Final thoughts on 2019 reading list. I stumbled on Blair Braverman's twitter feed and she writes great stories about mushing. Her autobiography was pretty good. I read a lot of Scalzi - I discovered him in 2018 with Red Shirts and ate up almost all of his work in 2019. I was also into the show The Expanse and read all those novels. Having begun reading in 2018 again in earnest this was my top year for reading in a long time. I originally only expected to read 10-12 books. I more than doubled my goal.

Top 5 for 2019:

1: Children of Time - new and interesting book - humans have pretty much extincted themselves and left some type of gene-enhancing tech on a planet of spiders.

2: Agent to the Stars - a fun romp in LA with a hamfisted attempt at first contact by a really ugly alient species

3: Kraken - Mieville is one of my all time favorite authors - writes novels that stick into my brain goo and I am always sort of thinking about them

4: What If - XKCD wrote a book with drawings and jokes and it was interesting! I even know some people who had their questions answered in it.

5: Lock in/Head On - is it a series if it's only 2 books? An interesting concept with a buddy cop sort of feel.

Some vague disappointments - hyperion was a hard read. the sequel was even worse. It's considered high sci fi and I just couldn't get through it. Same with my trouble with Dune in 2018. Mortal Engines had a cool concept but the characters were flat and unlikeable.

Expanse series was good - very heady and the show follows the novels pretty well. I got a kick out of The Churn - a novella but it was the only one of the companion novellas that interested me enough to read them.

January

1. Welcome to the Goddamn Icecube - Blair Braverman

February

2. Lock In - John Scalzi.

3. Head On - John Scalzi

March

4. The Android's Dream - John Scalzi

5. Leviathan Wakes (Expanse book 1) - James S A Corey

April

6. Caliban's War (the Expanse Book 2) - James S. A. Corey

May

7. Abaddon's Gate (Expanse Book 3)  - James S A Corey

8. Cibola Burn (Expanse Book 4) - James S. A. Corey

June

9. Nemesis Games (Expanse Book 5) - James S A Corey

July

10. Babylon's Ashes (Expanse Book 6) - James S A Corey

11. Persepolis Rising (Expanse Book 7) - James S A Corey

August

12. Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse Book 8) - James S A Corey

13. The Churn (Expanse Novella) - James S A Corey

September

nada

October

14. Mortal Engines - Philip Reeve

15. Predator's Gold - Philip Reeve

16. Infernal Devices - Philip Reeve

17. A Darkling Plain - Philip Reeve

November

18. Kraken by China Mieville

19. Hyperion by Dan Simmons

20. Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

December

21. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

22. The Last Dance (The Near-Earth Mysteries Book 1) by Martin L Shoemaker

23. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

24. What If by Randall Munroe

25. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky