With finals and early summer vacation, I've gotten behind on posting, so forgive this catch-up post and the brevity of the descriptions. I have to get this to-do item out of the back of my head. If you only want to see the best book in the list, scroll to the end for Wolf Hall.
51: The Library at Mount Char | * * * | Truly a unique fantasy / scifi offering, The Library at Mount Char was recommended by a former student, and I promise you've never read anything like it. There's a secret interdimensional library. There's a bunch of orphans with superpowers. There's a lion attack on a rap artist. Just a wild, wild, truly fascinating book.
52: God Emperor of Dune | * * * * | I promised myself I'd finally get thru the complete series this year, and this fourth entry in the series was fantastic, if you don't mind a couple hundred pages of a giant talking work weaving together a theory of theopolitical myth as a means of organizing society. Which I don't. So I dug it. Though I have no idea how they'll get this one made into a movie.
53: Heretics of Dune | * * * | It seemed to me that Herbert was running out of steam by this entry. It was okay. But nothing like the first four. Still, an impressive feat of continued world-building, and the dude can flat-out write.
54: Chapterhouse: Dune | * * * * | Resisting the temptation to tie it all up with a neat little bow, Herbert gives us another galactic battle that is actually quite optimistic for the future of mankind, despite the bleakness of the plot here.
55: Toxic Prey by John Sandford | * * * | I would read a John Sandford adaptation of the Spokane, WA phone book. This is about the billionth entry in the Lucas Davenport universe, which means it's formulaic and fairly predictable and I don't care. I still love this character, this style of crime novel, and I will read this series until God removes me or the author from the earth. Just a perfect little beach read.
56: Six Easy Lessons by Richard Feynman | * * * * | Every teacher on the planet--regardless of subject taught--should read at least the first chapter of this collection of Feynman's introductory physics lectures. The man was an absolute wizard at taking immensely complicated subject matter and turning it into warm, accessible, clearly articulated and thoroughly engaging conversation.
57: The Instruments of Darkness by John Connolly | * * * * | The Charlie Parker series is a truly unique sort of crime novel, in which the reader must accept the existence of a supernatural realm that simply doesn't exist in most procedural crime thrillers. If you can get through the first chapter of the first book, you -- like me -- might well continue to read the entire series, which is thoroughly excellent.
58: Send Bygraves by Martha Graves | * * | Really unique attempt at a crime novel in verse. However, it didn't do much for me. Not much to say other than that.
59: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel | * * * * * | The rare 5-star book. Recommended by a Twitter mutual, Wolf Hall tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, who rose from nothing to become King Henry VIII's trusted advisor. This first installment in a trilogy concerns itself with Henry's attempts to annul his marriage to Katherine and marry Anne Boleyn, with all the attendant theological and political drama created by his inconstancy.
The best way I could come up with to describe this is that it's like Cormac McCarthy decided to abandon the minimalist west and write complex sentences about the British court. There is something decidedly McCarthy-like about his thought process and syntax, but it took me half the book to put my finger on what it reminded me of.
A truly wonderful, dense, sprawling book, rife with poetry and theology and political maneuvering that furiously keeps asking the question "What makes a good man?" and refuses to flinch at any possible answers. I'll be reading the other two, after I let this one marinate for a bit.
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