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Various: Shades of Noir Added on
Victor Hugo: Les Miserables Added on
Stanley Marianski: Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages Added on
Patrick Rothfuss: The Wise Man's Fear Added on
Sepp Holzer: Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening Added on This book is so chock full of great ideas, more in one chapter than in some whole books.
Patrick Rothfuss: The Name of the Wind Added on
Thomas Howard: Evangelical Is Not Enough Added on
Michael Ruhlman: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing Added on
Gene Wolfe: The Shadow of the Torturer, Volume One of the Book of the New Sun Added on
Philippa Gregory: The Queen's Fool Added on
Cormac McCarthy: All The Pretty Horses Added on
Alan Pistorius: Cutting Hill: A Chronicle of a Family Farm Added on Many people (including me) think of Vermont as a bunch of organic, diversified homestead farms. But there are still some old dairy farms that have been in families for generations, although they seem to keep dwindling. This is the story of one of those farms.
James Herriot: All Things Wise And Wonderful Added on James goes off to join the RAF and his experiences there bring back memories of more of his adventures as a country vet
James Herriot: All Things Bright and Beautiful Added on The further adventures of James Herriott, post marriage and now a partner in the vet practice.
Penny Simpkin: The Birth Partner Added on Helpful book for learning about birth and how I can help Kristin during the process.
James Herriot: All Creatures Great and Small Added on
George R. R. Martin: A Dance With Dragons Added on Long wait, but finally the fifth book in the great "Song of Ice and Fire" series is out.
Robert Martin: Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# Added on Great book for any serious C# software developer. Covered some familiar ground, but great way to tie together a lot of different things I've learned and some things I didn't know.
William Gibson: Zero History Added on
Tim Keller: Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just Added on
Tad Williams: Shadowheart Added on
Tad Williams: Shadowrise Added on
Bruce Lawson, Remy Sharp: Introducing HTML5 (Voices That Matter) Added on
Various: The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting toward God Added on
Tad Williams: Shadowplay Added on
Tad Williams: Shadowmarch: Shadowmarch: Vol 1 Added on
Brad Kessler: Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese Added on This writing has just rekindled my desire to have dairy goats one day. I love how the author ties in his early experiences having goats with the historic pastoral experience that shaped much of the world. The way that herding, milking and making cheese also plays into a contemplative life is also interesting.
Stieg Larsson: The Girl Who Played with Fire Added on An amazing cat and mouse whodunit, where we learn even more about the unique back story of the heroine in this trilogy.
Stieg Larsson: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Added on I'm not one to follow the best seller lists too closely, so I actually saw the Swedish film version of this book before reading it. It's one of those rare reads that lives up to the hype, a compelling page-turner with a completely original set of characters.
Daniel Okrent: Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition Added on Looking back, it's hard to imagine how Prohibition ever came about. This book provides a fascinating look at the culture and the players that both brought Prohibition into existence and then defeated it 13 years later.
Eliot Coleman: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long Added on More wisdom from Eliot Coleman, one of the most innovative organic gardeners currently sharing knowledge. This book has practical ideas about how to reclaim the lost art of utilizing winter/cold-hardy vegetables and season extension devices to harvest fresh produce year round, even in Maine where Mr. Coleman lives.
Leandre Poisson & Gretchen Vogel Poisson: Solar Gardening Added on This couple has developed the American Intensive Gardening system. Somewhat based on French Intensive Gardening, but they use what they call solar appliances to garden almost year round in New England. Basically cold frames on steroids.
Ron Macher: Making Your Small Farm Profitable Added on Very practical book that gets more into the nuts and bolts about how to actually make money as a farmer. Business plans and planning in general, marketing and growing your business. Also good focus on understanding what work is actually making you money and what work is not.
Gene Logsdon: You Can Go Home Again: Adventures of a Contrary Life Added on I really like Gene's writing style after reading Contrary Farmer. This is a set of essays that gives a little more insight into his life, as well as various musings on farming and rural life in general.
Dorothy Dunnett: The Ringed Castle (Lymond Chronicles, 5) Added on
Dorothy Dunnett: Pawn in Frankincense (Lymond Chronicles, 4) Added on
Dorothy Dunnett: The Disorderly Knights (Lymond Chronicles, 3) Added on
Dorothy Dunnett: Queens' Play (Lymond Chronicles, 2) Added on
Dorothy Dunnett: The Game of Kings (Lymond Chronicles, 1) Added on
Andy Lee & Patricia Foreman: Chicken Tractor Added on Good companion book to Salatin's. Focused more on using chickens to prepare garden beds. Lots of variety in different ways to do things. Includes straw bale house ideas for a good year round model. Very easy, practical read with good nutrition information.
Joel Salatin: Pastured Poultry Profits Added on The bible of pasturing poultry for meat and eggs. Focuses on small scale production models as a business. Lots of "I tried this so you don't have to", which is very helpful.
Andy Lee & Patricia Foreman: Backyard Market Gardening Added on
Jeffrey Overstreet: Aurelia's Colors Added on
Gene Logsdon: The Contrary Farmer Added on Great book and a great read, full of interesting and often funny writing interspersed with all kinds of practical advice and ideas.
Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Added on Okay, so I liked this, but not sure enough to slog through 700+ pages. There were really cool parts, but also a lot of filler. It does invoke the time period in an interesting way.
Karl F. Lutzen, Mark Stevens: Brew Ware: How to Find, Adapt & Build Homebrewing Equipment Added on
John Piper: What Jesus Demands from the World Added on
Martha Wells: The Gate of Gods: Book Three of The Fall of Ile-Rien Added on
Martha Wells: The Ships of Air: The Fall of Ile-Rien (The Fall of Ile-Rein) Added on
Martha Wells: The Wizard Hunters (The Fall of Ile-Rien, Book 1) Added on
Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Added on Those who know me would think this book is right in my bread basket (pun intended), but I'm just now getting around to reading it. Great so far.
Dorothy Dunnett: Gemini (The House of Niccolo, 8) Added on Finished this series. Highly recommended. Twists and turns right up to the end.
Dorothy Dunnett: Caprice and Rondo (The House of Niccolo, 7) Added on
Dorothy Dunnett: To Lie With Lions: The Sixth Book of the House of Niccolo Added on
Rabbi Daniel Lapin: Thou Shalt Prosper Added on
Dorothy Dunnett: The Unicorn Hunt: The Fifth Book of The House of Niccolo Added on
Toby Hemenway: Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture Added on
Gail Damerow: Barnyard In Your Backyard Added on Good basic overview of a lot of different types of domestic animals. You probably need more specific books once you decide what you want, but this is a good way to figure out what's involved with particularly animals.
Karl Schwenke: Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach Added on
Eliot Coleman: The New Organic Grower Added on
Jerry Belanger: Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats: Breeds, Care, Dairying Added on
Margaret Hathaway, Karl Schatz: The Year of the Goat Added on
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash Added on
Joel Salatin: You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise Added on
Alan Moore: Watchmen Added on
Dorothy Dunnett: The Spring of the Ram: The Second Book of The House of Niccolo Added on
God: Bible Added on the good book
Jay Weinstein: The Ethical Gourmet Added on So many things to think about in this book. It's pretty balanced though, most of the recommendations are very achievable with a little work.
Jim Wallis: God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It Added on
Elizabeth Kostova: The Historian Added on
Donald Miller: Blue Like Jazz Added on
Anne Lamott: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith Added on
Anne Lamott: Traveling Mercies Added on
David McCullough: 1776 Added on
Lee Strobel: The Case for a Creator Added on If you ever wanted some solid scientific evidence that points to intelligent design, this book has it.
Gareth Higgins: How Movies Helped Save My Soul: Finding Spiritual Fingerprints in Culturally Significant Films Added on A wonderful introduction to finding the sacred and the fallen world in film
Guy Gavriel Kay: The Summer Tree Added on This is the first book of The Fionavar Tapestry Series. One of those where people get pulled out of Earth to another dimension, which I tend to like (Chronicles of Narnia, Thomas Covenant to name two others).
Robin Hobb: Assassin's Apprentice Added on
Rick Warren: The Purpose-Driven Life Added on
Brent Curtis & John Eldredge: The Sacred Romance Added on
Guy Gavriel Kay: The Lions of Al-Rassan Added on
Terry Goodkind: The Pillars of Creation (Sword of Truth, Book 7) Added on
Harold McGee: On Food and Cooking Added on This is the book all the CIA grads swear by, so thought I'd give it a look.
Terry Goodkind: Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth, Book 6) Added on The interesting thing about this one is it pulls in some of Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophies.
Ronald J. Sider: Rich Christians In An Age Of Hunger Added on
David Dark: Everyday Apocalypse Added on One of my favorite "thinker" friends wrote this. Very interesting take on finding the divine and sacred in pop culture.
Terry Goodkind: Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth, Book 5) Added on
Charles J. Sykes: A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character Added on Wow, very compelling. If you are tired of the victim mentality that is destroying America as we know it, this book will ring true with you.
Roger Zelazny: The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 Added on The author is often recommended as one of the truly original fantasy writers. I'm already hooked after a couple chapters.
Terry Goodkind: Temple of the Winds (Sword of Truth, Book 4) Added on This is definitely one of the best in the series so far.
Jeni Wright, Eric Treuille: Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking Techniques Added on Not so much reading as using. Tons of photos and great instruction on useful culinary techniques. Especially helpful is how to prepare (carving, filleting, stuffing) various seafood, fish, poultry, etc. Lots of basic recipes as well.
William Gibson: Mona Lisa Overdrive Added on
Terry Goodkind: Blood of the Fold (Sword of Truth, Book 3) Added on
Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential Added on I cooked my way through the end of high school and most of college. Lately I've been considering getting back into the biz. After seeing Bourdain on the Food Network "Cook's Tour" show, I really wanted to read some of his stuff. This book tells it like it is and if you've ever cooked (or worked in food service), it will be even more enjoyable.
Peter Conrad: The Hitchcock Murders Added on Picked this up in London. The paperback won't be out in the US until Sept. 2002. I've read a lot about Hitchcock (he's my favorite director) and this is one of the better critical books on him. I like the fact that it touches on movies from his entire career, not just the critics faves and shows how Hitchcock had a few major themes he kept repeating.
Lawrence Sutin (Editor): The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings Added on After reading a book of short stories, I thought it would be interesting to see what Philip K. Dick was all about.
Terry Goodkind: Stone of Tears (Sword of Truth, Book 2) Added on I'm already hooked on this series. I keep staying up WAY past my bedtime.
William Gibson: Burning Chrome Added on short stories, including Johnny Mneumonic
Terry Goodkind: Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1) Added on This is one of the few major fantasy series I haven't read, so finally had a chance to start it. I like it quite a bit so far.
Neil Gaiman: American Gods Added on Nice to read my first Gaiman novel while in Ireland, where he finished the book.
Dave Tomlinson: The Post Evangelical Added on This book seems to do a good job describing some of my struggles with my evangelical background and where to go from here...
Dan Auiler: Hitchcock's Notebooks Added on Hitchcock himself didn't keep a lot of notes, but luckily his assistants kept notes on all kinds of things. He did write letters and some of those are included. Fascinating look inside the legend's mind and how he approached directing.
David Liss: A Conspiracy of Paper Added on Interesting historical novel and mystery set in the rise of the financial markets in early 1700s London.
Steve Stockman: Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 Added on Fascinating, I had a hard time putting it down.
Mary Twelveponies: There are No Problem Horses, Only Problem Riders Added on I've just started to learn to ride in the past year and this book has lots of great insight.
Thomas Merton: A Thomas Merton Reader Added on
Father Thomas Dubay: The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet Added on
Dallas Willard: The Divine Conspiracy Added on
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Boxed Set Added on I finished Fellowship of the Ring in time for the movie and I'm almost done with The Two Towers. I first read these in middle school.