| The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 940 pages Steve Gadd 29 December 1997 | Tandia by Bryce Courtenay, 905 pages Mike Gadd 15 February 2002 |
The Bachman Books by Stephen King, 923 pages Jeff Gadd 20 December 2002 4 stories from Stephen King in his early years in high school and college. All pretty good. Rage, The Long Walk,Roadwork,and The Running Man. Not as creepy as his later books. |
Middlemarch by George Eliot, 952 pages Kristin Schrock 07 March 2004 At last! "A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards." Thank you, George Eliot. Also, for Abennett, Effigy Count=1. |
Professional VB.NET 2nd Edition by Et al, 985 pages Steven Krise 05 April 2004 "This book explains the underlying philosophy and design of the .NET framework and Common Language Runtime, and details the differences between Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET." At least the title isn't all acronyms. Note to Ms Bennett, one of the dozen authors was a women. I'm working on it. |
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, 903 pages James Donahue 28 June 2004 Eliot's last work is a paeon to religious tradition and religious identity while examining Jewish life in Britain, an odd endpoint for the well-known evangelical-cum-liberal. Daniel, Ezra, etc. all fulfill their nomic and Semitics destinies while the WASPish Gwendolyn (Valley girl) and Grandcourt (Cheny-esque Republican) pursue decadence and self-absorption. Guess which wins out in the end? |
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, 918 pages Steven Krise 13 December 2004 "How do you know they're Germans? Maybe it's Otto." "The engines sound like diesels. Huns love diesels." |
The Beatles : The Biography by Bob Spitz, 992 pages Brad Snyder 26 March 2006 Any true fan of rock 'n' roll must acknowledge the influence and legend of the Beatles--the band that was turned down by every record label at the time, and then recorded at first only as an audition. Sometimes, though, it's best to leave legends alone. This book, while mostly interesting, is very depressing. It's all here, from the mundane Lennon family history, through the ultimate drug-, financial-, and ego-induced decline. Unfortunately, there is no redemption in this story. The individual members were never able tap into the greatness they enjoyed as a group, leaving us with Paul's Wings, John's forays into the avante-garde, George's collaborations as a back-up artist, and Ringo playing the role of "Mr. Conductor" on Thomas the Tank Engine. |
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, 928 pages Steve Gadd 29 July 2006 With its epic sweep and extensive quotes from the characters involved, this sweeping history is not only fascinating for the technical details but also for the human drama. Side stories added color: the sabotage of a Norwegian heavy water plant, the parallel research into atomic secrets in Germany, Russia, and Japan, and the clash of personalities on the Manhattan Project. Fittingly awarded with the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. |
Database Programming with Visual Basic .NET, Second Edition by Carsten Thomsen, 959 pages Steven Krise 04 September 2006 What Would Jesus Code? |
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 940 pages Steve Gadd 08 December 2006 |
The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 940 pages James Donahue 31 December 2006 Thanks to Steve for reviving my interest in an old Christmas habit from college! |
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, 916 pages Steve Gadd 27 March 2007 Not one to coast on the success of his early work, Stephenson weighs in with a handwritten tome set in seventeenth-century Europe. Newton, Leibniz and other historical personages are minor characters, along with ancestors of various fictional characters from Cryptonomicon. While there is plenty of interesting material, one starts to feel that the novel itself is like the enciphered letters it quotes at length, in which five lines of text are required to convey one line of content. |
Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy, 990 pages Steven Krise 05 September 2007 |
The Brother’s Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 912 pages Jonathan Misirian 17 December 2007 One of my perennial favorites by FD. Every year at the advent of the first frost, I pick up a Dostoyevsky novel. I had wanted to read The Brothers last year, but the parallels to my life, were too striking (3 brothers –one in ministry, one in business –and the other in law enforcement- a recently deceased father, and wounds too fresh), and so prevented me from completing this masterpiece. |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) by J. K. Rowling, 945 pages James Donahue 22 March 2008 |