Book List

I'm frequently asked by friends or family to recommend good books and occasionally forget if I have read a specific book, so posting my thoughts here is meant to fix both. The rough goal was to be short enough to fit in a few sentences while also not spoiling any major plot points.

• ★★★★★ The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre

  Way better than any James Bond film.

• ★★★☆☆ System Collapse by Martha Wells

  The plot opened so abruptly I had to double check that I didn't skip a book in the series. Kinda put me off the rest of the book.

• ★★★☆☆ A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston

  Interesting anecdotes from his career but nothing that really stuck with me.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Endless Night by Agatha Christie

  The plot itself was average but I hated that the twist was laid out in an epilogue.

• ★★★☆☆ The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

  Interesting & gritty characters, but slow pacing made it clear this was an extended prologue for a long series.

• ★★★☆☆ Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

  I frequently got lost remembering which names were characters, gods, or factions, and it made the first half a real drag.

• ★★★★☆ Freedom™ by Daniel Suarez

  I enjoyed this more than Daemon, but the demonic motorcycles are so unrealistic and take me out of the plot each time.

• ★★★★☆ Daemon by Daniel Suarez

  DAOs and blockchains before it was cool.

• ★★★★☆ Freezing Order by Bill Browder

  Interesting and very timely look at how the Magnitsky Act came to be and how it connects Putin to the Russian adoptions discussions with Trump.

• ★★★☆☆ Change Agent by Daniel Suarez

  I enjoyed the concept, but so much time was wasted on traveling or overly detailed scene descriptions just to prove the author visited there in real life.

• ★★★☆☆ Influx by Daniel Suarez

  Lots of Michael Crichton influence. I'd prefer introducing all the futuristic tech upfront rather than revealing one only when it suits the plot.

• ★★☆☆☆ Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

  A cool concept that quicky turned into a bad imitation of And Then There Were None.

• ★★☆☆☆ Neuromancer by William Gibson

  I can forgive the anachronisms, but the characters were paper thin. Cool to see the first use of "the matrix" and "cyberspace."

• ★☆☆☆☆ Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson

  Very slow and disjointed plot. Didn't finish.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

  I hated the structure alternating between present day and flashbacks, two complete halves would be easier to digest.

• ★★☆☆☆ Leviathan Falls by James Corey

  Really poor pacing and sparse plot. Why invent a new antagonist instead of using the one you built up over the last 3 books?

• ★★★☆☆ Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

  Interesting focus on mental health. Some much needed filling in the blanks for the world's history/lore.

• ★★★☆☆ Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

  Per usual, a slow start with lots of action in the last third. Good setup for the next book.

• ★★★☆☆ Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

  I don't particularly care for Lift as a character, so I'm glad this was a short one.

• ★★★★☆ Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

  The middle third was slow, but the series is shaping up really nicely.

• ★★★★☆ Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

  A heist movie that sadly pivots away from the heist.

• ★★★★☆ The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

  A heist movie in book form. The pacing was inconsistent, but it wasn't a deal breaker.

• ★☆☆☆☆ This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar

  Too abstract for me, and I didn't finish it.

• ★★★★☆ The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

  Very, very long, but I enjoyed the slow rollout of the lore.

• ★★☆☆☆ American War by Omar El Akkad

  An interesting concept poorly executed.

• ★★★☆☆ This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends by Nicole Perlroth

  Some new details I didn't know about the Shadow Brokers & Stuxnet, but I wish it was organized chronologically instead of jumping around randomly through the last decade.

• ★★★☆☆ Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

  Murderbot isn't a good fit for a whodunit without any plot development.

• ★★★★★ Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

  Just as good as The Martian! At first I hated the constant flashbacks, but they got better as the plot progressed.

• ★★★★☆ Mission Critical by Mark Greaney

  I enjoyed bringing all the of the side characters back together for the same mission.

• ★★★★★ A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

  Just as good as book 1. Multiple POVs helped develop the plot with more clarity.

• ★★★★☆ Agent in Place by Mark Greaney

  The writing quality and editing is much improved compared to the rest of the series.

• ★★★☆☆ Gunmetal Gray by Mark Greaney

  Too many separate threads and side plots.

• ★★★★★ Network Effect by Martha Wells

  Upgrading from a short story to a full length novel did wonders for these characters.

• ★★★☆☆ Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

  The plot got a little to wild in this one.

• ★★★★☆ Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

  Short, funny, and engaging.

• ★★★★☆ All Systems Red by Martha Wells

  Quirky and funny anthropomorphizing of a robot.

• ★★★☆☆ The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Anders

  Interesting setting but a little to YA for my tastes.

• ★★★☆☆ The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

  I missed this one in high school, and I expected it to be longer.

• ★★★☆☆ Back Blast by Mark Greaney

  Some questionable character choices but on the plus side I didn't see the twist in this one coming.

• ★★★★★ A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

  Up there with the other great Hugo award winners, however the alien naming scheme is horrendous.

• ★★★☆☆ Dead Eye by Mark Greaney

  The first in this series to take a stab at non-trivial character development, but it mostly falls flat.

• ★★★☆☆ Ballistic by Mark Greaney

  If you've seen Narcos, this is essentially interchangeable.

• ★★★☆☆ On Target by Mark Greaney

  If you've seen or read Black Hawk Down, this is essentially interchangeable.

• ★★★☆☆ The Gray Man by Mark Greaney

  If you've seen or read Jason Bourne, this is essentially interchangeable.

• ★★★★☆ War In The Fourth Dimension by Alfred Price

  A wonky summary of electronic warfare at the tactical level.

• ★★★☆☆ Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks

  This was a 5 book series, but all of it was only average with a bad finale.

• ★★★☆☆ Recursion by Blake Crouch

  I'm assuming a CS background helps, but I didn't find this to have an especially mind-bending plot.

• ★★☆☆☆ Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

  The rare case where the movie was better than the book.

• ★★★★☆ The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

  Wraps up everything neatly. Was a little weird to still be explaining how the system of magic works 100 pages from the end of an enormous trilogy.

• ★★★★☆ Tiamat's Wrath by James Corey

  The new POV character was a welcome addition, but a key part of the main plot didn't hold up. Here's hoping a strong last book redeems it?

• ★★★☆☆ The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

  Parts of the plot resembled someone narrating a game of Civilization.

• ★★★★★ Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

  Almost too close to YA for my tastes, but the metallurgic system of magic was great.

• ★★★☆☆ A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge

  Watership Down meets The Expanse. There wasn't a ton of setup explaining the universe, it jumps straight to action and you have to pick it up via inference.

• ★★★★☆ The End of All Things by John Scalzi

  A satisfactory end to the series. The third novella was a dud, but the other three did a good job wrapping up loose ends.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Human Division by John Scalzi

  A weird companion collection of short stories. The loosely overarching plot didn't remotely come to a close which is frustrating.

• ★★★★★ Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

  Wonderful sci-fi. Ironically for a story set in VR, this is the first physical book I've read in years. As it says on the tin: "Willy Wonka meets The Matrix"

• ★★☆☆☆ The Kremlin's Candidate by Jason Matthews

  All the plot holes in this one. I did find myself looking up a dozen new words which was unexpected in this genre.

• ★★★☆☆ Palace of Treason by Jason Matthews

  The plot was good, but every page seemingly had to mention her synesthesia which became tiresome.

• ★★★★☆ The Black Company by Glen Cook

  Unique perspective of some chaotic neutral protagonists who end up working for the bad guys.

• ★★★☆☆ Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi

  The Ender's Shadow of this series. I'm glad I had some time between this and The Last Colony or I'd be upset about the huge overlap.

• ★★★☆☆ The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey

  A slow plot that crept along until an abrupt ending. Since this was written with a movie in mind, Carey is probably trying for a long series.

• ★★★★★ Fear by Bob Woodward

  Incredibly well-sourced look at the early Trump administration. Gary Cohn came out looking like the only sane one.

• ★★★☆☆ Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews

  Leaned way too hard on the sexiness of the main character, but it was innovative to use synesthesia as a key character trait.

• ★★★★☆ Raven Rock by Garrett Graff

  Interesting to learn that FEMA spends $12 on doomsday planning for every $1 spent on natural disasters.

• ★★★★☆ The Last Colony by John Scalzi

  A great plot that showcases how interesting it can be for Sci-Fi to have more than one alien race in play instead of telling the "humans find a new race" story over and over.

• ★★☆☆☆ Nemesis by Agatha Christie

  I was shocked that this was 1970s vintage and not the 1920s or 1930s because of the pervasive xenophobia and sexual assault victim blaming.

• ★★☆☆☆ Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

  I like the idea of a Hercule Poirot case told by a third-party, but this mystery wasn't great.

• ★★★★★ Persepolis Rising by James Corey

  Great setup for the final act of the series.

• ★★★☆☆ Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

  Anna is personable and funny, but the writing style wasn't my favorite.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

  The original trilogy was good, but I couldn't bring myself to finish this one. Just like the later Ender's Game books, it's sad when an author doesn't know when to quit.

• ★★★★★ Nemesis Games by James Corey

  A return to what got me hooked on the series. Tons of character development with plenty of main plot too.

• ★★★★★ The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States by Jeffrey Lewis

  A spark of brilliant fiction that has the bizarre honor of edging closer to nonfiction as time goes on.

• ★★★☆☆ The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

  Not quite a sequel to Old Man's War but expands the universe nicely. The book features a lot of non-verbal communication, and Scalzi nailed the syntax for it.

• ★★★☆☆ Cibola Burn by James Corey

  I didn't like any of the new characters in this one, and it needed some bigger connections to the series plot. It almost seems like an "expanded universe" novel à la The Hedge Knight.

• ★★★★☆ Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman

  Mail bombs strike me as the tool of a lone wolf, so it's interesting to see that it was the preferred technique of a nation state for a long time.

• ★★★☆☆ Abaddon's Gate by James Corey

  I'm still enjoying the series, but the last third of this book had a glaring plot hole that ruined it.

• ★★☆☆☆ A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

  Most of the plot revolves around missing landline calls or hunting down a way to contact someone, which was accurate for the time, but I found it very distracting.

• ★★★★★ Caliban's War by James Corey

  Just as good as the first book. I enjoyed the sideplots more than the main one, but it seems to be a slow burn that will pay off eventually.

• ★★★★☆ Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

  Great twist. My first inkling ended up being correct, but I second-guessed it almost immediately.

• ★★★☆☆ The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

  Remarkably similar to The Name of the Wind. It almost seems like they were written together instead of 5 years apart.

• ★★★☆☆ The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

  The use of a frame story is awkward. The plot is interesting, but it can get distracting how often Kvothe is an insufferable know-it-all.

• ★★★★★ Leviathan Wakes by James Corey

  Excellent story without all the made-up jargon and technology of most sci-fi. I'm excited to try the rest of The Expanse.

• ★★★★☆ Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

  Very unique sci-fi. I thought I had the plot figured out but got pleasantly blindsided in the last third of the book.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland

  I'm usually a fan of Stephenson's work but this one missed the mark. The mixed media storytelling was a distraction and the romance subplot was cringeworthy.

• ★★★☆☆ Dust by Hugh Howey

  A strange mix of plotlines that in some cases were wrapped up too cleanly and others that were left hanging entirely.

• ★★★☆☆ Shift by Hugh Howey

  Retained the world-building that I loved from Wool but the character development was pretty poor. I think I would have preferred to stay in one timeline instead of constant flashbacks.

• ★★★★☆ The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

  Super dark. The DPRK is a fantastically interesting place to set a book, but reading it isn't for the faint of heart.

• ★★★★☆ The Spy Who Couldn't Spell by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

  Engaging and well-written. Interesting that a Vigenère cipher is still relatively effective in the age of computers.

• ★★★★☆ Morning Star by Pierce Brown

  I saw the ending coming, but it was still a great finale to a great series.

• ★★★★☆ Golden Son by Pierce Brown

  Sometimes heavy on the exposition, but that's typical with the second of a trilogy. Gripping final chapter.

• ★★★★☆ Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

  One of the best opening lines in any book: "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."

• ★★★★☆ Red Rising by Pierce Brown

  You can tell Brown grew up reading Ender's Game, but I enjoyed it regardless.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

  I couldn't summon the will to finish this one. Nothing about Danny Torrance really grabs me.

• ★★★★☆ The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

  Had an Ender's Game vibe. Interesting to account for time dilation during light speed travel when running a space empire.

• ★★★☆☆ The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

  A funny look at the hypothetical settlement of Mars. The first few stories had me cracking up, and some of the technology described is remarkably prescient for the 1940s.

• ★★★☆☆ Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

  A mystery novel told backwards... to underwhelming effect.

• ★★★★★ To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

  I somehow missed this in high school, but I'm glad I finally got around to it... it was fantastic.

• ★★★☆☆ Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab (aka Steven Mitchell)

  The abuse this SAS team was put through is unbelievable. I enjoyed the sprinkling of British slang ("We are a ground callsign and we're in the shit. Over.").

• ★★★☆☆ Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell

  Started slow with many self-aggrandizing anecdotes, but the actual mission was engaging and suspenseful.

• ★★★★☆ Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

  Reagan actually recommended this (fictional!) book to Thatcher before disarmament talks with the Soviets. Parts are definitely dry, but I enjoyed the sub battles.

• ★☆☆☆☆ The Broker by John Grisham

  My first and last Grisham book. Seems like he just took Italian 101 and heard that presidential pardons exist.

• ★★★☆☆ Joyland by Stephen King

  Fairly tame compared to the average King book. I'm going to give his other Hard Case Crime novel a try too.

• ★☆☆☆☆ The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

  I went into this book blind, and it didn't turn out well. It started as a Hercule Poirot-esque detective story but then took a sharp left turn into bizarro land.

• ★★★☆☆ Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

  A post-apocalyptic tale that focuses more on characters than on the details of survival. I loved the way you were dropped directly into the story with no warning at the end of the first chapter.

• ★★★☆☆ Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)

  A turn towards darker and more distressing material in the background for this case. I didn't like that the twist was impossible to figure out ahead of time.

• ★★★☆☆ Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts

  Gritty depiction of the air war over Vietnam.

• ★★★★★ The Martian by Andy Weir

  Fantastic, engrossing, and delightfully geeky. Almost impossible to put down.

• ★★★☆☆ The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

  The background and world building had such promise, but the plot seemed only halfway done. When I turned the last page I was actually surprised it was over.

• ★★☆☆☆ Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, & John Tiffany

  While I'm happy to revisit some of my favorite characters, most of the dialogue seemed out of place and it's clear JK didn't do the bulk of the writing.

• ★★★★★ Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jeremy McCarter

  A wonderful combination of CD liner notes and director's commentary for the hit Broadway musical. Superb printing, gorgeous typography, and beautiful photos.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Ghost Fleet by P. W. Singer & August Cole

  A Markov generator wrote this after being fed the Tom Clancy corpus and the last two years of Wired magazine.

• ★★★☆☆ The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)

  The plot centers around the publishing world, which seemed a little too inside baseball for me.

• ★★★★★ The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)

  Charmingly British. I learned plenty of new words and slang from across the pond.

• ★★★★☆ Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter

  Great overview of how Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame, and how the rest of the ~D malware family came to be. Amazing how long they operated without detection and then unravelled just as easily.

• ★★★☆☆ Old Man's War by John Scalzi

  I loved the world building, but the main character had so much plot armor it really started to irk me.

• ★★★★☆ Zodiac by Neal Stephenson

  James Bond meets Greenpeace. The plot got a little too far-fetched towards the end, but the book is certainly entertaining.

• ★★★★☆ The Skies Belong to Us by Brendan Koerner

  I'm astounded that hijackings were such a common event in the 60s and 70s. Crafty of Castro to welcome hijackers to Havana and then sell the plane back to the airline.

• ★★☆☆☆ American Gods by Neil Gaiman

  It took me a few tries to get into the plot. It was a definitely a unique take on fantasy, but I don't think I would recommend it to anyone.

• ★★★☆☆ The Knife by Ross Ritchell

  Sobering look at Special Ops in a non-specific Middle Eastern country.

• ★★☆☆☆ The President's Shadow by Brad Meltzer

  The worst parts of The Da Vinci Code and any Tom Clancy book combined into one book.

• ★★☆☆☆ Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

  A terrible ending to a meandering plot.

• ★★★★☆ Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

  Just as good as Annihilation, but the overuse of the word "terroir" really got on my nerves.

• ★★★★☆ Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

  A cool bio-thriller. Reminded me a lot of The Ruins.

• ★★★★☆ No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald

  I enjoyed the firsthand account of meeting Snowden in Hong Kong.

• ★★★☆☆ The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

  A unique female perspective on the Arthurian legend. Ultimately it suffered from sheer length.

• ★★★★☆ @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex by Shane Harris

  A good recap of cyber warfare to date. The biggest take away is that if you're in trouble Mandiant is your best friend.

• ★★★☆☆ Tigerman by Nick Harkaway

  I went into this book without any inkling of the plot or even the genre, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, however the internet slang ("full of win" and the like) was lame and certainly won't age well.

• ★★★☆☆ In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides

  Props to De Long for prioritizing the ship's logs before almost anything else. Amazing how far into the voyage they were able to go with no losses.

• ★★★☆☆ The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

  Simmons' verbosity started to get to me. I also don't know much about Keats, which I'm sure prevented me from enjoying some of the undertones of the plot.

• ★★★☆☆ Hyperion by Dan Simmons

  I liked the The Canterbury Tales-esque narrative structure, but the non-ending was frustrating.

• ★★★★★ Wool by Hugh Howey

  A different take on the standard dystopian plot with some fantastic world-building in an underground setting. Amazing effort for an indie author.

• ★★★☆☆ The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

  I liked the concept of an alternate history to WWII, but at times Dick seemed to waiver and lose focus.

• ★★★★☆ A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre

  A remarkably effective and long-lived spying career. The old boys network at MI5 and MI6 really hurt them.

• ★★★☆☆ 1776 by David McCullough

  While I enjoyed the book, I didn't expect that it would be strictly a military history. There wasn't any discussion of the Continental Congress or drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

  The historical context was interesting knowing that the book was widely banned in the 1950s, however the teenage angst plot annoyed me.

• ★★★★★ Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre

  The best £250 Britain ever spent. The letters in the appendix were very entertaining.

• ★★★★★ Double Cross by Ben Macintyre

  Interesting how fragile the whole charade was despite having two incredible aces in the hole: Most Secret Sources and ownership of the entire spy network in Britain.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

  Terrible. If you want to write a philosophy paper, just do that instead of hiding it in a book.

• ★★★★★ We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (a.k.a. Total Recall) by Philip K. Dick

  Short but intriguing.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Insomnia by Stephen King

  Nothing grabbed me in the first 200 pages, so I called it quits.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

  Definiely didn't live up to the hype. The beginning and end would have made a perfectly fine book, but the middle 400 pages were agony.

• ★★★★★ Command and Control by Eric Schlosser

  I really enjoyed the Damascus parts of the book since I never knew a Titan II had exploded on US soil. Lack of nuclear safety is terrifying to see on the US side of things, I can only imagine taking a look at the Russian safety files.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

  Definitely not my kind of humor, but I felt like I had to read it just to know the background on references to 42, etc.

• ★★★★★ Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

  I loved everything about this book. I'd always heard the title mentioned as a great book, but never made the connection to Blade Runner.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Suttree by Cormac McCarthy

  I couldn't stand the superfluous, saccharine prose. The lack of quotation marks was very frustrating.

• ★★★★☆ Dreamsongs (Volumes I and II) by George R.R. Martin

  A superb (and huge) collection of GRRM stories, scripts, and other short fiction. I liked With Morning Comes Mistfall, Sandkings, and The Hedge Knight the best. The two TV scripts were also a great change of pace.

• ★★★★★ Smiley's People by John le Carré

  A satisfying ending to the Karla trilogy.

• ★★★☆☆ The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré

  Karla is non-existent and the main plot isn't very compelling. The S.E. Asia setting is interesting, but entire chapters could be cut without hurting the flow of the book.

• ★★★★☆ Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

  A spy novel with a main character that's the inverse of Fleming's Bond. Half of the puzzle is figuring out le Carré's writing style to pick out flashbacks from the main plot.

• ★★★★★ Anathem by Neal Stephenson

  An amazing amount of made-up vocabulary. The first 100 pages are daunting, but you eventually get used to it and the pace of the main plot quickens considerably.

• ★★★★★ Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull

  A great behind-the-scenes look at Pixar and Disney Animation. His business lessons are good, but the anecdotes about various films are great.

• ★★★☆☆ The Air Force And The National Security Space Program by R. Cargill Hall

  Recently declassified history of the U.S. space reconnaisance program. I like reading scanned original docs that retain the crossed-out classification markings.

• ★★★★☆ The Swords of Armageddon by Chuck Hansen

  Very dense history of U.S. nuclear weapons development from WWII fission bombs to thermonuclear weapons. Some very smart folks came up with many ways to boost yield while also decreasing the amount of expensive fissile material per bomb. If you don't like footnotes this book isn't for you.

• ★★★★☆ Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

  I loved the twist around the halfway mark, but the ending was obnoxious and very, very unsatisfying.

• ★★★★☆ Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre

  Excellent non-fiction about Operation Double Cross by British intelligence during WWII. Chapman is such a crazy character.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

  The pacing was far too slow, and the constant side stories about things unrelated to the current scene reminded me of the terrible segues from episodes of Family Guy.

• ★★☆☆☆ Mort by Terry Pratchett

  Mostly boring. I think this will be the last Discworld novel I read.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

  I couldn't bring myself to finish this one. I'm not a fan of Butcher's writing style or the terribly one-dimension characters.

• ★★★☆☆ Storm Front by Jim Butcher

  Gandalf meets Sherlock Holmes. I liked it enough to give the series a try but it didn't immediately wow me.

• ★★★★☆ Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

  I liked that the satire took a back seat to the story compared to the first two Discworld books.

• ★★★☆☆ The Color of Magic; The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

  Almost exactly the opposite of what I was expecting, but I'm intrigued enough to give the rest of the Discworld series a shot.

• ★★★★☆ The Shining by Stephen King

  I've seen the movie a few times, but the book (as always!) was much better. I was surprised to find that the most iconic parts of the movie aren't in the book at all.

• ★★★★☆ Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman

  Great stories and characters. I loved that everyone was so tuned in to the Martha Stewart trial.

• ★★☆☆☆ A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

  An interesting premise, but I got bored 200 pages in.

• ★★☆☆☆ Decoded by Jay-Z

  Disjointed and flows terribly. Jay-Z makes an offhand comment about ADD and it really shows.

• ★★★★☆ Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

  As always, I didn't see the ending coming. Great dialogue in this one!

• ★★★☆☆ 3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

  Happy to have the story wrapped up, but the ending wasn't very satisfying.

• ★★★★☆ 2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke

  Getting weaker as the series goes on. The inconsistencies with the previous books got on my nerves, but you have to realize how much time had passed in between each book.

• ★★★★★ 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke

  A great sequel. Definitely didn't see the ending coming, but it worked well.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Big Machine by Victor LaValle

  Rambling, unorganized, and boring. Frequent flashbacks and side stories did absolutely nothing to enhance the main plot or meaningfully flesh out the characters.

• ★★★★★ The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

  I loved the twist ending. Definitely one of Christie's best alongside And Then There Were None.

• ★★★☆☆ The Stand by Stephen King

  L-O-N-G that spells The Stand. Laws, yes.

• ★★★★★ Watership Down by Richard Adams

  Another book I've reread many times since I first came across it in middle school. It's a charming story of adventerous rabbits and their journey out into the world.

• ★★★★☆ The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

  The quintessential American detective story. The stereotypes turned me off at first, but you have to remember that this book created them!

• ★★★★☆ Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner

  A critical and pessimistic view of the CIA. The intelligence services of Russia and East Germany had the U.S. smoked following WWII.

• ★★★★★ 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

  The screenplay to the "the proverbial 'really good' science-fiction movie", but I think its even better than the movie.

• ★★★☆☆ The Dark Half by Stephen King

  More gore than horror, but I still enjoyed it. An interesting plot given that King himself wrote a few books under a pseudonym.

• ★★★★★ Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

  I've reread this book many, many times and shared it with anyone who will listen. Although it falls outside my usual interests, I couldn't get Watanabe, Naoko, and Reiko out of my head for weeks after I first finished it.

• ★★★★☆ American Sniper by Chris Kyle

  I enjoyed the conversational writing style, but would have liked some more detail on some of his shots. I think any SEAL book can skip BUD/S stories at this point, they all start to run together.

• ★★★☆☆ The Dead Zone by Stephen King

  The root of the standard King "headaches turn into special powers" meme. Many of the plot points where the main character stalks a politician seem to be later reused in 11/22/63.

• ★★☆☆☆ Against All Enemies by Tom Clancy

  Clancy is known for accurate technical details, but here they seem like pure fluff instead of fleshing out the universe and making it more realistic.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy

  A very uninspired and generic terrorist plot. I'm not a big fan of the Jack Ryan, Jr. series overall.

• ★★★★☆ Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy

  I've read most of this series out of order, but I still enjoyed seeing the first meeting between Ding, Ryna, and Chavez.

• ★★★☆☆ Dying of the Light by George R.R. Martin

  Parts of the universe are interesting, but most of it seems poorly thought out; be ready for tons of vocabulary to learn. It irked me that a few times characters offhandedly mention that different languages exist, yet all of them can understand each other without translators even though they are from disparate worlds.

• ★★★☆☆ Children of Men by P. D. James

  A super slow beginning (some great vocabulary!) with a tense and mostly fulfilling ending. I'm not quite sure how a book set in 2021 doesn't have any advanced technology though.

• ★★★☆☆ Locked On by Tom Clancy

  I picked this up on vacation at the resort's take-a-book-leave-a-book library, and it was a good beach read. If you've read a Jack Ryan novel before, this is more of the same (but apparently Clancy moved on to Jack Ryan, Jr., which was new to me).

• ★★★★☆ Duma Key by Stephen King

  The first half seemed to drag on forever, but the finish makes it all worthwhile. I love Wireman's dialogue.

• ★★★☆☆ The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

  Enjoyable, but some of the historical chapters seemed to be fluff designed to show off Clarke's research and didn't add much to the plot.

• ★★★☆☆ Redshirts by John Scalzi

  Definitely didn't live up to the hype of a Hugo Award winner. The premise was certainly unique but tried too hard to be meta.

• ★★★★★ Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

  An engrossing combination of Sphere and House of Leaves.

• ★★★★★ Expedition to Earth by Arthur C. Clarke

  A great sci-fi collection. I loved Hide and Seek the best.

• ★★★☆☆ The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Danielewski

  Crazy, weird (as you would expect from Danielewski) but suprisingly short.

• ★★★☆☆ Prelude to Space by Arthur C. Clarke

  It's amazing how much Clarke theorized correctly even before Mercury/Gemini/Apollo ever existed. Definitely disappointing to see where he thought human spaceflight would be at the turn of the millenium compared to where it actually is.

• ★★★☆☆ Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

  A very promising beginning in a very old school sci-fi mold, but after reading the end it seemed like the middle third of an interesting story was skipped.

• ★★★★☆ Body of Secrets by James Bamford

  Very interesting details about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty and how bad our communications security was during the Vietnam War. Bamford mentions that the NSA exploits terrorist communications when groups have to use plaintext to get around incompatible messaging systems, which is the exact same technique Ho Chi Minh used against the US and South Vietnamese.

• ★★★★★ Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Hilarious and well-written fan fiction set in the Potter universe. If you've ever noticed blatant plot holes while reading through the 7 HP books, you'll want to give this a shot. Harry seizes every opportunity to exploit those holes and use Muggle-based science wizards continuously ignore; think Ender Wiggin with magic.

• ★★★★★ Under the Dome by Stephen King

  A long but fantastic King novel. It's very interesting to think about how society would react when cutoff from the outside world, especially when mixed with small town politics. The ending wasn't my favorite, but it didn't ruin the book for me.

• ★★★★★ A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

  Martin has made a superb and very detailed universe, but the cast of characters is definitely its main selling point. I'm a sucker for long story arcs (which A Song of Fire and Ice has in spades) and the ending was fantastic and unexpected.

• ★★★☆☆ All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

  The politics of the 1930s South had my interest piqued, but ultimately I couldn't connect with the characters because of the prolific blackmail and corruption.

• ★★☆☆☆ Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

  Although I knew it would be somewhat dry before I started, this book was ultimately too tedious for me to stomach. It is best left to biologists or those interested in natural history.

• ★★★☆☆ Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

  An incredibly detailed history of the Bomb. I liked the background on the people involved in the various teams instead of just a dry timeline of atomic developments. Some of the most technical areas lost my focus but overall I enjoyed it.

• ★★☆☆☆ A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

  The humor was welcome, but anyone with a scientific background won't find anything new here.

• ★★☆☆☆ Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

  Murakami intentionally left parts of the plot unknown, but it really rubbed me the wrong way and soured my opinion of the book.

• ★☆☆☆☆ Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

  Far too abstract for me to enjoy.

• ★★★★★ Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman

  A very quick read full of humor. The stories are as great as they are unexpected, I especially enjoyed the safecracking one.

• ★★★☆☆ The Road by Cormac McCarthy

  Stark and unsettling.

• ★★★★☆ The Kid Who Climbed Everest by Bear Grylls

  Grylls definitely isn't a great novelist, but I can appreciate that he did this without a ghost writer. I love Everest stories and he his young age gave him an interesting perspective.

• ★★★☆☆ Deep Black by William Burrows

  A dated (written in 1986) but interesting look at Cold War "National Technical Means".

• ★★★★☆ I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

  Much better than the movie. I really enjoyed the ending and the inversion of perspective.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin

  This covers more of the politics behind the Court than actual cases, which wasn't exactly what I wanted to read.

• ★★★★☆ Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda by John Keegan

  Very, very dry (which I knew going into it), but Keegan chose some good examples to cover.

• ★★★☆☆ The Last Symbol by Dan Brown

  Generic Dan Brown fluff, but if you aren't looking for a masterpiece its still enjoyable.

• ★★★☆☆ The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

  I really enjoyed the World's Fair details, but the Holmes half of the story didn't fit well with the rest of the book.

• ★★★★☆ The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

  Unique and descriptive language. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is an intriguing idea and the mystery plot it spawned kept my attention throughout the book.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Secret War with Iran by Ronen Bergman

  Interesting from an intelligence perspective but the writing was dull.

• ★★★★★ Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean

  A short and fluffy action book. I loved the setting and plot, but go into it with the expectation of Tom Clancy-like fare.

• ★★★★★ The Black Banners by Ali Soufan

  Be ready to get hit with a ton of facts and a ton of Arabic names, which can be hard for a Westerner to keep straight. It was cool to see how effective alternatives to water boarding are in practice.

• ★★★★☆ Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea by Jeffrey Richelson

  I had no idea that South Africa once had a nuclear weapons program. Very fascinating to see how the experience of the early nuclear club allowed later attempts (chiefly by Iraq and India) to fool a lot of US monitoring efforts.

• ★★★★☆ A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

  I can't get enough of the Wall and Tyrion Lannister, but the entire Greyjoy subplot just doesn't hold my attention.

• ★★★★★ A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

  The Red Wedding! Arya's subplot seemed to involve endless amounts of riding/travel and quickly became annoying. The events on the Wall were superb.

• ★★★★★ A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

  I love reading about Petyr Baelish's scheming, and Arya's subplot is exceptional this time around. The King's Landing politics were the weakest part of Crows.

• ★★★★★ A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

  Lots of action and plot development, and it was well worth the wait and splitting of the story into Crows and Dragons.

• ★★★★★ The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio Mendez

  The Argo story is just one of many fantastic CIA operations. I'd love to see a video of someone putting on a GAMBIT disguise.

• ★★★★★ 11/22/63 by Stephen King

  A weird but satisfying mix of time travel and more mundane historical fiction. Some of the Oswald backstory was tedious, but it was accurate... most of surveillance is good old fashioned waiting.

• ★★★★★ Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew

  It's amazing to think that these are true stories. The US was willing to attempt basically any mission against the Soviets during the Cold War.

• ★★★★☆ The Shadow Factory: The NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America by James Bamford

  Interesting look at NSA techniques post-9/11. This might be worth a re-read in light of PRISM.

• ★★★☆☆ Freakanomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

  Didn't live up the hype. It's valuable because it gets the point across that everything has hidden causes or incentives, but the specific examples were lackluster.

• ★★★★★ Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen

  I love reading about OXCART and America's nuclear program, but the speculation that Roswell was the work of Stalin to incite panic in the US public seems a too farfetched. I loved the story of the Russians sending the silhoutte of a prototype stealth plane to the State Department.

• ★★★★☆ State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration by James Risen

  While most of the Iraq WMD intelligence failure (and the phrase "unknown unknowns") is well known, I had never heard of the effort to get Iraqi-Americans to contact relatives still in the country. At times the book seems to undeservedly tilt in an anti-Bush direction to jump on the bandwagon but the facts don't back it up.

• ★★★★★ The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin

  A dense but incredible look at intelligence from the Soviet side. As an American, you often hear about great moles/operations that the CIA ran, but successes against the US aren't as widely known.

• ★★★★★ Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick

  It's amazing what you could do with just a telephone if you knew how the system worked. Although Mitnick is one of the most famous hackers, the book isn't as technical as you might expect.

• ★★★★★ No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer

  The best of the books about the Abbottabad raid. It's amazing to think how much information about Neptune Spear was leaked so soon after Bin Laden was killed.

• ★★★☆☆ Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker

  The book was tedious at times, but it was neat to read about how captured intelligence was immediately put to work planning new raids or strategies.

• ★★★★★ Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II by Stephen Budiansky

  A very detailed account of WWII code breaking, including the mathematics behind the Engima and Purple work. There is an interesting balance between using decrypted information to save lives and potentially revealing your capabilities.

• ★★★★★ Dune by Frank Herbert

  A fascinating universe with amazing characters; the dynamics of a water-starved environment are interesting to think about. The politics are somewhat interesting, but I could see them becoming unbearable (like the later stages of the Ender's Game series).

• ★★★☆☆ Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

  A let-down compared to the series opener, however it seems very transitional and might be redeemed after reading Children of Dune.

• ★★☆☆☆ Highway to Hell by John Geddes

  The individual stories are mostly interesting, but the fact that Geddes jumps around in time really annoyed me and made it hard to get a larger context for his time in Iraq.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden by Mark Bowden

  This book was definitely rushed to print, it lacks a lot of the detail you get in No Easy Day, and can be very repetitive.

• ★★★★★ Reamde by Neal Stephenson

  As you would expect, Reamde is a monster of a book with an inventive use of a WoW-like game to drive real world events. The last 200 pages is to literature what The Fast and the Furious is to cars, but I'd still highly recommend that everyone read it.

• ★★★★★ Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose

  A fantastic look at one of America's bravest explorers. I really enjoyed reading about the group's interactions with the Indians, it's an odd mix of terrible assumptions and outright guessing when things don't go as planned.

• ★★★☆☆ The Red Circle: My Life in the Navy SEAL Sniper Corps by Brandon Webb and John David Mann

  A good read but I really expected more about the development and philosophy behind the SEAL sniper school since it's his most proud accomplishment.

• ★★★☆☆ Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

  Mindy has some very funny stories but the shotgun approach to writing didn't work for me.

• ★★★★★ Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA by Robert Wallace, Keith Melton, and Henry Schlesinger

  Awesome stories and gadgets (with photos!). If you like Bond's Q, this book is amazing.

• ★★★★★ The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle

  Very interesting to read in light of Lance's confession. It makes you wonder what an alternative Olympics would be like if athletes were allowed to use any chemical advantage they wanted.

• ★★★☆☆ Flashforward by Robert Sawyer

  I wanted to read this after seeing some of the TV adaptation. The plot worked much better when set at CERN, but overall it fell into the boring plot trap of time travel paradoxes.

• ★★★☆☆ Fire-Starter by Stephen King

  Definitely one of King's weaker works; periods of intense plot development followed by many pages of slow-paced exposition. I enjoyed the Lot 6 flashbacks, but a lot of the Shop background and plot seemed cheesy.

• ★★★☆☆ The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

  An interesting perspective on life as twenty-something, but it didn't really reveal anything new to me.

• ★★★☆☆ The Heart and the Fist by Eric Greitens

  I really enjoyed the BUD/S chapters, but the humanitarian angle had too much fluff to be worthwhile. More detail overall or a very in-depth story would have made it seem more like he wasn't just checking a box.

• ★★★☆☆ The Ruins by Scott Smith

  An interesting plot concept but ultimately it was too repetitive in the middle of the book.

• ★★★☆☆ The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver

  The copious graphs were helpful as he went through the various statistical examples, but I ended up learning more about the example subjects (earthquakes, sports betting, etc.) than I did about statistics.

• ★★★★☆ Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield

  An interesting blend of fiction and non-fiction. I really enjoyed the scene with Leonidas at the end.

• ★★★★☆ Cell by Stephen King

  Entertaining, like a blend of The Ruins and The Walking Dead. It can be slightly unsettling when you've read enough King to see cross-references to plot or characters from his other works.

• ★★☆☆☆ The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

  Definitely the weakest Stephenson book I've read. The world was interesting, but the plot was awful.