Well, one of the benefits of waiting to a new year is that a list like this will be complete!
Jan 6 Valkyrie Burning (Currie) This is Book 3 of the On Silver Wings series. Good stuff!
Jan 12 The Battleship Builders (Johnston & Buxton) I own eight major works on battleships. This is another one of the hefty and well-illustrated books, but this time on the shipbuilders.
Jan 17 Ender in Exile (Card) I had not known of this book when I discovered it at the library. It is excellent!
Jan 22 The Imperial Cruise - A Secret History of Empire and War (Bradley) Offers an intriguing premise: that Teddy Roosevelt sowed the seeds of WWII in the Pacific by teaching the Japanese how to go get what they wanted. This was a real eye-opener.
Jan 23 Earth Unaware (Card & Johnston) Orson Scott Card takes a collaborator in this prequel to Ender's War. Opening book of the First Formic War series.
Jan 24 How to Lose a War at Sea (Fawcett,ed.)
Jan 30 Earth Afire (Card & Johnston) Second book in the First Formic War series.
Jan 31 Earth Awakens (Card & Johnston) Third book. You can see I am enjoying these, since I read this in one day!
Feb 9 Hopebreaker (Wilson) Book 1 of the Great Iron War Trilogy. Hopebreaker is an innovative steampunk tank.
Feb 11 Lifemaker (Wilson) Book 2 of the Great Iron War Trilogy. Lifemaker is an innovative (and huge) steampunk submarine that allows "the good guys" to escape being run over.
Feb 12 Twenty Years' Experience as a Ghost Hunter (O'Donnell) Narrated as a solo for LibriVox. Ghost hunting is not my cup of tea, but the book appears to be reasonably popular.
Feb 13 Skyshaker (Wilson) Book 3 of the Great Iron War Trilogy. Skyshaker is an innovative steampunk aircraft.
Feb 16 Warship (Dalzelle) I seem to be drawn to stories of Earth getting overrun by aliens and some guy being the last hope as he commandeers an alien craft to fight back.
Feb 19 Dark Vengeance (Mason) Another like Warship, above.
Feb 20 A War of Gifts (Card) I proclaim this a small jewel! I really liked it!
Feb 23 Dinosaur Thunder (David) great!
Feb 25 Invasive Procedures (Card & Johnston) I listed this as "meh" - then found I'd read it before, in 2009, and listed it as "meh" then, too.
Mar 1 Drums of War (Marston) Zoom! I find a series of war books set in the early 1700's!
Mar 7 Hollow Space: Venture (Barnes) Getting caught in a pocket universe with a lot of other unfortunates and no way out!
Mar 9 Fire and Sword (Marston) Another book about Cpt. Daniel Rawson and the Duke of Marlborough
Mar 16 Under Siege (Marston) Third book on Captain Rawson.
Mar 29 Pacific (Winchester) Wow! This is all about the Pacific Ocean: its geography, moods, treasures, and the peoples who live around it. Recommended nonfiction.
Apr 2 Naamah's Blessing (Carey) I loved Jacqueline Carey's writing in her Kushiel series; now I'm reading a later one.
Apr 11 Fragile Things (Gaiman) I've read so much love of Neil Gaiman, I had to try his work. I found it didn't engage me.
Apr 18 Naamah's Curse (Carey) Hmmm. I think Carey is milking her characters. Seems like rewarmed Kushiel.
May 30 The War in the West, Vol. 1: The Rise of Germany 1939-41 (Holland)
May 30 The Engineering Book (Brain) A brilliant idea: devote 1 page of text and 1 facing page of pictures to each of 130 engineering masterpieces. That makes it very easy to pick up for just a few pages when you have a few spare minutes.
Jun 4 The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Pulley) I was enchanted by this story, as much as with Morgenstern's "The Night Circus" a few years back. I practically forced my family members to read it, too!
Jun 16 Agincourt: The Fight for France (Fiennes) The author had a prominent ancestor who fought in the Agincourt campaign, so this book was almost a voyage of family biography for him. An engaging read.
Jun 22 Commander in Chief (Greaney & Clancy) A Clancy collaboration that is actually good.
Jun 29 Little, Big (Crowley) I bought this book in 1999 and never read it until now. I could have afforded to wait a few more decades. Ugh.
Jul 5 11/22/63 (King) I only knew Stephen King for his horror, but this time-travelling story to derail the Kennedy assassination is a masterpiece. Probably the best book I read this year!
Jul 10 Stasis: Alpha Ship One (Samways) Execrable. I lament the 99 cents I spent on it.
Jul 11 Hollow Space: Shadowkill (Barnes) I enjoyed the first in the series back in March, and so determined to read the rest of my Barnes books.
Jul 16 Code Breakers: Alpha (Barnes) Third in the 5-book set I'd bought.
Jul 24 Code Breakers: Beta (Barnes) Fourth.
Jul 29 1946 (Sebestyen) I like to have one fiction and one non-fiction book going all the time. This is a look at 1946 in Europe in the aftermath of WWII. Conditions were horrible. Thank goodness for the USA; we ameliorated a lot.
Jul 30 Agincourt (Cornwell) Yes, the title is similar to a non-fiction book above, but this is historical fiction. GOOD historical fiction.
Aug 9 The Daedalus Project (Barnes) Last of the 5-book set.
Aug 18 Snow Crash (Stevenson) Stevenson got a lot of props for this book. He deserved them.
Sep 5 Red Rising (Pierce Brown) Intriguing story of a caste system formed on Mars, and the underclass Reds' attempt to overthrow it.
Sep 11 Golden Son (P. Brown) The Reds' hero has been transformed into a Gold, and now practically has superpowers.
Sep 18 Morning Star (P. Brown) The hero's switcheroo is revealed, but he leads an uprising throughout the Solar System.
Sep 23 Iron Wolf (Dale Brown) Another of his near-future military novels.
Sep 30 Starfire (Dale Brown) More of the same. Especially since I'd discovered I'd already read this once, in 2014!
Oct 6 Enemy at the Gates - The Battle for Stalingrad (Craig) A look inside the rubble and foxholes of both sides at Stalingrad, a distinctly dirty, uncomfortable, nasty and lethal battle.
Oct 8 Plan of Attack (Dale Brown) Crank up the maverick air force officers one more time!
Oct 12 Written in Stone (Rhodes) Can you really expect help when you write a "help me" message in mud, to be fossilized and (maybe) found in 100 million years?? Fun!
Oct 20 Gone for Soldiers (J. Shaara) A historical novel of the invasion of Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Jeff Shaara continues his dad's oeuvre of bringing the personalities of prominent military officers to life in imagining their thoughts and deeds in major battles.
Oct 25 Murder Most Medieval (Greenberg & Halfers, ed.) Short stories.
Oct 31 Rise of the Dragons (Rice) Apparently self-published, and could use an editor.
Nov 4 Napoleon's Pyramids (Dietrich) An adventure mystery of the style of the Da Vinci Code or National Treasure. I loved it!
Nov 8 The Rosetta Key (Dietrich) The conclusion to the book above.
Nov 14 The Last Duel (Jager) A well-known duel, the last one fought as a judicial judgment on a criminal suit, is developed from the characters (who knew each other and were originally friends) before, during, and after the alleged crime. You may draw your own conclusions.
Nov 19 The Swarm (Card & Johnston) First book in the Second Formic War series. Boy, was I discouraged to find the remainder is yet to be written!
Nov 28 Moving Mars (Bear) I managed to buy this twice during the year, by accident. I only read it once, though. It was...ok.
Nov 29 The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (Cameron) Harking back down memory's vaults - I read this when I was about 10, and when I discovered it online, I pounced at the chance to read it again!
Dec 6 Children of Earth and Sky (Kay) I loved this story, which was extracted from real life.
Dec 22 King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court (Headlee) Written as a response to and something of a parody of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". Morgan le Fay flings herself forward in time but misses the Connecticut Yankee's period, and instead buys a baseball team in England.
Dec 28 Galactic Empire Wars: Destruction (Weil) I liked this a lot. Now to acquire the later books in the series...
Dec 29 13.8 (Gribben) If the number makes you shrug your shoulders - it's the age of the Universe, in billions of years. Gribben details the century-long effort to pin down that number.
Dec 31 Defending Your Castle (Gurstelle) Gustelle is apparently a DIY guru. Here, he gives you plans on building all the appurtenances to keep rampaging Tatars and Mongols out of your house! Amusing, even if you have no intention of using your table saw.
My goal was 52 books.
I read 62. I pronounce 2016 a good year!
