Jedi Search

Author: Kevin J. Anderson
Format: Print

Great. Han goes back to Kessle, home of the infamous "Kessle Run." Luke finds some Jedi students to begin training, the Empire has yet another super weapon that the New Republic takes care of. Excited to read Dark Apprentice, the next in the duology.

Allegiance

Author: Timothy Zahn
Format: Print

Pretty good. Neat to see what Mara Jade (a character created after the movies) was up to during the timeline of the movies. Katie bought me this book for my birthday. :)

A Briefer History of Time

Author: Stephen Hawking
Format: Print

A great overview of some of the ideas of physics that have entered the public view. Relativity, quantum mechanics, string theory, black holes, the big bang, worm holes. By the way, did you hear about the black hole with the mass of 18 billion suns?

Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two

Author: Drew Karpyshyn
Format: Print

Also very good. I read this one very fast as well. Stealth, cunning, lies, trickery, these are the ways of the dark side... Just when I thought they were done for those foolish Jedi get punked (i.e. remind blind to the presence of the Sith). Great ending, but we were totally set up for a sequel. I can't wait to read it, so hurry up Karpyshyn!

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction

Author: Drew Karpyshyn
Format: Print

For some reason I got really excited about this book. A whole history before the start of the Star Wars films really intrigued me. I read this book very quickly which is unusual for me to do, usually I set printed books (as opposed to audio) down for a while then pick them up from time to time. This book though had me so interested and excited about the plot that I used mostly every free moment I had last week to read it. Needless to say at this point, the book was great! It was amazing how in the beginning of the novel I established a connection with the character, I understood him and could empathize with him. Then, I hung on to this connection with him even in spite of the horrific things that he did. I had to take a moment to "snap out of it." Had I fallen to the dark side? Bane's transition certainly made a lot more sense to me than Annakin's, Annakin's allegiance seemed to come out of the blue even though it was clear how Palpatine was playing him. I also like how even though it takes place about 1000 years before the movies a clear connection is made between this novel and the movies.

Favorite line: "Did your master give you that lightsaber when he died?" "No I killed him and took it." Those silly sith make me chuckle.

Dark Tide II: Ruin

Author: Michael A. Stackpole
Format: Print

I got through this one quickly once I finally started going, mainly because I was excited to get to the "Darth Bane" series which I've now started. I thought with the title "ruin" the New Republics demise would be more complete, but I guess there are still a lot of books in the series. I started to like Shadoa Shai by the end of the book, I look forward to meeting more of the Yuzhan Vong throughout the rest of the series. This was a great read full of some great ideas and adventure that kept me turning the page.

Dark Tide I: Onslaught

Author: Michael A. Stackpole
Format: Print

Very good. What's really great are the characters, not only do we have the old favorites like Luke who busts out with the dual light sabers to kick some extragalactic amphistaff, but we have the Leia and Han's children who I would imagine will become more and more important as the series progresses. These compelling characters keep me reading, I already have Dark Tide II on my night stand and look forward to reading it.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author: J.K. Rowling
Format: Print

I read this over the summer and forgot to post it. Once again, another great read to finish off the series. But, what happened to innocent Harry who plays chess to defeat his foes. Did I actually hear him say the words "crucio", do the words "unforgiveable" mean anything these days. But when Mrs. Weasley uses the "b-word" in reference to a certain death-eater, that's way pushing it for a children's series in my humble opinion. J.K. needs to take lessons from L'Amour, "...and then he swore bitterly..." let your imagination fill in the blanks.

Star Wars New Jedi Order: Vector Prime

Author: R. A. Salvatore
Format: Print

An extragalactic invasion! Great opening to what looks to be a great series (New Jedi Order). It's clear that the challenges will be fighting this alien species which has an amazing set of anticomputer technology and rounding up the jedi and reforming the council. Another interesting thing about this book: a major character died! Great book.

Teacher Man

Author: Frank McCourt
Format: Print

Frank McCourt's account of his 30 year teaching career. It was a well written entertaining book that mixes in parts of his past as a child in Ireland and young adult in New York. Most striking is his meandering sense of adventure throughout his career. His 30 years is divided up by an attempt at getting a doctoral degree, getting fired and changing schools, lessons on cookbooks that don't seem to have any point.

The Way It Spozed To Be

Author: James Herndon
Format: Print

This book described Mr. Herndon's experiences during his first year of teaching in an urban environment in the 60's. It seems that Herndon goes into the school as a blank slate, he doesn't really have a plan, or a mission, or educational theories and practices. He doesn't attempt to "control the class" but observes as it chaotically organizes itself and he steers it towards education. In ways I had a similar experience: 5th period didn't change, they didn't decide to listen to my lectures, or quietly work like they should--I changed, I stopped lecturing, and stopped expecting quiet, I found a way to communicate to people who won't listen.

The Last Command

Author: Timothy Zahn
Format: Print

The conclusion to the Trawn trilogy. Took me long enough to finally finish it. It was good. Ever wonder what happened to Luke's severed hand that was cut off by Darth Vader? Find out when you read this book...

Star Trek: Double Helix Book 1 - Infection

Format: Print
Author: John Gregory Betancourt

Pretty good. A quick read. This was my first star trek book, my dad recommended the Double Helix series as a good starting point. I'll definitely read the next in the series when I get the chance. I read this one while in Goochland, Virginia on a missions project with my church. Everyone else brought more sophisticated books, I felt a little embarresed reading it, "it's my first one I swear."

Innumeracy

Format: Print
Author: John Allen Paulos

"A billion, a trillion, whatever." We say these things but do we really have a sense of magnitude for big and small numbers as well as the risk and probabilities associated with our daily lives. Paulos tries to give the reader a good number sense as well as an understanding of probability while explaining the effects and causes of "innumeracy." The book is pretty entertaining with some great examples.

Infinite Ascent

Format: Print
Author: David Berlinski

This was a great overview of Math History. This topic is lacking in my math education so this book was a great help. It is very poetically written and could be good for even non-math types all though some passages were a little difficult to wrap my head around. Point of interest: Cantor claims that there are different sized infinities, he calls the size of the natural numbers "Aleph null." Also, not only is Euclid the "Father of Geometry" he is the Father of Proof as well.

Books Katie and I have read.

It all started with Chronicles of Narnia. I wanted to read them because I never had so I started reading the first one. Katie asked me to read the first one to her while I was reading it one day. After a time we finished reading the whole series.

Chronicles of Narnia series
Peter Pan
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Phantom Toll Booth
Touching Spirit Bear
Artemis Fowl
Currently reading: ArtemisFowl the Arctic Incident