- Revival (3/5) – I wanted to like this book but it just wasn’t that good. This would’ve made a better short story than full novel.
- The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload (4/5) –
- The Martian (5/5) – This story was fun. It’s about an astronaut that gets trapped alone on Mars and how he deals with being alone. I think this is becoming a film this summer.
- Crime and Punishment (4/5) –
- Mr. Mercedes (3/5) – Another of the many Stephen King books I’ve read lately. Meh.
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (4/5) – I’m still not sure what this was about. There were two or three different stories that intersected. I think. It was like reading a dream with many different characters coming and going. Crazy, but not in a bad way.
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (4/5) – This was a really interesting story that I wish could have developed a little more. It’s worth reading and I think there is a television series based on it now.
- Ballad of the Whiskey Robber (4/5) – 100% awesome story. It blew my mind when I found out it was based on a true story.
- The Intern’s Handbook: A Thriller (4/5) – This book is a little hard to explain. It’s the story of a hitman that goes undercover as an intern to get close to his targets. This was a fun book to read.
- A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred (4/5) – I’ve been a Cubs fan my whole life and the stories in this book help explain the draw.
- The Troop (3/5) – Wow, was this story gross. I really liked the story and it became a little like a zombie attack but worse.
- The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way (4/5) – Interesting study of what happens when students from the US go to different countries on foreign exchange programs. Other countries put emphasis on different aspects of school than we do in the US. Good comparison of what works and what does not.
- Influx (4/5) – I’ve read each of Daniel Suarez’s books and this one did not disappoint.
- The Dinner (4/5) – This was a strange book. As a parent it was pretty terrifying but I enjoyed it.
- Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema (5/5) – This is an excellent book on the design processes. Highly recommended.
- Shovel Ready (3/5) – Reading this book it was obvious that it could easily be made into a film. It’s a dark and post-apocalyptic story about a garbage man turned hitman with a conscience.
- NOS4A2 (5/5) – I didn’t really know what to expect here, but I am glad I read this. The author does a nice job of keeping the story moving at a risk pace and the characters are truly creepy. Oh, and the author Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son.