Los Ping

It had to be World War Z by Max Brooks for me. I read his only other book(The Zombie Survival Guide) and thought it was a funny and intriguing title. World War Z just blew me away though with its great journalist style and world like scope. I really felt as if this was a real war story where the entire world tells the story on how a zombie crisis happened to how the world change after the incident. This book was far from the half-hearted expectation I had buying the book but it truly was one of the best books I read all year.

If you've read any thing from the Newford series(Dreams Underfoot or The Ivory and the Horn) the onion girl is like the culmination of the series. It features all the character's seen in the short stories focusing on the life of Jilly Coppercorn. I thought of all the short stories being T.V. episodes while The Onion Girl is the movie. It feels like a big budget, go for broke effort to create the best Newford story in the series and it broke every expectation I had for novel. The Onion Girl is truly De Lint at his finest.

I heard the crying on lot 49 is easier to read just because it is so short. I really want to read Gravity's rainbow but his books are the most challenging novels I've ever went through!

Yeah it is. I can't believe I missed that!

I tried reading this book after reading one of Pynchon's short stories (entropy) and loving every word of it. Rainbow went right over my head on the first read because I wasn't ready for his crazy style. I've heard that his other books have to be read before someone should tackle Gravity's Rainbow. Is this true and what other books of his should I read then? : D

Some good stuff right here One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Ken Kesey The Onion Girl- Charles De Lint Slaughterhouse 5- Kurt Vonnegut Watchmen- Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay- Michael Chabon All of these books are amazing. read them

Can I still get in on this?

Review of The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. Score 9.1 Michael Chabon has a lot to live up to after writing The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and TYPU lives up to the Chabon standard. TYPU takes the classic gritty detective novel(enter Meyer Landsman) and put is in a psudo Israeli environment of Sitka, Alaska. The main case of the story is the death of a chess player whose life went down the drain. In my opinion the story really picks up in the final act where the true plot unfolds and Chabon get the true feel of the classic detective novel. The writing in the book is perfect with deep, flowing sentences and metaphors. Each word carries great weight and can carry many darkly humorous undertones. This book is a definite read for any Jewish reader(such as myself) with many references to Jewish culture and the occasional Yiddish phrase. Others be warned that you might not understand all of the references or the main plot without a basic sense of Judaism. Chabon always delivers with his modern literature and this is no exception. TYPU is one of my personal favorites and it is a true treat to read.

As 2010 is coming up I want to see what books were the best of the decade. Only name one book, the author, and the year so there is not only one person filling out this list. Be creative and pick a book that might not be extremely popular. I'll keep a list on this post. Best Books of the 2000's World War Z - Max Brooks - 2006 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - 2003 The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold- 2002 The Horrific Sufferings of Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot, His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred - Carl-Johan Vallgren - 2002 The Plucker: An Ilustrated Novel by Brom - 2005 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - 2003 Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk - 2006 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell The Shadow Of The Sun - Ryszard Kapuscinski Sashenka - Simon Montefiore - 2008 Ian McEwan - Atonement - 2001 The Book Thief - Markus Zusak - 2005 Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides Girl Meets Boy - Ali Smith

I think this series is great but it kind of annoys me that the series always ends on a very high exciting note because it makes me want to automatically start the next book(which I tend to regret when I have to continue through another 300 pages of exposition.) I'm on the Lord of Chaos now(Book 6) and the series really begins to branch out around the fourth book where all the main characters gain subplots and much less gets done.

The Ender series is a great one that really widens out to larger topics such as religion by the third book xenocide. Its a pure science fiction saga story and if you you are into sci fi youll love it. De Lint is my personal favorite. Great urban fantasy style with fantastic writing throughout all of his books. Read Dreams Underfoot(short stories) first and move on to his novels such as The Onion Girl later. All the stories revolve around the city Newford and the same cast of characters which in my opinion made the series great!

Once school started I havent been able to read as much as i would want to but here's my reading list over the past few years. Top Tier(personal all time favorites) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Watchmen Slaughterhouse 5 Breakfast of Champions Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Saw There World War Z The Zombie Survival Guide The Onion Girl The Adventures of Caviler and Clay Dreams Underfoot The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(whole series) Congo The 2458 Best Things Ever Said Second Tier(great but not able to go that extra mile) The Dark Knight Returns The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I/II My Friend Leonard The Thief of Always A Thousand Splendid Suns Deception Point The Andromeda Strain The Time Machine The Sirens of Titan A Case of Need The Great Hunt Life Expectancy I Am America(and so can You!) The Fires of Heaven The Ivory and the Horn The Color of Magic Xenocide V for Vendetta Waifs and Strays Ender's Game The Kite Runner The Great Train Robbery Prey Survivor My Sister's Keeper The Yiddish Policeman's Union Third Tier(meh)(coming soon!) Currently Reading 1984 On the Shelf Gravity's Rainbow Life of Pi Wish List The Long Halloween Boulevard of Broken Dreams Dracula Frankenstein

Ive been tossing around the idea of buying a kindle because i dont always have time to pick up a book. I really just want to know if they are worth the money to get one.

That's what I thought. I liked the Da Vinci Code but Deception point had a much better story and characters.

2008 was a great book year for me and I read some of my favorite books of all time. The best of the books I read would be Watchmen, A Million Little Pieces, My Friend Leonard, Jpod, Deception Point, The Da Vinci Code, and The Sirens of Titan. The worst book for me was the Fellowship of the Ring mainly because I couldn't get into it. Its going to be hard to top that year.