A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

9/10

I read this one about three and a half months ago. I really liked it. The only thing keeping it from a 10 out of 10 book for me is a few too many over-the-top sexual descriptions that were unnecessary/uncomfortable and didn't add anything to the story. It's the one thing I was worried about when starting the book based on what I had heard about the tv show, and for a while there I was thinking there really wasn't much of it at all, but the more we got into the Daenerys storyline, the more the creepy sexual descriptions would creep in. Getting that out of the way, I really did enjoy this book. I thought it was great world-building with numerous characters each with their own separate quests or storylines. Ever since I was a kid when I was introduced to The Hobbit, I have loved fantasy books with maps that you can continuously reference throughout the story to see where each separate adventure is taking place. I was a little confused about where Daenerys's story was taking place because I couldn't find any of the places on the map, but I figured out (I think?) that she's on some land across a sea, but I'm not sure why there wasn't any map to show where she was. It was an enjoyable book to read regardless of which storyline was being covered for the particular chapter. I'm most curious about the mystery of what is happening up North beyond the wall and hope the next book will get further into what's going on there. The Tyrion character seems to be the most fun and interesting one for me as he's on the "bad guy" team but doesn't seem to be a bad guy like the rest of his family. The most boring storyline for me so far is with Bran, a youngster who gets paralyzed early in the story, but we'll see where that goes. I am intrigued by most all of the characters that seem really flawed in various ways which makes for interesting reading. I was surprised to see that this book was written in 1996. I never heard of it until the tv show came out and didn't realize the book was written so much earlier. Looking forward to getting to the second book which I hopefully will read at some point in 2026.
 

Doctrine & Covenants Who's Who by Ed J. Pinegar and Richard J. Allen

 

7/10

I read this one a little over four months ago. It's another generous 7 out of 10 from me. I liked its comprehensiveness in including literally ever person possible and learning a bit more about various people who are in the D&C, but I wish it focused a touch more on those who were living in that time period rather than super long essays about the Holy Ghost, etc. The 8-pages dedicated to who the Holy Ghost is just seemed like they had a bunch of research previously performed about the Holy Ghost that they shoehorned into this book. Same with the 15-page description of Jesus. I appreciate the work put into it and all but I would have liked more paragraphs and pages dedicated to people from the D&C that I don't really know anything about. The Holy Ghost and Jesus portions could have been one paragraph summaries, in my opinion, to allow a greater focus on telling the reader about people that we don't know as much about. So that started to bug me the further I got into this book when I kept coming across very skimpy one-paragraph summaries of people I thought I would be learning more about in this book but realizing that I will have to go to other sources to learn more in-depth details about who many of these people were. Still was a nice book overall and a decent resource for looking up broad details about any person named in the D&C.

The Martian by Andy Weir

 

7/10

I read this one about 5 and a half months ago. It was an interesting story. I gave it a generous 7 out of 10 pretty much based purely on how the author made the story of an astronaut somehow surviving after being stranded on Mars actually seem plausible. Other than that, I really didn't care for his writing style. He kept trying to make jokes but they were pretty lame and cringey. I would have liked it more if the stranded astronaut had a few real human emotions based on his unfortunate circumstances rather than just making random jokes nonstop. And while I did say I appreciated the plausibility aspect of the novel, it still got pretty tedious ofttimes reading over and over about the excruciating details of how he manipulated some machine and the scientific explanations involved. But at the end of the day, I'm still mostly a fan of a good story more than anything else, and this one was interesting enough for me to enjoy it overall.

Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie

 

5/10

I read this one a little over six months ago. It wasn't my favorite. It's another one, similar to Elephants Can Remember, that was written at the tail-end of her career and it also feels a bit phoned-in. The Ariadne Oliver character shows up again and teams up with Poirot to find out who killed a young girl that everyone found to be annoying and unlikable. The focal point of the mystery is that she had claimed to have witnessed a murder a few years ago but she didn't realize it was a murder at the time. It was an interesting enough premise for a story, but nothing too exciting or memorable really happens. The story is ok I guess. Up to this point, I've done a pretty poor job in my Agatha Christie book selections. There are a ton of very highly regarded and well-known Agatha Christie books and I've only read one of them, The ABC Murders, which was amazing. I need to make my next Agatha Christie book one of those famous ones so I can be reminded of why she's considered so great.

Agatha Christie rankings:

1. The ABC Murders
2. 4:50 from Paddington
3. Elephants Can Remember
4. At Bertram's Hotel
5. Hallowe'en Party 

 

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

 

10/10

I read this one over six months ago. It was terrific. Such a fantastic story of the incredible life of Louis Zamperini. Even his early life history as an Olympian before his amazing survival story was interesting enough to be a book on its own. Even his war experiences pre-plane crash would be good enough for a book on it's own. Even the first part of his survival story floating for weeks on the ocean would be good enough for a book on its own. And on and on, continuing with the POW portion of his story. So interesting and incredible. I love survival stories and this one is as good as it gets. And then his story post-war continues to be amazing. Just really, really good stuff.

Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose

 

10/10

I read this one over seven months ago and I loved it so much. It was extremely informative and presented in an entertaining narrative that moved the story along without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. While I obviously knew the basic story of Lewis & Clark, I realized that I actually knew very little about it. Ever since I was a kid I always thought it would have been so fun to be an explorer and this expedition is always one I imagined would have been so fun to be a part of. It was awesome to learn about this amazing expedition, the route they took, the natives they encountered, and all that was accomplished. I loved tracking their progress on the maps that were included in the book and picturing what it looked like at that time. One fun part was when they got to Independence Creek in Missouri, about 65 miles northwest of Independence, Missouri. Clark wrote that it was "one of the most butifull Plains I ever Saw" and Ambrose commented that they found themselves in the Garden of Eden and they "puzzled over why God had created such a place and failed to put Virginians in it, or put it in Virginia." It was fun hearing this because you always hear how Independence, Missouri was not at all a beautiful place, which I think is more an opinion about the ruffians currently living there and not so much the landscape more on the outskirts of the city. When they got to an Indian tribe called the Arikaras, they offered them whiskey, "but the Arikaras not only said no thanks, they shamed Lewis and Clark by remarking that 'they were surprised that [they] should present to them a liquor which would make them act like fools.'" It was also nice learning details about how Sacagawea joined the party and just about how the expedition would have certainly failed without all of the help they received from different Indian tribes along the way. It was pretty sad to learn about Lewis's life after the conclusion of the expedition. For some reason, he never published all of his many findings and discoveries and died only a few years later. Ambrose concludes that he committed suicide and mentions that there are others who argue he was killed but Ambrose dismisses that possibility without really exploring that possibility at all. I would have liked to hear that argument at least a little bit more but I guess I would have to look at other sources to learn more about it. Very glad I read this book and learned so much about this amazing expedition. 

From Clark: "As I have always held it a crime to anticipate evils I will believe it a good comfortable road untill I am conpelled to believe differently." 

A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller

 

7/10

I read this one more than eight months ago. It was pretty decent. Having watched and very much enjoyed the Rebels series, I was excited to see how Kanan and Hera first met. Overall, it was a pretty fun book and nice to see these two characters in their early stages, but nothing too spectacular. Although the book did have some exciting moments toward the end, including Hera finally learning of Kanan's ability to use the force which he had kept hidden from her for almost the entire book. The Count Vidian character was a pretty fun bad guy as well. Middle of the pack Star Wars book from the five I've read so far as shown in my rankings below. Still recommended for anyone who has watched Rebels.

Star Wars book rankings:

1. Lost Stars

2. Aftermath: Life Debt

3. A New Dawn

4. Battlefront: Twilight Company

5. Aftermath