Book # 21 - Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Well, after finishing Crime and Punishment I'm finally 3/4 of the way through the original 100 books. Maybe in a couple years I'll actually finish the list... Anyway, I enjoyed the book for the most part. Maybe one of the biggest difficulties in reading it was all the Russian names.... they're so confusing sometimes. The story follows a young man Raskolnikov as he plans a murder and afterward as the consequences play on his psyche. I liked that part but there were just too many characters that weren't directly involved or had their own plots going on too. Plus I don't get why Sonya is so loyal to this guy that she just met and is a confessed murderer. B+

Mystery Book # 1 The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles (Book 5 of 9)

Well it was nice to read something much much shorter... I don't really have much to say about The Hound of the Baskervilles. I've always enjoyed Sherlock Holmes and this is probably the best one so far. I can't believe it has been so long since I read the previous Holmes book. Time flys... A

Horror Book # 35 - Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon

Well that sure took a while... I first picked up Swan Song way back on the first days of October 2018. The MLB playoffs had not yet begun, Venom was soon to be released in theaters and I started considering a Halloween costume. Now four months later I put down Swan Song and it feels weird to not have it as the book I'm currently reading.

Swan Song is a pretty good (if long) end of the world story. Why did it end? The book is from the 80's so of course it is a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union. I enjoyed the adventures of the survivors and how they have to learn to survive in a whole new world... just my one qualm is that none of the characters ever once discuss leaving the country. They spend the whole book traveling across the US which is a nuclear wasteland and never seem to consider that it might be better if they traveled to South America or something.

Wow, I can't believe I spent four months on this... and I really did read it most days too (albeit usually not for very long). Let's say A-.

Book # 46 - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Well I guess I just don't "get" Little Women. Sure I'm not in the targeted demographic but still I don't quite see how people love it so much. Overall I thought it was okay but kind of boring. Of the four sisters, two of them are pretty dull. Like I can't even think of anything interesting about Meg. Was that her name? I'm already forgetting.  And the plot is fairly thin. To me most of it just consisted of the girls doing everyday activities and having their mother continually preach to them about the importance of doing their housework. B-

Book # 56 & Sci-Fi Book # 19- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Well droogs I've just reread A Clockwork Orange, a work that I read a long time ago as a molodoy nadsat. As a malchick I messel it was quite horrorshow, the only difficulty being able to understand the nadsat slang, but now with this polezny Internet veshch I can look up a glossary of slovos in a minoota and just breeze through it real skorry. And I'm glad to say as a starry veck it is even better and makes one think about free will. Though it is hard not to continually think of the sinny while reading it. My only shilarny about the whole veshch is wanting to know if the 21st chapter was intended to be included by Burgess or not. Apparently he kind of went back and forth on it, but maybe that's not a baddiwad veshch. As a nadsat I thought it dobby without but now I've probably changed by mind. It is like choose your own ending! How oomny! A.

Sci-Fi Book # 16- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Maybe after reading Ulysses and The Hunt for Red October I enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time a bit more than I should since it is a nice and easy kids book. I'm not sure how it was never really on my radar growing up. If there's any criticism it is that a lot of the stuff that goes on in the plot seems a bit arbitrary and lacking in details... but hey I guess that's explained away as this being a children's book. I liked all of the characters... the kids seemed well characterized and the three Mrs. Ws were a lot of fun and I was left wanting some more of their back story. Let's go A-.

Mystery Book # 84 - The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

Way back in high school I gave Tom Clancy a try. Reading The Hunt for Red October  now just reinforces what I thought back then... His plots are decent but there are just too many details about stuff I don't need to know. I feel like I learned something about how submarines work and the inner workings of our military but really I have no clue if any of it is actually accurate. Still I enjoyed it for the most part, B+.