2009 Book List Part 2

Here are the audiobooks I listened to in 2009:

The Sword of Truth Book 10: Phantom
The Sword of Truth Book 11: Confessor
Pontoon (Lake Wobegon Novels)
Service With a Smile (A Blandings story) - PG Wodehouse
"A" is for Alibi
"B" is for Burglar
"C" is for Corpse
"D" is for Deadbeat
"E" is for Evidence
"F" is for Fugitive
"G" is for Gumshoe
"H" is for Homicide
Anansi Boys
Catch Me If You Can
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Anglo Files - A Field Guide to the British
Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution
Wikipedia Revolution, The: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia
The Monkey's Raincoat
Three Cups of Tea - One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations... One School at a Time
Calendar Quest, A 5,000 Year Trek through Western History with Father Time
Orbit

I'll remember this year as the year I discovered non-fiction on audio disc.
After several years of long-format fantasy, [The Wheel of Time (well worth a listen), the Magic Kingdom of Landover (a classic comedy fantasy series) and The Sword of Truth (some interesting ideas but there were long parts of books 6 and on that I was bored stiff during)] I wanted a change. I dabbled in thriller/mysteries - the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series, The Monkey's Raincoat and also in Sci Fi - Orbit, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but for some reason the non-fiction portions of my library's web page kept calling me, and I'm glad I answered.

Non-fiction Highlights for the year:
Patriot Pirates about the war at sea during the American Revolution
The Wikipedia Revolution about the founding of Wikipedia
Three Cups of Tea, the story of a mountain climber and how he created a foundation to build girl's schools in Afghanistan and Iraq.
XXX XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX - the audio book I finished today so I won't talk about it until next year's round-up

Fiction highlight of the year:
Anansi Boys a book by Neil Gaiman, read by Lenny Henry of Chef

2009 Book List Part 1

So last Jan 1st, 2008 I decided to keep track of all the books I read or listened to using my LibraryThing profile. You can see the 2008 list here.

The big news this year on my reading situation was the arrival of my Kindle DX in June.

Books I have finished in 2009:
Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep Book 1: Blackstaff Tower
Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep Book 2: Mistshore
The Citadels Book 4: Sentinelspire
The Dark Disciple Book 3: Amber and Blood
Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons
Adventurer's Vault
The Empryean Odyssey Book 2: The Fractured Sky
Small Gods [library]
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, Vol. 1 [library]
Opening Atlantis [library]
Dragon Magic
The Immortal Iron Fist, Vol. 1: The Last Iron Fist Story [library]
Abolethic Sovereignty Book 1: Plague of Spells
The United States of Atlantis [library]
The Lanternlight Files Book 1: The Left Hand of Death
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 3 [library]
Ravenloft: Shadowborn
The Haunted Lands Book 3: Unholy
Thorn of Breland Book 01: The Queen of Stone
Martial Power
Cairo, A Graphic Novel [library]
The Complete Persepolis [library]
Flight Volume 5 [library]
The Savage Sword Of Conan, Vol. 5
Kong, King of Skull Island
The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island
Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead
Dungeon Delve
The Making of Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Monsters Revisited
Grantsville Gazette II
1634: The Ram Rebellion
Ruled Britannia
The Wilds Book 01: The Fanged Crown
Red Sands
Player's Handbook 2
The Little Nugget
Book: The Sequel
Bill The Conqueror
Money In The Bank
***June 15th Kindle DX arrived***
The Adventures of Sally [Kindle]
1632 [Kindle]
1633 [Kindle]
The Ring of Fire [Kindle]
Grantsville Gazette I [Kindle]
The Clicking of Cuthbert [Kindle]
For Love of Mother-Not [Kindle]
Pride and Prejudice [Kindle]
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now With Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem[Kindle]
A Princess of Mars [Kindle]
The Gods of Mars [Kindle]
The Warlord of Mars [Kindle]
Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom [Kindle]
Thuvia, Maid of Mars [Kindle]
The Chessmen of Mars [Kindle]
Eberron Player's Guide
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [Kindle]
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe [Kindle]
Life, the Universe and Everything [Kindle]
The Briar King [Kindle]
The Charnel Prince [Kindle]
The Blood Knight [Kindle]
Monster Manual 2
The Lost Symbol [Kindle]
Divine Power
The Savage Sword Of Conan, Vol. 6
Revenge of the Giants
The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1) [Kindle]
Thorn of Breland Book 2: Son of Khyber
Wheel of Time Book 12: The Gathering Storm
Barmy In Wonderland
The Draconic Prophecies Book 1: Storm Dragon
The Draconic Prophecies Book 2: Dragon Forge
City of Ember
The Fall of Highwatch
Urusei Yatsura Volumes 1-15
Arcane Power
Eberron Campaign Guide
The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos
James Cameron's Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora - An Activist Survival Guide - finished Dec 31st.

Just like last year, a lot of fantasy, D&D books and graphic novels.
But new this year were some classics - Jane Austin, more Sci Fi - Alan Dean Foster, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Douglas Adams, and some mainstream fiction - Dan Brown, James Patterson, JK Rowling.

This year's new to me PG Wodehouse's novel was "Barmy In Wonderland".

Highlights for the year were "Book: The Sequel", "Pride and Prejudice", "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", and "The Gathering Storm" - Book 12 in the Wheel of Time and the first published since Robert Jordan's death which Brandon Sanderson helped finish.

Most Disappointing goes to Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" which is very similar to the other books and since it takes place in Washington DC and deals with the Free Masons felt an awful lot like the novelization of the movie "National Treasure 3".

Looking at the list today I noticed I have stopped going to the library since June. I can check out audio books through my library website and I have a NetFlix subscription so I'm not going for movies or TV shows. Since Amazon offers 10-15 free books every month for download to the Kindle I am getting eBooks faster than I can read them.

My 2009 audio book list tomorrow!

So long 2009...

What? 2010 already? It can't be.
It seems like only a year or two ago we were running around Rockwell testing each PC and marking it with either a Green Y2K compliant sticker or a Red Non-Y2k compliant one. (As a side notes it's scary but some of those PCs are still in use on the manufacturing floor 10 years later!)
And then on New Year's Eve 1999 we were watching the massive fireworks from around the world, starting in Sydney, then Tokyo, and so forth to welcome in the new millennium (a year early). I remember rushing home to see the Paris and then the London displays, and the rows of fireworks running up the reflecting pools in Washington DC.

I guess I've been a little lazy about updating here but here's a dozen blog posts I never actually posted but meant to:

1) My Kindle DX review (amazing piece of equipment I love it!)
2) My Kindle Cover from Oberon Design review (even prettier in person!)
3) The Kindle DX screensaver Author Challenge (Try to read at least one book by each author who's picture is part of the screen saver. Of the 15 authors I had read 7 before getting the Kindle, and finished one since - Jane Austin, and started another - Alexander Dumas)

4) my reviews of the 3 free books I got from the Early Reviewers program at LibraryThing:
Dance in a Buffalo Skull
Dragon Forge
Any Given Doomsday

5) NetFlix and how I love discovering new TV shows (Castle, Big Band Theory, Leverage, Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures, Heroes, Chuck) or revisiting old ones (To the Manor Born, The Grand, Flambards, Brideshead Revisited, The Good Life/Good Neighbors, Keen Eddie)

6) Monty Python For the First Time (One of the guys I work with told me he has never seen Monty Python. None of the TV shows or movies! So I took the TV show DVDs in to work and we are watching them at lunch. It's fun watching him encounter the dead parrot, Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern -schplenden -schlitter -crasscrenbon -fried -digger -dangle -dungle -burstein -von -knacker -thrasher -apple -banger -horowitz -ticolensic -grander -knotty -spelltinkle -grandlich -grumblemeyer -spelterwasser -kürstlich -himbleeisen -bahnwagen -gutenabend -bitte -eine -nürnburger -bratwustle -gerspurten -mit -zweimache -luber -hundsfut -gumberaber -shönendanker -kalbsfleisch -mittler -raucher von Hautkopft of Ulm, the Nudge-Nudge Wink-Wink Guy and the animation of Terry Gilliam for the first time.)

7) Return To Marching Band (I played in the South Milwaukee Heritage Days parade)

8) Return To The DM's chair (I had so much fun running the Free D&D days sponsored by Wizards of the Coast that I started a 4th Edition campaign with 4 of my friends. We're meeting roughly every other Saturday.)
(On another side note today Dec 31st, 2009 is the 32nd Anniversary of the first time I ran D&D. Peter Nelson got the basic set for Christmas 1977 from his uncle and I read and ran it at our family's yearly New Year's Eve get together.)

9) Return of the Owls (they are back in the neighborhood, I heard two of them in the woods hooting at each other while I shoveled snow for the first time this season.)

10) Root Canals Are No Fun (I really don't recommend them)

11) TurkeyCon 2009 (Our annual board game event the day after Thanksgiving, attendance down a little from last year but a good time was had by all)

12) The summer cats - this I feel the worst about, I don't have pictures of all of the foster kittens from this summer and I'm sure I've forgotten some of their names.
Rosamund (who is still with us)
The Great American Composers - Cole, George, Irving, Vivian and Jerome
The UK Counties - Stafford, Claire, Cornwall, Devon and Kent
The Tea Babies - Darjeeling & Jasmine (both adopted Dec 20), Oolong and Rooibos who died before they could be adopted and the two unnamed ones who died before we got them from the barn
Arwen from the same barn who only lasted a week and Brambles who lasted barely 4 hours
Ovaltine (adopted Dec 20th)
Frodo Baggins who was adopted but then returned and we kept him (Michelle scooped me on this story)

Domo Arigato, Mr. Scott-o

The Office
One of very few TV series that we still watch (on www.nbc.com).

We fell in love with the British version when it was broadcast on BBC America and think the US version is one of the few who has successfully made the transfer over, unlike Coupling or Fawlty Towers.

Season 5 comes out on DVD Sept 8th and Season 6 starts on September 17th!

To hold you over here's a tribute video to the old Styx song:

Crayola Doesn't Make A Color For Your Eyes

So I was listening to A Prarie Home Companion last week and this song totally got stuck in my head!
The singer plays patty-cake as a percussion line while she is singing.

Crayola Doesn't Make A Color For Your Eyes by Kristin Andreassen & Megan Downes



Crayola Doesn't Make A Color For Your Eyes, with Danny Knicely on a spectacular whistle solo!
Sunspot Concert Series at the Lyceum in Alexandria, VA, 06Jan07.



This is the version from A Prarie Home Companion that someone put behind a still picture of the singer, it's a little easier to understand the words on this video.

American Overture for Band

Here's another video from the Shorewood Concert Band's 2009 Fourth of July Concert.

Joseph Willcox Jenkins began composing short pieces while in elementary school. American Overture for Band was composed in 1955 while Jenkins served on the arranging staff of the United States Army Field Band and he dedicated the work to their conductor, Colonel Chester E. Whiting. Reminiscing about the piece, his first for band, Jenkins states, “I wanted to write something for our magnificent horn section, because I was tired of them having to play off-beats. That was the inspiration for the piece. I have to admit that I was also inspired somewhat by the last movement of the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra. I heard it on a Boston Symphony Orchestra broadcast as a teenager and it really impressed me. Some of the themes in American Overture remind me of that piece.”

SCB Goes To The Circus!

The fourth and final concert of the Shorewood Concert Band's 2009 season is coming this Thursday July 16th at 7 pm in Atwater Park.

Our salute to the Great American Circus will be filled with the sounds of circus bands and music about the circus including:

Entry of the Gladiators - Julius Fucik
The Billboard - John N. Klohr
William Tell Overture (Finale) - G. Rossini
Circus Bee - Henry Fillmore
Send in the Clowns - Stephen Sondheim
E Pluribus Unum - Fred Jewell
Lassus Trombone - Henry Fillmore
The Show Boy - Will Huff
The Walking Frog - Karl L. King
Bravura - C.E. Duble
The Big Circus March - Robert E. Foster
Barnum & Bailey’s Favorite Karl L. King

In honor of Lincoln's 200th birthday and the 100th Anniversary of the Lincoln Penny we are holding a penny drive to support the Shorewood Band Parents organization so please dig deep into the cushions of your couches, clean out your car’s coin holder and bring them to the concert!

Here's a number from our Fourth of July concert, Herman "Dodo" Hupfeld's 1931 novelty hit "When Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba"