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Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire released 20 years ago

Posted in books, movies, pop culture, Star Wars with tags anniversary, Book Report, books, movies, pop culture, Star Wars on June 1, 2011 by Paxton

Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire was released at the end of May 1991 which makes it 20 years old. Heir to the Empire was the first “expanded universe” Star Wars novel since the Lando Calrissian solo novels in the 80s. It would become immensely popular and spark an avalanche of Star Wars novels that continues to this day.

The next two books in Zahn’s “Thrawn Trilogy”, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command, were released in 1992 and 1993 respectively.

The characters Zahn created in his trilogy became extremely popular and would be used by other authors for years afterward. Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Empire’s strategic military genius, would be one of the more popular. However Thrawn as a character would not really be written by anyone other than Zahn. Mara Jade would be used by many authors up until the current day. She would go on to marry Luke and have his children. Talon Karrde, smuggler extraordinaire would also prove popular and show up in novels from time to time, as would the New Republic’s military strategist, General Garm Bel Iblis. Zahn’s three books would also popularize the idea of clones in the Star Wars Universe as well as be the first to use the formal name of the Imperial homeworld (and current Republic homeworld); Coruscant.

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Year End Book Report: The best books I read in 2010

Posted in books, reviews, Star Trek, Star Wars with tags Book Report, books, reviews, Star Trek, Star Wars, Year End Books on January 19, 2011 by Paxton

Okay, time to “wrap up” my end-of-the-year “wrap up”. Last week I posted my annual Movie Board articles featuring the best and worst movies of 2010. I’ve been doing those lists since 2007. Starting last year, I added The Book Report reviewing all the best books I read throughout the year. Today is the 2010 Book Report.

During the year, I keep a Google Spreadsheet logging all the books I read. Here’s a screenshot and link to the spreadsheet.

Google Spreadsheet containing my book log.

The spreadsheet tells me I read 62 books this past year. That’s about 10 more books than the year before. I read a lot more graphic novels this year as opposed to last year which accounts for the increase in books. Those graphic novels can be read in an afternoon, so it pumps up my book totals. Plus I read several Young Adult books that took only a few days to read.

I also did a lot of re-reads this past year. I re-read 6 or 7 Star Wars novels I hadn’t read since the 90s. I also re-read the final Harry Potter book. Every once in a while I get in a kick of re-reading books I loved but haven’t read in years. After two or three years, you’d be surprised how much you forget about the story. It’s like reading the books again for the first time. But I will not include any books I re-read in this list. Only books I read in 2010 for the first time will be included.

Anyway, on to the list. Here’s the best books I read in 2010 in no particular order.

Jack West, Jr series by Matthew Reilly – I found the second book, Six Sacred Stones, in a box of books my buddy Dr Mike was getting rid of a year or two ago. I read the back and it sounded good, so I took it. Mike mentioned he thought there may be a book before it because he felt he was missing some of the story when he read it. I searched Paperbackswap.com and found out he was right. So I ordered the first book, Seven Deadly Wonders and read both books back to back. And I loved them. The story is very much part Indiana Jones, part Da Vinci Code and part National Treasure. The action is very fast paced. I had read two other Reilly books, Area 7 and The Contest, before this and they were equally as awesome. Reilly really can write fun action books. The story centers around Jack West Jr, an Australian military solider and his international and eclectic team who discover that a supernatural event will soon cause the end of the world and set out across the globe, uncovering clues to find out how to stop it. That’s a really high level explanation, but you get the idea. The third book in this series, Five Greatest Warriors, was just released in paperback on Dec 28. I read it last week. Unbelievable. I love each one of these books. The first one, Seven Deadly Wonders, is the best, followed closely by Six Sacred Stones and Five Greatest Warriors which are tied. Such good reads. I am concerned though. The final page in FGW actually says THE END. I don’t know why you’d start a series counting down from 7 and then not finish it because the story in Book 3 ends with no cliff hanger. However, Reilly has stated he has other ideas and if he continues Jack West’s story, it’ll count down to 1. I’m glad, because I adore these books and want more. I may have to continue Reilly’s other book series about a special forces soldier code named Scarecrow while I wait.

Demonata series by Darren Shan – I was recommended this series by my brother-in-law’s brother-in-law (brother-in-law once removed?) Anyway, he knew I liked Darren Shan’s Cirque Du Freak series so he told me to give this series a try. And I did. And it’s awesome. Very dark and sinister, Shan is building up a very interesting world of magic and demons. The story is kind of in depth and builds over the entire series so it’s tough to nail down a synopsis for you without ruining anything. But the world is dark and the demons are horrific. Know that so far I’ve read books 1 – 3 in this series and I plan on reading more. So far the series sits at 10 books.

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15 murder mystery books with absurdly specific subjects

Posted in books, humor, pop culture with tags Book Report, books, humor, pop culture on February 12, 2010 by Paxton

I love books and I love to read. I spend a lot of my time trolling through bookstores and used paperback shops just browsing. Sometimes after browsing for 2 hours I’ll buy a stack of like six books and sometimes I’ll buy nothing, to the ever increasing frustration of my wife. She can go into a bookstore, look for 10 minutes and be done. However, get her in a fabric store and time loses all meaning. But a bookstore, that’s my domain.

One of the things I love to read is the murder mystery genre. It’s one of the most popular genres of books including such classic authors as Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Recently I’ve noticed a trend with murder mysteries wherein the author tailors the murder story around a specific hobby or lifestyle. I guess it’s to make the story more relatable to the reader. As this practice has become more and more popular, the subjects for these murder mystery books has become so intensely specific that it has become a bit ludicrous. Here are ten of the most ridiculously specific murder mystery books I could find. And there may be even more odd ball ones out there. You can click the book covers to read more about the titles on Barnes & Noble.com.

Sudoku, the OCD numbers puzzle that has become quite the rage the last few years. Now, there’s a murder mystery series featuring them. The story in this series involves a Sudoku creator for the Oregon Daily participating in a Sudoku tournament where a competitor turns up dead. She must solve the mystery and then win the Sudoku tournament (of course she does) if she is to be crowned King Sudoku and become one of the 8 Deadly Immortals and protect the Earth from the attacking Demonicle hordes…..okay, I made the last part up, but I was getting a little bored and had to think of something a little more awesome than winning a Sudoku tournament. Other titles in this series include Murder by Numbers and Sinister Sudoku.

Crossword puzzles. They are like Sudoku for old people. People obsess over these things. There are books and dictionaries created specifically to help people solve crossword puzzles. My father, my mother-in-law and my aunt are obsessed with these things. My dad told me that he’ll start a crossword puzzle during breakfast and the next time he looks up it’s 5pm, time for dinner and he hasn’t moved…or showered. Great, my dad is becoming Howard Hughes. What’s an 8 letter word for shut in? (FYI…it’s “puzzlers”) Other titles in this series include Puzzled to Death and And a Puzzle to Die On. Stay tuned for mysteries involving Yahtzee, Bunko and Parcheesi. Okay, Dad, you can shower now.

These two books belong in the “so boring I may have just passed out” category. On the left you see the first book in a mystery series about a tea shop. A.TEA. SHOP. Yes, little old ladies in red hats drinking tea and eating scones off lace doilies solving murders. It’s like a less interesting Murder, She Wrote (if that’s possible). Each title in the book has the name of a tea in the title as a pun. For instance, Gunpowder Green and Shades of Earl Gray. It’s like the author is actively trying to get me NOT read her books. On the right you can see the first book in the “coffeehouse mysteries” set in a trendy “mom and pop” coffee shop. I guess a coffeehouse is as good a place as any for a murder scene because every time I go there with my wife there are several douchebags I want to actually murder. Other coffeehouse titles include Decaffeinated Corpse and Roast Mortem. And since writing those “tea shop mysteries” most certainly drove the author insane, she also writes a mystery series about scrapbooking.

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Year End Book Report: The best books I read in 2009

Posted in Book Report, books, reviews with tags Book Report, book reviews, books, Year End Books on January 21, 2010 by Paxton

I don’t read books like I watch movies. Most of the books I read in a year didn’t come out that year. I will rarely read a brand new book the year it is released. Part of that is because I don’t like reading hardback books. I prefer sitting down with a nice paperback. It just feels right. Are there exceptions? Of course there are. Harry Potter. Dan Brown. Larry Bird. All of these will get me to buy a hardback book and read it the moment it is released. As a matter of fact, two of those three authors released hardback books this year that I got and read (Dan Brown and Larry Bird). Did they make my favorites list? Wait and see.

I’ve never really done a book list for this blog and that’s mainly because I’ve never kept a good, consistent log of what I read in a given year. This past year, however, I did start keeping a detailed log of books I read. I kept a log in previous years, but it includes only about half the books I read and very little detail about the book. In Jan 2009 I started keeping track of more data and I did it with consistency (which is key). I keep it in a spreadsheet on Google. Well, it started in a book journal called Book Lust (which Steph gave me for Xmas 2008), but then, when I completed the journal on New Year’s Eve I moved it to Google Spreadsheet.

Here’s the Google Spreadsheet containing my book log

The first tab on the left is all the data for every year in the spreadsheet. Then the tabs moving to the right are each year broken out by itself. 2009 has the most data, 2008 is fairly complete, but 2007 is almost bare.

Perusing my book log I see I finished 52 books last year. That’s a book a week. Not bad. It’s almost exactly the number of 2009 movies I saw last year (53). Eerie. Anyway, like I said, most of the books I read were not released in 2009. The only books actually released in 2009 that I read were Star Wars: Death Troopers, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and When the Game Was Ours by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

So, without further ado, here are my five favorite books I read in 2009 (in no particular order).

When the Game Was Ours by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson – Okay, I know I just said these books were in no particular order, but I lied. Every book but this one is in no particular order. This book was my favorite book I read last year, and I didn’t even get it until Christmas day and then I read it in 3 days. Fantastic, fantastic book. A great look back at one of the greatest times in NBA history, the razzle, dazzle 1980s, by two of the game’s greatest stars, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. I can’t even begin to describe how great this book is. If you are a fan of basketball, especially back in the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, then you owe it to yourself to READ THIS BOOK. Hell, I’ve followed Larry Bird since the ’80s, I read his autobiography, Drive (TWICE!), as well has his book on coaching, Bird Watching, and I STILL came out with information I’ve never known before. Larry and Magic discuss in frank detail what it was like to be them and playing each other. AWESOME.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Books 1 -5) by Rick Riordan – I’m counting these as one. I read Books 1-4 in 2009. I started Book 5 on Jan 1, 2010. But, the series, I think, should be judged as a whole. This is one fantastic series. For those lamenting the ending of Harry Potter, this is a great series to read to fill that gap. Of the five books, four of them easily belong on this list. EASILY. Book 2, while good, is not great. Almost a little boring. But Books 3-5 are so unbelievably fantastic that I can easily give Book 2 a pass. I hear Riordan may be retiring Percy Jackson after Book 5, but the world he’s created with the Greek/Roman gods and demigods will continue on in another series. I can’t wait to start those too because the world Riordan created is fascinating and fun. If you love Harry Potter and/or Greek/Roman mythology, you will LOVE this series. I can’t wait for the movie of Book 1 in February.

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Christmas Reading List 2009 book reviews

Posted in books, Christmas, holiday, reviews with tags Book Report, books, Christmas, holiday, reviews on December 23, 2009 by Paxton

Each year, around November, I create a reading list of Christmas books that I want to read for the coming Christmas season. I like having holiday themed books to read during the actual holiday. Last year I read five or six books for Christmas. A good amount of books in a month for me, but I planned a little bit more ahead that year, plus several of the stories were very short. This year, I had so much other stuff to read, I couldn’t match last year’s output. It’s also getting tougher to find good holiday themed books because the majority of Christmas themed mysteries are geared more towards middle aged women. They have a woman sleuth (which I don’t mind) and many times offer recipes for cookies and cakes with the story (which I do mind). I even found one Christmas mystery murder book that had an all female construction crew as the focus of the story. AN ALL FEMALE CONSTRUCTION CREW. Needless to say, this is not something I personally want to read. So I continue to Google endless variations of “Best Christmas mysteries” to come up with my holiday reading list.

So, after much searching, I was able to track down three holiday books this year that I found interesting and I offer you my reviews.

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (A Sherlock Holmes Mystery) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – One of Doyle’s short stories featuring the titular detective. This particular mystery takes place right around Christmas day. One of Holmes’ acquaintances discovers a priceless blue gem in the crop of a Christmas goose. Holmes must first discover what the mysterious blue gem is and then detect how it came to be in the neck of the goose. This story is short, but it’s one of Doyle’s best Holmes stories. I had forgotten that I read it back in high school. The opening scene between Homes and Watson has always stuck with me; Holmes studies a discarded hat, and from this hat, he rattles off a laundry list of deductions about the hat owner. It’s pretty cool and when I think Sherlock Holmes, I think of this scene. Holmes follows his deductions backwards and with a bit of luck, discovers the mystery of the gem. Much like Agatha Christie’s A Christmas Tragedy (which I read last year), this story has a very tenuous connection to Christmas, but this story works so much better than Christie’s short story. I’ve loved Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories since high school and I’m very happy to see they are still solid reads, unlike the aforementioned Agatha Christie (whose work is less interesting now that I’m older). I highly recommend not only this story, but much of Doyle’s Holmes stories (however, beware of Sherlock Holmes stories written by other authors as the quality is highly uneven).

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