Read: Anne McCaffrey - Dragonsong

I hadn't read this book in many years - I had the latter two books of the trilogy in my collection, but hadn't found this one for sale. But after a trip to the Dark Carnival bookstore in Oakland, California, my set is complete. It was a great re-read on the plane trip to Hawaii yesterday - it's an endearing survival story, both in terms of staying safe in a hostile landscape, and keeping a love of music alive in a hostile culture. The dragons are almost incidental!

Read: Maureen Corrigan - Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading, Finding and Losing Myself in Books

A more serious book than you might guess from the somewhat flippant title. Maureen Corrigan writes about her rewarding career reviewing books and teaching literature, her love of different book genres (particularly detective stories) and her ambivalence about her experience in getting a PhD in English Lit. A very open, honest examination of everything she reads and does - it can't be easy to write a memoir that's as blunt in self-assessment as this.

Interesting side note for medical artists: she had a part time job at the Mutter Museum of medical curiosities in Philadelphia.

Books she wrote about that I now want to read: Kingsley Amis's "Lucky Jim" (the funniest book she's ever read); mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Read: Sarah Waters - The Night Watch

I had this book on my list as a result of reading Connie Willis' "Blakcout" and "All Clear", similarly set in London during WWII. I probably shouldn't have read it so soon after Connie Willis - she's a hard act to follow. "The Night Watch" was a decent historical novel, but didn't have the same intensity as Willis. I have, however, read that this was not Sarah Waters' best novel, so I may well give some of her others a try.

Read: Maryanne Wolf - Proust and the squid [the story and science of the reading brain]

Neuroscience of how the brain works while reading. A particular focus on how a child's acquisition of reading skills reveals how the various parts of the brain work together to read (or not, in the case of dyslexia). Also, an historical examination of how various reading systems develop, and how the brain's involvement differs from one type to another. A bit academic overall, with a tendency to make the same point too many times, but all in all a pretty good read.

Want to Read: Mark Osbaldeston - Unbuilt Toronto, A History of the City That Might Have Been

I heard about this book when there was an exhibition about it - now I find out he's a friend of a friend (and that he has a new book coming out). Even more incentive to read it now.

Want to Read: Sarah Susanka - The Not So Big House, a Blueprint for the Way We Really Live

I browsed through a copy of this book years ago, and it had some very convincing arguments for why many small houses are better. I'm curious now if in re-reading it I'll discover similarities to Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language".

Want to Read: The uTOpia series of books

A series of books about all the things I'm interested in: improving the city, the arts, sustainability, water, food and community activism. I'd like to start with GreenTOpia and The Edible City.

Want to Read: Dickson Despommier - The Vertical Farm, Feeding the World in the 21st Century

I've seen a bit about vertical farming here and there, but need to read more to convince me that it's workable - maybe this book will have the details.

Want to Read: Richard Harris - Unplanned Suburbs

The early history of the suburbs in North America - pre 1920s.

Want to Read: John Lindqvist - Handling the Undead

A zombie novel, but not really about zombies. The dead return to life, and want to reunite with their families. It sounds more sad and awkward and contemplative than creepy and violent. I'm intrigued. I haven't read his previous novel, "Let the Right One In" that the recent popular movie was based on (and I haven't seen the movie either), but they both sounded intriguing too.

Read: Doug Saunders - Arrival City, the Final Migration and our Next World

Great book. Humans are progressively becoming an urban species, and it's a good thing - higher standards of living, lower birth rates, more energy-efficient all around. But the transition process can be messy, resulting in slums. Doug Saunders' argument, bolstered by a tremendous amount of personal stories from people he has met and interviewed, is that slums aren't all they seem on quick glance - if all is working as it should, residents are moving in and up out of them within a generation, so that poverty doesn't become entrenched. Property ownership and the opportunity to set up small businesses easily are the key to keeping the system moving.

Want to Read: Jane Jacobs

It's been years since I've read anything by Jane Jacobs. Reading Doug Saunders' "Arrival City" makes me think of her "Life and Death of Great American Cities" - it's time to read her work again.

Want to Read: Malinda Lo - Ash

A re-telling of Cinderella, with darker tones and a lesbian spin on the love story. Sounds great.

Want to Read: Adam Gidwitz - A Tale Dark & Grimm

At brunch with friends this past weekend we were recalling fairy tales of our youth, and now I read a review for a book that ties in with that perfectly. It inserts the characters of Hansel and Gretel into other, lesser-known Grimm's fairy tales - sounds dark and funny.

Want to Read: Maria Tatar's annotated collections of fairy tales

Several years ago I bought Maria Tatar's collection of annotated Grimm's fairy tales as a gift for my sister. It looks like she's edited and annotated several other collections as well. Fairy tales seem especially well-suited to annotation - there can be multiple variations of the same tale, and it would be fascinating to read them with this kind of additional information available.

Want to Read: Sarah Waters - The Night Watch

Mentioned in a review of Connie Willis' "All Clear" - a book that is similarly set in WWII London, telling the stories of several women. Although this book might suffer by comparison to Connie Willis, who I adore. But Sarah Waters has apparently written several other well-regarded historical fiction novels (set in other eras), so I could try those first instead.

Want to Read: Maryanne Wolf: Proust and the squid [the story and science of the reading brain]

My search for "Reading on the Brain" in the Toronto Public Library catalogue also turned up this book about reading. I'm ready for a reading binge about reading.

Read: Connie Willis - All Clear

"All Clear" is the sequel to "Blackout". A novel of time travel with multiple overlapping timelines and characters, it was initially fascinating for the detail of its time period (England during WWII). And then, just at the end, all the timelines and characters came together in a surprising conclusion - one so perfect it made me burst into tears. I can't wait to re-read them both again, seeing it all from a new perspective.

Want to Read: E.O. Wilson - Biophilia

A talk by artist Robert Bateman reminded me that I hear a lot about E.O. Wilson, but have only read one of his books. I should read more.

Want to Read: Stanislas Dehaene - Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention

I love reading. I love neuroscience. This book brings them together!

Want to Read: Maureen Corrigan - Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading, Finding and Losing Myself in Books

The title reads like my autobiographical twin...

Want to Read: Anne Fadiman

I've read her "Ex Libris" and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. I saw another book by her in a book store while in New York- why haven't I looked up other books by her yet?

Read: Sara Gruen - Ape House

A good book, but not enough time spent with the apes. They're really the most interesting characters, in spite of the author's attempt to make all the humans quirky in wildly divergent ways. I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more if John Irving had written it - he's got wildly divergent quirkiness down to a fine art.

Read: Steven L. Cantor - Green Roofs in Sustainable Landscape Design

A good overview of several green roof topics (design process; plants, irrigation and specifications; green roofs in Europe) as well as many descriptions and photographs of actual projects around the world. The book describes these as case studies, but the information isn't really detailed enough. Overall a good book for inspiration and trends.

Want to Read: Ross King - Defiant Spirits, The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven

I've always loved the paintings of the Group of Seven, and this book sounds like it gives a great historical and social context of art in Canada at that time, and why the Group really was so revolutionary.

Read: Christopher Alexander - A Pattern Language

Better than his previous book - more concrete examples of elements of design in architecture. Could still use editing down. Curious if similar principles were used in "The Not So Big House" - my memories of that book are over a decade old now.

Read: Christopher Alexander - The Timeless Way of Building

Not sure what to write about this one. There are some good ideas in here, but I think he needed a better editor to bring them out. His arguments are made incredibly slowly, and I started to lose momentum before long.

Read: Emma Bull - War for the Oaks

A re-read of a favourite already read many times over. But I couldn't resist - an edit of one of Jenn's recent stories reminded me of this book, and I just had to pull it off the shelf. As lovely as ever - charming dialogue, passionate characters, intriguing mix of urban setting with fantasy elements. It all came to an end more swiftly than I remembered, but it's rather un-melodramatic story arc is one of the things I like about it - it's not really building to the big battle scene after all, but finishes up on a smaller-scale human level.

Read: Jean M. Auel - The Valley of Horses

Like, 'Clan of the Cave Bear', this one is a good book too. In re-reading it, I think it's the best-suited of the series to the author's writing style. With the main character, Ayla, alone for much of the book it's heavily plot-based, with some really great inventions and discoveries. There's minimal character interaction - the other main character, Jondalar, is on a journey for most of the book, so secondary characters pass in and out of the story quickly, minimizing any opportunity for the annoyingly repetitive characterization that mars her later work in the series. Now that I've satisfied myself that the early books really were quite enjoyable, I think I'm done re-reading - no need to rehash the plot of the next two, where we'll get bogged down again in the characters' interactions.

Read: Jean M. Auel - The Clan of the Cave Bear

Well, I'm relieved to say that this book is indeed better than the later 'Shelters of Stone'. It has similar issues of overly simplistic, repetitive characterization - but since it is largely the story of a child raised in a rigid, archaic society, it doesn't seem out of place.

Read: Jean M. Auel - The Shelters of Stone

Why did I re-read this book? I got sucked in while visiting my friend Jenn, since it was conveniently located on her iPad that I'd borrowed for the day. But still, this book is really not worth re-reading. I love the concept of a stone age woman growing up adopted by Neanderthals, then going out on her own to fend for herself in the world as a hunter gatherer. And the earlier books in the series actually had exciting inventions and discoveries. But the latest book in the series is just a re-telling of all the events of the previous books as she finally settles down with others of her own species - same stories repeated more than once, and an endless emphasis of all the one-dimensional characters, as if the author believes that all the readers are blithering idiots. It would be laughable if it didn't go on for so long. One can only hope that the upcoming final book in the series will redeem this one, since it only serves as the set-up for the final conflict between humans and Neanderthals.

Want to Read: Doug Saunders - Arrival City, the Final Migration and Our Next World

I knew Doug Saunders (who is, by the way, no relation to me) had a new book out, but I didn't know anything about it. But this morning I read an excerpt, and I'm very excited to read the book now - all about urbanization and how it's changing the world for the better. I should have known it would be great - I've always enjoyed his columns for the Globe.

Want to Read: Jeremy Rifkin - The Empathic Civilization, The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis

Jeremy Rifkin is giving a talk tomorrow at the Green Building Festival. I don't think I'd heard about his book before, but what I'm reading now is very interesting - a positive view on how our world could be changing for the better.

Want to Read: Oliver Sacks - The Mind's Eye

Oliver Sacks is always great reading. This one is about how our minds cope with the loss of sight. I haven't read anything by him in a while, so I'm looking forward to this book.

Update: I just read another review of this book. It's about Oliver Sacks' own progressive loss of sight, due to cancer. Suddenly it seems so much more poignant. I first read his early autobiography, "Memoirs of a Chemical Boyhood" in the hospital while my father was dying of cancer.

Read: Mary Roach - Packing for Mars

I finished off Mary Roach's "Packing for Mars: the curious science of life in the void" this past weekend while visiting my friend Jenn. As expected it was full of obscure, entertaining facts about space travel, and further funny footnotes. Sometimes her jokes are a little hokey, but I'm willing to overlook it since she puts such an all-out effort into getting to the bottom of stories, asking the tough, sometimes humiliating questions that the rest of us wouldn't dare.

Want to Read: Bill Bryson - At Home, A Short History of Private Life

Sounds like similar subject matter as Witold Rybczynski's "Home, A Short History of an Idea", and yet I'm sure Bill Bryson will have a fresh, funny perspective on it.

Want to Read: Suzanne Collins - Hunger Games trilogy

The latest book in the trilogy just came out, which led to my hearing about it for the first time. In a ruined future North America teenagers are chosen by lottery to compete in televised games akin to that of the ancient gladiators. Could be great - I'm hoping for an Orson Scott Card "Ender" type of story.

Want to Read: Darin Strauss - Chang and Eng

A review of Darin Strauss' recent memoir "Half a Life" mentioned his historical novel of the conjoined twins Chang and Eng - I remember when it came out and wanting to read it. Time to add it to the list. I suspect that after reading it I might want to read the memoir too - the story of how he was in a car accident as a teenager that killed a girl, and how this has affected his life ever since.

Want to Read: J.R. Ackerley - My Dog Tulip

Anthropomorphism in reverse, trying the convey the world that dogs inhabit. If we're going to get a dog, this seems like a good book to read.

Want to Read: Jonathan Lethem - Chronic City

Set in an alternate-reality Manhattan - this could be interesting.

Read: Christopher Alexander - Notes on the Synthesis of Form

Christopher Alexander's books were mentioned by an architect as inspirational, so I put several of them on hold at the library. This is an early one, and more concerned with the general process of coming up with design solutions. It's generally pretty convincing, but I need more time to digest it.

Read: Emily Horner - A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

A quirky coming-of-age story, with no more angst than is needed (the teenage narrator's best friend does die in an accident, so some angst is required). The dialogue is sometimes improbably insightful for the age group depicted, but it's an endearing story with some surprising plot twists and character development.

Read: Christian Werthmann - Green Roof, A Case Study

A case study of the American Society of Landscape Architects green roof on their headquarters in Washington DC. Great to read about a project in detail, particularly the evolution of the various ideas.

Want to Read: Guy Deutscher - Through the Language Glass - Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages

I read an article about Guy Deutscher's linguistic theories in the New York Times Magazine recently - some pretty fascinating stories.

Want to Read: Patricia T. O'Connor and Stewart Kellerman - Origins of the Specious, Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language

I've got a thing for books about the English language - this looks like another good one.

Want to Read: Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall

I remember that reviews for this book were good when it first came out, and now it's available in paperback. I think I'm still on a historical novel kick after my Ken Follett binge earlier this summer.

Want to Read: Emma Donoghue - Room

Novel inspired by the true story of Josef Fritzl who imprisoned his daughter in the basement for 24 years and had seven children with her. This would seem too lurid, but the reviews I've read so far are promising - the novel seems focused more on the weird mental semantics of a child growing up having only inhabited a single room, without ever seeing the outside world.

Want to Read: John Vaillant - The Tiger

True story of a tiger and a man in a remote part of Russia. Simon Winchester's review of this book in the Globe and Mail is so enthusiastic that I want to read it. Also, the review gives away little of the details of the plot, so I'll have to read it if I want to know more.

Read: Christian Werthmann - Green Roof: A Case Study

Why didn't I read this book while I was still in Washington? It's a case study of the green roof installed at the American Society of Landscape Architects headquarters in Washington DC several years ago. If I'd known about it, I could have visited it! Ah well. The book gives a good details on how the roof came to be and what all the different considerations were that went into making the final decisions. I went on their website after to look up information on how the roof is doing now, four years after publication of the book - looks like the plants have filled in nicely.

Read: Andrew Singer - The Backyard Poultry Book

After reading Novella Carpenter's inspiring book about backyard farming, I browsed through some other books in the library, looking less for autobiographies and more for instructional manuals. I didn't find a good one until this book by Andrew Singer. It has all sorts of practical information and guidelines on raising chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc. Unfortunately no section on quail, which is where we'd likely start experimenting, since starting small seems easiest.

Read: Novella Carpenter - Farm City, The Education of an Urban Farmer

This is the book that I thought Manny Howard's "Empire of Dirt" was going to be. It's a funny story of a woman raising plants and animals in her backyard. Just like Manny Howard, except that she does it for the joy of it (rather than some sad mid-life crisis) and learns from her failures to build on her successes - to the point where she progresses from raising birds (chickens, ducks, goose, turkeys) to rabbits (dozens of them) to two full-size pigs! After finishing the book last night, I am more glad than ever that we bought a lovely pork shoulder roast at the farmer's market Sunday - today is the day to make that for dinner.

Read: Michael Ableman - On good land: the autobiography of an urban farm

The polar opposite of Manny Howard's 'My Empire of Dirt'. This is the history of a real working farm, albeit a fairly small one that is in the present day entirely surrounded by California suburbia. Michael Ableman doesn't start out knowing all the answers, but he patiently keeps trying, observing, and comes to have real insight into what it means to farm the way he does, and where he does. It's all one complex ecosystem, trying to mimic how nature works, in order to bypass the destructive processes of industrial-scale agriculture. At the same time his suburban neighbours come to have a surprising connection to the farm.

Read: Manny Howard - My empire of dirt: how one man turned his big-city backyard into a farm

This was a disappointing book. Manny Howard took on the challenge to grow/raise all his food for one month in his Brooklyn backyard as a magazine assignment. He doesn't seem to have any particular interest in the plants or animals themselves, he's just having a midlife crisis and doesn't know what else to do with his life. He flails about helplessly, which I suppose is meant to be comical, but I found it depressing - he never really succeeds at anything, and in the meantime his family life just about unravels. I kind of wish I'd never read it, and I don't often have that reaction.

Read: Nigel Dunnett and Noel Kingsbury - Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls

A great book. Ever since visiting Norway and seeing the green roofs there on both traditional and contemporary buildings, I've been curious about their construction and benefits. This is a comprehensive resource on all the current knowledge, while also pointing out future areas for research. I had mostly considered the insulation benefits, so one of the biggest surprises was finding out how much green roofs can reduce water runoff - a huge benefit in overburdened urban areas.

Read: Jacqueline Carey - Santa Olivia

I bought this book last year while visiting New York, and read it in one fast go over a couple of days. I left it behind for my friend to read, and then picked it up again when visiting this past weekend.

It's a pretty off-beat future story - the world has somewhat fallen apart after a flu epidemic, a US town that borders Mexico ends up caught in a military-controlled no man's land when the border is sealed. It starts off with an ordinary woman meeting an unusual man - a genetically modified man with great strength, speed, and no fear. You think it's going to be their love story, or maybe a government intrigue story, or an end-of-the-world society falling apart story, but it isn't. She gets pregnant, he flees the military, and it becomes the story of their daughter, Loup, who inherits her father's characteristics.

Growing up she's the force behind some pranks that convince the town that Santa Olivia (a legendary girl who brought peace during a war by bringing a basket of food to the soldiers) is real, and wreaking vengeance upon the evil and doing good deeds for the well-deserving. So you think it's going to be a Robin Hood kind of story, but it isn't. The pranks get too much heat from the military, so she backs down, just as her brother dies in a boxing accident. Next thing you know, it's a boxing story - she's taking on his legacy to fight the man who killed her brother.

And it's a good boxing story - something I never thought I had any interest in, but Carey makes it comprehensible and gripping. Along the way Loup falls in love with the most unlikely person in town, makes friends with another unlikely person, fights her fight, and then makes her escape. It's all set up for a sequel, which I see on the author's website is in the editing stage - I can't wait to read it, because it's pretty difficult to predict where the plot will twist with this character.

Want to Read: A.J. Jacobs - The Know-It-All

I was reminded that I've been wanting to read A.J. Jacobs' 'The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World' after seeing his blurb for Mary Roach's 'Stiff'. And, on top of that, my friend Jane friended him on Facebook after reading it. Plus, his year spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is just the kind of crazy thing I'd want to do on my own year off, if I didn't already have such a long list of sabbatical goals. I'll have to settle for reading about him doing it.

Want to Read: Mary Roach - Packing for Mars

I've already read the first few chapters of a temporarily borrowed copy of Mary Roach's 'Packing for Mars: the curious science of life in the void'. So I'll have to track down another copy (I'm thinking bookstore, rather than library, since it's so new) in order to finish it off.

Read: Mary Roach - Bonk

I had read Mary Roach's 'Stiff' (the curious world of human cadavers) several years ago, and when visiting my friend Jenn this past weekend, we met up at The Strand so that she could purchase her newest book, 'Packing for Mars' (the curious science of life in the void). Which I then proceeded to monopolize for the rest of the weekend.

Since I didn't want to abscond with her most recent purchase at the end of the weekend, Jenn lent me 'Bonk' (the curious coupling of science and sex) instead. And, after an hour and a half waiting for my bus, and another four and a half hours riding it, I had finished the book.

Mary Roach has a knack for tying together wacky research findings and journalistic interviews into a fairly coherent narrative. Even when the connections are a bit wayward, she's funny enough to keep you reading along at a good, swift pace. And luckily the cover of the book is tame enough that I felt reasonably comfortable reading it while sitting next to the nice, mild-mannered mother of two beside me on the bus. Perhaps she never even picked up on its subject matter? For a book that's all about sex it really isn't very racy, but it certainly is fascinating.

Want to Read: Mark Changizi - The Vision Revolution

I started reading this book the other week at the bookstore, and got part ways through the chapter on why our eyes are positioned as they are - it puts forth a new theory that depth perception is all that important, but being able to track an object behind the visual clutter of leaves, twigs and grass is. It was a pretty radical rethinking, it had convincing experiments and demonstrations, and I'd like to read the rest of what he has to say.

Read: Connie Willis - Lincoln's Dreams

I had read this book a few years ago, and since it deals with events of the Civil War, it seemed like a good time to re-read it, as I tour Washington's many historical sites.

I'd forgotten how similar this book is in structure to her later novel, 'Passage'. It has the same uncanny feeling, with the central theme of the dreams as messages echoed in many of the other events and characters - different kinds of messages being interrupted, or going astray, or being difficult to interpret. It's a powerful layering of imagery - she hardly needs much of a plot to make for compelling reading, which is good - the book doesn't really end with much resolution of events, although it does bring up a revelation that casts a different light on the narrator's role.

'Passage' was very similar, having the characters misadventures in navigating through the hospital's labyrinth and the sinking of the Titanic echo the central story of near-death imagery as messages from the brain. 'Passage' was more successful in having warm, compelling characters and relationships, which allowed it to have an even more daringly unresolved ending.

There's nothing like a great novel to make the details of history come alive and have meaning - I'll be thinking of Tom Tita, Lee's cat that was left behind trapped in his house's attic, as I tour Arlington cemetery.

Read: Ken Follett - World Without End

'World Without End' is the sequel to 'Pillars of the Earth', a novel that I've re-read a few times, because I really enjoy the insight into medieval architecture. This book has some of the same appeal, with sections about building a bridge (coffer dams - now I understand how to build in running water!) and the failure of the foundation under a too-tall tower.

It has a somewhat predictable plot, like a Hollywood movie - you know that ultimately the bad guys will get their comeuppance and the good guys will get their reward, but there'll be lots of reversals of fortune along the way. There's also a tendency to overlay modern concepts of the virtues of capitalism and feminism over medieval practices, which sometimes seems improbable, reminding me of Jean M. Auel's 'Clan of the Cave Bear' series (how can one woman have been at the forefront of so many modern practices?).

But he knows how to move the plot along - I could hardly put it down, in spite of its 1014 pages. I'd like to see this book become a mini-series or movie.

Read: Dan Ariely - Predictably Irrational

After reading Dan Ariely's second book, I was interested to read this one too. It's just as surprising, entertaining, and enjoyable. Most memorable findings: 'free' is almost irresistible, we're all terrible at judging how poor our decision-making skills are when swayed by passion, it isn't easy to prevent procrastination but there are some strategies, everyone's just a little bit dishonest unless they're reminded of their morals, and while we'll happily volunteer our time to do something that otherwise we would demand to be paid highly for, being paid a little ruins the social contract.

Read: Connie Willis - D.A.

This one's so short it's surprising that it's been released as a book - it would be more in line as part of a collection of short stories. But I love Connie Willis, so I'm glad to have found something new by her to read. It's got some of the farcical, frantic activity of her time-travel stories, with a definite nod to Heinlein in its space setting. Good story, but no time to develop the kind of uncanny mood I've been impressed by in some of her other novels, like 'Passage'.

Read: Ian McEwan - Atonement

Not my usual style of novel, but it was one of the few paperbacks available at the local library branch (they do love their hardcovers in the Washington DC library system - I suppose they last longer). And if I'd had many other books available, I might not have pressed on past the first part, where the language is a bit too flowery. But I'm glad I stuck with it - the reason behind the initial style becomes apparent as the book develops, and there are a few good plot twists towards the end.

Want to Read: Richard Matheson - I Am Legend

I like end-of-the-world books, and my friend Jenn asked if I'd read it, since she just had and found it "deeply weird". So I'd better add this one to my list!

Read: Dan Airely - The Upside of Irrationality

Now that I have a library card for the Washington DC system, I've got books again. On my first trip to the library I wandered about a bit aimlessly, not having with me a list of what I want to read. So I picked up a couple of random books, one of which was Dan Ariely's book from the new book shelf. I vaguely remembered reading a review for it, which had, I think, been mostly favorable.

All in all, it's a pretty good book - easy reading, and surprisingly humorous. Not all of the theories he puts forth are equally as unexpected or as convincing, but reading about the experiments set up to test them is always satisfying.

Read: Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife

My memory was correct - this book was better than her second, "Her Fearful Symmetry". "Her Fearful Symmetry" seemed like an exercise in plot twists - intricately wrought, with characters somewhat secondary, and rather bloodless. Whereas in "The Time Traveler's Wife" the plot is almost negligible - the future is pre-determined and to a great degree already known, making it tragic and affecting. The power comes from the characters, which are tremendously passionate and real. So real that I cried at the end - it's not often a book makes me do that.

Read: Audrey Niffenegger - Her Fearful Symmetry

It would be hard to top the success of a first novel like 'The Time Traveler's Wife'. Yet this is also a good book - uncanny mood, with some shocking plot twists. A bit like something Connie Willis could have written, which rather makes me wish that it had actually been written by Connie Willis. It makes me want to go back to re-read 'The Time Traveler's Wife' - my memory of it is a bit vague at this point, but I think I remember the characters and their relationships being easier to connect with. This book was a little bloodless. Everyone seems distant and unreal - which is in keeping with the theme of the story, but diminishes its impact.

Read: Susan Cooper - King of Shadows

I purchased this book a few years ago, interested to read something new by Susan Cooper - I have loved and re-read her 'Dark is Rising' series many times since I discovered it as a child at the town library. It has some similar characters and emotions, but overall it lacks the same powerful mythology. I recently re-read it, because I was looking for a book to take along one day on the subway (I didn't have much room in my bag that day, and it's a slim book). And I think I'm ready to let it go - I'm purging my bookshelves, and don't think I'll read it again.

Read: Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin - Three Cups of Tea

Inspiring story. Really fantastic to get to know the people and cultures that Greg is immersed in throughout his years building schools and other vital infrastructure in impoverished rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. I'm filled with admiration for his work.

Read: John Irving - Last Night in Twisted River

I haven't read anything by John Irving in several years. It was good to be back - his ability to bounce back and forth in time, revealing something of the plot but still surprising you is as good as ever. It's a strange experience by the end, as the book becomes the story of the author writing a book about his own life, which is the very book you've been reading - very circular, yet still gripping.

Read: Jacqueline Carey - Naamah's Curse

Jacqueline Carey continues her third trilogy set in the alternate history of Terre d'Ange. Still enjoyable, although it doesn't quite live up to the unique characters and relationships in her first trilogy.

Want to Read: Richard Barnes - Animal Logic

Richard Barnes photographs things I'd like to photograph: dioramas, animal skulls, bird migrations, nests.

Want to Read: Aimee Bender - The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

A girl who senses the emotional origins of food upon tasting it. Sounds a bit magical.

Want to Read: Tom Bissell - Why Video Games Matter

This book looks interesting - the world of gaming is maturing. Is it capable of real artistic achievement? The review is promising - Bissel is an editor at Harper's, and he teaches fiction - he should have a good perspective.

Want to Read: Vaclav Smil - Global Catastrophes and Trends, The Next 50 Years

Margaret Wente recommended Vaclav Smil. And although I often disagree with Wente's political stance, I love the way she makes me re-think issues. So if she thinks Smil is worth reading, he probably is.

Read: Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol

I might never have read this book if left to my own devices. I did read The Da Vinci Code, but that was due to a misadventure with a Mexican shopping mall, a Spanish-subtitled movie, and a lack of English book selection - I found the plot gripping but the writing wasn't terribly enjoyable.

However, a friend recommended this book because of its history of Washington DC and its landmarks. And since we're about to be spending several weeks there, I thought I'd read it as a primer for sight-seeing - and it worked. I'm much more keen on seeing some of the government buildings than I would have been otherwise.

Read: - Alan Bradley - The weed that string the hangman's bag

I read Alan Bradley's first mystery novel in this series during a business trip, and it was fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the young protagonist's love of chemistry - this is a book I should be reading to Mark.

I didn't find the second quite as charming - sometimes the inclusion of the chemistry slant seemed a bit forced. But Flavia's internal dialogue is still as funny as ever, particularly the rules she makes up for herself in how best to cope with her misadventures.

Re-read - Jacqueline Carey's Terre d'Ange series

In a burst of incipient summer fantasy escapism, and in preparation for the release of Jacqueline Carey's new book 'Naamah's Curse', I re-read all of her novels set in the imaginary land of Terre d'Ange. That's 7 books - the original trilogy featuring Phedre, the spin-off trilogy featuring Imriel, and the new trilogy featuring Moirin. Now I'm just awaiting the release date on the new book - it had better come out soon before I lose my momentum!

Want to Read: Lawrence Scanlan - A year of living generously: dispatches from the front lines of philanthropy

Scanlan spends a year volunteering with 12 different agencies, one month each. Seems like the perfect book to read before I'll have a year myself to volunteer.

Read: Amy Irvine - Trespass

I read about three quarters of this book while visiting my mother this past weekend. I thought I would really like it - it's a memoir by a woman who moved out to a cabin in the utah desert wilderness, to get back to nature and her Mormon ancestral roots in the area. But it was a pretty odd book. Her style of writing is fractured and melodramatic, which seems to reflect her emotional stability - during the course of time covered in the memoir she's dealing with her father's suicide and the end of her marriage. I really can't recommend this one.

Want to Read: Carlos Ruis Zafón - The Shadow of the Wind

Recommended by Mark's friend David. Something about his description made me think of 'The Name of the Rose' by Umberto Eco, which can only be a good thing.

Want to Read: Charlie Huston - Sleepless

Police procedural and speculative fiction set in a world where 10% of the population can't fall asleep

Read: Connie Willis - Blackout

Connie Willis is one of my favourite authors. Her books are difficult to classify - a bit sci fi/fantasy, with a love of history, capers, tragedy, and a sense of the uncanny.

'Blackout' didn't turn out to be one of her best, but that may be because it's one of a two-book set - I'll have to wait until this fall to see how the story ends. I'm willing to maintain faith.

A new start to recording what I'm reading

For years I kept track of the books I'd been reading by recording it in a notebook. And then I moved, and I never really found the right spot for that notebook, so I never knew where it was when I'd finished reading a book, and the system fell by the wayside.

And there's another notebook in which I'd record the books I want to read, although it mostly ended up as a collection of pieces of paper folded inside the cover. So now I'll bring both lists together in the same place.

And if I get really ambitious, I'll start a third list - books that are in my library!