Book 69.5: Second Son by Lee Child

A short Jack Reacher story.  It's set when Reacher is young and his family gets stationed in Japan.  He has to solve a couple of mysteries as well as prove to the other Army brats that he isn't someone to mess around with.

Book 69: Worth Dying For by Lee Child

Jack Reacher book 16 or so.  Jack stumbles onto a town where one family pretty much monopolizes everything.  He encounters a case of spousal abuse, gets involved and the mystery starts from there.  The creepy family has a creepy past and they do some creepy stuff.  Jack gets tangled up in it all and has to fix the problems because he's just that kind of a guy.  Typical, but man, I love these things.

Book 68: Hell House by Richard Matheson

This is probably my favorite haunted house book.  Some old dude pays a noted paranormal investigator to stay at the most famous haunted house in the country.  The investigator is your typical scientific skeptic who thinks it can all be explained away by science, not ghosts.  He brings along his wife who is pretty sheltered, a famous psychic lady, and another psychic who, when he was a boy was the only survivor of a previous attempt to study the house.  They get into your typical haunted house type of stuff where they learn about the history and who is haunting the house.  Some make it out and some don't.  Nothing earth shattering, but it's a good solid story by a good writer.

Book 67: The Mystery Knight by George RR Martin

This wasn't a full book, but I have to count something since my reading level has been so poor this year.  Another Dunk and Egg novella.  I almost prefer these stories because they are clean and each one resolves.  It's interesting to see some of the Westeros history.  This one tied into the Blackfyre rebellion and the aftermath.  It's also intriguing then to hear what happens to Duncan and Aegon in the main series.  Some sort of tragedy occurs to end the king's reign.  Hopefully it'll be revealed at some point how they got there and exactly what goes down. 

Book 66: A Dance With Dragons by George RR Martin

Finally, the continuation of A Song of Ice and Fire.  Took me a few months to read the whole thing.  Again it leaves everyone hanging on cliffhangers and with Mr. Martin's track record, who knows how long it'll be before the stories are picked up again?

But it's the same quality writing and almost everyone gets their stories moved forward (no Sansa?).  I was tempted to not read it since it had been 5 years since the last book and there are at least 2 more coming, but I caved.  It really is an awesome series, but the wait is hard to bear.

Book 65: Off Season by Jack Ketchum

This was written in 1980 or else I might have expected it was a result of someone copying the violence and gore from Hostel or Saw. Definitely a "torture porn" book.  Some friends get together and then are terrorized by inbred cannibals.  I hear it was pretty controversial when it was first released, but reading it for the first time in 2011, it's nothing I haven't seen before.  It was a pretty quick read, but I wouldn't read this one again.  Nothing really got me too engaged.

Book 64: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The finale of the Hunger Games trilogy. I guess when you set up a big oppressive government for the people to hate, you have to get around to addressing the issue. I didn't think this was as strong as the other two, but it's where the story had to go, I suppose. The characters that you care about are either mangled or they turn into whiners and they get harder to root for. I could see myself rereading either of the first two books someday, but I need to remember to pass on this one.

Book 63: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I wasn't sure where she would go with this book, but she surprised me with another edition of the Hunger Games. I would say this one was just as good aa the first.

Book 62: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

After not reading much for six months, I burned through this entire trilogy in a little over a week. Very easy reading. This book does the world building and does it well. I was invested in seeing how the games would end.

Book 61: To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams

Resolution of the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy. This is one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. It may be a little stock but it's done well and you get engaged with most of the characters. I'll reread this again in a few years because it's in my top ten books.