Books Read 2006 (vol. 2)
Explore a curated list of books read in 2006 (vol. 2) featuring top titles and reviews. Discover literary gems and must-read recommendations from this year's collection.
Item Not Found
ID: 0843953292
(Type: books)
Book
The Cobra Event
by Richard Preston
“One of those books you literally can’t put down . . . makes The Hot Zone virus—far away in a rainforest—look like no big deal.”—Detroit Free Press Five days ago, a homeless man on a subway platform died in agony as startled commuters looked on. Yesterday, a teenager started having violent, uncontrollable spasms in art class. Within minutes, she too was dead. Dr. Alice Austen is a medical pathologist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. What she knows is that the two deaths are connected. What she fears is that they are only the beginning. . . . “Manages to grab you with the authenticity of its scientific detective work and haunt you with its sheer plausibility.”—Entertainment Weekly
Book
The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien
One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as "a work of fiction," defying the conscientious reader's need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. Yet each one of the twenty-two short pieces is written with such care, emotional content, and prosaic precision that it could stand on its own. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves. With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's most controversial war. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately The Things They Carried and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.
Book
Goliath
by Steve Alten
The world is threatened by Goliath, a mysterious, high-tech nuclear submarine that is virtually undetectable underwater and is powered by a bio-chemical computer brain capable of learning and developing its own agenda for all humankind.
Item Not Found
ID: 0425185176
(Type: books)
Book
Move Under Ground
by Nick Mamatas
"Those who appreciate sophisticated, progressive horror and fantasy fiction should eat [Move Under Ground] up."—Publishers Weekly The year is nineteen-sixty-something, and after endless millennia of watery sleep, the stars are finally right. Old R’lyeh rises out of the Pacific, ready to cast its damned shadow over the primitive human world. The first to see its peaks: an alcoholic, paranoid, and frightened Jack Kerouac, who had been drinking off a nervous breakdown up in Big Sur. Now Jack must get back on the road to find Neal Cassady, the holy fool whose rambling letters hint of a world brought to its knees in worship of the Elder God Cthulhu. Move Under Ground is a horror novel mashup that combines the Beat style of Jack Kerouac with the cosmic horror of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
Item Not Found
ID: 0843952571
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0380729709
(Type: books)
Book
The Phantom Tollbooth
by Norton Juster
With almost 5 million copies sold 60 years after its original publication, generations of readers have now journeyed with Milo to the Lands Beyond in this beloved classic. Enriched by Jules Feiffer’s splendid illustrations, the wit, wisdom, and wordplay of Norton Juster’s offbeat fantasy are as beguiling as ever. “Comes up bright and new every time I read it . . . it will continue to charm and delight for a very long time yet. And teach us some wisdom, too.” --Phillip Pullman For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason. Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams!
Item Not Found
ID: 0142500771
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0803726228
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0836218833
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 1417642122
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0060255005
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0740756745
(Type: books)
Book
A History of Violence
by John Wagner
A graphic suspense novel about a man who kills a couple of wanted murderers, and is later hounded by the mob.
Item Not Found
ID: 078601539X
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0671693220
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0836218256
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0836220625
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0836220854
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0930193350
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0930193881
(Type: books)
Book
Black Order
by James Rollins
Painter Crowe, Commander Gray Pierce, and the other members of Sigma Force enter into an uneasy alliance with an old enemy to unravel a baffling scientific mystery, the secret of which is locked within cryptic runes.
Item Not Found
ID: 0451219147
(Type: books)