The Top 100 Best Read Books of the Last Quarter Century

I am not much of a non-fiction reader, but there are few on this list that I have read, or more often than not, seen the film version. The ones I am familiar with through either of these two forms are in red.

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

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Commemorating Flag Day 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_in_the_United_States

http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html

http://www.nationalflagday.com/default.asp

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Colorado Rockies Win Streak Reaches Ten Games

A lengthy win streak in early June is a great deal different than one in late September in the midst of a pennant race, but the ten game winning streak the Colorado Rockies have achieved is nothing to dismiss.

Still there are differences. This current streak came when the club was buried 12 games under .500, and despite the winning streak, they are still are under .500. While the future shows more promise than just ten days ago, there is still a lot of ball to play and a difficult challenging schedule ahead. And the National League West flag seems already firmly in the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a club who is arguably among the best in the game and one of the favorites to win it all.

The remarkable thing is now the Rockies are just 3 1/2 games out of the wild card spot lead, as any chances of catching Los Angeles in the NL West are probably fanciful. The wild card is certainly within reach with so much of the season remaining, and if the club can just play consistently by winning home series and largely breaking even on the road, they will be just fine and be a contender when Labor Day arrives.

But the horrible club we saw in April and May is still capable of returning, and the offense still leaves much to be desired compared to historical Rockies clubs. The starting pitching has shined in the last ten days, but can this be maintained in the coming weeks and months ? History says no. And the bullpen is nothing to get excited about at all, and while historically it does improve as the season goes along and the weather warms up, the bullpen still needs to prove it can do the job night in and night out, day in and day, to win fans, writers, and pundits over.

Still, interim Manager Jim Tracy seems to have changed the mindset of the players in the clubhouse and on the field, and the confidence and intensity being seen daily since he took over which was all but absent prior to his succession is a tribute to his leadership and managerial abilities and skills. If this club finishes strong and continues to overachieve, Tracy could be under consideration for a Manager of the Year Award and a contract extension.

I am enjoying the winning streak, and quite happy about, but any exuberance comparable to the great run in late September '07 on the way to the National League pennant is all but missing. I just cannot buy into the success of the club to that extent just yet.

The Major League Baseball All - Star Game is one month from today, on Tuesday 14 June in St Louis. If the Rockies are at .500 or above it at that point, then I will start building my optimism for the second half of the season and grow more hopeful as success is built on in the following weeks.

Until then, I am pleased but cautious. Not a fanatic, but a follower. Stranger things have happened in baseball history - see 1914, 1951, 1964, 1969, 1993, 1995, 2004, and 2007.

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Continuing to be Spared from the Hangman's Noose from the Gallows for a Little While Longer

As of 5:00 am MDT Monday 15 June, this blogger's internet connection still remains active, but the end is likely near within hours. Given the anticipated income from my soon to resume employment, it would seem that an internet connection will not be re-established until after Independence Day, 4 July, and it possibly may not possibly be until 11 July or after given the magnitude of delinquent financial obligations I am facing: Two months rent after 1 July for $860; cable/internet for $270; cellular phone service for $135; and electricity in excess of $200.

It will take four weeks of fulltime pay to knock down all that debt as well as replenish the food stock which will be next to bare once that first check comes in 15 days. I may not be eatiing some meals in those final days before that check eventuates. Being without electricity, internet, cable TV, and cellular phone service for much of all if not all of the next 30 days will be difficult and challenging, but there is no alternative to that scenario at this moment.

But at least there is some hope on the horizon, although the means to get it will be tiresome, boring, unfullfilling, and quite fatiguing. And more importantly, the winds of change that can propel me from my 30 month sentence of unhappiness in the wind tunnel of the continent may be offering that promise within 4 months or so. Maybe I can be out of here before the end of September, or October at the latest.

And this news about the recession perhaps coming to an end in September may be the icing on the cake for the planned timing of my move to Colorado Springs in early autumn.

But I remain much less optimistic about this at this point. I believe its halftime thats approaching, and the second half, starting later this year or early in 2010, will very well be far more vicious and savage.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/economic-outlook.htm

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