Books read in 2005

[brdgt]

Here it is folks, your way too detailed book list and reviews of 2005.

2005 Book Reviews

Best Non-Fiction:

• Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis – So readable, so interesting, and so important if you like baseball.
  
• Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy – A few problems but overall one of the best feminist critiques, especially of pornography, that I’ve read recently.
  
• Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks – Perfect little book dispelling all the myths and lies about feminism.
  
• Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj, C.1800-1947 by E. M. Collingham – If you are into colonialism or body politics, this is revolutionary.
  
• The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America by Gerald N. Grob – Nothing mind blowing, just a good concise overview of my field.

Best Fiction:

• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell – I can’t praise this book enough. It’s the sort of book that requires some work on the part of the reader, but the kind you are rewarded for.
  
• Three Junes by Julia Glass – Surprisingly good and touching.
  
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith – Like three amazing books in one.
  
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers – The only Modern Library top 100 book that actually made my favorite list. If you don’t cry by the end of this book, you’re not human.
  
• The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov – I’m so glad I read these, entertaining and "foundational" to modern science fiction.

Best Graphic Novel/Trade Paperback:

• V for Vendetta – Not only is the story great, but there is some great pacing, structure and concepts in here.
  
• Y the Last Man – I don’t know why you haven’t read this yet. Sure, the concept is amazing, but Brian Vaughn isn’t resting on his laurels and keeps pushing the story.
  
• The Sandman: Preludes and Noctures by Neil Gaiman – Glad I finally got around to reading these, although it is amusing to read it after American Gods and see where all those ideas started.
  
• Channel Zero by Brian Wood – Do yourself a favor and try this out, you won’t be sorry.
  
• Watchmen by Alan Moore – Think Superheroes are played out? Try this.

Best Narration on an audio book:

• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Somehow he made even the footnotes playful and interesting.
  
• Series of Unfortunate Events – This whole series just has the best narration.
  
• Ender’s Game – Used multiple voice actors (which a book like A Game of Thrones could really use).
  
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – There is just something about an Irish accent reading this book.

Modern Library top 100 books read:

• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
  
• A Passage to India by EM Forster
  
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
  
• A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul

Honorable Mention:

• A Game of Thrones
  
• Ender’s Game
  
• American Gods
  
• Close Range
  
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
  
• All the Pretty Horses (which gave me my favorite line of the year: "In history there are no control groups.")

Worst Non-Fiction:

• Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss – Useless if you want to learn anything, insulting and pretentious.
  
• What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank – A poorly structured argument with questionable evidence.
  
• Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women's Health by Susan E. Cayleff – An example of how one should NOT write a history book.
  
• Domesticity in Colonial India: What Women Learned When Men Gave Them Advice: What Women Learned When Men Gave Them Advice by Judith Walsh – A great topic, but it should have been an article and I put it on here because too many historians try this trick. If it’s an article length concept that restrict it to an article, don’t drag it out into a repetitive book.
  
• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain – Just not impressed. Didn’t learn anything and found it rather childish.

Worst Fiction:

• Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson – What might happen if a 15 year old boy read Shapin and Scaeffer and decided to do a NaNoWiMo on the topic. I cannot count the ways I hated this book. It made me retroactively hate his other work and I sold them on Half.com so that my house would cleansed.
  
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini – So derivative and uninventive. I mean, Tolkein is bad enough, do we need a bad imitation of him?
  
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd – Am I the only person that hated this? To me, this was the epitome of all that is wrong with modern fiction.
  
• Walk Through Darkness by David Anthony Durham – I wanted to like this, his first book was so good, but this was predictable and unimaginative.
  
• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Woodring Stover – If I hadn’t listened to this, with all the nifty sound effects, I would have put it down after the first chapter. Really poorly written and trite.

Worst Graphic Novel/Trade Paperback:

• Star Wars: Jedi vs. Sith – Written by someone who has no idea what Star Wars canon is.
  
• Star Wars: Union – Were they trying to appeal to women here? Either way – it’s insulting.
  
• Star Wars: Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire – Someone just thought it would be cool to have Boba Fett fight Darth Vader. Just because something sounds cool to a fanboy does not make it a good idea.

MOST productive Month:
December (although August was the most productive month as far as non-graphic novels)

LEAST productive Month:
February – what the hell was I doing?

COUNT:
Books: 51
Audiobooks: 27
Graphic Novels/Trade Paperbacks: 38
Male: 46
Female: 31
TOTAL: 116



Books read in 2005:

January:

1. The Dark Tower by Stephen King
   
2. Three Junes by Julia Glass
   
3. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
   
4. Technics and Civilization by Lewis Mumford
   
5. The Carnivorous Carnivale (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 9) by Lemony Snicket
   
6. Into Our Own Hands: The Women's Health Movement in the United States, 1969-1990 by Sandra Morgen
   
7. The Slippery Slope (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 10) by Lemony Snicket
   
8. The Women's Health Movement: Feminist Alternatives to Medical Control by Sheryl Burt Ruzek
   
9. The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers Carl Becker
   
   February:
   
10. The Origins of American Social Science by Dorothy Ross
    
11. Our Band Could be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad
    
12. Victorian Anthropology by George Stocking
    
    March:
    
13. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
    
14. The Liberal Mind in a Conservative Age: American Intellectuals in the 1940s and 1950s by Richard H. Pells
    
15. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
    
16. Victorian Social Medicine: The Ideas and Methods of William Farr by John M. Eyler
    
17. Death Is a Social Disease: Public Health and Political Economy in Early Industrial France by William Coleman
    
18. Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band by Neal Karlen
    
19. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
    
    April:
    
20. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
    
21. Seers of God: Puritan Providentialism in the Restoration and Early Enlightenment by Michael P. Winship
    
22. Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 by Elizabeth A. Fenn
    
23. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
    
24. Tales from Fishcamp by alaskadanielle
    
    May:
    
25. Public Health and Social Justice in the Age of Chadwick: Britain, 1800-1854 by Christopher Hamlin
    
26. Edwin Chadwick and the public health movement, 1832-1854 by R. A Lewis
    
27. The Stastical Movement in early Victorian Britain: The foundations of empirical social research by M. J Cullen
    
28. The Grim Grotto (Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 11) by Lemony Snicket
    
29. Salem's Lot by Stephen King
    
    June:
    
30. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
    
31. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle
    
32. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
    
33. Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx
    
34. Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno
    
35. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers's Stone by JK Rowling
    
36. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
    
    July:
    
37. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
    
38. Walk Through Darkness by David Anthony Durham
    
39. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
    
40. Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women's Health by Susan E. Cayleff
    
41. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
    
42. Inside Greenwich Village: A New York City Neighborhood, 1898–1918 by Gerald McFarland
    
43. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
    
44. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
    
45. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
    
    August:
    
46. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
    
47. Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
    
48. Y the Last Man: Unmanned by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Pia Guerra (artist)
    
49. Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia by Greg Rucka (writer) and J.G. Jones & Wade von Grawbadger (illustrators)
    
50. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
    
51. Gout: The Patrician Malady by Roy Porter and G. S. Rousseau
    
52. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America by Gerald N. Grob
    
53. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
    
54. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
    
55. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
    
56. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
    
57. Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks
    
58. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
    
59. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
    
    September:
    
60. Sin City: The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller
    
61. Science and the Raj, 1857-1905 by Deepak Kumar
    
62. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Woodring Stover
    
63. Channel Zero by brianwood
    
64. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
    
65. Machines As the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance by Michael Adas
    
66. Medicine Without Doctors: Home Health Care in American History edited by Guenter Risse, Ronald Numbers and Judith Walzer Leavitt
    
    October:
    
67. Hellblazer: Original Sins by Jamie Delano
    
68. Y the Last Man: Cycles by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Pia Guerra (artist)
    
69. Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India by Gauri Viswanathan
    
70. Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman (writer), Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove (Illustrators)
    
71. Y the Last Man: One Small Step by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Pia Guerra (artist)
    
72. Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj, C.1800-1947 by E. M. Collingham
    
73. From Catharine Beecher to Martha Stewart: A Cultural History of Domestic Advice by Sarah A. Leavitt
    
74. The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods and Cities by Dolores Hayden
    
75. A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
    
76. Domesticity in Colonial India: What Women Learned When Men Gave Them Advice: What Women Learned When Men Gave Them Advice by Judith Walsh
    
    November:
    
77. Sin City: The Big Fat Kill by Frank Miller
    
78. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For by Frank Miller
    
79. Y the Last Man: Safeword by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Pia Guerra (artist)
    
80. Y the Last Man: Ring of Truth by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Pia Guerra (artist)
    
81. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy
    
82. A Passage to India by EM Forster
    
83. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (writer) and David Lloyd (artist)
    
84. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
    
85. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
    
86. The Defense of Kamino and Other Tales (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 1) by John Ostrander, Haden Blackman, Jan Duursema, Thomas Giorello
    
87. Victories and Sacrifices (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 2) by Haden Blackman, John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, Brian Ching, Tomas Giorello
    
88. Last Stand on Jabiim (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 3) by Haden Blackman, Brian Ching, John Ostrander, Jan Duursema
    
89. Sin City: Booze, Broads, & Bullets by Frank Miller
    
90. The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous and Broke by Suze Orman
    
91. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
    
92. The Sandman: Preludes and Noctures by Neil Gaiman
    
93. Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnball
    
    December:
    
94. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
    
95. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
    
96. What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank
    
97. Light and Dark (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 4) by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema
    
98. Outlander - The Exile of Sharad Hett (Star Wars: Ongoing, Volume 2) by Timothy Truman, Tom Raney, Rick Leonardi, Al Ri
    
99. Twilight (Star Wars: Ongoing, Volume 4) by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, Rick Magyar
    
100. Sin City: Family Values by Frank Miller
     
101. The Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman
     
102. The Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman
     
103. The Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman
     
104. Star Wars: Jedi Vs. Sith by Darko Macan, Ramon F. Bachs, and Raul Fernande
     
105. Star Wars: Infinities by Chris Warner, Drew Johnson, Ray Snyder, Al Rio, and Neil Nelso
     
106. Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith by Kevin J. Anderson
     
107. Star Wars: Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire by John Wagner and Ian Gibson
     
108. Star Wars: Empire: Betrayal by Scott Allie, Ryan Benjamin, and Curtis Arnold
     
109. Star Wars: Dark Empire I by Tom Veitch, Cam Kennedy
     
110. Star Wars: Union by Michael A. Stackpole, Robert Teranishi, and Christopher Chuckr
     
111. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
     
112. Star Wars: Boba Fett: Death, Lies, and Treachery by John Wagner and Cam Kennedy
     
113. Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squandron: Requiem for a Rogue (Volume 5) by Michael A. Stackpole, Jan Strnad, Variou, Michael A Stackpole, Mike W. Barr, Gary Erskine
     
114. Watchmen by Alan Moore (Author) and Dave Gibbons (Artist)
     
115. Star Wars: Empire: Darklighter by Paul Chadwick, Doug Wheatley, and Tomas Giorello
     
116. Star Wars: Darth Maul by Ron Marz, Jan Duursema, and Rick Magyar
     

Comments

[flowerlane.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. I have been toying with the idea of keeping a list of my reading and this encouraged me. Besides, good and bad reviews are really a big help in future choices.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Livejournal is great for keeping these lists. I make a private entry and save it to my memories. Then I can edit it as I add books. It's especially good for graphic novels and trade paperbacks, which sometimes I'm not sure if I read already.

[stringy.livejournal.com]

Oh, what a great idea - I've been dreading writing up my list for 2005, I think I'll use your trick this year.

Would you recommend Silent Spring? I notice it didn't make your loves or hates lists, but I was thinking of picking it up because I'm interested in the environment in general, and love going back to see classics of any genre, so I figured it'd be up my alley.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I read that for a class, but it's such a well written and influential book. Get an older copy, the illustrations are beautiful. We also read most of Nader's book Dangerous at any Speed, which I would also recommend.

[stringy.livejournal.com]

Cool thanks, both are going on my list :)

[lindaquelinda.livejournal.com]

thanks! i needed some reccomendations.

[jangrl.livejournal.com]

me too! i hope you don't mind. i took some of your favorites and placed them on my must-read list.

jangrl

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Well, I got a lot of these from other LJ folks, so share the love!

[cognative.livejournal.com]

I keep saying this, I should read Money Ball sometime. I've read some of bell hooks' other stuff, she's very good.

If you're into this sort of thing Joss Whedon wrote an X-men collection that I think is rather good.

[notmarcie.livejournal.com]

After hearing such praise for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter from you and prettyfool, I bought a copy today. The first full price fiction book I've bought in over two years.


I wasn't a fan of The Secret Life of Bees. It came free with a "women's magazine" so I wasn't expecting much. It just seemed incredibly cliche and emotionally manipulative. Also, I like books to have some foot in reality, if they are supposed to be a realistic novel.

I enjoyed Cloud Atlas also, but I need to go back and re-read it, because I skipped the middle section because I was unwell and couldn't handle the dialect. The first and final sections were so touching.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

I picked up another of Mitchell's books, I can't wait to read it. If I ever find a used copy of Cloud Atlas I will definitelly pick it up (like you, I buy so few full price fiction books!)

[dearemma.livejournal.com]

I have tried to read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man about a thousand times and just can't do it ...

Thanks for the list, it is interesting and inspiring!

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

If you are going to read Joyce, start with Dubliners and if you really want the Joyce experience just go straight to Ulysses (and pick up some cliff notes to read after each chapter).

[(Anonymous)]

I loved Cloud Atlas, it's seriously one of my favorite novels of all time. Period.

I was thinking, as I've torn through the George R.R. Martin books, that it would be great to have multiple narrators, one for each character.