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.