from a life of quills and ink pots to emails, but for the most part this hell is like earth only greyer and sadder, and the worst thing in it is all the people (human and demon,) and the ironic/annoying punishments (which are caused by the demons or the people themselves, so still back to people.) This story centers around a news reporter, who meets up with many figures from history: Virgil, Judas, Nixon, Ann Boleyn, Shakespeare, Bogart, J. Edgar Hoover, and members of the Bee Gees to name a few. (Note: in this story almost everyone is in hell, so the list of people in it is not based on how good or holy any of the people are or aren't.) He hears that there may be a way out of hell and into heaven and goes about  looking for it and learning more about himself and hell. 

Dodger:

Dodger By: Terry Pratchett
Fiction: historical, YA, 360 pages
Book Count: 12

This book does not take place in Discworld, but in Victorian London.  It also isn't a retelling of "Oliver Twist", so much as a story that if real might have influenced Dickens in his writings. (As he is one of the main characters in the story.) The book is about Dodger a young man that makes his living finding things in the sewers (or toshing), and also other odd and end jobs that may or may not be legal.  One rainy night he saves the life of a young women that is being attacked by a couple of men. Their lives become intertwined in an adventure that includes international intrigue, hobnobbing with the rich and famous, assassins, Sweeny Todd, cross dressing, the Peelers, Roman mythology, and espionage.

April E-Books:

Village Books By: Craig McLay
Fiction: e-book

A book set in modern day Canada about people that work in a small locally owned book store. 

How To Write a Book This Weekend, Even If You Flunked English Like I Did By: Vic Johnson
Non-fiction: Writing, E-book

Although I didn't expect it to really show how to write a book in that short of time, I wasn't expecting it to be about how to record a "how to" book in a weekend and then send it to someone else to write it.  It would be a use full book for writing a large term paper, if at the end of it you actually typed it out yourself instead of paying someone else to.

Great Kids In History By: Michael Williams
Non-Fiction: History,bio, e-book

This book is a collection of short biographies of kids that did important things when they were still young. It does give information about their adult life, and for a number of them the time that they did important things they were considered or were adults.  For example, it talks about Mary Shelly writing Frankenstein when she was in her early 20's and about how Edison had learning disabilities as a kid and then as an adult invented tons of things.  It also has a few editing issues and incorrect information (i.e. in the story of the girl that named Pluto, they didn't note that it is not still a planet.) But, overall it is a good starting place to learn about these people.