Top Books First Read in 2018

[Dead & Messed Up]

Pulling over books from 2017 I didn't finish...

Fiction

1. Coldheart Canyon (partial) (Clive Barker, 2001)
2. Mr. B. Gone (Clive Barker, 2001)

Non-Fiction

1. On Tyranny (partial) (Timothy Snyder, 2017)
2. Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth (Mark Hertzgaard, 2012)
3. The Great Courses: Hinduism (Mark W. Muesse, 2003)
4. The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person (Harold S. Kushner, 2012)

Theater

1. Waiting for Godot (partial) (Samuel Becket, 1953)

Comic Books

1. Gyo (Junji Ito, 2001-2002)

[Dead & Messed Up]

Finished On Tyranny (very good), started and finished Deathtrap by Ira Levin, which was also very good, if a bit precious at times with its meta-winking. It'd be really fun to see the play performed.

Fiction

1. Coldheart Canyon (partial) (Clive Barker, 2001)
2. Mr. B. Gone (Clive Barker, 2001)

Non-Fiction

1. On Tyranny (Timothy Snyder, 2017)
2. Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth (Mark Hertzgaard, 2012)
3. The Great Courses: Hinduism (Mark W. Muesse, 2003)
4. The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person (Harold S. Kushner, 2012)

Theater

1. Deathtrap (Ira Levin, 1978)
2. Waiting for Godot (partial) (Samuel Becket, 1953)

Comic Books

1. Gyo (Junji Ito, 2001-2002)

[D_Davis]

4. The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person (Harold S. Kushner, 2012)

How was this?

[Dead & Messed Up]

How was this?

Fairly strong. It didn't illuminate a new value of Job's story so much as wrestle with the implications in the same way I think most people of faith do, but the author does his academic diligence by digging into the translation variance of key passages and unpacking the likely multiple authors. He also seriously considers possible sacrileges like God not being all-powerful. I respected that, even if he ultimately comes to the conclusions you might expect.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Fiction

1. Coldheart Canyon (partial) (Clive Barker, 2001)
2. The Children of Men (partial) (PD James, 1992)
3. Mr. B. Gone (Clive Barker, 2001)

Non-Fiction

1. On Tyranny (Timothy Snyder, 2017)
2. This Changes Everything (partial) (Naomi Klein, 2014)
3. Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth (Mark Hertzgaard, 2012)
4. The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person (Harold S. Kushner, 2012)
5. The Great Courses: Hinduism (Mark W. Muesse, 2003)

Theater

1. Waiting for Godot (partial) (Samuel Becket, 1953)
2. Deathtrap (Ira Levin, 1978)

Comic Books

1. Gyo (Junji Ito, 2001-2002)

[Dead & Messed Up]

Finished the Naomi Klein book. The Great Courses book on Islam is pretty thin soup right now, seems a lot more interested in course-correcting perceptions of Islam (which is fair, given it was produced less than two years after the WTC attack when panic over Islam would've been at a high).

Fiction

1. Coldheart Canyon (partial) (Clive Barker, 2001)
2. The Children of Men (partial) (PD James, 1992)
3. Mr. B. Gone (Clive Barker, 2001)

Non-Fiction

1. On Tyranny (Timothy Snyder, 2017)
2. This Changes Everything (Naomi Klein, 2014)
3. Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth (Mark Hertzgaard, 2012)
4. The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person (Harold S. Kushner, 2012)
5. The Great Courses: Hinduism (Mark W. Muesse, 2003)
6. The Great Courses: Islam (John Esposito, 2003)

Theater

1. Waiting for Godot (partial) (Samuel Becket, 1953)
2. Deathtrap (Ira Levin, 1978)

Comic Books

1. Gyo (Junji Ito, 2001-2002)