October 31, 2010

The next 10:

52. Robert Jordan. The Wheel of Time: The Dragon Reborn. Fiction - Fantasy. I've already talked about The Wheel of Time a million times so I won't do it again. 10

53. Robert Jordan. The Wheel of Time: The Shadow Rising. Fiction - Fantasy. 10

54. David Sedaris. When You are Engulfed in Flames. Non-Fiction - Biography. Not as good as the Me Talk Pretty One Day, but still good. 7

55. Debbie Hindle and Marta Smith. Personality Development: A Psychoanalytic Perspective. Non-Fiction - Psychology. One of the texts for Psychopathology at Mars Hill. Enjoyed it, though. 8

56. Alice Sebold. The Lovely Bones. Fiction. 8

57. Cormac McCarthy. The Road. Fiction. 9

58. Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities. Fiction. Premise: Marco Polo tells Kublai Khan stories of the cities he has visited in his travels. The cities are as unique as they are imaginative. Calvino is a wonderful storyteller. I'm surprised more people don't know about this book. 9.5

59. Markus Zusak. The Book Thief. Fiction. Set in the second world war and told from the perspective of Death (you know, the Grim Reaper?). It's pretty good, but I saw it on a list of books that were the best of the last decade. I don't know if it deserves that much praise, but still good nonetheless. 7.5

60. Christopher Paolini. Eragon. Fiction - Fantasy. I read this in undergrad but I thought, hey, why not read it again? The movie blows by the way. 8

61. Brandon Sanderson. The Stormlight Archive: The Way of Kings. Fiction - Fantasy. This is the guy who is compiling the last three Wheel of Time books (since Robert Jordan is dead). This book just released this month and is the first in a series of ten. And it is good. Sanderson spent a whole decade building this world and the characters in it. Think about that. A decade working on a book. He created a world where hurricane-type storms regularly roll over the earth. As a result, grass retreats into the soil, cities are built against mountain ranges, and men worship a God called Stormfather.Fascinating work, especially where he explores leadership and the courage that makes men sacrifice for others. 10