100 Book Goal For 2021

January1

January 2021

1. Fatherland – I don’t know where I heard about this but what a great book (it just had its 25th Anniversary). The author took all the plans Hitler and the Nazi’s had made imaging their victory and future world and inserted a detective story set in 1964 into it. Weird to read at times, and very entertaining.

2. Book 6 of Tiger’s Imperium in one of my fav series about the Roman Military and a fun character but in a fantasy universe. Good sequel, but felt a little short. I am looking forward to seeing it move forward.

3. 4. 5. Books 1, 2, and 3 of the Fallen Blade series – Broken Blade, Bared Blade, and Crossed Blades. Great books, my only complaint is the main character just seems a bit stuck at times. Fun stories and I really enjoyed them!

6. The Girl and the Bombardier: A True Story of Resistance and Rescue in Nazi-Occupied France – A fantastic non-fiction about a B17 bomber navigating Nazi occupation to get out. Amazing read and written by her daughter. Really really cool to read and see what it was like.

February 2021

7. 8. 9. Books 1, 2, and 3 of the Empires of Bronze series by Gordon Doherty. It is a fantastic series and such an amazing point in time I don’t know much about (bronze age Hittite empire + Egyptians).

March 2021

10. Eagle in the Snow – The book that inspired the movie Gladiator supposedly. Good read.

11. The Book Of Eating – Fun reada bout the life of a famous food critic. I didn’t realize how much they had to eat and it was kinda gross. Funny guy.

12. Actung Baby – Fantastic book by an American mom raising her kids in Germany. Really resonated with a lot of things I would like for Calico to have as attributes, and some of my frustrations with American parenting culture and helicopter parenting. One of my fav books so far this year.

13. A Man at Arms – Decent read but I got a little frustrated with the characters as they felt a little flat, esp compared to some of his other amazing books. Very cool to visualize the history of this period though.

14. In the Shadow of the Wall – Great read about Roman Britain from the POV of a young Pictish warrior. Historically very interesting period. Solid B+.

15. The Alpha Protocol – I enjoyed this one, but like a lot of science fiction I felt like it didn’t have enough to it. It felt like half a book and just started getting interested. I don’t like this new movement where authors ship half a book every month. That said, clear writing, and an interesting storyline.

16. The Age of Ra – The first book in a series that imagines the Gods playing an active role through us. Very interesting take and I enjoyed it. Not enough to pick up the sequel right now though.

April

17. Remove The Shourd: King’s Ranger Book 3 – This book is a good example of why authors MUST put in a catch-up starter so you remember the story and where it is going. It just came out and I struggled to figure out what was going on as it had been a while since I read the first two books. AC is a good author, but the novels feel a bit serial where not much happens, and yet they still call it a full book. I think I am done with this series as there isn’t enough character development, and it ends before anything substantial happens. Not enough meat.

18. 19. 20. 21. Books one through four of the Amaranthe series are big space opera (16 books). I really like the story, the scope, and the characters. And, the fact that by book 4 I still don’t know where it is going. I am going to try book 5 and see where we go now :).  I really hope the two main characters develop a bit more now that we are five books in.

May

22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. The Brune Chief of Police series (13 books – 2 are short stories), one of my all-time favorites and some of the best this year. I blew through the entire series and I eagerly await the upcoming book :). Love them and so much fun. About a small-town French police officer in rural France.

35. I was hoping for some hard sci-fi space opera with Wings of Earth: 1 – Echoes of Starlight, but it just didn’t resonate for me. It was a good story but ended too soon without anything happening, and it had some really weird plot things going on. Just not for me I guess.

June

36. The Blessing Way – I was really bummed, as this book sounded great and had amazing reviews, but it just fell flat for me. It didn’t seem like much of a procedural.

37. Sentenced To War – Fun space combat book, well written and so far enough meat. Reading book 2 now.

38. 39. 40. Clash of Eagles Trilogy – I LOVED this series, such a cool concept, historical fiction but reimagined as if Rome survived into the 1200s and lands in Native America to face off against the Native Americans. Only they are not the only ones, their nemesis the Mongols have also arrived. Fantastic reads and some of the best so far this year.

41. Children of Angels book 2 – Solid sequel in the style of old man’s war or starship troopers. Fun read.

42. Empire of the Undead – Super fun read, the Roman Empire is hit by zombies, just really really fun read :).

July

43. The Passion Economy – One of my first audiobooks, I’ve been listening to them during workouts. I’ve never loved audiobooks as they are so slow compared to me reading… but it was kinda fun, kinda like a long podcast. I enjoy them more in the car as a family listen.

44. Fallen Empire: A Military Science Fiction Epic Adventure – Great read and very nice to see him take his skills to a new genre. I can’t wait for the next one. My only frustration is that this is basically half a book in some ways… and a lot of authors are starting to do this. They try to release 3 books a year that are all half a book almost like releasing chapters. I guess it is how they make more money but it annoys me. It is almost like reading a short story.

45. Into the Chaos (book 4) – I really want to love this book, but I can’t. It is huge in scope, the plot is pretty good, but my frustration is none of the characters are developed, they are all just flat and uninteresting. And, so much is going on you never really care because you don’t care about the characters and it jumps around so much.

46. Artifact Space – Solid read from one of my favorite authors, I really liked the main character and the story. Solid B- and I’ll buy the sequel.

47. Lucia – This is about a Roman slave girl and her story. It is only on audio book and I listened to it over workouts for the last few months. WOW! This was a cool story but super hard to listen to at times. I actually cried a little at the end. It got so dark around her soul at the end and I was so happy that it didn’t go the way I thought it would. Good story but also hallowed me out a bit at times.

48. The Last Watch – The single best science fiction I have read in a long time, I have betting so many duds this was a pleasure to receive. The characters were fantastic, the story great, the science, etc. My only small complaint is I wish the book was 2x as long as it went so quick. I am so excited as book 2 comes out on August 17th!!!!!

49. Zombie Road – Well written, but the plot was so silly I just couldn’t get past it. And, I get tired of the old cliche that people are so different :).

50. Hawkwood’s Sword – Just beautiful, and book 5 in a series I adore. Christian Cameron is my absolute favorite right now. This is historical fiction set around 1368, so good.

51. Ancestral Night – A really good science fiction book, but I got tired of the slow pace and it just didn’t click the way I wanted. That said, it was beautiful written, love the high level concepts, and great characters and story.

52. Book 21 of the Gabriel Allon series, always great fun reads. This time called The Cellist.

53. Book 1 of Larry Bond’s Red Dragon Rising. Just felt a bit short and while it was entertaining I am not sure if I will grab the 2nd.

August / September (missed splitting these)

54. The Things They Carried – I feel like this is the first book that helped me understand why you make fiction about real-life (half kidding). Great book and I did it in audio book format which I am new to while I work out in the mornings. Great narration by Bryan Cranston. Def some powerful moments.

55. The Burnout Generation – A fascinating listen on Audible. Very interesting to listen to as I think about my life, my family and friends, and our current economic system.

56. The Exiled Fleet – This is book 2 and I LOVED book 1 as it was the most promising scifi set in space I’ve found in a while. But, it wasn’t as good, I will read book 3 and I hope it gets better. They almost tried to make this into a heist but it just felt short and the characters didn’t seem to develop much.

57. Red Riviera – Nice fun detective mystery set in Italy. I enjoyed the writing but the story didn’t have the zing I was looking for.

58. 59. 60. In Her Name: Redemption Trilogy – One of the best books I read this year, a combo space/fantasy book and I loved it. This is actually 9 books in one and didn’t realize it was so many.

61. – 73. Books 1 through 13 of the Wheel of Time series. This is the 3rd time I’ve read these. First, in my twenties although they were not finished yet. The 2nd was in my early 30s on a trip to Bali, when the 14th was out. And, now when I am in 40. These books are amazing. They have influenced so many aspects of my life and continue to be a mirror for me.

October / November / December (missed splitting these)

74. Book 14 of the Wheel of Time series. Such a great series.

75. 76. 77. 78. 79. Books 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 of the Eagles of the Empire series by Simon Scarrow. I’ve been waiting to finish this one for a while now as the Kindle version of Book 8 wasn’t working for like 8+ months. I had to message the publishers and author, which is kinda insane when you think about it. Amazing characters and love this series. Top pick for this year.

80. 81. 82. Books 1, 2, and 3 of the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson (one of my favs). Very fun books, I really loved books 1 and 2, but book 3 was a bit out there and harder to digest. Fun character.

83. Starman’s Saga: The Long, Strange Journey of Leif The Lucky – A great read but the ending was a bit disappointing. Well written though and I really enjoyed the different pace. I hope this world keeps going.

84. Content Inc – I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Good read and I was not.

85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. Books 13 through 20 of Simon Scarrow’s Eagles of the Empire series. This is about two members of the Roman Legion, kinda like a historic Roman version of Lethal Weapon. I love it, the characters, the stories. This is one of my favorite series for the year. I had to wait so long to read it as one of the books was missing from Kindle and Simon Scarrow was kind enough to fix that so I could finish all of them.

93. 94. 95. 96. Books 1 to 4 of the Wellington and Napoleon Quartet. A historic fiction series from Simon Scarrow, one of my favorite authors, about the youth and careers of Wellington and Napoleon. Fantastic reads. I really liked Wellington and sometimes it was hard to read about Napoleon given his stupidity and ego in some regards. He brought defeat upon himself.

97.  The Dark Hours by the always amazing Michael Connelly. Great read and happy to see a little of Bosch again.

98. 99. 100. 101. Books 1 to 4 of the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly. I LOVE this series, they are super dark, but not so dark that I can’t read them. And, by book 5 they are starting to get into things I am super interested in, such as the book of Enoch, James Bruce, and a lot of ideas I’ve been playing with for a book idea since I was in college. Great stuff and I highly recommend them. Good sense of humor as well.

102. I forgot this one, I did an audio book called Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle and it one of the best books I’ve ever read. They should give you this book and study it in high school and I’ll be listening to it again this month.

103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. Adding 6 more books as I didn’t realize one of the big books I read this year on my kindle was actually 9 books lol.

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This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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