A list of books recently-read that I have discussed here.
For many years, Phoebe-Lou Adams wrote wonderful short reviews for The Atlantic. The short reviews were part of the month and part of the landscape; only when they were gone did I think about them. Short notes are tricky, but they make a nice sort of postmodern commonplace book, and way to share impressions and small joys.
This page is also an experiment in information architecture with Tinderbox. Tinderbox lets me gather and maintain this list automatically, so it's easy to build and easier to keep current.
Amir D Aczel, Pendulum
Andrei Alexandrescu, Modern C++ Design
David Allen, Getting Things Done
David Allen, Ready for Anything
Ted Allen et al., Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Jonathan Ames, Wake Up, Sir!
Catherine Asaro, The Moon's Shadow
Diana Athill, Stet: An Editor's Life
Rick Atkinson, Army At Dawn
Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points
Rick Atkinson, Day of Battle
Douglas Atwill, Why I won't Be Going To Lunch Anymore
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Ed Ayers, In The Presence of Mine Enemies
L. A. Banks, Minion
Richard Barre, Echo Bay
Kent Beck and Martin Fowler, Planning Extreme Programming
Kent Beck, Test-Driven Development
Kent Beck, Implementation Patterns
H. G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights
Cara Black, Murder in the Sentier
Rebecca Blood, The Weblog Handbook
Amy Bloom, Love Invents Us
Amy Bloom, Away
Roy Blount, Jr., About Three Bricks Shy Of A Load
Mary T. Boatwright, Daniel J. Gargola, Richard J. A. Talber, The Romans: From Village To Empire
Steven Bochco, Death by Hollywood
James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Anthony Bourdain, A Cook's Tour
Anthony Bourdain, Les Halles Cookbook
Clare Boylan, Emma Brown
H. W. Brands, Franklin
David Brin, Kiln People
Geraldine Brooks, March
Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code
Robert Brustein, Siege of the Arts
Robert Brustein, Letters to a Young Actor
Bill Bryson, Notes From A Small Island
Bill Bryson, In A Sunburned Country
Michael Buckland, Emanuel Goldberg and his Knowledge Machine
Bill Buford, Heat
Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vor Game
Emma Bull, War for the Oaks
Chan Lwok Bun and Claire Chang See Ngoh, Stepping Out
Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History
A. S. Byatt, On Histories and Stories
A. S. Byatt, The Little Black Book of Stories
A. S. Byatt, Possession
Michael Bywater, Lost Worlds
Michael Bywater, Big Babies
Peter Carey, Jack Maggs
John Carey, What Good Are The Arts?
Peter Carey, His Illegal Self
Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate
Lionel Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City
Susan Cheever, Notes Found in a Bottle
Susan Cheever, American Bloomsbury
Rudolph Chelminski, The Perfectionist
Alex Prud'homme and Julia Child, My Life In France
Sasanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Curt Cloninger, Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from Underground
Harlan Coben, Deal Breaker
Harlan Coben, Just One Look
Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Triumph
David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, Space Opera Renaissance
Michael Cunningham, Specimen Days
Hillman Curtis, MTIV
Carlo D'Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life
Mike Daisey, 21 Dog Years
Caroline H. Dall, Alongside
Val Davis , Thread of the Spider
Joshua Davis, Flash to the Core
Francis Davis, Afterglow
Ton DeMarco and Timothy Lister, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
R. E. Delderfield, To Serve Them All My Days
Philip K. Dick, The Man In The High Castle
Michael Dirda, Book by Book
Michael Bigelow Dixon and Amy Wegener, eds., Humana Festival 2000
Andrew Dornenburg, Karen Page, Dining Out
Andre Dubus III, House of Sand and Fog
Edward Eager, Half Magic
Roger Ebert, The Great Movies
Roger Ebert, Great Movies II
Holly Edwards, Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures
Tom Ehrenfeld, The Startup Garden
Aaron Elkins, Loot
Carol Emswhiller, The Mount
Jason Epstein, Book Business: Publishing Past and Future
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
Richard Fawkes, History of the Musical
Michael C. Feathers, Working Effectively With Legacy Code
Joshua Ferris, Then We Came To The End
Jasper Fforde, Lost In A Good Book
David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride
M. F. K. Fisher, The Gastronomical Me
Peter Fleming, Brazilian Adventure
C. S. Forester, Beat To Quarters
Richard Fortey, Trilobite!
Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club
George MacDonald Fraser, Flashman
George MacDonald Fraser, Royal Flash
Marianne Fredriksson, Hanna's Daughters
Marianne Fredriksson, Simon's Family
Marianne Fredriksson, Two Women
Robert Frost, North of Boston
Robert Frost, Robert Frost
Stephen Fry, Revenge
Stephen Frye, The Liar
Alan Furst, Night Soldiers
Alan Furst, The World At Night
Paul Fussell, The Boy's Crusade
Paul Fussell, Abroad
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens
Damon Galgut, The Quarry
Luiz Alfredo Gracia-Roza, Southwesterly Wind
Jesse James Garrett, The Elements of User Experience
Thomas Geoghegan, Which Side Are You On
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
William Gibson, Count Zero
William Gibson, Spook Country
Robert Gildea, Marianne in Chains
Jessica Abel and Ira Glass, Radio: An Illustrated Guide
Phoebe Gloeckner, Diary of a Teenage Girl
Susan Goin, Sunday Suppers at Lucques
Rich Gold, Plenitude
Steven Goldman, ed., Mind Game
Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, The Goal
Doris Keans Goodwin, Team Of Rivals
Jacob Gordin, Ruth Gay, The Jewish King Lear
Hiromi Goto, The Kappa C hild
Patience Gray, Honey from a Weed
Graham Greene, The Third Man
K. C. Greenlief, Cold Hunter's Moon
Jeff Greenwald, Shopping for Buddhas
W.E. B. Grifiin, Under Fire
W.E.B. Griffin, Special Ops
W.E.B. Griffin, Retreat Hell
W. E. B. Griffin, By Order Of The President
Antony Griffiths, Prints and Printmaking
William Grimes, Straight Up or On The Rocks
John Grisham, Skipping Christmas
Eileeen Gunn, Stable Strategies
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
Barbara Hambly, Fever Season
Lyn Hamilton, The Thai Amulet
Laurell K. Hamilton, A Caress of Twilight
Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man
Daniel Handler, Watch Your Mouth
Jonathan Harr, The Lost Painting
Robert Harris, Imperium
Robert Harris, Fatherland
David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer eds, Year's Best SF 10
J. M. Hayes, Prairie Gothic
Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire
Daniel Hecht, Land of Echoes
Gustav Hermansen, Ostia: Aspects of Roman City Life
Stefan Heym, The King David Report
Tony Hillerman, The Wailing Wind
Tony Hillerman, The Sinister Pig
Tony Hillerman, The Shapeshifter
Tony Hillerman, Skeleton Man
John Hodgman, The Areas of My Expertise
Anne Hollander, Feeding The Eye
Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree
Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, eds, Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd)
Nick Hornby, Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
Georginal Howell, Getrude Bell
Mark Hurst, Bit Literacy
Christopher Isherwood, The Berlin Stories
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
Norman Ishkowitz, Ottoman Empire
Pico Iyer, Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home
Jane Jacobs, Dark Age Ahead
Bill James, Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
Philip Jeyaretnam, Abraham's Promise
Craig Johnson, The Cold Dish
Lloyd Jones, Mr. Pip
Judith Jones, The Tenth Muse
Nicolai M. Josuttis, C++ STL
Cem Kamer, James Bach, Bret Pettichord, Lessons Learned in Software Testing
Edwin B. Kantar, Introduction to Declarer's Play
John Kantner, Ancient Puebloan Southwest
Roz Kaveny, ed., Reading the Vampire Slayer
Guy Kawasaki, Rules for Revolutionaries
Carolyn Keane, By The Light of the Study Lamp
Jonathan Kellerman, The Murder Book
Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, Double Homicide
Joshua Kerievsky, Refactoring To Patterns
Tracy Kidder, Home Town
Laurie King, Folly
Laurie R. King, O Jerusalem
Laurie R. King, Justice Hall
Laurie King, The Game
Laurie King, Locked Rooms
Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King, Faithful
Laurie R. King, The Art Of Detection
Stephen King, The Shining
Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian
William Kotzwinkle, The Bear Went Over The Mountain
Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think
Thomas Kunkel, ed., Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker's Harold Ross
Tony Kushner, Death and Taxes
Erik Larson, The Devil In The White City
Brenda Laurel, Utopian Entrepreneur
John Le Carre, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Steven D. Leavitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics
Russell Lee, Singapore Ghost Stories 8
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Conflict of Honors
Dennis Lehane, Mystic River
Stephen Lekson, The Chaco Meridian
Stephen Lekson, The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
Ray Lemoine and Jeff Neumann, Babylon By Bus
Elmore Leonard, Get Shorty
Elmore Leonard, Tishomingo Blues
Bo Leuf and Ward Cunningham, The Wiki Way
Michael Lewis, Moneyball
Roy Lewis, Evolution Man
Lucia Leão, O Chip e o Caleidoscópio
Martin Limón, Buddha's Money
Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners
Alvin Liu, ed., The Art of Miyazaki's Spirited Away
David Lodge, Changing Places
David Lodge, Small World
Sidney Lumet, Making Movies
John Lusk and Kyle Harrison, The Mouse Driver Chronicles
Matt Madden, 99 Ways To Tell A Story
Gregory Maguire, Wicked
Gregory Maguire, What The Dickens
Thomas Mallon, A Book of One's Own: people and their diaries
David Mamet, True and False
David Mamet, The Old Neighborhood
David Mamet, Jafsie and John Henry: Essays
David Mamet, Make-Believe Town
David Mamet, The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy
David Mamet, The Old Neighborhood
David Mamet, The Boston Marriage
David Mamet, On Directing Film
David Mamet, The Wicked Son
David Mamet, Bambi vs. Godzilla
Joseph Moncure March (Art Spiegelman, illus), The Wild Party
Robert C. Martin, ed., C++ Gems
Steve Martin, Shopgirl
Patricia Marx, Him Her Him Again The End of Him
Sujata Massey, The Bride's Kimono
Sujata Massey, Samurai's Daughter
Lia Matera, Havana Twist
Armistead Maupin, Michael Tolliver Lives
Ernest R. May, Strange Victory
Mark Mazower, Dark Continent
Scott McCloud, Making Comics
David McCullough, John Adams
David McCullough, 1776
Ian McEwan, Atonement
Ian McEwan, The Black Dogs
Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach
Michael McGarrity, Under the Color of Law
Michael McGarrity, The Big Gamble
Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking
Robin McKinley, Sunshine
John McPhee, The Crofter and the Laird
Russell Meiggs, Roman Ostia
Louis Menand, American Studies
Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club
Jane Mendelsohn, Innocence
Maria Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World
Scott Meyers, Effective STL
Susan Cummins Miller, Death Assemblage
Steve Miller and Sahron Lee, Agent Of Change
John Milton, Paradise Lost
Miyuki Miyabe, All She Was Worth
Rick Moody, Garden State
Christopher G. Moore, Chairs
Christopher G. Moore , A Killing Smile
Judith and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel: A Biography
Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon
Sheldon Morgenstern, No Vivaldi in the Garage
Samuel Eliot Morison, Strategy and Compromise
Stefran Mumaw, Simple: Web Sites
Jim Munro, Everyone in Silico
William Murray, City of the Soul: A Walk In Rome
John J. Nance, Headwind
Jennifer New, Drawing from Life
Charles Nicholl, The Lodger Shakespeare
Patrick O'Brian, The Golden Ocean
Patrick O'Brian, Thirteen Gun Salute
Patrick O'Brian, The Commodore
Patrick O'Brian, The Yellow Admiral
Patrick O'Brian, Far Side of the World
Patrick O'Brian, Letter of Marque
Patrick O'Brian, The Reverse of the Medal
Patrick O'Brian, The Hundred Days
Patrick O'Brian, Desolation Island
Patrick O'Brian, Joseph Banks: A Life
Patrick O'Brian, Blue at the Mizzen
John O'Hara, Pal Joey
Julie Orringer, How To Breathe Underwater
Josiah Osgood, Caesar's Legacy
James E. Packer, The Forum of Trajan in Rome
George Packer, The Assassins’ Gate
Michael Parenti, The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Robert B. Parker, Widow's Walk
I. J. Parker, Rashomon Gate
Robert B. Parker, Back Story
Robert Parker, Shrink Rap
Robert B. Parker, Bad Business
Robert B. Parker, Hundred Dollar Baby
Tim Parks, Medici Money
Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club
Ian Pears, The Dream of Scipio
Jacques Pepin, The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen
Anne Perry, Half Moon Street
Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Arthur Phillips, Angelica
Michael Pollan, A Place Of My Own
Derek Powazek, Design for Community
Magdalen Powers, Hand Over Fist
Tim Powers, A Soul In A Bottle
David Poyer, The Med
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Mort
Phillip Pullman, Lyra's Oxford
Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife
Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
Phillip Pullman, Ruby in the Smoke
Phillip Pullman, The Subtle Knife
Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
David Remnick, ed., Wonderful Town
David Remnick , ed., The Complete New Yorker
Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco
John Ringo, A Hymn Before Battle
John Ringo, Gust Front
Jancis Robinson, How To Taste
John Rodzvilla, ed., We've Got Blog
Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Scott Rosenberg, Dreaming In Code
Ross King, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
C. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
C. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Nicholas Royle, Antwerp
Michael Ruhlman, Making of a Chef
Michaerl Ruhlman, Soul of a Chef
Michael Ruhlman, The Reach of a Chef: Beyond The Kitchen
Michael Ruhlman, The Elements Of Cooking
Michael Ruhlman, Making of a Chef
John Ruskin, Mornings In Florence
Richard Russo, Empire Falls
Joe Sacco, The Fixer
Walter Satterthwait, Masquerade
Leigh Sauerwein, Song for Eloise
Dorothy L. Sayers, Murder Must Advertise
Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night
Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night
Dorothy R. Sayers, The Nine Tailors
Darothy L. Sayers, Busman’s Honeymoon
Jill Patton Walsh and Dorothy Sayers, A Presumption of Death
Sally Schneider, A New Way To Cook
Barbara Seagram and Marc Smith, Bridge: 25 Ways to Compete In The Bidding
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
Joann Sfar, The Rabbi's Cat
Bob Shacochis, Swimming in the Volcano
Stephen A. Shaw, Turning The Tables
Nathan Shedroff, Experience Design
T. A. Shippey, J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century
Dan Simmons, Ilium
Eric Sink, Eric Sink of the Business of Software
Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep
Craig Smith, The Whisper of Leaves
Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Sarah Smith, Chasing Shakespeares
Zadie Smith, On Beauty
Ali Smith, The Accidental
J. Percy Smith, ed., Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells
Amy Sohn, My Old Man
Elizabeth Speller, Following Hadrian
Julia Spencer-Fleming, In The Bleak Midwinter
Boris Starling, Vodka
Barbara M. Stecher, Sketchbooking
Peter Steinhart, The Undressed Art
Rory Stewart, Prince of the Marshes
Julian Stockwin, Kydd
Charles Stross, Iron Sunrise
Charles Stross, Singularity Sky
Charles Stross, The Family Trade
Charles Stross, The Hidden Family
Charles Stross, The Clan Corporate
Charles Stross, Accelerando
Charles Stross, The Jennifer Morgue
William Styron, Set This House On Fire
Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows
Donna Tartt, The Little Friend
David Thomas, Andrew Hunt, Programming Ruby
Charles Todd, A Test Of Wills
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
Sarah Turnbull, Almost French
Charles Neider, ed., The Complete Essays of Mark Twain
Mark Twain, Roughing It
Ellen Ullman, The Bug
Janwillem van de Wetering, Hard Rain
John Varley, Red Thunder
David Walder, Nelson
Jo Walton, Farthing
Jo Walton, Tooth and Claw
Jo Walton, Ha'penny
Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall Of Rome
Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles
Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
Sarah Waters, Fingersmith
Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies
David Weinberger, Everything Is Miscellaneous
Miriam Weinstein, Yiddish
H. G. Wells, The World Brain
Tony Wheeler et al., Lonely Planet: Unpacked Again
Andrew White, ed., London Walks
Thornton Wilder, Cabala
Simon Winchester, The Map That Changed The World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
Tobias Wolf, Old School
Gene Wolfe, The Knight
Bob Woodward, State of Denial