First book of 2026 finished, Red Rabbit. A fun read, but I felt it was missing something.

Finished "Changes" last night. That book always wrecks me

First of the year: Revenge of the Tipping Point - Gladwell

Kingdoms of Death (Suneater Book 4)

JoCoAg09 said:

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First of the year: Revenge of the Tipping Point - Gladwell

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I enjoyed that one. A lot of insights into the oxycontin epidemic.

Made a deal with m'lady that she'd read Project Hail Mary (she loved it) if I read one of her books, and she gave me Crescent City. Which was 800+ pages. Finally finished and onto something else.

Thinking about The Cartel Trilogy. Can anyone recommend it?

Finished Brian Kilmeade book: Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers

It was an excellent read and learned a lot more about the founding of Texas.

Dead wake by Erik Larson done. 3/3 of his so far being so impressive. You really get a feel for the times .

Hope to average three to four books a month this year.

January
1) A Team For America: The Army-Navy Game That Rallied a Nation at War by Randy Roberts (B) An interesting look into collegiate football and West Point during WW2.

Next up: Dune Messiah. This will be a revisit because of the Villeneuve film to be released later this year. While I've read Dune a number of times over the years I've only read the other books of the series once and only through God Emperor of Dune.

I was similar with regard to Dune. I stopped at Dune Messiah after first reading it because I thought it sucked, particularly when compared against the original novel. But I just re-read Dune Messiah for the same reason that you indicated (the movie), and that one landed far differently for me this time around. It was actually quite a good story that I figure I just didn't get back in the 80s. Now I am proceeding with the series, about 150 pages into Children of Dune.

Thanks for this recommendation. The book I had started wasn't really holding my focus, so this one is now my current read. So far it is pretty good, and a nice switch from sci-fi.

Started it at the end of last year, but just finished The Silmarillion

lurker76 said:

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Thanks for this recommendation. The book I had started wasn't really holding my focus, so this one is now my current read. So far it is pretty good, and a nice switch from sci-fi.

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All of Kilmeade's books are interesting reads and gives you several items to read more if you want. I read my first Bret Baeir's last year & found his book also to be a good read & well researched.

Backyard Gator said:

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JoCoAg09 said:

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First of the year: Revenge of the Tipping Point - Gladwell

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I enjoyed that one. A lot of insights into the oxytocin epidemic.

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Yeah, I enjoy most of his stuff. You just have to take the conclusions/correlations he makes with a large grain of salt.

JoCoAg09 said:

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Backyard Gator said:

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JoCoAg09 said:

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First of the year: Revenge of the Tipping Point - Gladwell

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I enjoyed that one. A lot of insights into the oxytocin epidemic.

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Yeah, I enjoy most of his stuff. You just have to take the conclusions/correlations he makes with a large grain of salt.

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Freaking AI autocorrect.

If he was an oxytocin epidemic, I think we'd all be happier.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

This may be a long shot, but I believe I remember reading on a previous thread a huge recommendation from numerous people about a post-nuclear war book. I have been attempting to TexAgs search, Google search, etc. with no luck. After reading through random post-apocalyptic / post-nuclear war reading lists, maybe the book I am looking for is Aftermath? Does that one curry favor on this board?

Hobbes01 said:

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This may be a long shot, but I believe I remember reading on a previous thread a huge recommendation from numerous people about a post-nuclear war book. I have been attempting to TexAgs search, Google search, etc. with no luck. After reading through random post-apocalyptic / post-nuclear war reading lists, maybe the book I am looking for is Aftermath? Does that one curry favor on this board?

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Its called Nuclear War:A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. Its a fictional analysis of what would happen if a nuclear was was to arise with North Korea.

Probably not the book you're looking for, Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank is a very good post atomic war book. Even though it was written in 1959, it holds up well considering how different life is today. I first read it about 1979 and have reread it several times.

lurker76 said:

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Probably not the book you're looking for, Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank is a very good post atomic war book. Even though it was written in 1959, it holds up well considering how different life is today. I first read it about 1979 and have reread it several times.

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This was a favorite of mine in my younger years. I also loved On the Beach, which made a huge impact on my perspective of the nuclear threat era considering I am in the post-cold war age range. They're similar in topic, but at the same time complete opposites in tone from what i remember. I need to pull them both out, as I haven't read either in 20-30 years now.

lurker76 said:

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Probably not the book you're looking for, Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank is a very good post atomic war book. Even though it was written in 1959, it holds up well considering how different life is today. I first read it about 1979 and have reread it several times.

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Alas, Babylon made me want to hoard salt and learn how to distill moonshine in case the apocalypse happened.

Thanks! I will look into this one.

"They never learn" by Layne Fargo. Feminist Rage. Serial Killer. Academia setting.

Frankenstein. Thought it was fine.

Target: Beirut

• The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror

By Jack Carr

Predictably sad. Frustrating because the recurring theme since the dawn of time that accompany such tragedies.
A really good read/listen.

13B said:

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Target: Beirut

• The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror

By Jack Carr

Predictably sad. Frustrating because the recurring theme since the dawn of time that accompany such tragedies.
A really good read/listen.

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I read that last year I reported to Fort Sill about a month after the bombing occurred. The Drill Sergeant reminded us that the soldiers lost came from Fort Sill because they were operating the AN/TPQ-36 RADAR system. Jack Carr is an excellent writer!

Just finished The Will Of The Many by James Islington. Good book. Still like Red Rising series better, but this was better than most. Hear book 2 is not as strong, but will read it in anticipation of book 3 and its potential. Definitely was a surprise read (and liked it much better than the Sword of Kaigen.

SOTF is so different from a narrative standpoint that it's really not apples to oranges so much as it's apples to potatoes to what the author did in the 1st.

So much so that if a person liked WOTM primarily because of reasons A, C, and D, they're not going to enjoy the follow-up as much because those reasons are either on the back burner or completely missing.

I started the year off in full nerd mode. I finished "The Legend of Drizz't: The Crystal Shard". This is the first book in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons and Dragons series of 34 books about an Elf named Drizz't. It was published in 1988. If you read it, you probably read it before you were legal to drink.

I haven't had that much fun reading a book in a long time. Orcs, goblins, dragons, barbarians, magic, wizards, swords, adventures, two epic battles between good and evil, and a happy ending leading into the "next great adventure"..... and it was all done in a quick 334 pages. There is a lot about Drizz't and this series all over the internet. It's a big part of the D&D culture. I haven't rolled dice since the 10th grade, and even then it was only a few times, but this book works very well with no knowledge or appreciation of the game.

I'm now pivoting to "The Uncool" which is Cameron Crowe's autobiography, but I'm pretty fired up about the next book in the Drizz't series after that.

I've read probably the first 25 of the Drizzt books. Some of my favorites too, but the original Icewind Dale trilogy is some of the best fantasy out there!