WereOwl-In-Wisconsin

Books I finished reading in September and October.

September:

54- The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle

Long ago, King Haggard sent his Red Bull to capture all the unicorns and drive them into the sea. Now Schmendrick the Magician and Molly Grue must help the last unicorn find the others and set them free once more. This is the first book I can ever remember finishing, and then starting again the very next day.

55- The Vinland Sagas

The story of Leif Eirikson's discovery of North America, and the subsequent expeditions of the Greenlanders.

October:

56- Saints and Sinners - Peter Geniesse

Politicians, priests, and everyday people who shaped - and were shaped by - events in the Third World.

57- Moving Pictures - Terry Pratchett

Movies have finally been invented in Discworld, and the hub of the new Moving Pictures industry is a stretch of sandy beach called Holy Wood. But student wizard-turned-actor Victor Tugelbend discovers something sinister beneath Holy Wood... the movies are about to tear a hole in reality.

58- Green Bay Murders & Mayhem - Timothy Friess

Wild tales from Green Bay's distant (and not too distant) past. A serial killer plays a few pre-season games with the Packers. John Jacob Astor digs up the city's oldest graveyard to make room for a construction project. A murderer burns his landlord alive in a furnace. The John Dillinger gang robs a bank. A manager at a paper mill is found dead in one of the pulp vats.

59- Fox Cities Murder and Mayhem - Gavin Schmitt

Shocking and gruesome tales of murder in Neenah, Menasha, Appleton, and Kaukauna around the turn of the century.

60- E.R. Nurses - James Patterson and Matt Eversman

Emergency room nurses from around the country tell their stories.

61- Animorphs #33: The illusion - K.A. Applegate

The bad news: The Yeerks have completed their anti-morphing ray, and are eager to test it out. The Animorphs can't risk letting the Yeerks find out that any of them are human. The good news: since Tobias's default body is a hawk, the anti-morphing ray won't work on him. So if he lets himself get captured, and the Yeerks test the anti-morphing ray on him, they'll think it doesn't work at all. The ugly news: getting captured was the easy part. Escaping is another problem entirely.

62- War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells

THE classic sci-fi tale of alien invasion.

63- Animorphs #43: The Test - K.A. Applegate

Taylor, the Yeerk Controller who tortured Tobias when the anti-morphing device failed, is back, claiming to have changed sides. And she wants the Andalite bandits to help with a project that might force the Yeerks into surrendering. It's too good of an opportunity to pass up. But how can the Animorphs be sure they're not walking into a trap?

This summer has been a bit chaotic at times. But, I did finally achieve my goal of 52 books for the year. Now my goal is to read 100.

MAY

31 - Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall

A look at how politics is influenced by geography. Ten chapters focused on Russia, China, Western Europe, Africa, the United States, South America, Korea and Japan, India and Afghanistan, the Middle East, and the Arctic.

32 - Bloodbath Nation - Paul Auster and Spencer Ostrander

A recent history of gun violence in the United States.

33 - The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science and Reality - Chris Mooney

Using psychology to try to understand the way Republicans think.

34 - Dragons at War: Land Battle in the Desert - Daniel Bolger

The National Training Center at Fort Irwin hosts a unique training environment: the OpFor Regiment simulates a Soviet motor rifle regiment for visiting US Army battalions to fight in mock battles deep in the California desert. It's similar to Star Trek's "Kobayashi Maru" test, except that it's possible to win (it's incredibly difficult, but possible).

JUNE

35 - Pyramids - Pterry Pratchett

Pteppic has just inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi*. Pteppic quickly discovers that the only decision he's actually allowed to make is how large of a pyramid to build for his late father's tomb. So he orders the biggest pyramid ever... so big, in fact, that it warps reality and rotates all the dimensions by 90 degrees. It's up to Pteppic, Ptraci the handmaiden, an army of mummies, and a camel called "You Bastard"** to figure out how to unscramble this mess.

*150 miles long, one mile wide, and all the best real estate is occupied by pyramids

**who just happens to be the greatest mathematician in the world

36 - Animorphs: The Invasion (Graphix #1) - Chris Grine

Jake and his friends take a shortcut through the abandoned construction site just in time to see a UFO land. A dying alien tells them that Earth is under attack, and gives them the power to turn into animals. Then things start to get weird.

37 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie

A boy on the Spokane reservation realizes that his only chance at a life that won't be defined by abject poverty is to leave the reservation, and starts going to high school in a town 20 miles away - where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

38 - Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future - Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum

A look at how public interest in science began to decline during the Reagan years, and how things got even worse through the early 2000s.

39 - Animorphs: The Visitor (Graphix #2) - Chris Grine

After the disaster at the Yeerk Pool, the Animorphs look for a new strategy and decide to spy on the highest-ranking Controller they know - their school principal.

40 - Animorphs: Visser - K.A. Applegate

Visser Three has scored a major victory over his main rival: Visser One is on trial for incompetence. Her only hope of survival is to tell the truth about how she found Earth and laid the foundation for the Yeerk invasion. Problem is, the truth only makes her look more guilty. What results is a sordid tale of obsession, addiction, and raw ambition. Also, it turns out that the Yeerks arrived on Earth the same day I was born (give or take 48 hours).

41 - When The World Ended at the Little Bighorn - Joseph M. Marshall III

A history of the Lakota people and their culture, through the lens of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

JULY

42 - Pirates, Crooks, and Killers: The Dark Side of The Great Lakes - Frederick Stonehouse

True stories of crime on the Great lakes, from Mormon pirates off the coast of Michigan, to bootleggers smuggling booze over from Canada, to murders and kidnappings, and even some cases of insurance fraud and wartime sabotage.

43 - Steel on the Bottom - Frederick Stonehouse

The Great Lakes can be dangerous, and nobody knows for sure how many ships have been claimed by the water. These are just a few of the stories of lost ships. Also, there was some kind of serious printing error: a lot of the photographs were missing, and large blocks of text were offset and printed into the wrong chapters.

44 - A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There - Aldo Leopold

Short scenes of life on a small farm in central Wisconsin, reflections on how all parts of nature are connected, and the outlines of Aldo Leopold's conservation ethic.

45 - Lake Monsters of Wisconsin - Chad Lewis

I don't know how many lakes we have here in Wisconsin, but it's a rare one that doesn't have at least one story about a monster swimming in the depths. The only strange part is that most of them seem to live in the southern half of the state.

46 - Fly By Wire - William Langewiesche

A moment-by-moment breakdown of the Miracle on the Hudson demonstrates how fly-by-wire technology makes air travel safer.

47 - Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis

Elwin Ransom is kidnapped by mad scientists and taken to the planet Malacandra, where he escapes and meets the local species - and learns that Earth is at the center of a great spiritual battle between Good and Evil.

AUGUST

48 - Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett

A dragon has been seen flying around Ankh-Morpork* and causing mayhem. The good news is that the City Watch are on the case. Meanwhile, the Librarian of Unseen University is enraged to discover that a book has been stolen: "The Summoning Dragons".

*A city of a hundred thousand souls. Total population of nearly one million.

**Who's been disqualified from the human race for shoving.

49 - Eric* - Terry Pratchett

When last we saw our intrepid hero Rincewind, he was actually doing some intrepid heroism for once, and stayed behind in the Demon Realm to allow his friends to escape. Now, he's finally been able to escape after being summoned by the young demonologist Faust... er, sorry, I mean Eric. Eric wants Rincewind** to grant three wishes: to be supreme ruler of the world, to meet the most beautiful woman who ever lived, and to live forever. All three wishes are granted, and promptly backfire in hilarious fashion. Meanwhile, a power struggle is going in in Hell, and Rincewind has a part to play in it.

*Unfortunately, this is not the illustrated edition

**whom he thinks is a demon

50 - Strange & Unusual Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes - Wayne Louis Kadar

More stories about shipwrecks and maritime disasters. My favorite was the one about a grain hauler that ran aground in shallow water and lay abandoned long enough for the soaked grain to ferment... and then a massive flock of ducks gobbles it up and get drunk when a salvage crew decides to dump the cargo.

51 - When the White Pine was King - Jerry Apps

The history of the logging industry in Wisconsin, how Big Lumber preceded Big Oil in the fight against environmentalism, and how the Northwoods began to return.

52 - Invasion: the Inside Story of Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight For Survival - Luke Harding

A summary of the first six months of the war in Ukraine.

53 - Star Wars: Tales of the New Republic

A collection of short stories set in the years after the fall of the Empire. Much to my surprise, the Sith Inquisitors have actually been around since the late 90s.

Still on my quest to read 52 books (one per week) by the end of the year. And at the rate I'm going - more than halfway there already - I'm going to meet that goal a few months ahead of schedule.

March

17) The Last Temptation of Christ - Nikos Kazantzakis

A carpenter from Nazareth is plagued by temptations as Satan tries to prevent him from accomplishing God's will.

Banned Books Awareness: Both the Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches have pushed for bans of this book, and everything else the author ever wrote.

18) The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman

Sequel to "The Golden Compass". Lord Asriel has succeeded in opening a portal into another world. Citigazze is a nightmare world, haunted by Spectres who are invisible to children, but devour the souls of adults. The only thing that can stop them is Aesaheattr, the Subtle Knife.

Banned Book Awareness: Has incurred the wrath of numerous Christian organizations.

19) Sourcery - Terry Pratchett

The eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son is destined to become a Sourceror - a living source of magic. And he is the greatest threat to the Discworld's continued existence. Once again, it's up to the inept wizzard* Rincewind to save the world, along with The Luggage, Conina the Hairdresser** and Nijel the Destroyer***

*Rincewind misspelled the word, not me.

**daughter of Rincewind's previous ally, Cohen the Barbarian

***the only Hero to use the battle cry "Um, excuse me?"

20) A Death in Door County - Annelise Ryan

Two men have been found dead on the shores of Lake Michigan, with mysterious bite marks on their bodies. Are they just the latest victims of the treacherous waters that have claimed hundreds of ships and lives through the centuries, or is a murderous lake monster on the loose? A local cryptozoologist is hired to investigate, aided by a couple of amateur sleuths and a very large dog. It's Scooby-Doo for adults, but done right.

I actually drove up to Door County halfway through reading the book to see some of the locations in person.

21) The Falklands Naval Campaign 1982: War in the South Atlantic - Edward Hampshire

When Argentina seizes the remote Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas, the British Empire strikes back, and a naval campaign is waged in one of the most remote parts of the globe.

22) Alive! - Loren D. Estleman

The long-lost footage of Bela Lugosi's audition for the lead role in "Frankenstein" has been stolen. The thief, a one-time Hollywood celebrity whose fame has faded away, is found murdered in a bar in San Diego, but the lost reel of tape is nowhere to be found. UCLA film archivist Valentino races to find the lost footage and solve the murder, with assistance from a young Steampunk enthusiast.

23) The Sea Hunters: True Adventures With Famous Shipwrecks - Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo

The exploits of an eccentric writer and a team of volunteers as they search for famous shipwrecks, and occasionally feud with the French navy.

24) The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

16-year-old Starr Carter is the sole witness to her friend Khalil's unprovoked murder at the hands of the police. When the event gains national attention, Starr tries to find the courage to speak publicly about what she saw, in the face of a media narrative that seizes every opportunity to justify the police killing another unarmed Black boy.

This book is 'fiction' only in the sense that none of the characters are actual living people.

Banned Book Awareness: Protested by a South Carolina police union for 'promoting distrust of the police', which is totally missing the point. Also banned from multiple school districts for 'explicit language', which is a petty excuse to ignore the book's message.

25) The Murder of King Tut - James Patterson and Martin Dugarde

A dramatized account of the pharaoh Tutankhamen's life and possible murder, and of a cantankerous artist's decades-long search for a tomb untouched by grave robbers in the Valley of the Kings.

April

26) Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul - Michael Fanone and John Shiffman

Michael Fanone chronicles his 20-year career in the DC Metropolitan Police, the violent attempt to overthrow American democracy on January 6, 2021 (during which he was seized by the mob and assaulted with his own taser), and his fight against the Republican sycophants who tried to gaslight us into forgetting what happened.

27) Night Probe! - Clive Cussler

Dirk Pitt and his NUMA team are sent to recover long-lost copies of a secret document from a shipwreck in the St. Lawrence River and from a train that fell into the Hudson River on the same day in 1914. Problem is, they only have a few days to find the documents. And Quebecois separatists really don't want them to succeed. Neither does the British government. One of the wildest plots I've ever come across outside of fanfiction.

28) Death Stalks Door County - Patricia Skalka

People are dying suspiciously around Peninsula State Park. A former Chicago cop turned park ranger investigates, and in the process learns how to move on from the death of his wife and daughter.

29) Shattered Trident - Larry Bond

A secret war has broken out in the South China Sea. Submarines from The Littoral Alliance are sinking Chinese oil tankers, while China prepares to seize the Spratly Islands. An American submarine squadron is sent in to spoil attacks from both sides in the hopes of bringing them back to the negotiating table.

30) Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett

Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick get dragged into local politics when the King of Lancre dies of natural causes*. They'd really rather not get involved, but the land is not happy with the new king and forces them to do something. And when I say "the land", I mean the whole collection of animals, trees, rocks, dirt, and weather. Turns out countries have hive minds.

*The natural cause in this case being assassination. Perfectly normal way for kings to die.

Bonus Round

I'd consider it cheating to include a short children's picture book in my reading stats. Plus I didn't "read" so much as watch a read-aloud on YouTube, complete with pictures. But I really wanted to mention it anyway...

?) And Tango Makes Three - Peter Parnell, Justin Richardson, and Henry Cole (illustrator)

A very wholesome, innocent, and completely true story about two boy penguins named Roy and Silo at the Central Park Zoo who fall in love, adopt an egg, and raise a baby penguin named Tango.

Banned Book Awareness: Banned from multiple school districts for portraying a gay couple.

My one and only New Years resolution this year was to try and read 52 books by midnight on December 31st - an average of one book per week. I also decided to try and read through the Discworld novels in order of publication.

Here's where I'm at for the first two months:

January

1) The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett

The wizzard* Rincewind is hired to guide the Discworld's first tourist, Twoflower, to all the most interesting places in the world. After spreading chaos everywhere they go, they fall over the Edge of the World.

*That's not a typo, Rincewind is just bad at spelling**.

**That is to say, he can't actually do any magic. Also, his sense of grammar is a bit shaky.

2) Wind, Sand, and Stars - Antoine de Saint Exupery

Stories from a French airmail pilot about the early days of aviation: flying over the west coast of Africa, battling windstorms over the Andes, getting hopelessly lost in the night sky, and surviving after a crash landing deep in the Sahara.

3) The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett

Rincewind, Twoflower, and The Luggage* have just fallen off the Edge of the World. The good news is that reality adjusts itself to make sure they land safely back on the Disc. The bad news is that the world is going to end in a few months, unless Rincewind can use the only magic spell he actually knows to avert catastrophe.

*The Luggage is a treasure chest made of Sapient Pearwood and follows its owner everywhere. It's also a homicidal maniac that will eat people alive without a second thought.

4) Dune - Frank Herbert

10,000 years in the future, the planet Arakkis is the only source of the Spice that allows Navigators to bend time and space around them to enable interstellar travel. House Atreides and House Harkonnen battle for control of the most valuable planet in the universe.

5) Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett

A dying wizard bequeaths his magic powers to the newborn 8th* son of an 8th son, unaware that the "son" in question is actually a girl. After trying and failing to train young Eskarine as a witch, Granny Weatherwax agrees to help her find a way into Unseen University to become the Discworld's first female wizard.

*The number between 7 and 9 is extremely magical and keeps showing up everywhere you look.

6) Gender Queer: A Memoir - Maia Kobabe

The illustrated autobiography of a non-binary cartoonist who uses e/eir/em pronouns.

7) Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction - Damien Keown

Biography of the Buddha, The Four Noble Truths, The Eightfold Path, reincarnation, enlightenment, assorted states of consciousness, and meditation.

8) The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Santiago makes his way across the desert to find the Great Pyramids, find buried treasure, and discover his own Personal Legend.

February

9) The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman

All across London, children have been disappearing. When Lyra's friends are taken by the mysterious Gobblers, she sets out on a mission to find them - a mission that leads up into the Arctic. Along the way, she is helped by the Gyptian boat people, a clan of Lapland witches, an aeronaut from Texas, and Iorek the armored polar bear. She also comes into possession of the alethiometer, a mysterious golden compass that uses Dust to find the truth.

10) The Defense of Duffer's Drift - E.D. Swinton

Lt. Backsight Forethought has a series of dreams where he commands a company of soldiers in the Boer War, tasked with defending a river crossing. In each dream, he makes mistakes and fails his mission, but lessons from his failures carry over to the next dream until he finds a creative way to use the terrain to his advantage - and prevents the Boers from crossing.

11) The da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

When the curator of the Louvre is murdered, he leaves behind a series of clues pointing the way to the resting place of the Holy Grail. Secret societies and ancient conspiracies.

12) Star Wars: The Lando Calrissian Adventures - L. Neil Smith

Three novels in one volume: The Mindharp of Shaaru; The Flamewind of Oseon; and The Starcave of ThonBoka. Lando Calrissian and his robot companion Vuffi Raa encounter the ruins of alien civilizations, elaborate conspiracies, space whales, play high-stakes games of Sabaac, and incur the wrath of Rokur Gepta the Tund Sorceror. From a time when Star Wars was somewhat more fantasy than sci-fi.

13) Mort - Terry Pratchett

Meet the members of Death's* household: there's Albert the butler, lousy cook and powerful wizard; Ysabell, Death's adopted daughter, lately obsessed with tragic heroines from cheap romance novels; Binky, the Pale Horse, who doesn't fly so much as walk on ground level of his own choosing; And Mort, Death's new apprentice, who is about to let emotions cloud his judgement and consequently rip a hole in the fabric of reality.

*Death himself finds humans to be endlessly fascinating creatures. With all the amazing sights in the known universe, they still managed to invent boredom.

14) In the Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg: The 6th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade and its Famous Charge - Lance J. Herdegen and Willian J.K. Beaudot

As the Union Army's right flank crumbles at Gettysburg, Lt. Colonel Rufus Dawes leads his outnumbered regiment in a bold attack against the flank of the Mississippi Brigade.

15) Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly About Racism in America - George Yancy

An op-ed in the "New York Times" gets some extremely vitriolic reactions from racists who didn't like being called out.

16) MARINE! The Life of Chesty Puller - Burke Davis

Chesty Puller (the only Marine ever to win five Navy Crosses) fought through Haiti, Nicaragua, Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Incheon, and the Chosin Reservoir.

Bonus Round:

I actually don't remember if I finished this one in December or January, so I won't count it for books read this year. But it's one I've spent several years searching for.

?) The Third World War: August 1985 - General Sir John Hackett

The Soviet Union attacks Western Europe. In a matter of days, they've broken through as far as Holland. Fighter jets burn up the skies over Germany, Norway, and England. Submarine wofpacks try to destroy convoys bringing NATO reinforcements. Even outer space has become a battlefield. Meanwhile, proxy wars in southern Africa and the Middle East are also raging.

Now available to read at FanFiction.Net: The Extraneous Part 1: The Intrusion Chapter 1: The Long Prologue, an animorphs fanfic | FanFiction. I've been working on this off and on since November 2021, but didn't have enough of the first story written down to bother posting until just after Christmas. "The Extraneous" incorporates elements from both the original books, and from the campy TV series that ran on Nickelodeon. There's a few canon characters who will appear sooner than in the books, a few with expanded roles, and a couple of original characters. I've tried to make it accessible for readers who aren't already familiar with the source material, especially since the plot starts to diverge from canon material early on.

Actually, the OCs are the reason I've been writing this story at all. Back in November 2021, I'd been spending a lot of time going through the Animorphs wiki, trying to find out what I could about the books I hadn't read as a kid (basically the entire second half of the series, apart from the final book). And sometime in the middle of that archive binge, a character popped into my head, more or less complete. I hadn't consciously decided to do this - Lee just came into being on their own, and I realized I wouldn't be able to rest until I'd written a story around them.