| 1. The Seventh Sacrament - David Hewson - Archeology professor gone bad. Mithrasism, caves under Rome, Italy. Lots of blood and guts. |
| 2. Rising Fire - John Calderazzo - Story of authors travels to volcanoes around the world trying to understand them. He is a professor at Colorado State University Fort Collins. |
| 3. Parallel Universes - Fred Alan Wolf - Discussion of parallel universes and their implications. |
| 4. Masters of Time - John Boslough - Problems with big bang theory and why and how we are further from a theory of everything today then we were in the 1980's. |
| 5. The God Gene - Dean Hamer - Story of the search for a genetic cause of spiritualism. This book was very good, interesting and well written. Author's research found a link between spiritualism and a set of genes that control brain chemistry. |
| 6. Parallel Worlds - Michio Kaku - Explanation of current thoughts on parallel worlds, string theory, black holes, multiverse. Very well written with good explanations of most concepts. |
| 7. Building Harlequin's Moon - Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper - Sci Fi story about humans leaving Earth for the first time and getting detoured because of a malfunction. They go about building a small moon into a temporary living location while they build factories to produce anti -matter for leaving the moon and heading to their original location. The story is all about humans called Moon Born that were born on the moon and their struggles with the Council and Earth Born for equality. Good story. |
| 8. The Varieties of Scientific Experience, "A personnal view of the search for God" - Carl Sagan - A book of lectures that Carl Sagan did that talked about the relationship between science and religion. He made some good points about what "GOD" might be and the possibility of contacting an alien civilization. Lots of the topics he brought up in these talks later made it into his novel Contact. Not a bad read but there are a lot of words and no so much content. |
| 9. The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov 1972 - Sci Fi book about people on earth finding a energy source that is provided by beings in another universe. The beings exchange Tungsten 186 with Plutonium 186 allowing the production of energy on both sides. Earth now has unlimited free energy as do the aliens. The trouble is that the strong nuclear force is being exchanged as well so the Earth's Sun is heating up and the aliens Sun is cooling down causing big problems for both. This book was recommended by Michio Kaku in his sci fact book Parallel Worlds as based on science fact. It is a good story that explains the story from both sides. A quick read but worth it. |
| 10. Agents of Chaos - Stephen L. Harris - A book about earthquakes, volcanoes and other disasters. This book is the first time I heard the theory that comet or meteorites might be the cause of both the Hawaiian and the Yellowstone hot spots. According to the theory presented in this book. The earth was damaged by large impacts from space to the point that the earth bleed large amounts of lava to repair the damage. The damage went all of the way to the mantle and so caused the hot spots. Interesting theory providing an explanation of why these hot spots exists. |
| 11. Volcanoes - Mourice Krafft - A little book filled with historical pictures of volcanoes and their impacts on old societies. An amazing collections of art works having to do with volcanoes. Mourice Krafft and his wife were killed while watching a Japanese volcano erupt. |
| 12. The Universe, the Eleventh Dimension, and Everything, What We Know and How We Know It. - Richard Morris - Another book about physics. The author trys to explain things we know that probably won't change vs. all of the other physics theories that are way out there and will possibly never be experimentally verified. He talked a lot of Albert Einstein and how he was sure his theories special and general relativity were correct because their elegance demanded it. He also talks about Stephen Hawkings theory of imaginary time which the author doesn't think is valid and will probably never be able to be experimentally verified. The author insists that current theories in physics are so far ahead of experiments and getting further ahead all of the time. He says in the past theories were based on things that could be measured and observed but are no longer. Not a bad book but not great either. |
| 13. Simple Genius - David Baldacci - Story of two ex fed private detectives that are called in to a scientific enclave to investigate a murder. Story gets real involved as this enclave is right next to the CIA's farm. Numerous people get murdered before the detectives figure out that a rogue CIA agent is smuggling drugs into the country via the farm. The drugs were bought from Afghan farmers to keep them off of the market and were meant to be destroyed but we instead being sold on the east coast. Part of the story has to do with a treasure that was hidden at the farm long ago. Codes had to be deciphered in order to find the treasure. The author used the Beale cipher as background info. This cipher also was used to encode documents that describe where a real treasure is hidden. The cipher consists of three pages where page 2 has been deciphered using the Declaration of Independence as the key. The other two pages have not yet be deciphered. This was a pretty good suspense book. |
| 14. Split Second - David Baldacci - A mystery about murders of two political candidates that happened 8 years apart but are really connected. Sean and Michelle are the main characters and were both responsible for the candidates that got killed. Disgraced, they had to leave their jobs in the Secret Service and attempt to solve these murders themselves. The plot is a bit convoluted and there are many characters to keep track of but all in all it was a good book. You don't find out who the bad guys are until the last 20 pages of the book. Sean and Michelle solve the crime and start their own private investigation firm. They are together again in the book above. |
| 15. Intelligent Java Applications - Mark Watson - Programming book having to do with various AI technologies including: expert systems, genetic programming, neural nets, etc. The author gives Java classes and example applications for each. I copied the code from the books CD to miscjava directory as I might want to use it sometime. |
| 16. Saving Faith - David Baldacci - A spy like thriller that pitted the director of the CIA against the FBI. The CIA director is a very bad man who is able to use CIA resources for his own motives; which includes killing a lot of people and FBI agents. The story is about Danny Buchanan a lobbyist who changes from a money hungry to working for the poor across the world. He lobbies/bribes senators to support his cause of world hunger with the promise of a good deal when they leave office. When Thornhill (the CIA director) gets wind of this he tries to blackmail/use Danny Buchanan for his own purposes all of which are illegal. The stories main characters are Faith Lockhart, the lobbyist assistant and Lee Adam a private eye hired by Buchanan to keep Faith safe. A somewhat twisted story but a good read. |
| 17. Buzz - The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine - Stephen Braun - The title just about says it all. This book's purpose is to expose some of the untruths surrounding these substances. It also points out that how alcohol and caffeine work in the body is still largely unknown but that people are studying it more all of the time. The idea that alcohol kills brain cells, for example, is untrue. He talks about how alcohol and caffeine are absorbed by the body, what causes hangovers, about caffeine withdrawals and such. It was interesting to read this book. |
| 18. The Collectors - David Baldacci - Two stories intertwined. In one, a gang of con artists rip off a wealthy but extremely dangerous casino owner for $40 million. The owner attempts to find the gang who ripped him off by hurting as many people as necessary to track them down. By the time the book ends he has only found one of the con artist but is closing in on the woman leader of the gang, Annabelle Conroy. In the other story a librarian at the Library of Congress is killed for an unknown reason what turns out to involve spys selling American secrets to the highest bidders. The link between the two stories is Annabelle who happens to be the x-wife of the Library of Congress librarian. Not my favorite David Baldacci book but not a bad read. |
| 19. Hour Game - David Baldacci - This book continues with the characters from Split Second, Sean and Michelle. This time their firm is hired to save a handy man from bogus burglary charges and they find themselves deputized in order to find a serial killer. Again this book has way too many characters most of which get them self killed before the story is over. Lots of action as is usual for this author. Sean and Michelle solve the case and bring the serial killer to justice. |
| 20. Christmas Train - David Baldacci - This book is about a train ride from the east coast through Colorado to LA. It is a story of a bunch of strangers who ride the train for companionship over the Christmas holiday. A famous film director name Max stages the whole trip (except for an avalanche in Colorado) to try and get to estranged lovers Ellie and Tom back together. It works. |
| 21. The Venetian Betrayal - Steve Berry - Plot centered around the legend of Alexander the great. Cotton Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt are the main characters but the Danish Henrik Thorvaldsen is involved as well. Zovastina has consolidated the former Russian eastern states into a Federation. She plan on using germ warfare to conquer Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan and expand her empire. Zovastina searches for clues as to the final resting place of Alexander the Great as she is planning her war. She fancies herself as his equal and one who will go down in history. Typical Steve Berry book that is hard to put down once you get into the story. |
| 22. Beyond Civilization - Daniel Quinn - New book detailing why civilization as we know it cannot last in its present form. He proposes that our current hierarchical approach which rewards few on the backs of many cannot continue. He says a society organized tribally is the only way to move forward. Where everyone has a job and everyone is equally rewarded for the work they do. This book was not as amazing as the Story of B but made me think none the less. |
| 23. High Druid of Shannara - Tanequil - Terry Brooks - This is book two in a trilogy. It is a story of a middle earth like land called the Four Lands with druids, elves, gnomes characters. It is a good story that moves right along with nice imagery. Since I didn't read the first book of the trilogy, Jarka Ruus I missed some of the history leading up to this story. The next book is Straken which I will definitely read. Basically the story is of the Ohmsford family and the struggle to free Grianne Ohmsford (Ard Rhys) from her incarceration in the Forbidding. The young son Penderrin (Pen) and his band of freeborn are tasked with this. This is a very political place with many of the characters scheming behind each other's backs. There are wars and epic journeys taking place in this many faceted story. |
| 24. High Druid of Shannara - Straken - Terry Brooks - The final book in this trilogy. As good as the previous one. Of course the good guys win out. Definitely worth the read. |
| 25. Invasive Procedures - Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston - A story of genetic engineering gone bad. George Galen is a brilliant scientist who goes a bit crazy and fancies himself a living prophet. On the surface he and his followers called Healers appear to be helping people with hopeless genetic diseases to be cured. What he is really doing is attempting to clone himself so that he can create healer societies in all of the worlds major citys which all answer to him. The stories hero is Frank Hartman who is a virologist working for the governments top secret bio hazard agency called the BHA. George Galen has himself killed and his internal organs transplanted into other host bodies (including Franks) and at the same time implants an electronic device that contains all of his memories and knowledge. When the electronics are triggered the host take on George's personality and persona. The story is a little far fetched but was fun to read. |
| 26. Empire - Orson Scott Card - A story of a revolution that takes place in the USA in modern times. The American Empire has grown too fast, and the fault lines at home are stressed to the breaking point. The war of words between Right and Left has collapsed into a shooting war, though most people just want to be left alone. The battle rages between the high-technology weapons on one side and militia foot soldiers on the other, devastating the cities and overrunning the countryside. But the vast majority, who only want the killing to stop and the nation to return to more peaceful days, have technology, weapons, and strategic geniuses of their own. It is a story of what happens when the American dream shatters into violence. Who can hold the people and the government together? And which side will you be on? Probably the most frightening thing about this book is the note at the end by the author that says this is going to happen for real the only question is when? |
| 27. Leadville: A Miner's Epic - Stepthen M. Voynick - A story of mining in the Leadville, Colorado area told from the miner's perspective. Voynick is a columnist for Rock and Gem Magazine who I read every month. He has an interesting perspective as he was once a hard rock miner himself. The book describes the geology of the "highest valley of the Arkansas" and how the minerals came to be there. It then goes on to talk about how gold and then silver were found and how the town of Leadville grew from a bunch of shacks to the town it is today. He talks a lot about the Climax mine and molybdenum that is found at the top of Fremont Pass between Copper Mountain and Leadville. He describes the ups and downs Leadville has gone through as a result of fluctuating market prices for the metals mined there. The book was published in 1984 so it doesn't have any of the recent Leadville history in it. In particular he talked about the cleanup effort that was just getting underway as Leadville tries to clean up its environment and transition from a mining only town to a tourist destination. Leadville has made great strides in the cleanup effort. All of the piles of slag that used to be in town have been removed, the Arkansas River headwaters have been cleaned up and many of the buildings and houses in Leadville have been renovated. An interesting book for me as Heather and I like visiting Leadville a lot. |
| 28. Weaver - Time Tapestry: 4 - Stephen Baxter. Other books in this series include Emperor, Conqueror and Navigator. This book is about an alternative history of World War II in which the Germans succeeded in their plans to invade Great Britain. They take over the south eastern region of GB and for about five years this portion of GB is occupied. The Germans strength starts to wane so they investigate techniques for sending information back to the past that may alter their present. Trying first to change the history of GB so that the Aryans are in command and later in a desperate effort they try to alter Columbus's voyage from going west to east so that the US never happens as the Americans are the ones that are causing Germany's war plans to fail. This book is based in fact as Hitler did have a plan for invasion of GB. Good character development in this book but the story wasn't that compelling. Don't know if I will read his other books. |
| 29. Stone Cold - David Baldacci - Another book dealing with corrupt leaders at the top of the CIA. Oliver Stone (John Carr) is an X government assassin who faked his own death and was living as a caretaker in a cemetery. When Annabelle (see the Collectors) was trying to escape from Jerry Bagger whom see conned out of 40 million dollars she became friends with Stone and his group of misfits. It turns out Stone's past is catching up with him while he is trying to help Annabelle. Stone finds out he killed a man by order of his superiors who was innocent. The man turns out to be a US agent who was sent to kill Andropov and Konstatin Chernenko so that the Soviet Union would elect Gorbachev to power who was much more moderate and pro-west. Turns out the leaders at the CIA came up with this on their own without government approval or knowledge. The CIA leaders then conspire to kill Stone and his cohorts to finally put the truth behind them. Stone put an end to their plans and their lives. |
| 30. Map of Bones - James Rollins - Another fictional thriller having to do with the Vatican, secret societies, ancient technology and treasure. This is an entertaining , fast paced story that was an OK read. It is very Dan Brownish but not quite as good. The story talks about M-State gold which appears to be a real thing that was rediscovered only recently. It is a state of gold that exists both as an inert powder (undetectable by modern analysis methods) and as a gold colored glass. The author gives M-State gold a bunch of special attributes but I have yet to investigate the truth of this myself. The story is about theft of Catholic relics (bones) that turn out to have been man made in antiquity with M-State gold. The church employs some rather illegal methods to try and get the relics back. The story starts in Rome and travels to Austria, Switerland and Germany and ends up in France. The protagenist is Grayson Pierce who works for a covert arm of the US defence department called Sigma. Him, Rachel, Vigor, Kat and Monk try to put a stop to the murder and mayham created by the Dragon Court society in their pursuit of the power of the M-State gold. James Rollins also wrote Subterranean which I enjoyed many years ago. |
| 31. Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark - Laurence Gardner - This was an interesting book in some respects. I read it to find out more about M-State gold that was used as a plot device in Map of Bones. The author goes into great detail in biblical arcarna to track the history of the Arc of the Covenant, how it got its power and its travels throughout recorded history. He postilates that the distructive power of the Arc was derived from M-State gold and he attempts to back up his claim using his interpretations of the Bible and other historical references. The author is well read to be sure but I don't know if I buy many of his assertions. He has written other books dealing with esoteric topics including Blood Lines of the Holy Grail that supposedly tracks the children of Jesus and Mary Magdelene from the holy land through France and Europe. |
| 32. Fuse of Armageddon - Sigmund Brouwer and Hank Hanrgraaff - A novel about a group of Christan extremest who try to incite a holy war between Muslims and the west. This was an interesting plot which points out the fact that America is always supporting Israel and allowing the Palestinian situation to fester. A group of people high up in the Mossaud and IDF plot to get a red cow on the temple mount in order to cleanse it so the Isrealese can gain control of the Dome of the Rock from the Muslims and build the third temple to hassen the return of Christ and the end of days. There are many different sub stories going on and one does not know who the bad guys are until the very end of the book. This was a well written story so I will probably pick up some of the other books by these authors. |