While on vacation my wife and I stayed in a cabin up on a mountain with gorgeous views of the forest covered mountains around us. That sort of place is what I think of when I think of an ideal reading spot, so of course I brought along my own little mountain of books. 

Like all good vacation cabins the cabin had its own bookshelf providing the vacationer with an assortment of books to read. However the assortment at this cabin was a little limited and didn’t provide a good vacation style mix especially considering the location. 

This led me to consider which books I would expect to find on a vacation cabin bookshelf. Not just a bookshelf of books that I alone would want to read, more a generic vacation spot bookshelf. This was a fun task! 

There were several things I felt one had to consider. First you should have a variety of books, but I think you should lean more towards titles that people have often wanted to read but just haven’t made time for, books that are easy to start reading, enjoy for a short time, and then leave behind. Pleasantly forgettable books that don’t require a lifetime of commitment. Also you want your suspenseful page turners that won’t let you go. Finally I think the best theme for a cabin will always be an adventure theme. 

So in my mind I have created a list of authors whose works I would expect to see upon a cabin’s bookshelf. Again this is quite unlike the books I brought with me for my reading, but I feel these selections would appeal to a wider audience. 

After I came up with my generic list I went through my own bookshelves to create my best Cabin Vacation Bookshelf Photo as seen below. Before you view the generic list or the photos below please take a moment to jot down a few authors you would expect to find while vacationing in a mountain cabin (or maybe a beach condo whichever appeals to you), and then compare our selections! 

My suggestions for a generic and appealing Cabin Vacation Bookshelf would include:

James Clavell, Robert Ludlum, James Michener, Herman Wouk, JRR Tolkien, Ernest Hemingway, Clive Cussler, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Ken Follett, Tom Clancy, Louis L’Amour, and Tana French. I feel that this list would provide a broad appeal and that you should sprinkle in a few classics, local authors, and local geography/places of interest books. 

Now the fun part! I went through my bookshelves and constructed my own Cabin Vacation Bookshelf! This was a lot of fun and really made me think a lot about which books I should select and why I should select them. Some I’ve selected I haven’t even read yet, but feel the setting would be perfect. Some are visually appealing. Some are just fun adventure! Some are very easy to read. Some are challenging but rewarding. I’ve listed each book and my reasoning for it below the following photos. Here without further ado is my 49 book Cabin Vacation Bookshelf Collection:

  
 1) Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons because having one of the greatest comic books ever created available to read is a great bonus. 

2) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card as it is one of the preeminent YA Military SciFi books ever. 

3) Mystic River by Dennis Lehane since every shelf should have a notable Mystery on it.

4) The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie as he tells great adventure tales and creates page turners. This is one of his I haven’t read yet and look forward to. 

5) Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer as this provides a perfectly eerie read for any night out in nature. 

6/7) Louis L’Amour because you really can’t go wrong with his work. Quality storytelling, solid adventures, good as standalone books or read in series. 

8) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy because Classics. Also it has the appeal of being a book one often wants to read but never makes time for. 

9) 1984 by George Orwell because it is a Classic and also because while you’re away from the city and the government you can sit back and think….

10) The Last Of The Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper because it is one of the most classical US adventure stories written. At least that is what I hear! 

11) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien because any bookshelf is incomplete without Tolkien and this is one of his best and most accessible works. Perfect for a soul to enjoy while enjoying nature. 

12) Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson a classical adventure military SciFi that will provide you entertainment while making you think. 

13) Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift as it is a perfect classic for readers of various ages. 

14) Black Earth by Andrew Meier is a history of modern Russia and would appeal to the nonfiction crowd. 

15) The Likeness by Tana French as a good mystery/thriller is needed. 

16) Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone because it is magical, and young readers can grow with the series while older readers can enjoy the series. 

17/18/19) Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Series because you’re wondering are they like the movies? Are they as good as the movies? Maybe even BETTER than the movies? 

20) Republic by Plato a touch of philosophy might be needed. 

21) Leaves Of Grass by Walt Whitman because while I’m not a poetry reader I love Whitman’s work. 

22/23) Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe Series and Saxon Tales Series because there should be some quality Historical Fiction on the shelf and this is some of the finest quality HF you’ll find. 

24) The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell because not only will this open up mythology for you like never before you’ll also get a chance to visit the well of inspiration that so many creators have visited. 

25) Conan The Barbarian by Robert E Howard as it is one of the greatest pulp fantasy adventure stories ever. Time to visit the source of all of these movies and books and get it from the creator. 

26) Firebird by Jack McDevitt any Alex Benedict novel will do here. Great series of standalone works. Best read together but fulfilling SciFi Adventure Archeology Mystery stories! 

27/28) Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books. Great books. Espionage at its finest. 

29) My Friend The Mercenary by James Brabazon because an adventurous memoir is perfect for a vacation read. 

30/31/32) James Clavell’s excellent Asian Saga has it all. Romance. History. Adventure. And you’ve been meaning to read it for ages!

33) In The Lake Of The Woods by Tim O’Brien belongs here (as would any book by him) because the haunting beauty of his work will provide a story that stays with you for years to come. 

34) Kingdoms Of The Wall by Robert Silverberg is a fine coming of age SciFi that will challenge the reader to the core. 

35) American Gods by Neil Gaiman in which the author truly captures a part of American Culture and tells an incredible story. 

36) The Stand by Stephen King because sometimes the only book that should be read is a Stephen King book. 

37) Fall Of Giants by Ken Follett explore the American Century with one of the greatest historical fiction writers ever. 

38) Poland by James Michener if you truly want to understand a place and the people that call that place home you read Michener. 

39) Dune by Frank Herbert an adventurous coming of age take that will alter your worldview. Perhaps my favorite author. 

40) The Magic Engineer by L.E. Modesitt Jr I could almost use the exact same words to describe this book and author as I did for Dune. Very high praise and well deserved. 

41) Old Man’s War by John Scalzi belongs in the company of Haldeman and Heinlein. 

42) The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a timeless Military SciFi that will reach into your heart and pull out an emotional response. 

43) The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams because it is one of the greatest works of fantasy and an excellent adventure to read. 

44) Ship Of Fools by Richard Paul Russo because I really want all of my reader friends to read this book! A SciFi/Horror that for me captures the intensity and emotions of the first time you watched the original Alien movie. 

45) Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein is the standard by which all Military SciFi should be judged. Such an excellent book!

46/47) David and Leigh Eddings’ Belgarath The Sorcerer is an excellent multigenerational Fantasy story and The Belgariad is an incredible adventure that all should read. 

48) The Eye Of The World by Robert Jordan has something for everyone.

49) A Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin because it is some of the best literature being written in our time.  

That completes my Cabin Vacation Bookshelf! I’d love to hear what books you would select for yours! 

Y’all didn’t think I’d forget to share my monthly independent author focus did you? 🙂
This month’s Star In The Sky independent author focus is on an outstanding book by L.T. Bradley entitled Wolf Song that I not only read, I could barely put it down! 

The story follows Zoë who is gifted (or cursed) with a second sight that not only allows her to see beings from the spiritual round that surrounds us, it also allows those beings to see her! For most of her life she has fled this and hidden from these spirits but now as she is growing older she is opening up to this gift (curse) and trying to use it for good. Her good and the good of others. But that isn’t always easy or very safe at all….

Zoë is an amazing character who springs off the pages and into your heart! From her fashion sense, to her school issues, her job, friendships, and even her struggles with relationships she is a fully realized character and she is truly engaging right from the start. She’ll leave you chuckling at one point, shaking your head at the next, and wishing you could help her in her struggles while always respecting the strong person she is. 

The author did an excellent job combining mystery, romance, adventure, humor, supernatural, and real life all together into one pageturner of a story. Often you’re turning the page trying to figure out who is the hero and who is the monster! 

This is definitely a bright shining star of a story and I highly recommend it! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it as you read it! 

Dark Horse Presents Volume 6

DHP has been holding steady as a quality anthology comic book. So far there’s been good and bad stories but that’s to be expected. Not every story is for you so you keep on moving to the ones that are! 

Roma by John Workman

Well… It’s still turned sideways and I still don’t like that. It’s difficult for me to move past that gimmick and get into the story. The artwork isn’t bad and the story is intriguing enough but right now I feel like the author is giving you an outline of a story rather than a story. It’s a risk you run with comic book anthologies. Roma might not be for me. 

  
Trekker by Ron Randall

Trekker delivers again! Good launching point for its own comic book series. Interesting lead character, good villain, corrupt government, fun SciFi! I’m enjoying Trekker. 

  
Doc Abtruse by Steve Mattsson and Tony Salmons

I think they thought this was Heavy Metal. And it wasn’t good enough for Heavy Metal either. 

  
Concrete by Paul Chadwick

If the opening page was all there was to this comic book then this comic book would have been worth reading. Chadwick wins at life again! 

I love SciFi. Science Fiction has been a part of my reading life since the early days. That’s why I was very excited when a friend of mine who also happens to be a lifelong reader told me that she wanted to start reading SciFi! Y’all know her as FrenchFryWife a recent contributor to RedStarReviews with her Guest Review of The Likeness. After racking my brain for what book would be a good “Welcome To SciFi” book I handed her my copy of Old Man’s War by John Scalzi with only one request: Let me know what you think of your first SciFi book. 

Without further ado here are FrenchFryWife’s thoughts on her first SciFi book!

  
FrenchFryWife’s Review Of Old Man’s War by John Scalzi 

It only took three decades, but I finally read a Science Fiction novel. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi is a military SciFi adventure that takes elderly citizens of Earth and puts their consciousness into genetically modified bodies. In exchange for the fountain of youth (the bodies are basically immortal in terms of natural events), the seniors must serve at least two years with the Colonial Defense Forces. The CDF is a mysterious entity that protects and preserves the human species in all areas of space. 

The story follows John Perry, a witty retired writer, as he says goodbye to his home planet and heads into battle with several races of aliens. The new universe is brutal and often cold-blooded. John grapples with his own humanity and really makes you think about how we interact with any group that is different from our own.

I’ve been hesitant to read SciFi because it seems intimidating from the outside. I’m not inclined towards astrophysics and was afraid the material would go over my head. However, Scalzi has found a great way of explaining the science to the average person without coming off as condescending. I was really fascinated by the CDF’s genetically modified bodies and amused by the trademarked features like BrainPal and SmartBlood.

Scalzi falters a bit with character development. Upon arriving at the new space station, John Perry makes a group of friends who call themselves the Old Farts. Reading their dialogue was a bit painful because they all have the same dry sense of humor. At times, it read like a page of snippy one-liners and a pat on the back. He eventually fleshes out a few characters, but I can’t even tell you the names of all the Old Farts because they blended together too easily.

Overall, I really enjoyed my first SciFi novel. I’ve already picked up the sequel (The Ghost Brigades) to see where the story goes. Old Man’s War is a fun, easy read that will get you thinking about what it really means to be human.

The Most Influential Books and the Runner Ups

I was asked to share on which books were the most influential books in my life. This is an incredibly difficult task for me because it’s incredibly hard to isolate a few out of the many. It was made a little more difficult as I was trying to share a picture of them and realized that I keep giving some of the books I would have selected (The Great Divorce by CS Lewis or My War Gone By I Miss It So by Anthony Loyd or The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein) away as gifts to other readers. So I limited myself to these five books that I currently own:

  
The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien was the book that inspired me to read. Seriously. I saw it as a child and knew I had to read it. So I did and it launched a lifelong love of books. Dune by Frank Herbert transformed my worldview more than any other work of fiction. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius was written by a Roman Emperor 2,000 years ago and still speaks strongly to how I desire to live today. Shadow Of A Dark Queen by Raymond E Feist inspired me to write my own stories when I was a teenager and still does today. The Killing Rage by Eamon Collins laid bare the Irish Republican Army from the inside out and helped me to see what could inspire a man to kill and terrorize others while showing me how a person can return from that place of darkness. His sharing of his story quite possibly cost him his life, and I feel it should be read. 

  
On the shelf behind these books are some of my runner ups that I felt deserved to be mentioned

  
Ship Of Fools by Richard Paul Russo is a book that feels alive and both terrifies as it inspires. It captures the feeling of the original (and best) Aliens movie: Alien. The Shining Ones by David Eddings because the cover of this book inspired me to read Eddings and to start my own book collection. The Druid Of Shannara as it is the book that first introduced me to Terry Brooks and showed me the picture of a tormented soul that only wanted peace but sacrificed that for a cause far greater than personal peace. Robotech The Sentinels Vol 1 The Devil’s Hand by Jack McKinney because as a child the Robotech series was alive to me and I read it over and over again losing myself in the pages of the series. Sometimes The Magic Works by Terry Brooks not because it inspired me to write but because it inspires me on how to approach life. Eon, Eternity, and Legacy by Greg Bear because you won’t find better SciFi anywhere and within the pages of these three books you’ll be faced time and again with moral choices and deep questions on humanity. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card because in Ender Card has created the ultimate outsider from which to look upon humanity. The Magic Engineer by LE Modesitt Jr because no list would be complete without Modesitt and how he makes you confront balance, question yourself, and better yourself while telling an amazing story. The rest of Frank Herbert’s Dune saga because you can’t just stop with Dune! FH does a better job of exploring humanity than most humans ever will. Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons because truly who does watch the watchers? Leaves Of Grass by Walt Whitman because WW will inspire life within you with his words. Memory, Sorrow And Thorn by Tad Williams because I came across this series at a time when I needed an escape from every day life and this trilogy transported me into a magical realm. Distant Friends and Warhorse by Timothy Zahn because they showed me how excellent SciFi can be and challenged my ethics. The Eye Of The World by Robert Jordan because I found RJ’s work at a time when I was the same age as his three main characters and came of age with them. In The Lake Of The Woods by Tim O’Brien because O’Brien helps to open up the Vietnam War to those of us born to its veterans. Kingdoms Of The Wall by Robert Silverberg challenges your belief system. The Real Story by Stephen R Donaldson shows you how difficult a task it is to get to the truth when everyone has their own truth. Poland by James A Michener opened up a part of the world for me. 
These books and many others influenced me in many ways. Exploring humanity and trying to understand our nature matters to me and these authors offered glimpses into that. I think the more we wrestle with our morals and ethics the more we discover who we are as a species and enables us to discover what makes us human. 
Selecting five books from my bookshelves was a difficult task! So I enlisted my puppy dog’s help! She had final day and approved my selections. 

   
 Which books would be your most influential books?

Dark Horse Presents Volume 3

  
In this installment DHP continues three stories while introducing a new one. Still impressed with the quality of this anthology. This time around two of the stories really grabbed me while two didn’t hold my interest, which can often be the case with an anthology. 

Mindwalk by Randy Stradley and Randy Emberlin

While I can see what the creators are trying to create here this story has lost my interest. A promising concept that is overwhelmed by melodrama. That said I think it would appeal to many, just not my cup of tea. 

  
Concrete by Paul Chadwick

Again proving that for some creators the magic works! I can’t put my finger on why exactly I am always amazed by Concrete, but I think it has to do with the enjoyable artwork, insightful stories, quality character development, and the overall feel of the story. 

  
Black Cross by Chris Warner

Always a fan of Chris Warner’s artwork. Black Cross continues to develop and shape itself into a quality story that has the chance to speak upon society’s issues. One to keep an eye on!

  
Boris The Bear by James Dean Smith and Randy Stradley

Boris The Bear was one of those 80’s phenomenons that I never quite got even though I grew up during the 80’s. A living teddy bear and the struggles it faces in life. This episode seems to be primarily comic relief. Boris The Bear has potential but this introduction isn’t very appealing to me. 

  
Looking forward to next week’s Dark Horse Presents! It will feature the first installment of Trekker and that looks interesting! Check back next week to see what it is!

Dark Horse Presents Volume 2

  
The first volume of Dark Horse Presents was incredible. The bar has been set high. Now comes the real challenge for a young independent comic book publisher: Can they sustain success and interest beyond the always sought after issue 1 of comic book culture. 

In short: Yes. Yes they can and they did. 

Concrete by Paul Chadwick 

Somehow Chadwick captures magic and puts it on display each time. The concept of the writer being drawn into the wilderness and letting their imagination roam free is timeless, and as such is used often. However this author keeps it fresh and engaging. Truly magical. If you want to write you should read Concrete.