per alejna’s request, i’m listing my top books… don’t know how many i’ll get to, but i’ll give it a go. i’m not using any particular criteria, just what comes to mind. and no particular order, either.

1. chapterhouse: dune. i was originally going to put down the whole dune series, but decided to pick one. i still have my copy of chapterhouse from high school. i think i like it because it’s almost entirely female-oriented; darwi odrade is one of my favorite protagonists from herbert’s pantheon. i haven’t read brian herbert’s sequel (wikipedia tells me it’s hunters of dune), but given how awful i found his first foray into the duniverse, i don’t think i’m missing much.

2. one monster after another. hands down, my favorite children’s book. my favorite children’s book author, mercer mayer. i still have my original copy (first printing, i think – it’s identical to this one available on ebay).

[aside: as i was searching for a non-amazon link to one monster after another, i came across a site called, "uppity girls and fearless women: a picture book bibliography." alejna, you may want to check it out.]

3. pretty much any of barbara hambly’s vampire, windrose, darwath, and winterlands novels. the darwath trilogy – now numbering five, in an oddly douglas adams-esque fashion – is my favorite of the bunch, but they are all variations on a theme: strong women, useful (if somewhat befuddled) men. the winterlands novels get a bit convoluted, and i think the earlier books are better than the later ones, but the idea of turning into a dragon still appeals to me.

4. and the band played on. randy shilts. much better than his followup book, conduct unbecoming. i read it in high school after it was first published, and have re-read it several times since then. i’m always fascinated; the identification of gaetan dugas particularly appeals to the MPH still lurking within me.

5. the control of communicable diseases in man. years ago, when i felt sick, i would scour this book trying to match my symptoms with diseases. did i have rocky mounted spotted fever? yellow fever? smallpox? the book now has a slightly different name; the particular edition that is near to my heart has the cholera flag design cover.

[aside: i'm noticing that i read all the books so far pre-1989. did i not read anything compelling after high school? i doubt that's the case. let's see if i can come up with five later books.]

6. biohazard, by ken alibek. i read this when i was in my bioterrorism phase, about six years ago. fascinating reading, if you like that sort of thing. (it was a reach to come up with this book – the next on my list was going to be the medical detectives, but i read it in – you guessed it – highschool. again, early warning signs of a future MPH.)

7. archy and mehitabel. don marquis. this, too, predates college, but i’m including it because it was first published in 1927. it was gifted to me by my dad; you know you really rate in my book if i give you a copy of the same edition. dad’s favorite poem from the book is freddy the rat perishes (he takes on a tarantula after eating some rat poison; his line is “i m more full of death than a drug store”), and mom’s is mehitabel and her kittens, which reads in part,

of course if i were a family cat
they would probably
be drowned anyhow
sometimes i think
the kinder thing would be
for me to carry the
sweet little things
over to the river
and drop them in myself
but a mother s love archy
is so unreasonable
something always prevents me

i’ve always had my suspicions about my mother.

8. thurgood marshall: american revolutionary. this isn’t really one of my favorite books, but i’m reaching because i’m trying to come up with something published recently. of the SCOTUS-related reading for pleasure i’ve done, this one is my favorite so far. juan williams’ style is accessible; marshall is a total cad. and a remarkable strategist. i still haven’t finished justice for all: earl warren and the nation he made, which is a much longer, denser read, but so far it’s also very good.

[aside: i just noticed that none of my favorite graphic novelist's "real" novels are listed.  while quite good, i guess they just didn't grab me.  as an honorable mention i'll include death: the high cost of living, which i notice is due to start filming this year.]

9.   earth, by david brin.  not nearly as fast-paced or exotic as most of his other books, this one takes place on a near-future earth.  global warming has melted the ice caps, radically changing the coastlines; secrecy has been abolished; the internet and gaia are merging.  it was published in 1990, and i didn’t read it until ‘93-’94 or thereabouts.  my copy is dogeared, to say the least.  i also think it’s falling apart.

10. the joy of cooking, or as some call it, “rombauer becker.”  the original version.  need to know how to skin a squirrel? this book has it.  want to corn your own beef?  it’s in here.  i have a paperback copy of the original version, which i bought in college when i needed a recipe for stuffed roasted chicken, and the “updated” 1997 version – vastly inferior, IMO – in hardback.   more proof that there’s a blog for everything: here, someone is trying to cook his or her way through the 1997 edition.  wow.

well, i got through 10 books before losing steam.  jeff, what’re your favorite books?  james?  randy?  maarten?  bueller?  bueller?  anyone?

[query to self: why are the vast majority of my blog links to guys?  is it that more guys blog than gals?  or that i have more male friends than female?  or is there some other explanation?]