Book archive
✏| Date | Title | Author | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | The Warden | Anthony Trollope | Such a charming book, but with so much substantive commentary about reform. It is amazing how pertinent it remains over 100 years after being published. I really thought the characters were well done and made even better by Nigel Hawthorne as narrator for the audiobook. |
| August 2026 | The Dark Forest | Liu Cixin | Fantastic. I liked The Three-Body Problem, but this sequel outdoes it by a mile. The ideas introduced are fascinating. It’s amazing how Cixin leaves you in suspence to the very end. And the hope of the ending was beautiful. I cried 😭. |
| August 2026 | Whistler | Ann Patchett | |
| July 2026 | To Say Nothing of the Dog | Connie Willis | |
| July 2026 | Scythe | Neal Shusterman | |
| May 2026 | An Echo of Things to Come | James Islington | |
| May 2026 | Angle of Repose | Wallace Stegner | |
| March 2026 | Faust, Part One | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | |
| February 2026 | Scenes of Clerical Life | George Eliot | |
| January 2026 | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K. Dick | |
| December 2025 | The Manhood of Edward Robinson: A Short Story | Agatha Christie | |
| November 2025 | The Shadow of What Was Lost | James Islington | |
| October 2025 | The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen | This was a tough one. Really terrifying. I spent time with people who are thousands of miles away from my own circumstances and views on life, yet I did recognize shared humanity and I felt for many of them, including The Sympathizer himself. |
| September 2025 | There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century | ||
| August 2025 | The Diary of a Parish Clerk | Steen Steensen Blicher | |
| July 2025 | The Pursuit of Happiness | Jeffrey Rosen | A really excellent intellectual history. Very few books have impacted my view of my country and the world as much as this one. I finished with a resolve to live a more virtuous life. What more could I ask for? |
| June 2025 | Trustee from the Toolroom | Nevil Shute | |
| June 2025 | James | Percival Everett | |
| May 2025 | The Day of the Jackal | Frederick Forsyth | |
| May 2025 | The Art Thief | Michael Finkel | Quite a story. |
| May 2025 | The Man Who Broke Napoleon’s Codes | Mark Urban | |
| March 2025 | Driven: An Autobiography | Larry H. Miller | |
| February 2025 | On the Road with Joseph Smith | Richard L. Bushman | |
| January 2025 | House of Stairs | William Sleator | A great (and sadly forgotten) book from the era when YA books were actually written for teenagers. |
| January 2025 | Roman Blood | Steven Saylor | Well done whodunnit that plays brilliantly on real people, writings, and events from antiquity. Saylor gave me a lot to think about. The book had many dark moments that left me feeling quite bleak. There is some catharsis at the end but I still feel very sad about the fate of several characters. I’m not sorry I read it though. |
| December 2024 | The Three-Body Problem | Liu Cixin | |
| December 2024 | The Most Dangerous Game | Richard Connell | |
| December 2024 | Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card | |
| December 2024 | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea | Jules Verne | |
| December 2024 | The Giver | Lois Lowry | |
| December 2024 | A Wrinkle in Time | Madeleine L’Engle | |
| December 2024 | Speaker for the Dead | Orson Scott Card | |
| December 2024 | Murder on the Orient Express | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | The Man in the Brown Suit | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | Cards on the Table | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | Murder at the Vicarage | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | By the Pricking of My Thumbs | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | Ordeal by Innocence | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | Towards Zero | Agatha Christie | |
| December 2024 | Turtle Boy | M. Evan Wolkenstein | |
| December 2024 | The Devil in the White City | Erik Larson | |
| November 2024 | Winter’s Heart | Robert Jordan | |
| October 2024 | The Path of Daggers | Robert Jordan | |
| October 2024 | The Sun Does Shine | Anthony Ray Hinton | |
| October 2024 | A Crown of Swords | Robert Jordan | |
| September 2024 | Buffalo Flats | Martine Leavitt | This one will stay close to my heart. |
| September 2024 | Lord of Chaos | Robert Jordan | |
| September 2024 | The Fires of Heaven | Robert Jordan | |
| August 2024 | Table for Two | Amor Towles | |
| July 2024 | The Shadow Rising | Robert Jordan | |
| July 2024 | Staff Engineer | Will Larson | |
| May 2024 | The Under Dog and Other Stories | Agatha Christie | A few good stories, but overall not Dame Agatha’s best work… |
| May 2024 | The Shallows | Nicholas Carr | In the end, I think this book is mis-titled. It’s really a cautionary history of technology as it relates to our humanity. The internet is just the major case study. At first, it was slow-going. I started reading, ready to doubt the seriousness of any of the problems that were to be presented. And Carr didn’t get everything right. For example, his concerns about ebooks turning into a fundamentally different medium than print books didn’t come to pass. However, it gradually became clear to me that Carr and many thinkers he references (such as Marshall McLuhan and Joseph Weizenbaum) are on to something. I could see the habit-forming pull of technology in my own life, and I found the criticisms of reductive metaphors (such as that our minds are like computers) and of psychological misconceptions (such as thinking we can run out of long-term memory) very convincing. In the end, this is a very humanistic book. It acknowledges the wonder of technology, but it makes an argument for the uniqueness and the value of the human mind. The slowness of thought that is needed to empathize and learn deeply. The livingness of a human brain. In doing so, it seems to warn against technological fatalism (though Carr doesn’t state it directly). The defense of humanness and the rejection of the mind-as-a-machine seem all the more relevant in the current climate where we seem to again be on the cusp of adopting a new technology in all areas of society: generative AI. The emotional delusions average people had about Weisenbaum’s ELIZA program seem all the more threatening in light of much more powerful thought-simulators. I’ve loved technology all my life. I’ve made a career out of advancing technology built using internet primitives, no less. But, this book has served to cool my ardor and make me take a closer look at the potential drawbacks of technological advancement. In the end, I found myself hoping with the author that “we won’t go gently into the future our computer engineers and software programmers are scripting for us.” |
| April 2024 | A Morbid Taste for Bones | Ellis Peters | |
| April 2024 | Killers of the Flower Moon | David Grann | |
| February 2024 | The Daughter of Time | Josephine Tey | The way Tey presents groundbreaking historical research through the eyes of a bed-bound Scotland yard detective is brilliant; but, even more so are the revelations themselves. This is one of the most astounding mystery novels I’ve ever read. |
| February 2024 | The Ring of Solomon | Jonathan Stroud | Really enjoyed this! I think I liked it even better than the Bartimaeus trilogy. |
| January 2024 | The American Spirit | David McCullough | |
| October 2023 | The Lie Tree | Frances Hardinge | Great story. Hardinge really keeps you turning pages. I enjoyed the character arc, the setting, and the tension between belief and science. I go back and forth on the feminism in the story. On the one hand, it is key to Faith’s development: it’s an important aspect in her efforts to solve the mystery, her relationships, and the conclusions of the book. On the other hand felt a bit overdone, as though I was being hit over the head with references to corsets and hoop skirts. In the end I think it could have been a slightly better book if this had been toned down, but given the period and the centrality of the theme to the character’s story, I can forgive it. |
| October 2023 | Dry | Neal Shusterman | I drank a lot of water while reading this. This was my first by this author and I really couldn’t put it down. YA fiction at its best. |
| October 2023 | Yellow Butterfly | Oleksandr Shatokhin | This one will stay with me. |
| October 2023 | We Are Lions! | Jens Mattsson | One of the most authentic books I ever read. The human spirit and the bonds of family are strong, even in the face of death. This Swedish import is a masterpiece. I’m sorry that we in the U.S. haven’t given it the love it deserves. |
| September 2023 | In the Hands of the Lord: The Life of Dallin H. Oaks | Richard E. Turley Jr. | |
| September 2023 | Mutual Funds For Dummies | Eric Tyson | |
| August 2023 | Northanger Abbey | Jane Austen | Fun read, especially during a visit to Bath. |
| July 2023 | Sleeping Murder / The Murder At The Vicarage | Agatha Christie | |
| June 2023 | Unraveller | Frances Hardinge | |
| June 2023 | The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams | Daniel Nayeri | |
| June 2023 | Project Hail Mary | Andy Weir | |
| June 2023 | Putin’s World | Angela Stent | |
| May 2023 | Circe | Madeline Miller | |
| May 2023 | A River Runs Through It | Norman Maclean | Very moving. |
| April 2023 | The Eleventh Hour | Graeme Base | |
| April 2023 | Magpie Murders | Anthony Horowitz | A nice whodunnit obscured by an uninspiring outer story with a main character who I found glum and pitiable. |
| February 2023 | The Odyssey | Homer | |
| February 2023 | The Hard Thing About Hard Things | Ben Horowitz | |
| January 2023 | The Last Cuentista | Donna Barba Higuera | |
| December 2022 | Busman’s Honeymoon | Dorothy L. Sayers | Of all the Peter Wimsey novels, I found this to be the most affecting. I was told that Gaudy Night was the payoff for the series, but I think this one is instead. The whole series has been fun, not least as an indulgence for my Anglophilia, but I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much. It was all the sweeter for my long history with these complex, brilliant, humane characters. More than ever, I stand in awe of Sayers. |
| December 2022 | The Dragon Reborn | Robert Jordan | |
| November 2022 | I, Robot | Isaac Asimov | |
| November 2022 | Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager | Kory Kogon | |
| October 2022 | Naïve. Super | Erlend Loe | A meandering first-person account of a young agnostic (atheist?) searching for the meaning in life. I thought this was a pleasant read with an entertaining protagonist and some heartwarming moments. Took me awhile to get through since each chapter is a self-contained anecdote. They do coordinate to form a plot, but no real cliffhangers to keep me turning the pages. I read the Norwegian version. |
| October 2022 | The Great Hunt | Robert Jordan | |
| October 2022 | The Eye of the World | Robert Jordan | |
| September 2022 | The Phoenix Project | Gene Kim | |
| September 2022 | That We May Be One | Tom Christofferson | Heartfelt memoire; full of thoughtful reflections and suggestions delivered in a voice of understanding and reason. The author lives in a middle space, a member of two communities that have often found themselves in opposition to one another. He strikes me as a natural peacemaker. I finished with a greater appreciation for the struggles and joys of my gay and lesbian family and friends. |
| August 2022 | Gaudy Night | Dorothy L. Sayers | |
| August 2022 | The Moonstone | Wilkie Collins | |
| July 2022 | The House in the Cerulean Sea | T.J. Klune | Fun escapist read. T.J. Klune manages to trick you into thinking that something is at stake. But rest assured, every conflict will be comfortably resolved exceedingly quickly, if there was ever any danger at all. I liked this one for the feel-good it is. |
| June 2022 | Have His Carcase | Dorothy L. Sayers | |
| June 2022 | A Room with a View | E.M. Forster | |
| June 2022 | There’s A Bear On My Chair | Ross Collins | |
| June 2022 | Hello, Earth! | Joyce Sidman | I get it… no one likes poetry that actually follows the rules of a form these days (actually, kids still like it—just adults). But if you’re going to break all the rules, at least do it intentionally, not out of pure conformity. Some of the vocabulary choices seemed designed to be surprising with no real reason and wistful letters to an anthropomorphic yet silent earth got a little too hippie for me (even being something of a greenie myself). Nice illustrations, but TBH, I feel like this is one where the topic is the subject of the acclaim rather than the literary execution. Not that the poems were bad, just not life-changing. |
| June 2022 | Outside Art | Madeline Kloepper | |
| June 2022 | Love That Dog | Sharon Creech | Thoroughly charming, especially for someone who grew up memorizing poems. |
| June 2022 | Songs of Innocence and of Experience | William Blake | |
| June 2022 | Door | JiHyeon Lee | |
| June 2022 | The Millionaire Next Door | Thomas J. Stanley | |
| June 2022 | Sato the Rabbit | Yuki Ainoya | |
| June 2022 | Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited | Steve Krug | |
| June 2022 | A Town Like Alice | Nevil Shute | |
| June 2022 | One Little Bag | Henry Cole | |
| June 2022 | His Majesty’s Dragon | Naomi Novik | |
| May 2022 | The Five Red Herrings | Dorothy L. Sayers | |
| May 2022 | Jurassic Park | Michael Crichton | A remarkable articulation of the hubris of modern science, the terrible power of unchecked commercial interests, and our relationship to the other species on our planet, all disguised as an unputdownable page-turner. I thought this one was thought-provoking and excellent. 👏 |
| April 2022 | Murder in Mesopotamia | Agatha Christie | Felt like this novel didn’t do any one thing particularly well. Instead, it did several things so-so. For example, character building gets off to a great start and then fizzles, giving way to the crime. Then, the crime ends up suffering from (remarkably) both predictability and unbelievability, the latter even by Christie’s standards. I’ll admit that it’s a better mystery than I would write, but I have to opine that Christie gets much better than this. |
| April 2022 | Strong Poison | Dorothy L. Sayers | |
| April 2022 | The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club | Dorothy L. Sayers | |
| April 2022 | Unnatural Death | Dorothy L. Sayers | |
| April 2022 | Clouds of Witness | Dorothy L. Sayers | |
| March 2022 | They Came to Baghdad | Agatha Christie | |
| March 2022 | Whose Body? | Dorothy L. Sayers | |
| March 2022 | Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling | Richard L. Bushman | Uncommonly fair treatment of Joseph Smith’s actions and vision. Feels like the seminal work of his life. |
| September 2021 | Sleeping Murder | Agatha Christie | |
| September 2021 | The Tale of Audun and His Bear | Unknown | |
| September 2021 | Five Little Pigs | Agatha Christie | One of Dame Agatha’s best! |
| September 2021 | The Mysterious Mr. Quin | Agatha Christie | |
| September 2021 | The Mystery of the Blue Train | Agatha Christie | |
| September 2021 | The Mysterious Affair at Styles | Agatha Christie | |
| September 2021 | Hallowe’en Party | Agatha Christie | Darker than her usual whodunnits, but I thought this one was pretty innovative. |
| September 2021 | The Clocks | Agatha Christie | |
| September 2021 | Paul: A Biography | N.T. Wright | |
| September 2021 | One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly | Ashley Mae Hoiland | |
| September 2021 | Insights from a Prophet’s Life: Russell M. Nelson | Sheri Dew | |
| July 2021 | The War of the Worlds | H.G. Wells | |
| June 2021 | The Time Machine | H.G. Wells | |
| October 2020 | The Nest | Kenneth Oppel | |
| October 2020 | The Anatomy of Peace | The Arbinger Institute | |
| October 2020 | Dune | Frank Herbert | |
| May 2020 | And Then There Were None | Agatha Christie | |
| July 2020 | Common Gardening Questions | USU Extension | Such good advice about gardening in Utah. Only complaint is that it included a lot of hyperlinks to USU’s website, some of which no longer seem to be correct. |
| May 2020 | Three Men in a Boat | Jerome K. Jerome | A wild ride down the Thames that is at once farcically hilarious and poetically wistful. |
| July 2017 | Njal’s Saga | Anonymous | Incredible. |
| December 2018 | The Little Book of Hygge | Meik Wiking | Fun read. |
| December 2018 | Growth of the Soil | Knut Hamsun | Growth of the Soil strikes me above all as an allegory. It is not a preachy story of flat characters with blatantly obvious names like the ones in The Pilgrim’s Progress. All the same, the story is not concerned with individual characters as ends in and of themselves, so much as it is with their causal actions and revealing destinies. It is in this sense that Growth of the Soil is allegorical. It is like an Icelandic saga which narrates a mythology. We have no subjective stream-of-consciousness narrative as we find in Sult, and this must certainly be on purpose. The inner workings of the characters’ minds, though interesting to speculate about, are not the point. Instead we are meant to learn from them how to live and how not to live. At the center of it all stands Isak, the “lord of creation (12)” who clearly garners Hamsun’s approval, as he is blessed with the greatest destiny. Given this, it is only a small jump to accept Isak as an embodiment of Hamsun’s ideals. Isak illustrates Hamsun’s belief that man and nature are at their best when they find themselves in a symbiotic relationship. |