2013 totals

2013 totals

Books: 132

Pages: 36,277

Average pages/book: 275

1. Steven L. Peck: A Short Stay in Hell (108)

2. Mary Prince, Sara Salih (Editor), et al.: The History of Mary Prince Bermuda [British overseas territory] (160)

3. Don DeLillo: The Body Artist (128)

4. John Varley: Slow Apocalypse (438)

5. John Varley: Red Lightning (Red Thunder, #2) (355)

6. Anonymous, Barbara Stoller Miller: The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of War (176)

7. Giuseppe Rossi: The Republic of San Marino: The Oldest and Smallest Republic of the World [San Marino] (64)

8. Jay Bell: From Darkness to Darkness (Loka Legends, #2) (290)

9. John Varley: Rolling Thunder (Red Thunder, #3) (344)

10. J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit: Pocket Edition (276)

11. Robert Laxalt: Sweet Promised Land (198)

12. Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene (384)

13. Hugh Howey: Wool (Wool #1) (49)

14. Hugh Howey: Proper Gauge: (Wool #2) (106)

15. John Scalzi: Zoe's Tale (Old Man's War, #4) (335)

16. R. Zain: My Arab Spring [Bahrain] (108)

17. Hugh Howey: Casting Off (Wool #3) (122)

18. Hugh Howey: The Unraveling (Wool #4) (166)

19. Hugh Howey: the Stranded (Wool #5) (254)

20. Pam Penick: Lawn Gone! Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard (192)

21. Paul Murray: Skippy Dies (661)

22. Laurence J. Peter & Raymond Hull: The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong (192)

23. Karen Armstrong: Buddha (240)

24. Katherine Boo: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (288)

25. Fan Huang: Zero and Other Fictions [Taiwan (Republic of China)] (152)

[26. H. Beam Piper: Little Fuzzy (174)]

27. Thomas Eccardt: Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City (360)

28. Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion (420)

29. Erin L. Hawkes: When Quietness Came: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey with Schizophrenia (246)

30. Marjane Satrapi: Chicken with Plums (84)

31. Arthur Phillips: The Tragedy of Arthur (368)

32. Julie Holland: Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych E.R. (320)
33. Penn Jillette: God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales (231)
34. William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope [Malawi] (270)
35. Yann Martel: Life of Pi (319)
36. Haruki Murakami: 1Q84 (945)
37. Deborah Fallows: Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language (208)
38. Tahir Shah: The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca [Morocco] (368)
39. John Scalzi: Fuzzy Nation (303)
40. Peter Moore: The Little Book of Pandemics (144)
41. Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking (290)
42. Vikram Seth: From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (192)
43. Sergio Atzeni: Bakunin's Son [Sardinia (autonomous region of Italy)] (82)
44. Karen Armstrong: The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness (336)
45. Gregory David Roberts: Shantaram (936)
46. John Scalzi: The Human Division (432)
47.  Charles Palmer: Living in the Turks & Caicos Islands: From Conchs...to the Florida Lottery [Turks and Caicos (British Overseas Territory)] (146)
48.  Martin Booth Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood [Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China)] (352)
49. Karen Lord: The Best of All Possible Worlds (308)
50. John Scalzi: The God Engines (136)
51. Christopher Hitchens: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (307)
52. Angie Sage: Fyre (Septimus Heap, #7) (720)
53. Lois Lowry: The Giver (179)
54. Matthew Goodman: Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World (480)
55. Anne Elizabeth Moore: Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh (96)
56. R. Crumb: The Book of Genesis (224)
57. Louise Erdrich: The Round House (321)
58. Barbara Kingsolver: Flight Behavior (436)
59. Rémi Carayol, Soeuf Elbadawi, Kamal'Eddine Saindou: Une suite à Moroni Blues [Comoros replacement] (56)
60. Tahmima Anam: The Good Muslim (320) [Bangladesh]
61. Roberto Bolaño: Nazi Literature in the Americas [Chile] (260)
62. Robert D. Lupton: Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (208)
63. Paul Theroux: A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta (288)
64. Madhur Jaffrey: Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India [India] (320)
65. China Miéville: Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1) (623)
66. Anonymous: The Upanishads [excerpted] (144)
67. Sharma Bulbul: The Ramayana [loosely adapted] (~180)
68. Mike Resnick: Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge (46)
69. David Finch: The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband (255)
70. Kathleen Winter: Annabel (480)
71. John Scalzi, Jack Campbell, Robert Charles Wilson, Mike Resnick, Elizabeth Bear, Allen Steele, Daryl Gregory, Lavie Tidhar, Mary Robinette Kowal, James Patrick Kelly: Rip-Off! (~360)
72. Xiaolu Guo: UFO in Her Eyes [People’s Republic of China] (208)
73. Salman Rushdie: Joseph Anton: A Memoir (636)
74. Neil Gaiman: The Doll's House (The Sandman #2) (232)
75. Khaled Hosseini: And the Mountains Echoed [Afghanistan] (404)
76. Alan Dean Foster: Star Trek Into Darkness (Star Trek: Movie Novelizations #2) (312)

77. Alexander McCall Smith: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #6) (233)
78. Alexander McCall Smith: Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #7) 256)
79. Scott Westerfeld: The Risen Empire (Succession #1) (352)
80. Karen Joy Fowler: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (310)
81. Alexander McCall Smith: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #8) (213)
82. Scott Westerfeld: The Killing of Worlds (Succession #2) (336)
83. Neil Gaiman: Dream Country (The Sandman #3) (160)

84. Christopher Hitchens: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice (98)
85. Kiera Van Gelder: The Buddha and the Borderline: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder through Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Buddhism, and Online Dating (248)
86. Jo Walton: Among Others [Wales] (302)
87. Cinda Williams Chima: The Crimson Crown (Seven Realms #4) (598)
88. Peter Sís, Farīd al-Dīn ‘Aṭṭār: The Conference of the Birds [Iran] (160)
89. Neil Gaiman: Season of Mists (The Sandman #4) (192)
90. N. J. Dawood (Tr.): The Koran (456)
91. Neil Gaiman: A Game of You (The Sandman #5) (192)
92. Robert Galbraith [J. K. Rowling]: The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) (455)
93. Miss Lasko-Gross: Escape from "Special" (136)
94. Angie Sage: The Darke Toad (Septimus Heap #1.5) (96)
95. Salman Rushdie: Haroun and the Sea of Stories (216)
96. Peter Pringle: Experiment Eleven: Dark Secrets behind the Discovery of a Wonder Drug (288)
97. Rabindranath Tagore & William Radice: Particles, Jottings, Sparks: The Collected Brief Poems [India] (214)

98. Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, & Fréderic Lemercier: The Photographer (288)
99. George R. R. Martin: A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5) (1016)
100. Francesco Marciuliano: I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats (112)
101. Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon: Birds: Mini Archive with DVD (288)
102. NoViolet Bulawayo: We Need New Names (298)
103. Christina Thompson: Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story [New Zealand] (288)

104. Oliver Sacks: Hallucinations (352)
105. Reza Aslan: Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (327)
106. H. G. Wells: The Time Machine (104)
107. Jeffrey A. Lockwood: Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War (400)
108. Neil Gaiman: Fables and Reflections (Sandman #6) (168)
109.  Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: Heat and Dust (192)

110. Neil Gaiman: Brief Lives (Sandman #7) (168)
111. H. G. Wells: The Island of Doctor Moreau (160)

112. Gary Snyder: Passage through India: An Expanded and Illustrated Edition (152)

113. Uwem Akpan: Say You're One of Them (358)

114. Sarah Vowell: Unfamiliar Fishes (238)

115. Karen Armstrong: The First Christian: Saint Paul's Impact on Christianity (192)

116. James Cook: Hunt for the Southern Continent (Great Journeys) (120)

117. Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson: The One Minute Manager (111)

118. Paul Bowles: Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue: Scenes from the Non-Christian World (240)

119. Susan Ee: Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) (247)

120. Salman Rushdie: The Enchantress of Florence (355)

121. John Price: Notes from the Jungle - Teaching Abroad in an International School [Brunei] (274)

122. Diane L. Goeres-Gardner: Oregon Asylum (Images of America) (128)

123. Neil Gaiman: Odd and the Frost Giants (128)

124. Belle Sukraw: Teaching Mustafa and Other Young Terrorists [Qatar] (126)

125. Veronica Roth: Allegiant (Divergent, #3) (544)

126. Huy Vannak: Bou Meng: A Survivor from Khmer Rouge [Cambodia] (86)

127. Chum Mey: Survivor: The Triumph of an Ordinary Man in the Khmer Rouge Genocide [Cambodia] (108)

128. Susan Ee: World After (Penryn and the End of Days, #2) (320)

129. Khamboly Dy: A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979) [Cambodia] (84)
130. Paul Garrigan: Muay Thai Fighter: A Farang's Journey to Become a Thai Boxer [Thailand] (223)

131. Philip Roth: The Human Stain (384)

132. Charles Stross: Saturn’s Children (336)

36277

275

Saturn's Children

#1068
Title: Saturn's Children
Author: Charles Stross
Publisher: Ace
Year: 2008
336 pages

<- A good reason to retain control of your covers.

The background idea is that at this point in history, there are no longer any biological creatures. Everyone, regardless of degree of sentience, is a robot/created being. Against this very interesting backdrop, Stross sets a fast-paced potboiler-y tale of intrigue, not-knowing, double-dealing, and sisters who are not sisters. It's fun (including the homage a everyone in SF), though the worldbuilding is ultimately more interesting than the plot.

The Human Stain

#1067
Title: The Human Stain
Author: Philip Roth
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2001
384 pages

This surprising novel from Roth is like being at the surf line. The water, though in motion, has a calm, unbroken surface. Then suddenly something snags, or accumulates, or breaks its surface tension. It foams, bubbles, gushes, gnashes. If you're standing in it, you might be knocked down, dragged under, your ears filled with its roar as you tumble and scrape to the sudden calm liminal edge, emerging filthy with blood and seaweed, sand in your hair. That's what it's like to read this, and though it can be anticipated, the shock of the sudden chaotic surge never normalizes. I read along. Zuckerman; fine. I know Zuckerman. Then things tip just a little and I'm in someone else's point of view. That's okay, it's indirect discourse; no, not I'm really in it rather than having Zuckerman broker it for me. Now there's a growling, seething upswell of emotion, a torrent of personal information, a dislocation from the previous narrative, a searing, a pounding, a scouring--and back to the shallows with mud in my eyes and horrible crustaceans scuttling off. Sappho said, "If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble." This is only and entirely beach rubble, yet magnificent.

As to the plot, the plot is entertaining and witty. That's not what captivated me, though. It was the sustained and undulating and crashing waves, Portnoy's final rant fractally enhanced to become the whole world.

Highly recommended as an audiobook.

Muay Thai Fighter: A Farang's Journey to Become a Thai Boxer

#1066
Title: Muay Thai Fighter: A Farang's Journey to Become a Thai Boxer
Author: Paul Garrigan
Publisher: Maverick House
Year: 2012
223 pages

The title is a misnomer that I wouldn't pick at except that Garrigan identified the distinction between being a fighter and training. This is in some ways a shaggy dog story, in that Garrigan in fact never fights. "Muay Thai Training" would be a more accurate title. What happens here isn't a lot, and it could have been had Garrigan shifted his focus when it became clear that he wasn't actually going to fight. I think he could have had more to say about  his relationship to Muay Thai, its effect on his life philosophy, and how, in the end, not fighting might be an anodyne to the all-or-nothing thinking that he notes as part of his addictive approach. Not-fighting as a triumph of moderation is an interesting story. Not-fighting because so then I didn't fight after all isn't.

A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)

#1065
Title: A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)
Author: Khamboly Dy
Publisher: Documentation Center of Cambodia
Year: 2007
84 pages

Written at a high school/intro college level, this volume describes the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge using photographs and explanatory text. Generally clear, though additional sources of information might be useful for novices to this history, and valuable for the detail and immediacy provided by the photos.

World After (Penryn and the End of Days, #2)

#1064
Title: World After (Penryn and the End of Days, #2)
Author: Susan Ee
Publisher: Skyscape
Year: 2013
320 pages

This second installment advances the story through both action and information.

The reader learns more about angels and their politics, as well as the utility of strong relationships. Penryn matures over the compressed time scale covered here, evincing greater empathy and continuing to articulate her relational needs to herself. This, against a foreground of fast-paced events and sword-mediated flashbacks, demonstrates that it is possible for lovestruck teens in urban fantasy dystopias to enact their angst without artificially intruding on and disrupting the urgent momentum of the story's events.

Survivor: The Triumph of an Ordinary Man in the Khmer Rouge Genocide

#1063
Title: Survivor: The Triumph of an Ordinary Man in the Khmer Rouge Genocide
Author: Chum Mey
Publisher: Documentation Center of Cambodia (Documentation Series #18)
Year: 2012
108 pages

As is true for Bou Meng's book as well, this is one of three more-or-less first-person narratives from the group of 7 survivors rescued from Toul Sleng (S-21), a Khmer Rouge prison in Phnom Penh, when the Vietnamese retook the city. Chum Mey's account is somewhat less-well edited than Bou Meng's, but his book includes his confession (sic), as recorded by his interrogators.

Like Bou Meng, he describes his life, incarceration, torture, and preservation by the Khmer Rouge. Like most people held and interrogated in this prison, he has little idea why he was suspect.

Chum Mey sells copies of this book in the courtyard of the prison. He is politically active in Cambodia. For more information, see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/world/asia/17cambo.html?_r=0

Bou Meng: A Survivor from Khmer Rouge Prison S-21

#1062
Title: Bou Meng: A Survivor from Khmer Rouge Prison S-21
Author: Huy Vannak
Publisher: Documentation Center of Cambodia (Documentation Series #15)
Year: 2010
86 pages

One of, I think, three more-or-less first-person narratives from the group of 7 survivors rescued from Toul Sleng (S-21), a Khmer Rouge prison in Phnom Penh, when the Vietnamese retook the city. (More than 7 survived Toul Sleng, but the others seem to have been early releases.) Bou Meng's account, which forms the core of this volume, appears to be an edited oral account. With the additional explanatory matter included, it is coherent and easy to understand, if not to fathom. Bou Meng describes his life, incarceration, torture, and preservation by the Khmer Rouge. Like most people held and interrogated in this prison, he has little idea why he was suspect.

Bou Meng sells copies of this book in the courtyard of the prison. For more information, see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/world/asia/17cambo.html?_r=0

Allegiant (Divergent, #3)

#1061
Title: Allegiant (Divergent, #3)
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Year: 2013
544 pages

Better than the first two in the series, this concluding volume explodes the narrative's assumptive frame and answers some of my earlier concerns about reductive culture-building, revealing this to be a structural element of the story rather than a failure of the writing. Good job, Roth!

I haven't read any other reviews yet, but I assume that all teen readers everywhere feel ripped off and angry that Tris and Four's love cannot conquer all. Them's the breaks in a non-wish-gratifying dystopian tale. Again, good job! Roth escapes the genre in the end. That, too, is frame-breaking.

Teaching Mustafa and Other Young Terrorists

#1060
Title: Teaching Mustafa and Other Young Terrorists
Author: Belle Sukraw
Publisher: CreateSpace
Year: 2006
Country: Qatar
126 pages

A disorganized, culturally-suspect memoir of teaching in Qatar. The inflammatory title is used as a teaser that never actually delivers an anecdote. The book contains a number of grammatical errors, which is especially problematic for an English teacher. Disappointing and, I imagine, offensive to her former students and  their families.

Odd and the Frost Giants

#1059
 Title: Odd and the Frost Giants
Author:  Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2009
128 pages

A sweet little story that has its scary aspects (for the reader age group) but no real creepiness, Odd and the Frost Giants is not only a fun tale that includes Norse mythology, but also manages to include some important points about human differences without being preachy or pedantic. A fine middle reader from Neil Gaiman, one I wouldn't hesitate to give as a gift to a bright 8-12 year-old.

Oregon Asylum (Images of America)

#1058
Title: Oregon Asylum (Images of America)
Author:  Diane L. Goeres-Gardner
Publisher: Arcadia
Year: 2013
128 pages

I enjoy this series very much. Presenting a chronology through historical photos is extremely engaging. This volume falls somewhat short on organizational coherence, with two major problems: Material presented out of sequence, and a number of captions that are unrelated to the image they accompany. This is confusing and simply raises more questions. The author has another book about Oregon State Hospital, which may be better organized as it is free of the pictorial-based format constraints of the Images of America series.

Notes from the Jungle - Teaching Abroad in an International School

#1057
Title: Notes from the Jungle - Teaching Abroad in an International School
Author: John Price
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Year: 2010
Country: Brunei
274 pages

Although Price has some interesting anecdotes and ideas, he also has a lot of negative characterizations of his colleagues and educational systems. I can't speak to the issues of British international schools, but little that he describes resonates with my experience teaching in an American international school.

The Enchantress of Florence

#1056
Title: The Enchantress of Florence
Author: Salman Rushdie
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Year: 2008
355 pages

I am of mixed opinions about this ambitious novel. On the one hand, there is Rushdie's always-clever, always-engaging language, a plot intertwined with world-shaping epics, interesting characters, and a puzzle. On the other hand, there's a sagging quality to the narrative at times, a distance from the characters (who grow wearying rather than more complex), and a conclusion that doesn't seem entirely worth the effort.

I might feel differently if I'd read it as a book rather than listened to it. I ranged from 2 stars to 5 stars in different sections, so we'll call it 3.