Wow, am I behind on rating books. I have a list 12 tomes long, and I think there may be a book or two that I forgot to write down on my little Post-It. I’ll try to be brief with this dirty dozen.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein: The book itself told me that it’s one of the most important sci-fi books ever written, so I figured I should read it. It started out really well, and I thought it was headed for a rating of 8 or better. Then … it got weird. And religious. And while I think the religious content was actually meant to be read as some sort of anti-religion, it still made me cringe. So first half good, back half weird, overall 7 out of 10.

Songmaster by Orson Scott Card: It’s almost as if Card was trying to recapture the magic of Ender’s Game — this book is also about a young boy with rare talents learning rare skills, and his voyages into the big bad universe. Good, but not groundbreaking like Ender. 7 out of 10.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith: This was the first book I’ve read in the new rewritten classics/classic characters genre. And this one, as opposed to stuff like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, isn’t just a classic novel with alterations; it’s a well-researched history of Lincoln with a fictional overlay. Despite the actual history and biography, it’s light and fun and a nice fast read. 7 out of 10.

Sidney Sheldon’s Mistress of the Game by Tilly Bagshawe: I’ve read a good number of Sidney Sheldon novels; some of them have permanent places on my bookshelves. They’re all a combination of sex, violence, drama, mystery, and leading ladies with tons of moxie. It appears that Tilly Bagshawe has studied her Sheldon well, and crafted a decent sequel to Sheldon’s 1982 Master of the Game (which is one of the paperbacks in my collection). It’s just as cheesy and tawdry as a real Sheldon novel, which I appreciate. 7 out of 10.

Sidney Sheldon’s After the Darkness by Tilly Bagshawe: This second Bagshawe/Sheldon book isn’t a sequel to any preivous Sidney Sheldon work. It appears that his name is attached only because Bagshawe is again writing in the Sheldon style. She also grabbed plot points galore from other Sheldon works, and cobbled them together in this new book. Still, it has the money, mystery, and moxie of an actual Sheldon book, and I actually didn’t see the surprise twist coming. 7 out of 10.

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens: This was an easier read than another atheist tome, Can We Be Good Without God (because that book got incredibly repetitive — basically “yes” over and over, with details). But it was still frustrating in its way, probably because I didn’t need any convincing regarding the premise. Still, this book included a lot of religious history and interesting facts. 7 out of 10.

Halfway there, and everything’s earned a 7 so far. That’s so weird! Good books, but not great books.

Under the Dome by Stephen King: This book was HUGE. Almost 4 pounds, over 1100 pages. I didn’t want to read it in bed (too easy to give myself a drowsy concussion) or lug it to and from work with me, so I tackled it over a weekend. And it was another great King book, with a classic King premise: a large, isolated group full of good people and evil people, and the way that the good figure out what the evil are up to … all while a mysterious something is happening. My problem is that King needs more editing. Just because you’re Steve King doesn’t mean you are exempt from editing out the dull parts. There were times reading it that I couldn’t believe that only three book-days had passed; surely they must be weeks in by now! 7 out of 10.

Blameless by Gail Carriger: This is the third book in the “Parasol Protectorate” series, with all books set in a steampunky Victorian London populated with werewolves and vampires. The first book, I enjoyed. The second felt like a lot of filler, and contained one of my most-hated romance tropes. This one brought the leads back together and answered some questions, but a lot of it felt like setup for the fourth book. I’ll read number four as well, but I’d recommend others stop after #1. 6 out of 10.

Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs: I’ve never seen the TV show Bones. But I figured I’d check out the first of the Temperance Brennan novels, since there are a bajillion of them. And while the TV Brennan is apparently young and lovely, the book version is a middle-aged divorcée who may work with the police force, but doesn’t appear to have any police-related common sense. I finished the book to find out whodunit, but I never need to read another of these books. Blah, humdrum. 4 out of 10.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: I don’t know how I missed these books before. I heard about the series when the third book, Mockingjay, was about to come out. And boy howdy am I glad I found them! I mean, this first book is a young adult sci-fi novel set in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future … with a game show to the death. How could it not rock? And rock it did. Characters, plot, pacing — I loved it all. 10 out of 10.

Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk: Really, if you’ve read one of his books, you’ve read them all. Quirky and vaguely unpleasant people do quirky and vaguely unpleasant things in a book written in a quirky and vaguely unpleasant style. 6 out of 10.

The Fire by Katherine Neville: This book is a sequel to The Eight, a copy of which is part of my permanent paperback collection. Aside from the common trope of sequel-about-child-of-original-leads, it was decent. Not as great as The Eight, but full of fun nonetheless. Neville’s style of telling the main modern-day story interspersed with a related historical story is always interesting. 7 out of 10.

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