What books did you read in 2011?

[PLATO]

1.) this is the first I've ever heard turnip greens rather than collard greens - all of the markets on Atlanta bring out the collards and sell out of them quick. In addition:

http://www.southernliving.com/food/holidays-occasions/new-years-recipes-traditions-00417000070440/

The recipes are:

"Easy Black-eyed Peas
Southern-Style Collard Greens"

2 & 3) I don't feel like going through the effort.

Turnips were originally chosen because they were the cheapest of the greens. In Georgia, that may have been true for Collards. It seems even among Southern traditions that there is variety.

Here is a link for turnip greens that explains a little of it as well.

http://eclecticrecipes.com/southern-turnip-greens-recipe

As far as the effort on the others, I can see your point, but it can be pretty fun putting together an old fashioned meal with the family.

[BeBMan]

I can also recommend Tom Rob Smith's "The Secret Speech" ("Kolyma" in Germany after the gulag), a thriller set in the post-Stalinist USSR, though it was not as excellent as the previous "Child 44" with the same main characters. Esp. the finale during the Hungarian revolt 1956 felt a bit weaker, too "movie-like" for my taste. Still a very good read. I plan to read his third part of the series this year.

Other than that, one of my recent reads has been the manual for PanzerCorps, which brought back memories of playing SSI's Panzer General

[DaShi]

Is no one reading Galnemer's books...legally?

[a.kitman]

It's a flimsy house that the peace of the developed world resides in. It is at the mercy of the benevolence of the state, the effectiveness of the legal system, etc.

how is it flimsy? its fact that people like kh have to fool people these days rather then take there stuff out right.

[Jon Miller]

I read/own one, she is a talented writer but is too genre focused.

JM

[Guynemer]

True enough.

If you're not into female-protagonist, nerdy modern-fantasy stuff, it is probably not for you.

I will say that her most recent release was more of a post-Cold War espionage thriller than modern-fantasy, though obviously that was the basis.

And her new upcoming release, in October 2012, is more a straight-up horror novel.

[Jon Miller]

I might try another one.

When I said 'genre' I meant in the paranormal urban fantasy genre dominated by the likes of anita blake and mercy thompson /etc (I haven't read most of it, just a bit, so the comparison might not be as strong as I think it is).

There are female-protagonist, nerdy urban fantasy which is quite different (neverwhere).

JM

[Imran Siddiqui]

I will... get there (re: Galnemer's books). Embers is on my Amazon Wish List.

[The Mad Monk]

Fine. Not Black then.

Wait. I'm black?

[Dinner]

I also read a book on Chinese history and reread Kissinger's The Rise and Decline of Nations. I need to buy some more books because despite having three book shelves in my living room I seem to do more rereading rather than new reading lately.

[Guynemer]

and Reamde, the new Neal Stephenson novel, which like most of his books is kinda hard to explain, but involves MMORPGs, drug running, hackers, MI6, the Russian mob, Jihadists, etc.

Add a goddamn man-eating cougar to that list.

This book is ****ing awesome.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It has Demi Moore?

[molly bloom]

Among the better detective fiction I read were three of the Sjowall/Wahloo 'Martin Beck' series:

Roseanna
The Man On The Balcony
The Laughing Policeman

Boris Akunin's : The State Counsellor

Geoge Pelecanos: King Suckerman
Soul Circus

Joseph Koenig: Floater

Edward Marston: The Railway Detective

Barbara Wilson: Murder In The Collective

Didier Daenincx: A Very Profitable War

Also several of Sue Grafton's 'Alphabet' series that I hadn't read- I thoroughly enjoy her portrayal of a female private detective in a small Californian town.

I can't offhand remember how many s.f./ghost story titles- quite a few. As for the history/cultural titles- too many to list. Just before and over the Christmas period, I read Maya Jasanoff's 'Liberty's Exiles' and Simon Sebag Montefiore's 'Jerusalem' and Fernandez-Armesto's ' '1492: The Year Our World Began' and 'Pathfinders'.

[Tupac Shakur]

It has Demi Moore?

Have we really fallen so far as a society that Ashton Kucher is considered a man?

[Guynemer]

Bravo.

Finished the book last night. Highly, highly recommended.

Anyone who has read any post-Snow Crash Stephenson has an idea of what they are getting into; if you have not read anything post-Snow Crash, be patient, **** starts getting nuts about 150 pages in, and doesn't stop until the end.