Just Read 2009 - Windows Live

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Magnificent works of effort & imagination reduced to snarky observations by yours truly


	Pattern Recognition: A Novel Author: William Gibson ISBN: 140255690X	Reads like a lo-tech Neuromancer, which spurred many (me!) into IT. The concepts used here are all too close to modern understanding to be thrilling, a problem underscored by Case's "special ability", which is used to gloss over the flimsiness of the tech.

	Cell Author: Stephen King ISBN: 1419385380	Campbell Scott reads (to a satisfyingly scary effect) Cell, a story about an apocalypse caused by signals propagated through cell phones that turn regular people into violent psychopaths. Excellent, gory, and scary.

	The Man with the Iron Heart Author: Harry Turtledove ISBN: 0345504348	"What If" about a successful post-WWII German insurgency led by Heinrich Heydrich. Success == destroying US political will for cold-war occupation. LOVED IT! Needs a sequel :)

	The Ruins (Vintage) Author: Scott Smith ISBN: 0307389715	I didn't hate it, but it was pretty lame. Relies on the most versatile, magical bad guy ever; lengthy, gory descriptions of wounds and jungle surgery, and some really unlikely jungle sex to keep things moving. Movie = AWFUL, btw.

	Black House: A Novel Author: Peter Straub & Stephen King	Continuing adventures of Travellin' Jack as an adult. Have to assume the parts of the novel that saved it were Straub's contributions and not King's: the tie-in with The Dark Tower was dumb, but at least it was pretty seemless.

	The Talisman Author: Stephen King & Peter Straub	Another sci-fantasy from the Great One. Feels like it's dragging pretty badly at first, but it really tightens up in the 2nd and 3rd acts. Great finish where everything goes off the rails in a good way.

	The Five Love Languages for Singles Author: Gary Chapman	This book prompted some serious introspection into the way I love others and the things other people can do to make me feel loved. Minus the idiotic religious messages, it's really great personality info for all kinds of couples. Short, so read it twice ;)

	Haunted: A Novel Author: Chuck Palahniuk ISBN: 1400032822	A collection of fantastic and disturbing short stories wrapped in a fantastic and disturbing concept. Repulsive and fascinating at the same time. The meta-story weaves together wildly varrying themes to amazing effect.

	Information Technology Project Management, Reprint (with Microsoft Project 2007) Author: Kathy Schwalbe ISBN: 0324665210	Alternates between extremely helpful and ridiculously boring. Better-than-average text book, but I can't imagine piling through this to study for the PMP exam. Thppppppt!