The Complete Far Side

Gary Larson

1/2012

Funny.

MAD’s Greatest Artists: The Completely MAD Don Martin

Don Martin

2/2012

A little disappointing that this volume is not the COMPLETE Don Martin. It's only all of the cartoon that appeared in MAD Magazine. Nothing from his books or other outlets is here (No Captain Klutz, no Fester Bestertester...). But still, great.

Lost in Shangri-La

A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II

Mitchell Zuckoff

3/2012

A C-47 crashes into a remote valley in New Guinea and a group of soldiers parachutes in to rescue them. Impressively told, relating the crash, the aftermath, and the survivors ordeals with the jungle and the natives who saw them as spirits from the sky. Gave me a new perspective on human life on this planet.

Worm

The First Digital World War

Mark Bowden

4/2012

A bit techno-heavy at times, but a pretty cool account of the discovery and efforts to fend off the Conficker worm which infected millions of Windows PCs in 2008/2009. It's still out there today. The takeaway from this book is INSTALL YOUR UPDATES!

The Hunger Games / Catching Fire / Mockingjay

Suzanne Collins

5/2012

I saw The Hunger Games movie first, so my visualizations of the characters were of the actors playing the parts, but it didn't detract from the power of the books.

At first i thought that the writing wasn't all that great, but it sucks you in and there is a lot more nuances to the relationships between the characters than is evident in the movie. I was impressed by how Katniss was written as so strong and so weak at the same time. And even though some of the plot points were a little easy to figure out, the books pack quite an emotional wallop and present these characters as very real, capable of great and horrible things.

The Hunger Pains

The Harvard Lampoon

6/2012

A valiant effort, but ultimately not that funny. Mostly just made all the characters incredibly dim or clueless or both. In no way holds a candle to Bored of the Rings.

Soldier Dogs

The Untold Story of America’s Canine Heroes

Maria Goodavage

7/2012

I really wanted to like this book, but it was SO scattered and disorganized, it got to almost be a chore to get through it. Interesting information, but no coherence. Also, "the untold story"? There's a TON of books out there about soldier dogs. Sigh.