CAFiorello

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

( the books )

Most read on my new Kindle. I adore it!

Body Signs: From Warning Signs to False Alarms...How to be Your Own Diagnostic Detective, by Joan Liebmann-Smith & Jacqueline Egan. Interesting overview but can be a hypochondria trigger.

The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. I love this guy! It was fun to read this on an actual wireless-enabled ebook. And some of the words I had to look up were even in the built-in dictionary!

The Grantville Gazette III. A nice collection of short stories and non-fiction from the 1632 universe.

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. I'd never read any Jane Austen, and it was fine and diverting, but I'm probably done now.

Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart, by Ian Ayres. Neat coverage of how technology has made massive multiple regressions and randomized trials easy enough that we can approach real data-based decision making in many areas.

Con Ed, by Matthew Klein. The art of the big con, a diverting novel to read on a plane.

If you are on my friendslist, I would like to know thirty-six things about you. Whether we've known each other for years or never met in person is irrelevant. Copy the questions from here and reply here. When you're done, repost the unanswered list of questions so you can learn more about me and everyone else on your friendslist. :)

1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?

2) What was your dream growing up?

3) What talent do you wish you had?

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?

5) Favorite vegetable?

6) What was the last book you read?

7) What zodiac sign are you?

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.

9) Worst Habit?

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?

11) What is your favorite sport?

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.

16) Do you have any pets?

17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?

18) What was your first impression of me? (hmmm...careful!)

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

22) What color eyes do you have?

23) Ever been arrested?

24) Bottle or can soda?

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?

28) Do you believe in ghosts?

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

30) Do you swear a lot?

31) Biggest pet peeve?

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?

35) Do you believe in any god[s]?

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki. Nice non-fiction on how groups (markets, teams) can make better decisions than individuals and the factors that contribute to it.

Shadows over Baker Street, edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan. A collection of Holmes pastiches set in the Lovecraft universe. Very interesting. In general, I enjoyed those that stayed closest to the Holmes canon best, although Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald was very different but excellent.

All the Rage (a Boondocks treasury), by Aaron McGruder. I enjoyed the cartoon collection, but the interviews section got a little repetitive.

All Shots, by Susan Conant. I love Holly Winter, the dog stuff, and the wryly affectionate portrait of Cambridge, MA.

Damsels in Distress, by Joan Hess. A SCAdian-like organization and murder at a Ren Faire. A Claire Malloy mystery.

Making Money, by Terry Pratchett. Economics on the Discworld. Lots of fun.

Broken Angels, by Richard K. Morgan. Brutal but well-realized universe.

Cursor's Fury, and Captain's Fury, by Jim Butcher. I am enjoying this fantasy series very much. The plot outline is pretty standard, but he's worked out the world and people and magic very nicely.

Derek just got his acceptance letter from Temple! They are also offering him a $2500 merit scholarship, which, on top of my employee tuition benefits, is almost going to make this affordable. He's declared as a Biology major and thinking about being a radiologic technician, but as we all know...these things may change.

Neal Stephenson, The Big U. An early novel reissued. Not half bad, though Stephenson got better with practice. To be fair, it's hard to parody a university.

Harley Jane Kozak, Dead Ex. Fun characters.

Gayle Lynds, Mosaic. Standard thriller, well done.

Charles Stross, Halting State. Intriguing but convoluted. First novel I remember reading written in the second person.

Allegra Goodman, Intuition. Incredibly well-done story of scientists by a non-scientist.

Sue Grafton, T is for Trespass. Still going strong this late in the alphabet.

Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, & Jack Cohen, The Science of Discworld II: The Globe. This was fun! Intertwined overview of science and a Discworld story. And I do love the wizards.

Bob Harris, Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up: A Woefully Incomplete Guide. Sold in humor, but it's mostly not. Generally very balanced and a nice overview.

Jim Gerard, Beam Me Up, Jesus: A Heathen's Guide to the Rapture. Really stupid and not very funny.

Joel Best, Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. Nice overview for the layperson.

Lisa Delpit, Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. Excellent! No one should teach without reading this.

Urgent Appeal for Support
to Protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Most of you will recall the brutal murder of Theo van Gogh (a descendent of the brother of the famous artist) in Amsterdam in 2004 at the hands of a Muslim thug who was offended by Van Gogh’s film about violence against women in the Muslim world (yes, that’s right, for accusing Muslims of being violent he was violently killed — shot eight times and nearly decapitated). The killer left a note proclaiming that the author of the script upon which the film was based, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, would be next. Since then, and especially since her book Infidel became a bestseller, Ali has lived in fear and under Dutch government security. The Dutch government has now removed its protection, leaving Ali to fend for herself, scrambling to find the means to hire private professional security.

I thank my friend Sam Harris for calling my attention to a new fund recently established in her name to raise money to pay for her security. I believe that this is a great moral cause that skeptics, humanists, and believers in civil liberties and freedom of speech can and should rally behind. Normally we call for general assistance in combatting irrationality in its generic form so pervasive in our world; here is a golden opportunity to give to a very specific cause in which irrationality threatens the life of a courageous free thinker and champion of liberty. I’ve made my donation. I hope you will as well. — Michael Shermer, Executive Director

http://www.samharris.org/site/security_trust/

Charles Stross, The Merchants' War. Fourth of the Merchant Princes and ends on another fracking cliffhanger!

John Scalzi, The Last Colony. Last in the Old Man's War trilogy. Heir to Heinlein indeed!

J. M. Hayes, Mad Dog & Englishman. Odd sort of police procedural and very funny.

Zoe Sharp, First Drop. Excellent thriller.

David Rosenfelt, Open and Shut. Excellent legal thriller.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards. I don't usually read straight fiction, but this got great reviews, so I tried it. Poignant and tragic.

Codex, by Lev Grossman. Interesting but I'm not sure I understood all of it.

Bloodsucking Fiends, by Christopher Moore (re-read). Always fun!

Chill Factor, by Rachel Caine (Weather Warden 3). Still interesting, but still annoying at times.

Blood Poison, by D. H. Dublin. A local author, so I checked it out, and it's not bad.

The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, and The Clan Corporate, by Charles Stross. The first three of a series about people who can travel between worlds. Interesting characters and the politics and economics are very detailed. Have reserved the fourth.

Kaylie has been having the household's latest medical adventure. She's been limping a bit, which we thought was arthritis. Well, last Friday, Carl got home and Kaylie couldn't use her rear legs at all. He rushed her to the vet emergency room and she had all kinds of adventures, including x-rays, a myelogram, and an ambulance ride to a doggie MRI. Turns out she had a ruptured disk, so she got a laminectomy. She is now home on bed rest. Um, you have never seen a bad bed rest patient until you have seen a Border Collie on bed rest. She can walk a bit again, but is still supposed to be walked only in the sling for 4-6 more weeks!

Gone, by Jonathan Kellerman. Alex Delaware is back to being decent instead of angsty, thank goodness.

Academ's Fury, by Jim Butcher. I love this universe and this story very much.

Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik. Damn! Excellent, but the cliffhanger makes me want to chain her to a computer and make her finish it right now!

Left this a bit too long, eh?

Fiction:
Stagestruck Vampires, by Suzy McKee Charnas. Interesting and disturbing. The non-humans are *very* non-human.

Dead and Loving It, by MaryJanice Davidson. Very lightweight and too predictable.

The Lithium Murder, by Camille Minichino. I love the science twists in these mysteries.

Heat Stroke (Weather Warden 2)), by Rachel Caine. Liked this even better than the first.

Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher. Damn, what a nicely developed fantasy world! Somewhat formulaic plot, but worth it for the world and characters.

Dante's Equation, by Jane Jensen. Interesting but weird in a too woo-woo sort of way. I like my speculative science fiction less entwined with religion/fantasy.

Glasshouse, by Charles Stross. Wow. Is Stross on my list now forever, or what? Thanks, annathepiper!

Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson. I love the premise and protagonist. I know, this is woo-woo, but it's OK when that's the premise. For some reason.

Comics:
Piled Higher and Deeper: A Graduate Student Comic Strip Collection, by Jorge Cham. These are so true, they're almost not funny.
Piled Higher and Deeper: Life is Tough and then You Graduate.
Piled Higher and Deeper: Scooped!

Nonfiction:
Proust and the Squid, by Maryanne Wolf. Excellent and well-written, but despite the claim, this is not for laypeople. If you've got some neurology or neuropsych background and want to catch up on current reading research, go for it.

The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. I adored this, although it makes food shopping uncomfortable and difficult for a while afterward....

The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do, edited by Samantha Ettus. Adequate bathroom reading, but too many of these things really cannot be conveyed in print.

1. Go to Career Cruising, www.careercruising.com
2. Put in Username: nycareers and Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top twenty results
5. Mark the careers you have seriously considered in bold
(I went with bold italic for what I actually do)

1. Rehabilitation Counselor
2. School Counselor
3. Genetic Counselor
4. Professor
5. Special Education Teacher
6. Family Practitioner
7. Career Counselor
8. Psychiatrist
9. Actuary
10. Social Worker
11. Librarian
12. Mathematician
13. Foreign Language Instructor
14. Elementary School Teacher
15. Neurologist
16. Dermatologist
17. Database Developer
18. Early Childhood Educator
19. Naturopath
20. Addictions Counselor
( More... )

Ill Wind, by Rachel Caine. First of the Weather Warden series. Interesting heroine and world, but a little too deus ex machina for me. I'll try the second.

The Serial Killers Club, by Jeff Povey. Fairly amusing parody of the genre, but nobody likable in the bunch.

Danse Macabre, by Laurell K. Hamilton. Bought out of desperation while traveling, but surprised me with the return of a little bit of plot. Not bad.

The Penguin Who Knew Too Much, by Donna Andrews. The wacky world of Meg Lanslow continues.

The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers. Very tangled novel, exploring the meaning of self through a young man with a head injury, his sister, and a neurologist modeled on Oliver Sachs. Intriguing.

No More Kidney Stones, by John S. Rodman, R. Ernest Sosa, Cynthia Seidman, with Rory Jones. A new revision. Decent overall advice, but I caught a few errors in the oxalate section (I guess I know too much for my own good).

Phule's Company by Robert Asprin (reread). Something light and funny to tide me over while I waited for biopsy results.

Phule's Paradise, by Robert Asprin (reread). Ditto.

Rusty Nail, by J. A. Konrath. Thankfully a little resolution for Jack. Some pretty grim scenes but leavened with humor.

Fifty Degrees Below, by Kim Stanley Robinson. A bit too lectury, but interesting stuff.

Dead Days of Summer, by Carolyn Hart. More focus on Annie, which was kind of neat.

Eight of Swords, by David Skibbins. Obviously a first novel, but reasonably well done. Interesting tarot details.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, by Alexander McCall Smith. Isabel Dalhousie isn't quite as cool as Mma Ramotswe, but good enough.

Schott's Almanac: 2007, by Ben Schott. Great bathroom reading.

1st to Die, by James Patterson. Didn't suck as badly as the other one (co-written) that I tried. A bit too Jeffrey-Deaver-twisty at the end, but OK characters. Still not a favorite author, but I won't run away from others in this series.

Nerds Like it Hot, by Vicki Lewis Thompson. All right, she's trying to stretch her premise here a bit too far. I still enjoyed the fluff, but she's really confused nerds with geeks with Mensa members here....

Michael Connelly, Concrete Blonde. Excellent police procedural, great characters, twisty plot. Harry Bosch is always recommended.

Michael Palmer, The Society. Suffered a bit from following Connelly--too much tell and not enough show, characters a bit thin. But adequate fluff.

Walter Mosely, Devil in a Blue Dress. Been meaning to check these out. Fascinating look at a different slice of society. I'll definitely read more of these.

Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in a Red Hot Rage. So kill me, I sometimes still enjoy a cozy where the cat helps solve the mystery. It's really the soap opera of Temple's life I enjoy, though.

Karin Slaughter, TripTych. Quite well done but violent and difficult.

Diana Wynne Jones, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. What a hoot! Written as a guide to the generic world all fantasy novels take place in, it's wickedly on target. "Horses. Horses can be used like bicycles, and usually are. Much research into how these exemplary animals came to exist has resulted in the following: no mare ever comes into season on the Tour and no stallion ever shows an interest in a mare.... It therefore seems probable that they breed by pollination."

Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think. An interesting survey of cognitive errors applied to the diagnostic process.

Katrina Firlik, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe. Memoir of a neurosurgeon, full of fascinating details.

Ruby Payne, A Framework for Understanding Poverty. A quick read and much oversimplified, but basically on target. Designed to help teachers understand their students from poor families.