My 2013 Booklist

Thanks to my increased scholastic obligations, I read less this past year than any year since 1999. 1999 was the year I first started working for the man, but also increased obligations to my Nintendo 64. My 2013 reading list actually mirrors that list in a way, as I read a big Tom Clancy book and a couple other things (actually, in 1999, just Clancy and Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy). Also like 1999, I played enough Nintendo 64 to realize I needed to start a website dedicated to that very special machine. Here is a shameless plug for that website, followed by my 2013 Booklist.
VISIT THE NINTENDO 64 MUSEUM! WE HAVE CLOWNS! MONKEYS!! MONKEY CLOWNS!!!
Nature Wars--Sterba (A pretty incredible and shocking nonfictional book about American's past and present relationship with our fauna. Sterba's evenhandedness and lack of an agenda is shocking in this partisan age.)
The Tin Soldiers-Schwab (Another enjoyable read by Project 86 frontman, Andrew Schwab. This time he tries his hand at a book of devotions for men. Nothing deep enough to confuse the reader, but also more depth than one would expect from the frontman of a band who writes "Caveman Jams.")
A History of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana--Costello (Historian, Brian Costello, uses his love, knowledge, and exhaustive research of the parish we both call home to write a near Tolkien-esque tome of our local history. I've never been prouder to call this bend in the river home.)
The Book of the Dun Cow--Wangerin, Jr. (A wonderful battle of good barnyard animals versus some very dark forces of evil. There's a passage of a victorious rooster moping in the rain that sums up the human condition better than almost anything I've ever read.)
The Book of Sorrows--Wangerin, Jr. (This sequel to a children's book about evil-fighting barnyard animals is absolutely one of the darkest books I have ever read. Unforgivably brutal, except the mind-blowing final chapter, which is forgiving AND brutal. A truly excellent book.)
Executive Orders--Clancy (I read this mammoth throughout the year. This has got to be Clancy's magnum opus. War, espionage, government workings, it is all amped to maximum capacity as Clancy elects Jack Ryan, his chief creation, President. I had so much fun reading Executive Orders this year, I have to admit, I took the news of Clancy's death particularly hard.)