The People of Sand and Sla g     P aolo Bacigalupi Short work by an author I love about a future of people who live on sand and slag wh...

Cleaning the Gold    Lee C hild and Karin Slaughter Novel with Child’s Jack Reacher and Slaughter’s Will Trent teaming up to investigate...

The Christmas Scorpion     L ee Child A Jack Reacher story I read on my phone. Very short, almost nothing to it. What’s here is fine, b...

Neon Prey    J ohn Sandford Most recent book in the Lucas Davenport Prey series, nearly all of which I have read. As always, the star is...

Metropolis    Ph illip Kerr Latest and last of the very enjoyable Bernie Gunther series, it takes place in 1928 Berlin. Kerr uses a fram...

Exit Strategy    Ma rtha Wells Fourth, and I think final, book in the murderbot diaries series. Like the previous three, in this book mu...

Rogue Protocol     M artha Wells The third book in the murderbot diaries. Another adventure where murderbot must protect and save stupid...

Artificial Condition    M artha Wells The second volume in the murderbot diaries series. While it takes a little while to get going, it ...

All Systems Red    M artha Wells Short, surprising, and very entertaining novel about a Security Unit robot (actually a cyborg) that tur...

Breaking and Entering: The E xtraordinary Story of a Hacker Called “Alien”    Jeremy N. Smith Non-fiction account of Elizabeth Tessman’s...

A Moveable Feast: The R estored Edition     Ernest Hemingway I have read the original version of this book many times. The prose was ex...

A Farewell To Arms    E rnest Hemingway Re-read this novel after about 40 years, and loved it even more than the first time. Especially ...

Underground Airlines    B en H. Winters Well-imagined, very readable novel about a present-day, alternative history United States where ...

In The Galway Silence    K en Bruen Latest in Bruen’s always entertaining and emotionally brutal Jack Taylor series. This time his nemes...

The Foreigner    F rancie Lin Novel about a Chinese-American man who goes to Taiwan to inter his mother’s ashes and gets involved with l...

The Histor ies    Herodotus Herodotus’ (484-414 BCE) histories of Persia, Egypt, and Ionia covering religion, social traditions, politic...

Thin Air    Ri chard K. Morgan Complex mystery novel that takes place on a far-future, colonized Mars. Murder everywhere, intricate poli...

Schopenh auer in 90 Minutes    Paul Strathern Very short introduction to Schopenhauer, though not much about his actual philosophy. Prim...

Ship Breaker    Paolo B acigalupi Young Adult novel about a dystopian America caused by the effects of global warming. Nailer is a ship ...

The Maples St ories    John Updike A one-volume collection of all eighteen stories about Richard and Joan Maples Updike wrote throughout...

Tales From Ovid    Ovid (trans. Ted Hughes) Twenty-four of Ovid’s Metamorphoses beautifully translated by Ted Hughes. Much better exampl...

Ovid in Lo ve    Ovid Love poems by the Roman poet. Published in 1968, the book itself has beautiful, sensual drawings as well. Didn’t l...

Brief Answers to the Big Questions    St ephen Hawking A deeply disappointing collection of essays covering topics such as “Is there a G...

The Ghosts of Galway    K en Bruen Most recent in Bruen’s Jack Taylor series, all of which I have read, as well as all his other books. ...

Past Tense    L ee Child Latest novel in the Reacher series, all of which I have read. Once again, Reacher is on the road, this time try...

Red Cat    Peter S piegelman A very well written and executed mystery. John March’s brother demands that he find a woman who is threaten...

Holy Ghost    Jo hn Sandford Latest in the Virgil Flowers series. This time   there are shenanigans and murder in Wheatfield, Minnesota ...

Wrecked    J oe Ide Third novel in the very enjoyable IQ series. The main narrative arc leads Isaiah to Grace, she is his Irene Adler, w...

They Shoot Horses Don’t They     H orace McCoy Emotionally bleak, 1935 novel about two people involved in a marathon dance. Captures th...

Pale Horse Riding    C hris Petit Sequel to Butchers of Berlin that finds Schlegel, Morgen, and Sybil in the Auschwitz garrison investi...

A World of Thieves    Jam es Carlos Blake Well-written novel about a family of bandits in 1920s New Orleans and west Texas. Good charact...

The Butchers of B erlin    Chris Petit Excellent novel about policemen in 1943 Berlin trying to solve a series of gruesome murders. Good...

Aspen Pulp    Pa trick Hasburgh Nicely written, engaging novel about a former ski instructor and television writer who returns to Aspen,...

Blown     Mark Haskell Smith Novel about a Wall Street investment banker who embezzles $17 million and takes off for the Caribbean, an...

William James: In the Maelstrom of A merican Modernism    Robert D. Richardson Very well written, highly-informative intellectual biogra...

Raw    Mark H askell Smith Novel about the romance between a reality TV star who doesn’t really know the difference and an intellectual ...

Delicious    Mark H askell Smith Another very entertaining novel from Smith, this one set in Hawaii with competition between indigenous ...

The Air Raid Killer     Fr ank Goldhammer German novel that takes place in Dresden at the end of World War II. Max Heller, detective in...

Salty    Mark H askell Smith Turk Henry, ex-heavy metal bass player, and his ex-super model wife go on vacation in Phuket, Thailand, and...

The Shadow District    Ar naldur Indridason Icelandic mystery novel that takes place during World War II and the present day. Written in...

Noir    Christ opher Moore Another delightful, humorous, heartwarming, and deeply entertaining novel by Moor. It’s 1947 in San Francisco...

Super Sad True Love S tory    Gary Shteyngart Well-written, interesting novel about dystopian America in the very near future. The narra...

You Were Never Really Here    J onathan Ames Novel about a former Marine and FBI agent who is now a private contractor who finds kidnapp...

Twisted Prey    John S andford Latest in Camp’s Lucas Davenport series. This time he’s in Washington, D.C. investigating an apparent ass...

Distant Star    Rob erto Bolaño Brief, brilliant novel tracking poet, air force pilot, and serial killer Carlos Wieder through the crime...

Greeks Bearing Gifts    Philip Kerr Latest, and penultimate, Bernie Gunther novel. I've now read every one in the series. Written well...

The Square and the Tower: Net works and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook    Niall Ferguson Well written look at history, primaril...

A Legacy of Spies    J ohn Lecarré Beautifully written filling out and re-examination of the spy story told previously in his The Spy Who ...

The Three Way Tavern: Selec ted Poems     Ko Un A collection of poems by “the pre-eminent Korean poet of the twentieth century.” Unfortun...

Joyland     Ste phen King Have felt for a long time that I should read a Stephen King novel because of his influence in American ficti...

The Blinds    Ad am Sternbergh Entertaining, well-written novel that follows the narrative structure of a western, small town in west Texa...

Ezra Pound and His World    P eter Ackroyd Brief but very good biography of probably the most influential poet of the twentieth century. F...

The Night Market    Jo nathan Moore Entertaining, well-written, inventive novel about a near future San Francisco policeman investigating ...

Normal    W arren Ellis Short, well-written, imaginative, and highly intelligent novel about academic futurists confined in a remote rest...

Ultraluminous    K atherine Faw Very well written, emotionally bleak novel about a high-end prostitute working in Manhattan. A first-perso...

Four Qu artets    T.S. Eliot Four of the most beautiful and philosophical of Eliot’s poetry. I used to read these poems every year, but it...

The Bear    Willia m Faulkner Read this novel forty years ago, and it seems just as great now. The beautiful, intense, well-crafted prose ...

The Wanted    R obert Crais Latest in the Elvis Cole series. This time Cole and Pike help a woman track down her son and solve a series of...

Righteous    Joe Ide Second novel in the I.Q. series about the Sherlock Holmes figure based in the hood. This time he’s rescuing a friend’...

The Fifties    Da vid Halberstam Well-written, overview history of the decade when the United States became the country it is now. While n...

Duino Elegies    R ainer Maria Rilke Very nice dual-language edition. Nearly every phrase is exquisite, even in Stephen Mitchell’s translati...

My Absolute Darling    G abriel Tallent Beautifully written, deeply disturbing novel about the incestuous relationship between Julia “Turt...

Sourdough    R obin Sloan Read this book because I loved Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore so much, and this novel has the same inventiven...

The Midnight Line     L ee Child Latest Reacher novel. This time, he’s in Wyoming and South Dakota trying to return a woman soldier’s Wes...

I.Q. Joe I de Very inventive, entertaining novel about a contemporary Sherlock Holmes character in urban Los Angeles. The Holmes figure i...

Deep Freeze    Jo hn Sandford Latest, very entertaining Virgil Flowers police procedural, based again in the fictitious Trippton, MN. He h...

Later Short Stories, 1888-1903     An ton Chekhov Re-read these stories because I read a statement in a review that Lady With a Dog is t...

Tampa     Alissa Nutting In this novel, the main character “unrepentantly recounts her elaborate and sociopathically determined seduction...

The Girl Who Take s an Eye for an Eye    David Lagercrantz Deeply disappointing next volume in the Lisbeth Salander books. Lagercrantz has...

Home    Toni Morrison Latest, brief novel by the Nobel Prize winner, the third book of hers I’ve read. Employs a narrative technique where...

Wolf on a String    Benjamin Black Novel about the court of Rudolf II in 1599 Prague, where a young visiting scholar improbably gets taske...

You Belong to Me    Colin Harrison Beautifully written “thriller” about the American wife of an Iranian-American financier and the multi-l...

No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories    Lee Child As the title indicates, a collection of all the Reacher stories Chi...

Prussian Blue    Philip Kerr Most recent Bernie Gunther novel. More interesting than the previous few because he’s back in Nazi Germany, w...

Habermas: A Very Short Introduction    James Gordon Finlayson Excruciatingly tiny print in a small book, but a very intelligent, informativ...

Golden Prey    John Sandford Latest Lucas Davenport police procedural. I’m not really a fan of Davenport, but Camp’s prose is very readabl...

What Work Is: Poems    Philip Levine Beautiful, personal, almost polemical poems about labor and life in the United States. Levine, and th...

The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance    Anders Rydell Disappointing ...

American Philosophy: A Love Story    John Kaag Engaging tour through the history of American philosophy as a result of Kaag’s time working...

The Ranger    Ace Atkins Interesting thriller about an army Ranger who goes home on leave to find his uncle dead and the town he grew up in...

Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey    Frances Wilson Relies heavily on De Quincey’s autobiographical writings, at times it seems ju...

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II    John W. Dower Excellent, Pulitzer Prize-winning history of postwar Japan. Really li...

Confessions of an English Opium Eater    Thomas De Quincey De Quincey’s idiosyncratic autobiographical sketches of his early life, as we...