#41

A GREAT first book in the Southern Reach trilogy. Don't read late at night in the dark. Reminds me of House of Leaves. Just started book 2 and the third book was released this week. Expecting great things! 

#40

Goodreads challenge for 2014 completed!! I love McSweeneys. Great short story collection on one half, and a Donald Barthelme symposium on the other. At least half of it was great. First story was the best. So was the story "Stockholm" which was a fictional account of the events that lead to the term Stockholm Syndrome. 

#39

Rumpus book club book for August! While it's a short, quick read, it raises all sorts of thought provoking ideas about the current state of football from the NFL all the way to youth leagues. Four stars on Goodreads. 

#38

Found this little gem on my page-a-day book calendar. It focuses on the life of a young man in an unnamed middle eastern county who's village is attacked and destroyed by a group of American troops. He is relocated to the Ohio rust belt and begins to live a new life in America, while dealing with the effects of that attack. An American solider who saves his life after the attack and the soldiers mom also play a key roll. Great book. Reminded me of We Are Called to Rise. Four stars on Goodreads! 

#37

This book came highly recommended from Wesley! So I bought a copy during the Bookaplazoa in Rapid City the first week of August. It was a great book on the summer of 1927. Lindbergh and Babe Ruth were the main focus, but Bryson touched on all sorts of minor historical figures that summer. Too bad 1929 had to ruin the fun. 

#36

Finished this for the August meeting of Books and Beers. The main character is kinda of a psycho, interspersing his fantasies of the Civil War with saving the towns Babe Ruth league. Some parts were pretty far-fetched. A good discussion though of travel team youth leagues versus local rec leagues and parental involvement. 

#35

This book was terrible. I started reading it in 2008 and never finished. Picked it up off my shelf last week and was able to pick right up where I left off. No wonder it took 6 years to finish. Not a real high caliber writing. 2 stars on Goodreads. 

#34

Finishing my cycling trilogy. This was a nice book about riding across the country on a bike in the late 1800's. 

#33

Another book about riding bikes that was also read from the air conditioned comforts of my living room. This was another book about bicycling touring, this time about riding a bike to the lowest point on each of the six continents. Guess which one he skipped? This book wasn't as solid as the book about the western US. Still an interesting idea. 

#32

A book about biking! Read from the air conditioned confines of my living room. This was a great book. The author retraced the ride he took 20 years earlier through the Western United States. I have visited many of the places he did, although via car and not bike. He did a nice job of balancing history, current events, geography, and stories of the people he met while riding. Great book! 

#31

Best book I've read so far in 2014! An incredible tale of three different families and how their lives intersect in current day Las Vegas. While the middle of the book sagged a little bit after a powerful start, by the end the author has brought it all back together and delivered a solid ending. A happy ending too! I guess it was based loosely on actuall events in Las Vegas in 2008. A great read. Should have selected it for book club. 

#30

The second selection for the Books and Beers Book Club. A charming little tale about a small town in the Deep South over Labor Day weekend. Lots of zany characters, interlocking stories, faith, hope and love. A good read. Three out of five stars on goodreads. 

#29

A nice quick read on the way home from Mexico. While I enjoyed it, and the storytelling was solid, did it really deserve a Pulitizer? 

#28

Pretty good first book selection for the Books and Beers book club. Told from the point of view of a 15 year old girl living near New Orleans in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. 

#27

McSweeneys 47 was a short story collection of South American crime stories. It was kind of an uneven collection. Some were pretty good, others were so-so, and 2 were terrible. Maybe 3 stars on Goodreads? 

#26

I loved the movie. Watched it twice. So I was interested to read the book it was based on. While the movie is based in present day as things unravel, the book is a retrospective of the Zombie Wars told from the perspectives of people around the world in an interview style. Very fun to read. 

#25

Blindness. A Nobel Peace Prize winning book. Took a bit to get into the groove of the authors writing. But once I did, the book was fantastic. Creepy. Sad. Scary. Sometime violent. But also touching. And kind. And hopeful. 

#24

This book is the May book selection for the Rumpus Book Club. It is based in Breckinridge which made it even more of a fun read! That being said, it was mostly about a mother who's son dies while snow boarding and three days in her life surrounding a visit to her house from a stranger. The writing could be a little more crisp at times, but overall a three and a half star book. 

#23

After some heavy and kind of depressing reading, decided on something lighter. This was a really quick read, that I thought would be better when I bought it with Wes on our used bookstore tour. I have really enjoyed the books from McSweeneys, and was quite disappointed at the lack of real humor in this one. Still, a book that was read in 2014, bringing the total to 23!

#22

Depressing collection of short stories. There were a few gems in here including What have you Done, Rollingwood, and The Loyalty Protocol.