Book Dynamite in 2009
I read ~40 books in 2009.
Here are the ones I really loved.
Thought-provoking non-fiction
An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales - Oliver Sacks (angerie)
Loved this book. An artist who lost his ability to interpret color at age 65 and began experiencing the world as light gradients. Autistic savants. A surgeon with Tourette's. A high-functioning Asperger's woman named Temple that I strongly related to. Temporal lobe epilepsy. The absence of the temporal lobe via brain tumor. Wow.
An Aerial Atlas of Ancient Crete (ok, yeah, I think we can assert this is me-specific)
An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment - Patricia Fara
Excellent snapshot of some of the history of electricity in its early years.
Provoking fiction
feed - M.T. Anderson (kfrye)
Brilliant. The More-More-More Acquisition Culture and Marketing Status Quo taken to the ultimate extreme.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
This is an amazing book. A very different angle on World War II, and a lot of very authentic human connection ... all begun with a book. Written in Dracula-ish form - all via correspondence between characters.
The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld (kfrye)
Obsessions with physical symmetry and en-masse obedience taken to the ultimate extremes. Also, post-apocalyptic. w00t!
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
Chaos theory. Time travel. The Victorian era. Cats. This book is AMAZING. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes any kind of fiction, with no caveats.
StoryPeople - Brian Andreas
short-burst, high-impact words and images
The Risen Empire series - Scott Westerfeld
Space opera. Artificial intelligence. Creative, newly imagined tech. If you loved Ringworld or Integral Trees or any of Larry Niven's work without character developer and plot builder Jerry Pournelle, READ THIS.
peeps - Scott Westerfeld (kfrye)
Vampires! As parasites! I love how he weaves science and math into so much of his fiction. He makes science and math sexy.
Fluffy brain candy
Bloody Jack - L.A. Meyer (kfrye)
girl power pirate brain candy!
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) - Jerome K. Jerome
some great Victoria-era humor.
Oh, look at all these geek cultural references I've been missing! o.0
DragonLance I-III (nplusm)
Here are the ones I really loved.
Thought-provoking non-fiction
An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales - Oliver Sacks (angerie)
Loved this book. An artist who lost his ability to interpret color at age 65 and began experiencing the world as light gradients. Autistic savants. A surgeon with Tourette's. A high-functioning Asperger's woman named Temple that I strongly related to. Temporal lobe epilepsy. The absence of the temporal lobe via brain tumor. Wow.
An Aerial Atlas of Ancient Crete (ok, yeah, I think we can assert this is me-specific)
An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment - Patricia Fara
Excellent snapshot of some of the history of electricity in its early years.
Provoking fiction
feed - M.T. Anderson (kfrye)
Brilliant. The More-More-More Acquisition Culture and Marketing Status Quo taken to the ultimate extreme.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
This is an amazing book. A very different angle on World War II, and a lot of very authentic human connection ... all begun with a book. Written in Dracula-ish form - all via correspondence between characters.
The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld (kfrye)
Obsessions with physical symmetry and en-masse obedience taken to the ultimate extremes. Also, post-apocalyptic. w00t!
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
Chaos theory. Time travel. The Victorian era. Cats. This book is AMAZING. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes any kind of fiction, with no caveats.
StoryPeople - Brian Andreas
short-burst, high-impact words and images
The Risen Empire series - Scott Westerfeld
Space opera. Artificial intelligence. Creative, newly imagined tech. If you loved Ringworld or Integral Trees or any of Larry Niven's work without character developer and plot builder Jerry Pournelle, READ THIS.
peeps - Scott Westerfeld (kfrye)
Vampires! As parasites! I love how he weaves science and math into so much of his fiction. He makes science and math sexy.
Fluffy brain candy
Bloody Jack - L.A. Meyer (kfrye)
girl power pirate brain candy!
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) - Jerome K. Jerome
some great Victoria-era humor.
Oh, look at all these geek cultural references I've been missing! o.0
DragonLance I-III (nplusm)