Books Read in 2004 (Read Any Good Books Lately?)

right now | Tanniker Smith

[Tanniker Smith]

2004 -- It was a year of catching up on a number of series books.

And it was probably the most books I've read in a long time (even if 12 of them were Lemony Snicket)

• The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Broken Blade, Ann Marston
• The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket
• The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket
• The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket
• The Miserable Mill, Lemony Snicket
• The Austere Academy, Lemony Snicket
• Cloudbearer's Shadow, Ann Marston
• Rogue Pirate, John Gregory Betancourt
• The King of Shadows, Ann Marston
• The Ersatz Elevator, Lemony Snicket
• The Vile Village, Lemony Snicket
• The Hostile Hospital, Lemony Snicket
• The Carniverous Carnerval, Lemony Snicket
• Let Freedom Ring, Sean Hannity
• Maybe (Maybe Not), Robert Fulgrum
• The Slippery Slope, Lemony Snicket
• The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket
• Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, Lynne Truss
• Tom Clancy's Net Force: Night Moves
• Tom Clancy's Net Force: Breaking Point
• The Kingdom of Infinite Numbers: A Field Guide, Bryan Bunch
• X-Files: Whirlwind, (does it matter who it's by?)
• Tom Clancy's Net Force: Point of Impact
• The Grim Grotto, Lemony Snicket
• Tom Clancy's Net Force: Cybernation (in this one, the title actually had something to do with the story)
• Vulcan!, Kathleen Sky
• Stars & Stripes Forever, Harry Harrison
• Stars & Stripes In Peril, Harry Harrison
• Stars & Stripes Triumphant, Harry Harrison

Also
Graphic Novels: (I don't normally get to read these, but I found a stack at the local library and went through them!)

• Batman: Terror (good)
• Tales of the Slayers (very good, it was worth picking rather than the Buffy books)
• Batman: Child of Dreams (pretty good, but pretty long)
• Spiderman: The Death of Gwen Stacey (excellent -- even for reprints)
• Spyboy/Young Justice (ick)
• Batman: The Arrow, the Ring & the Bat (good story, but the splash pages were annoying)

[Dan from Michigan]

I heard Kevorkian has an equivalent remedy

Jack can't help. He's in jail still. Michigan doesn't like Jack very much....nor his attorney buddy Geoffrey.

[Dan from Michigan]

All time favorites in no order

Atlas Shrugged
Enemies Foreign and Domestic
Unintended Consequences
Sum of All Fears (BOOK, not movie I didn't see with that joker Affleck)
The Bear and the Dragon
Executive Orders

I liked the internal politics stuff that went on in those three of Clancy's books.
Enemies Foreign and Domestic had a good message, and was all too real when it came to some ambitious politicians and mid level bureaucrats(particulary the latter).
Unintended Consequences is the ultimate PO the feds book.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I also read "Flyboys," by James Bradley earlier this year and enjoyed it. Its another Pacific diary that spins along.
I wish I'd interviewed my dad on his service (and a crash landing) in the China-Burma-India Campaign. He died in 1966.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I like ponies. ; )

[Warriormom]

That's when I first experienced it, too! God called so many people to prayer in 2000. I knew I wasn't the only one. It's nice to meet another!

I was called on February 1, 2000 - I'll never forget it. I would have to stop whatever I was doing and just listen to the prayers that were going through me. I would go to sleep praying and wake up still in prayer. I remember being in a PTO meeting and all of the sudden everything around me became background noise and I was drawn into an incredibly specific prayer. It was the most incredible thing that I have ever experienced - the most humbling, also. That was when I became a prayer warrior (who is also a mom - hence, warriormom).

[Tanniker Smith]

Hienlien is always good, try: Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, Glory Road

Time to revisit him. I had to read him in high school and while I made it through "Starship Troopers", I only got this far through SiaSL: "John Valentine Smith was born on Mars."

TS

[PMCarey]

I have mixed feelings about "Stranger in a Strage Land". Loved it as an adolescent, but not as enthralled nowadays. However there's a lot of Heinlein that is superb. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is his best IMHO, but also worth reading (among many others) are:

• Double Star
• Starship Troopers
• The Door into Summer
• Friday
• Have Spacesuit Will Travel
• Tunnel in the Sky
• Farmer in the Sky

I'm not thrilled with his later work (other than "Friday"). His short fiction is quite wonderful too. Try to locate his collection of Future History stories in "The Past Through Tomorrow". For a collection of short fiction and essays, see "Expanded Universe". All-in-all some really good stuff.

[My2Cents]

Thank you for your testimony. What you shared relates to how I've come to understand the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is related to when circumstances go your way, you get what you want, things happen which are positive, and so forth. Joy is what one experiences when one sees the hand of God over their life. It is independent of circumstances. In fact, the circumstances can be trying or adverse, but when one feels the presence of God in the midst of those circumstances, and you know He is in control, joy becomes a reality. I see this in what you shared.

I wish I could say that I heard a call to pray before the election in 2000. We prayed, but sporatically. It was only after the Florida hang-up that the Lord seemed to say that He was holding the election in the balance primarily to see if His people cared enough to pray. That's when we determined to get serious. But it wasn't our determination which got us through that month of daily prayer. It was like we were carried along by His will. We dared NOT pray. It became as important as breathing. And God has been gracious to keep us praying over the past four years; and we don't have any sense that He's released us from that ministry. Which gives us all great confidence that God intends to do some mighty works in and through our nation. But it won't be released except through prayer.

[SunkenCiv]

This has been a good year for finishing books. My metier is to start 'em, and pick away at several simultaneously. Anyway, thanks for this ping.

[1L]

Why do you say Plato is too "lefty?"

[lainde]

bump for reference

[GeronL]

HHmm?? I was kidding. Anyways, I wonder if I could download a copy online?

From what I remember it seemed somewhat Utopian... but thats a vague memory.

[1L]

Its good for gaining an understanding of the "Socratic" method of teaching. I'm not sure its utopian, but it is very theoretical.

[Dashing Dasher]

I'm lucky enough to belong to a book club.
Our goal was to read books we have always wanted to read AND/OR would never have found on our own.

Each member gets to pick a few couple each year (we have six members and have been "in business" for 6 years).

I recommend it highly - for those that have an interest....

Short list of what we read this year....
# The Dive From Clausen's Pier
# The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
# The Secret Life of Bees
# Empire Falls
# Bel Canto
# The Piano Tuner
# Three Junes
# Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
# A Thousand Acres
# Pears on a Willow Tree by Leslie Pietrzyk

Others
# Flight of Passage
# Just Another Navy Pilot
# Amelia's Daughters
# A Walk in the Woods (Bryson)
# Forever Flying by Bob Hoover
# The Happy Bottom Riding Club by LAUREN KESSLER
# Without Reservations : The Travels of an Independent Woman by ALICE STEINBACH

[Warriormom]

It's okay that you weren't called to pray until the mess in Florida - what's important is that you answered WHEN you were called. Obedience is the high calling of God!

God has also been gracious in allowing me to pray over the past almost 5 years. There have been times when I've not been impressed to pray and I've asked Him why. He's assured me that those are simply times of rest in the midst of the battle. Once you've been drawn into that kind of intimacy with the Creator of Heaven and Earth, you don't want to live a moment without it.

It sounds as though 1 Samuel 12:23 is true for both of us, "As for me, for be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you."

I believe that God does intend to do some mighty works in and through our nation and He has allowed some of us to be on the "inside track" with Him. I find that I look at everything that is happening in the world in light of His mighty plan. The battle ahead of us is fierce - fortunately, the war is already won.

For from Him and through him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen Romans 11:36

[My2Cents]

God has also been gracious in allowing me to pray over the past almost 5 years.

I suspect you've learned, too, that prayer is the activity of the Holy Spirit. While we've prayed for the President, our nation, its leders, our society, our troops, and for God to be pleased to use our nation as one instrument of His work in the world, and we've seen Him answer prayers, the real blessing has been to be in His presence and to hear Him speak. It wasn't until we started this ministry of prayer that we came to understand that prayer is waiting upon Him to reveal His thoughts and His heart, so that we might speak what we saw and heard back to Him. It's been an amazing thing to be discipled by the Holy Spirit Himself in this.

[Chunga]

That's a great book too. As I get older I find (well, at least I think) that I understand Lewis more. He can get quite deep and I find myself constantly re-reading passages to try to capture his full meaning, and at this stage of life I almost imagine myself succeeding a little.

I'm thankful The Lord blessed us with a mind like his.

[patriciaruth]

Flags of our Fathers was pretty good, too.

Written by a son of the Iwo Jima flag raising, I think. Read it a couple years ago.

[patriciaruth]

I enjoyed Mere Christianity on reread so much that I decided to send a copy to several units...Afghanistan and Iraq, along with other books this past year.

[patriciaruth]

Starship Troopers was camp the way they did it. And I may be one of the few people who enjoyed the movie. I even rented the sequel but it was kinda bad.

The movie based on The Puppet Masters was terrible. They left out all the really fun stuff.

I saw a preview for a movie of another Heinlein book...can't remember which one... Do you know?