Challenge: 50 Books discussion

Just finished my first book of the year:
1. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

2. The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White
This is a re-read. So good.

3. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me
A book of modern fairy tales. Some were good and some were trying too hard to be shockingly modern. Didn't like that at all. Give me Hans any day.

4. One Second After
Disturbing story about what would happen if we got hit with an EMP and lost all electronics. Makes you think about how illequipped we are to survive without all our modern convienences.

5. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels
I liked this book. Made me jealous. I wish I could live on the plains like her.

6. Richard III
Power corrupts... and boy does Richard want power.

7. Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long
Very interesting way to look at how the brain works and how you can do things better. Alot of it is common sense. But we do tend to forget common sense.

8. The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment
Not as good as his other books.

9. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
The author turned me off with his secular intellectual point of view that I'm sure he doesn't even know that he has. I guess I'm getting more sensitive to guys like him and how they feel so superior to the rest of us.

10. The Pilgrim's Progress

11. Dead or Alive It's been awhile since I've read Clancy. I read all of them back in the 80's and 90's. I enjoyed this one. Action and intrigue.

12. The Hunger Games
Sat down in my easy chair Friday night at 7:30 pm with this book. Finished it at 12:30 pm. Unfortunately I had to get up at 5:30 the next morning. Definitely will see the movie.

13. Catching Fire
Another page turner. The last one, Mockingjay, is in my kindle and I need to wait until I finish some other work before I start it. These are good reads.

14. Mockingjay
I enjoyed this series. Scary stuff, though. I'm hoping that the young people reading this series is getting the underlying message about how too much power in Government is not a good thing.

15. The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School
A book about the cafeteria fringe in high school. Really scary stuff. The best thing about the book is that this too shall pass, that high school ends. The goal is to get through it true to yourself, even if you are lonely some or all of the time.

16. How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor
Now that I'm retired, I'm reading a lot more. Yay! This book advises that you have an active retirement doing things that you've always wanted to do. Like read! It was pretty repetitive but it was ok. I know that one thing I'm going to do is go on a hot-air balloon ride and that was right from the pages of this book!

17. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption
Just an incredible story. Anytime I think I have it tough all I will have to do is to think about what Louie went through. Think I may have to read this one again someday.

18. The Giver
Another YA Distopian novel - this was very disturbing. What would life be like if everyone and everything was totally controlled, and no one knew pain and no one knew joy... Do they read this in schools? What grade? I think it would be scary for even Jr. high.

19. War Horse
I had this on audio and have been listening to it while doing housework this week. Very good.

20. Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America
Very depressing. Ann goes on and on about how history has been turned around and the culture has been corrupted. She gives no answer except to fight back. I don't agree. I think the answer is prayer. Turn back to God. There's no secular solution for saving us.

21. Loving God
Very inspirational.
I don't have quite as much time to read these days since I have my final exam on Friday. Next week I hope to work on a couple of books!

22. The Paris Wife
The story of the short marriage of Ernest Hemingway and Hadley, his first wife when they lived in Paris in the 1920's. It was ok. Not my favorite.

23. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
24. 40 Days without Food: Divine Goodness to a Starving Soul

25. Hurricane Historical novel about the great Galveston Hurricane in 1900. Tells the story through a nun, a reporter, a nurse and a socialite.

26. The Art of Fielding
Literate coming of age book about characters associated with a division 3 baseball team. The language is beautiful. The plot less so.

27. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Excellent defense of the faith. I have it on audio and will probably listen to it again. And again.

28. State of Wonder
Not quite as good as Bel Canto, but enjoyed it anyway. The ending was very good.

29. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
So how did a whole nation stand by as Hitler took away one freedom after another and centralized all power in himself? Through fear. Scary stuff.

I think it is easier to just look th other way, as long as it doesn't affect you personally.

30. The Lady of the Rivers
31. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Jesus: Who Was He, What Did He Do, and Why You Should Care

32. Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
33. Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

34. How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think

35. The Amateur
36. The Last Jump: A Novel of World War II
37. Jesus Is No Joke: A True Story of an Unlikely Witness Who Saw Jesus

38. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
39. Mary, Called Magdalene

40. The Passage
I read this in 2010, but just re-read it to get ready for the sequel coming out October 16. Can't wait. I really loved this book.

41. Election 2012: The Battle Begins
42. The Twelve
43. Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America