(Grade A-F, no E's) Title-Author Additional thoughts
B+ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson Reasonably good story which I flew through in a couple of days. Mostly enjoyed the cultural differences reading a book written by a Swede and taking place in Sweden and translated into English.
D- Science and Religion edited by Gary B. Fergren The subject of a blog post, but really a book containing mostly apologetics with a bonus chapter on Intelligent Design.
A Watchmen by Alan Moore & David Gibbons Just a great story.
B- The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordin Interesting retelling of Greek Mythology in a modern age. Definitely for kids, but I prefer the classics.
B The Measure of the Magic by Terry Brooks Enjoyed it, but the ending wrapped up a little too quickly and neatly.
B A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin Good storytelling, but the plot needs to start moving forward.
C Harriet Spies Again by Louise Fitzhugh Meh
B A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin A reread in preparation for A Dance with Dragons
A Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer Only Zimmer could get you to commiserate with life threatening parasites.
B The Escapement by KJ Parker
C Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh A read this as a kid and read it to my kid. I remembered it a lot differently.
A The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris Excellent book. Did you republicns were not always insane?
B+ The Passage by Justin Cronin Good story, especially the first half. Recommended reading by a server at a pub I frequent.
D The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown Kind of liked it the first time I read it when it was called The DaVinci Code.
B Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques
A The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios All around good time reading. Makes a number of important points about science and society along the way.
B The Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson This story has to end soon. Although the books have gotten better.
C+ The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
C Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan I read the first 7,8,9? books about 10 years ago and got sick of them. Started strong and then nothing happened to drive the story forward for about 5 books so Knife of Dreams sat on the shelf until this year.
A- The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins Great book on evolution (Not quite as good as The Ancestor's Tale). Some new ways of thinking about evolutionary concepts for me.
C Evil for Evil by K. J. Parker
A The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein Great book I read to my son, who of course loved it.
A Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects by Bertrand Russell Wow! and people say the New Atheists are mean and horrible. I guess they don't like Russell much either.
A Jesus, Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman Great description of the New Testament and issues therein.
B- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling The beginning of what I like to call the whiny years in the Harry Potter universe.
B Shadowheart by Tad Williams I've always thought Tad Williams was a good story teller, same applies here.
26 books this year (again). Only 6 were books I read to my son this year. Of the remaining 20: 13 were fiction for fun (holy crap no Terry Pratchett this year, must rectify that in 2012), 1 was biography/US history, 3 were philosophy/religion, and 3 were science (2 were biology).
