Book 56: Blockade Billy by Stephen King

This is another cheat books, as it consists of 2 pretty short stories, one of which I've read before.  The title story is about a baseball player who has a dark history and gets his baseball accomplishments wiped out of the books when it comes to light.  The other story is called Morality(?) about a woman asked to commit a silly crime on behalf of an old man and how it spins her life and marriage around.  Typical Stephen King.  I enjoyed them both.

Book 55: Zot by Scott McCloud

Good read. I've always heard of Scott McCloud, but the only thing I think I've ever read by him was the Google Chrome strip that they made when it was released. Zot is a hero from a different dimension than ours. His earth is perpetually stuck in 1964(?), but it's also futuristic. Everything there is just optimal and happy. He crosses over to our dimension and dates a girl named Jenny. But our world is dark and sad compared to his. The thing abut Zot is, he doesn't care. He wants to only see the good things about this world. Jenny wants to just leave, but Zot continues to tell her that this is her world and she should stay.

This was a collection of most of the Zot stories published. The first several have to do with Zot fighting various criminals from his world. The second happen after Zot is stuck in or world and really are the stories of Jenny and her friends and their regular lives. They deal with regular teenage problems like popularity and homophobia. I got this pretty cheap at the Half Price Bookstore and it was definitely worth it.

Book 54: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

Eh. A lot of it doesn't make sense. Isn't Lord Asriel a bad guy? Why does anyone want to support him? I got through it all. Some weird sexual metaphorical stuff near the end that creeped me out some.

Book 53: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

Will is introduced from our regular Earth. He meets Lyra and it all moves forward. This is where you find out that Lord Asriel plans on overthrowing Heaven. I didn't take it badly from a religious standpoint, but I didn't really understand it in the books. He does some horrible things, but plenty of people are supporting him. I didn't get a clear view as to why he wants to accomplish this feat. But, whatever. I won't read these books again.

Book 52: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Meet Lyra and her adventures. The movie doesn't really do the book justice. It dumbs it way way down. It took a little to get into this, but I liked this book well enough. The next two were harder to enjoy.

Book 51: Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

I've completely forgotten the plot of this book. Reacher is on a subway and sees a woman he suspects of being a terrorist. Then he gets all involved in a plot that he shouldn't, etc, etc. But any Reacher book is a good read and I liked it when i read it, but it's months later now and I forgot it all.

Book 50: The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams

I love this trilogy. This is the start and it really gets off on the wrong foot. The first 200 pages are a drag, but if you get to page 200, the story takes off. The old king who united several smaller kingdoms has died and his eldest son takes over the throne. He is persuaded into making some poor decisions and the whole kingdom starts to suffer. The seasons are all out of whack and strange beings are wandering around the countryside. A kitchen boy named Simon ends up hearing and seeing more than he should. The book is mostly about his adventures first escaping the castle and then his journey to bring information to the king's younger brother Josua and beyond. It's a great book and I am glad the author chose to stop with only 3 books. It's good to read a story that ends. It gets frustrating when an author drags it out over 10-15 books, some of which have nothing going on in them. Or the author takes several years in between books. Or the author dies before completing the story. Anyways, this is probably my favorite fantasy series. I'm not a huge Lord of the Rings guy, and I might enjoy George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series more, but it's not complete and who knows if he'll ever get it done, so Tad Williams is the current leader.