books

All the books I read in 2000. Click on a title to purchase it from Amazon.com.

Benet’s Readers Encyclopedia
Author: Harper and Row Publishers: New York, 1987.
I’ve been reading this reference encyclopedia from front to back (wierd, I know); I’ve finished from Letter A to K.

Fiction

A Letter of Mary: A Mary Russell Mystery
Author: Laurie R. King

Affinity
Author: Sarah Waters

Angela’s Ashes
Author: Frank McCourt

The Archivist
Author: Martha Cooley

At Home in Mitford
Author: Jan Karon

Black Ajax
Author: George MacDonald Fraser

Carry On, Jeeves
Author: P. G. Wodehouse
The classic story of the hapless Bertie Wooster and his dazzlingly efficient manservant Jeeves.

e: A Novel
Author: Matt Beaumont
A very fun little novel entirely of composed of fictional e-mails inside a fictional ad agency in London. Despite the almost total incompetence and scheming of most of the staff of the ad agency, they have a bid on one of the largest campaigns ever; a Coca-Cola promo. I was tempted to start labeling the characters with people from work, but as the novel progressed, I was really afraid to. The best part, though, is the author bio: “Matt Beaumont worked at several London advertising firms before he sold his first novel. In anticipation of the publication of in the United States and United Kingdom in Fall 2000, he is taking a break from corporate life.” I’d imagine that he has to!

Frederica
Author: Georgette Heyer

The Golden Compass
Author: Phillip Pullman

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
Author: J.K. Rowling

The Inimitable Jeeves
Author: P. G. Wodehouse
The classic story of the hapless Bertie Wooster and his dazzlingly efficient manservant Jeeves.

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth
Author: F. C. Ware
A beautifully illustrated hard-bound cartoon book, it tells the story of Jimmy Corrigan, an Irish kid from Chicago going to visit his estranged father. I bought it because I’ve seen other work by Ware, mostly book jackets, and it’s an amazing illustration. The story is very depressing though; it bounces back and forth from the modern day Jimmy to his grandfather’s (also named Jimmy) story of his relationship with his father. These stories, interlaced with dream states, fantasy tangents, and diagrams (including a cut out 3-D assembly of the elder Jimmy’s childhood home) are a very entertaining if disturbing read.

Killing Time
Author: Caleb Carr

The Late Mr. Shakespeare
Author: Robert Nye

The Moor: A Mary Russell Mystery
Author: Laurie R. King

Orlando
Author: Virginia Woolf

The Phantom Tollbooth
Author: Norman Juster
Milo’s a cynical little kid with nothing to do, until a tollbooth appears in his bedroom one day, and he hops in his car, rides through it, and finds himself in a kingdom where, with the help of a large ticking dog and an equally cynical bug, he becomes responsible for rescuing the princesses Rhyme and Reason to save the kingdom. That’ll learn him to be cynical and bored.

The Queen’s Man
Author: Sharon Kay Penman

Right Ho, Jeeves
Author: P. G. Wodehouse
The classic story of the hapless Bertie Wooster and his dazzlingly efficient manservant Jeeves.

Sailing to Sarantium
Author: Guy Gavriel Kay

Sarum
Author: Edward Rutherfurd
Like the book London, this novel takes several English families through their whole family trees from the Ice Age up to modern day England. As they build, tear down, lose and then unearth and misinterpret their heritages, we get to see the history of the island, the hubris and humility of mankind, the triumph and sorrow of good and bad people, and the inescapable stamp of their ancestors on their faces and personalities.

Very Good, Jeeves
Author: P. G. Wodehouse
The classic story of the hapless Bertie Wooster and his dazzlingly efficient manservant Jeeves.

Wheel of Time Series – The Eye of the World [Book 1]
Author: Robert Jordan

Wheel of Time Series – The Great Hunt [Book 2]
Author: Robert Jordan

Wheel of Time Series – The Dragon Reborn [Book 3]
Author: Robert Jordan

Wilma Loves Betty: And Other Hilarious Lesbian Parodies
Editors: Julie Trevelyan, Scott Brassart

Wrong Information is Being Given Out at Princeton: The Chronicle of One of the Strangest Stories Ever to Be Rumoured About Around New York
Author: J. P. Donleavy

Non – Fiction

The Activist’s Handbook: A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond
Author: Randy Shaw

Ancient Mysteries
Author: Peter James and Nick Thorpe

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Watcher’s Guide
Authors: Christopher Golden, Nancy Holder

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Monster Book
Author: Christopher Golden, Stephen R. Bissette, Thomas E. Sniegoski

The Cluetrain Manifesto
Author: Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger

The Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America
Author: Kalle Lasn
“Lasn views contemporary existence as one in which people have almost entirely succumbed to the cultural mandates of consumer capitalism, turning to corporations for guidance about how to look and what to desire.” I agree with him about most of these ideas – and I think this is a very important book. Some of Lasn’s logic stumbles here and there, and needs further analysis and study, but from and intuitive perspective, I think he’s on to something.

Curse of Madame C: A Far Side Collection
Author: Gary Larson

Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity
Author: Jakob Nielsen

Do What I Say: Ms. Behavior’s Guide to Gay and Lesbian Etiquette
Author: Meryl Cohn

Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction
Author: Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller

Flash 4 for Windows and Macintosh
Author: Katherine Ulrich

Foster Child: an Intimate Biography of Jodie Foster
Author: Buddy Foster and Leon Wagener
A(n unauthorized?) biography of Jodie Foster by her erstwhile brother Buddy. A somewhat embarrassing book to read, partly because you feel like a voyeur, and partly because you feel strange about the confessional nature of her brother’s story. It also seems to be told through a glass darkly, as though Buddy doesn’t really have all that much contact with his sister, or rather that he does but she doesn’t talk much when she’s around. I read it because I’ve always thought that Jodie was somewhat of an enigma; even when she’s onscreen, there always seems to be a part of her that isn’t there. The book didn’t enlighten me much.

The Frailty Myth
Author: Colette Dowling

Heroes Rogues and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior
Author: James McBride Dabbs, Mary Godwin Dabbs
This book seemed balanced and well-researched. They observed not just men, but the effects of testosterone on both men and women, and the consequences for both sexes of having high or low testosterone, as well as the positive and negative effects having high testosterone has on men and women. It was also interesting to read how testosterone interacts with other hormones, like serotonin. Their conclusions were consistent with human behavior I’ve observed. I think it would be fascinating to do a similar study on the effects of estrogen; perhaps there’s already a book.

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection
Author: Bill Watterson

In The Groove: Vintage Record Graphics 1940-1960
Author: Eric Kohler

Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong
Author: James W. Loewen

The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar: Solving the Oak Island Mystery
Author: Steve Sora
A worthless book that ultimately founders on the rocks of “unreadability,” I’m only linking it to Amazon for consistency’s sake, not as a suggestion that you should actually buy it. It spins out a mass of conspiracy theories about a mysterious lost treasure of the Knights of Templar and about a mysterious well/munitions dump/buried treasure vault on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. The theories are as implausible as they are contradictory and illogical. The gist of them is that a) Christ didn’t die on the cross, b) Christ DID die on the cross but left a child in the womb of Mary Magdalene, c) Mary Magdalene and her child, and perhaps Christ himself, went to live in the south of France, where they and their decendants were protected by the Knights Templar who planned to put them on the papal throne or maybe the throne of Jerusalem, d) the Knights Templar took their treasure and the secret lineage of Christ and the holy Grail and the Spear of Longinus to Scotland when they were persecuted in France, e) the Scots explored the North American mainland centuries before the Vikings and built settlements there, f)The Scots buried the treasure of the Templars, the Grail, the spear, the lineage of Christ and several pink elephants in a fantastically engineered vault on Oak Island, planning to return for it later or to just leave it there, or something, g) all attempts to excavate the Oak Island vault have been cursed, h) although the vault is elaborately booby-trapped to flood, the constructors left several markers urging on excavators.

May I Kiss You On The Lips, Miss Sandra?
Author: Sandra Bernhard

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Allusions
Author: Elizabeth Webber and Mike Feinsilber
It’s a reference book, but it was a nice read, not too long, and I learned the origins of many expressions I didn’t already know.

Never Be Lied to Again: How to Get the Truth in 5 Minutes or Less in Any Conversation or Situation
Author: David J. Lieberman

The Onion’s Finest News Reporting
Author: The Onion

Pope-Pourri: Little-Known Facts You May Not Remember from Sunday School
Author: John Dollison

The Portable Pundit: A Crash Course in Cocktail Party Conversation
Author: T. E. Krieger

The Queen of Whale Cay
Author: Kate Summerscale

Singing For Your Supper: Entertaining Ways to Be a Perfect Guest
Author: Edith Hazard

Snowmen: Snow Creatures, Crafts, and Other Winter Projects
Author: Frankie Frankeny (Photographer), Peter Cole, Leslie Jonath

Strange Sisters: The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction 1949-1969
Author: Jaye Zimet

Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton
Author: Diane Wood Middlebrook

The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
Author: Stephanie Coontz

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life
Author: Spencer Johnson