Anne Rice - #8

Now I'm going back a few years to the books of Anne Rice. I read 13 of her novels during the years 1994 to 2001 including the first 8 books of the Vampire Chronicles and the 3 books of the Mayfair Witches series. Eventually I lost interest and moved on to other novels.

The first novel I read was Interview With The Vampire in 1994. The novel was written in 1976 but the movie came out in 1994 so I guess that's what motivated to start reading her books.

Anne Rice novels I read:

• Interview With The Vampire, 1976 - Oct 1994
• The Vampire Lestat, 1985 - Nov 1994
• The Queen of the Damned. 1988 - Jan 1995
• The Tale of the Body Thief, 1992 - Jul 1995
• The Witching Hour, 1990 - Nov 1995
• Lasher, 1993 - Jan 1996
• Taltos, 1994 - Feb 1996
• Memnoch, The Devil, 1995 - Jun 1996
• Servant of the Bones, 1996 -  Jan 1997
• The Vampire Armand, 1998 -  Nov 1998
• Pandora, 1998 - Apr 2000
• Merrick, 2000 - Feb 2001
• Blood and Gold, 2001 -  Nov 2001

What's Going On - Protest Songs FV

What's Going On. Another soundtrack to illegal wars with protest songs from the 60's and 70's.

We can change the world starting with the demented diaper-clad orange warmonger draft-dodger in the white house he has been destroying along with our country.

What’s Going On - Protest Songs FV

1. What’s Gong On – Marvin Gaye, 1971
2. Ball of Confusion – The Temptations, 1970
3. Funky President (People It’s Bad) – James Brown, 1974
4. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott Heron, 1971
5. Fight The Power (Part 1 & 2) – The Isley Brothers, 1975
6. Living For The City – Stevie Wonder, 1973
7. War – Bob Marley & The Wailers, 1976
8. Vietnam – Jimmy Cliff, 1969
9. We Got To Have Peace – Curtis Mayfield, 1971
10. Freedom – Richie Havens, 1969
11. Bring On The Lucie (Freda People) – John Lennon, 1973
12. Chicago / We Can Change The World – Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1970
13. Hand Me Down World – The Guess Who, 1970
14. Monster / Suicide / America – Steppenwolf, 1969
15. Dialogue (Part I & II) – Chicago, 1972
16. Student Demonstration Time – The Beach Boys, 1970
17. I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die – Country Joe & The Fish, 1967
18. Peace Frog – The Doors, 1970
19. Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969
20. We Can Be Together – Jefferson Airplane, 1969

Masters Of War - Protest Songs FV

A reworking of my Protest Songs mixes starts with this one on the day the orange turd starts an illegal war with Iran.

Masters of War - Protest Songs FV

1. Masters of War – Bob Dylan, 1963
2. The Times They Are A-changin’ – Odetta, 1965
3. Blowin’ In The Wind – Peter, Paul & Mary, 1970
4. Tear Down The Walls – Martin & Neil, 1964
5. Peace Train – Cat Stevens, 1971
6. Eve Of Destruction – Barry McGuire, 1965
7. Something In The Air – Thunderclap Newman, 1969
8. For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield, 1967
9. Military Madness – Graham Nash, 1971
10. Kill For Peace – The Fugs, 1966
11. Give Peace A Chance – John Lennon & Yoko Ono, 1969
12. American Woman – The Guess Who, 1970
13. Someday (August 29, 1968) – Chicago, 1969
14. Volunteers – Jefferson Airplane, 1970
15. Living In The U.S.A. – Steve Miller Band, 1968
16. Signs – Five Man Electrical Band, 1970
17. Shape Of Things To Come – Max Frost & The Troopers, 1968
18. Trouble Every Day – The Mothers Of Invention, 1966
19. Revolution – The Beatles, 1968
20. I’d Love To Change The World – Ten Years After, 1971
21. Get Together – The Youngbloods, 1967
22. Why Can’t We Live Together – Timmy Thomas, 1972
23. Where Have All The Flowers Gone – Johnny Rivers, 1965
24. Reach Out Of The Darkness – Friend & Lover, 1968
25. Save The Country – Laura Nyro, 1969

Paul Auster - #7

I read 13 books by Paul Auster between 2005 and 2017. They were twelve novels and one memoir... Winter Journal. The first book I read in 2005 was Moon Palace and the last was 4 3 2 1 in 2017. I really enjoyed reading all his books and was sad when he passed away in 2024 at the age of 77. Looking back on him now I see there is one book that I missed and really should read. Invisible from 2009. I'm not sure how I missed that one.

Backyard Cabana Sitting

Today was the first time I was able to sit out in the backyard cabana all winter. The sun was out and it was quite pleasant back there watching the birds and squirrels do their thing. The temperature in the room was about 62 degrees but starting dropping around 4 pm. I went in there around 3. 

I spent some of the time removing the address labels on a pile of old New Yorkers we have piled up on the table. I'm going to put them in our neighborhood little library boxes. I'm sure there will be people who would appreciate some back issues of these magazines. Then I did some reading.

Last year I was back there many times during the winter especially in February. This year was just different and much colder and cloudier. Didn't have many opportunities to go out there when the room was warmed up.

John Banville - #6

John Banville, the Irish author who also published crime mystery novels under the name of Benjamin Black comes in at #6 on my list of most read authors at 13 books with number 14 coming up shortly. 

The first book I read by him was The Sea in 2012. I quickly followed that with a Benjamin Black novel in early 2013. I particularly liked his take on Philip Marlow in The Black-Eyed Blonde. The last book I read was The Drowned in December 2025. I have a hold on his latest novel with the NYPL so I'm looking forward to reading that one.

Although I've read 13 of his novels already there are still about 4 or 5 more books I would like to read.

John Banville / Benjamin Black novels I've read:

• The Sea, 2005 - Dec 2012
• Christine Falls, 2006 - Jan 2013
• The Infinities, 2009 - Jan 2013
• The Silver Swan, 2007 - Mar 2013
• Ancient Light, 2012 - Jul 2013
• The Black-Eyed Blonde, 2014- Jan 2016
• Wolf On A String, 2017 - Jul 2017
• Snow, 2020 - Oct 2021
• The Secret Guests, 2020 - Nov 2021
• The Untouchable,1997 - Feb 2023
• April In Spain, 2021 - Jul 2023
• The Lock-Up, 2023 - Apr 2025
• The Drowned, 2024 - Dec 2025

Cafe 59 w/ Val

Becky and I went out to dinner tonight with Val. We picked her up at her house and went over to Cafe 59 and had a delicious dinner as usual. Val had never been there before. 

I had their Harvest Wrap which is one of my favorite choices on their amazing menu. Becky had a Chicken Finger Sandwich. We both had potato wedges. Val had a shrimp risotto dinner. I also had a couple of draft pilsners from Community Beer Works.

We had a nice time with Val who seemed herself and didn't appear to have any issues. We went to the restaurant at 5:30 and were back home after dropping off Val at about 7:30. 

Neal Stephenson - #5

Neal Stephenson is #5 on my list of most read authors at 15 books. The last book I read was in 2021. He is one of my all-time favorite writers and I love all of his brilliant novels of speculative fiction. The first of his novels I read was Cryptonomicon in 2004 and then from there I read every book I could get. 

His novels that I've read...

• Cryptonomicon, 1999 - Oct 2004
• Quicksilver, 2003 - Jan 2005
• The Confusion, 2004 - Mar 2005
• The System of the World, 2004 - Oct 2005
• Anathem, 2008 - Nov 2008
• Reamde, 2011 - Jan 2012
• The Diamond Age, 1995 - Mar 2012
• The Mongoliad Book 1, 2012 - Jul 2013
• The Mongoliad Book 2, 2012 - Aug 2013
• The Mongoliad Book 3, 2013 - Oct 2013
• Seveneves, 2015 - Sep 2015
• Snow Crash, 1992 - Mar 2017
• The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., 2017 - Oct 2017
• Fall, or Dodge in Hell, 2019 - Nov 2019
• Termination Shock, 2021 - Jan 2022

Winter Reading - 1975-1976

These are some books I read during the winter of 1975-1976 based on my GoodReads app stats. These days I'm reading about a book a week and back then it was one a month.

At that time 50 years ago I was in my second year of college full time and working part time at the VA center. I had bought a house the house in early 74 and at the time was living with a bunch of guys going to school. I was also buying lots of albums and going to concerts regularly.

Most of my reading was classroom related but I did find some time for some pleasure reading.

• Dog Soldiers - Robert Stone, 1974 - Feb 76
• The Snow Walker - Farley Mowat, 1975 - Jan 76
• An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser, 1925 - Dec 75

Dog Soldiers was one of the many books about the Vietnam War that I would read over the years. I would also read a few books by the conservationist Farley Mowat. He was an amazing writer. I should read a few more of his books. The only other Dreiser book I've read is Sister Carrie.

John Sandford - #4

John Sandford is #4 on my list of most read authors currently at 18 novels and counting. I could easily read quite a few more. He's written a lot of books. The police procedure crime mystery novels in the Lucas Davenport series account for 17 of the 18 books I've read. He's been writing one a year in the series since the late 80's.

Before John Sandford became a New York Times Best Selling author he was a journalist who received a Pulitzer Prize for his work.

I started reading his books in 2019 and that year I read 11 books in the series. There are 35 books in that series with another one scheduled for publication this year. The last book of his I read was in May 2023. He has another 15 or so books in a couple of off-shoot series.

I've enjoyed all of his books that I've read and they have been page turners that I always finished in less than a week. I should get back into this series.

The John Sandford books I've read and when.

1. Rules of Prey,1989 - Feb 2019
2. Shadow Prey, 1990 - Feb 2019
3. Eyes of Prey, 1991 - Mar 2019
4. Silent Prey, 1992 - Apr 2019
5. Winter Prey, 1993 - Apr 2019
6. Night Prey, 1994 - May 2019
7. Mind Prey, 1995 - May 2019
8. Sudden Prey, 1996 - Jun 2019
9. Secret Prey, 1998 - Aug 2019
10. Certain Prey, 1999 - Oct 2019
11. Easy Prey, 2000 - Nov 2019
12. Chosen Prey, 2001 - Mar 2020
13. Mortal Prey, 2002 - Jun 2020
14. Dead Watch, 2006 - Jul 2020
15. Naked Prey, 2003 - Sep 2020
16. Hidden Prey, 2004 - Mar 2021
17. Broken Prey, 2005 - Jun 2022
18. Invisible Prey, 2007 - May 2023