9. Game of Thrones

By George RR Martin (807pp). For the first 100 pp. of this book all I could think is how this is not my usual kind of book. Medieval kings and battles where everyone tries to kill each other. Also the characters are always doing what you don't want them to do. I mean that in a good way. For the next 300 pp. I thought even though I was enjoying the book, I probably wouldn't continue with the series. Mostly because I already have so much stuff to read. It was nice to have this on vacation because I was able to read giant chunks in one sitting. Now that I've finished this one, if nothing else, I'm at least going to have to read the next book,

There are about a million characters and I had a tough time keep it all straight even with the 25 page appendix at the end. Luckily a lot of people die although there are plenty new people to take their places. I'm going to read the wiki-page later and see what I missed.

I need to wait a bit on Book 2 because I have so many magazines and digests piled up we might need to add another room to the house to hold it all

8. A Man In Full

By Tom Wolfe (787 pp). Bob read this book on vacation a few years ago and I was going to read it but never got to it and it's sat on my shelf ever since.

This is quite a book. It's set in Atlanta and concerns a number of story threads with people who've either made it big and are on their way down or trying to work their way up out of their current situation. Politics, race, society, business. Lots of great characters and hard-to-forget scenes. The scene with the horse breeding was particularly eyeball searing. This book is a great lesson for writers on characterization and how to do terrible things to your characters.

7. Diary of A Wimpy Kid

By Jeff Kinney (217 pp). The Neuner kids recommended this book while we were at their house. The second morning of the trip I woke up early and went downstairs to read. Luis heard me laughing and knew right away what I was reading. The title character is deeply flawed and completely hilarious. Cute drawings. It's labeled for middle readers but I'd recommend to anyone who needed something fun to read.