Book help?

I've been awful at keeping this journal updated. Big surprise. Work's still going okay, I can't believe we're quickly approaching the halfway point of my internship. Mostly I'm scared that they won't keep me on and I'll have to go back to job hunting. It's not that I think I'm doing bad, it's just... I'm not sure they're hiring, the economy being what it is, and despite their assurances that most of their interns will stay on, I can't help being pessimist. Going to send out a few CVs in the new year, just to be on the safe side.

I'm quickly turning into an old lady. I went to the Fiera in Milan this other weekend, same one I went to with my uni mates, and I was just so damn tired all the time. I remember five years ago we walked around for ages and I bought everything and the next day I went to class like it was no big deal. Now I mostly felt cranky and bothered by the crowd and my legs were sore and the next day it was a Sunday and I slept like a log until 2pm. I did get a cute new hat, though, so at least there's that.

For pie's sake, I'm wearing an undershirt because my stomach was cold. I haven't worn an undershirt since I was eight and under parental orders. I'm turning into my mother.

So anyway, the point of this post is that I'm a horrible person and my plan of reading a lot during my commute fell by the wayside, because I mostly SLEEP during my commute. Somewhat of a hazard but I haven't missed my stop yet. Or, well, just once, but that doesn't count. There's this reading challenge I've been doing since March, it's Avengers-themed and you have to read books that fulfill certain criteria to recruit heroes and defeat villains. You can see my progress here. I've still got three weeks left and 10 books to read, so I probably won't be able to recruit all heroes like I wanted, but I'd really like to try and get a few more.

Problem is that the heroes left are the ones with tricky books, the ones that I've spent months looking for but never quite found. So I figured that maybe you could give me a hand. This is what I have left:

• Read a book with the US flag on the cover, or with a main character who is part of the military.


• Read a book with a laser beam or rocket on the cover or with a character/ship using those weapons.


• Read a book with a hammer/mace on the cover or where a major character carries a hammer or mace.


• Read a book with a political leader (president, Queen, King etc.) on the cover or as the main protagonist.


• Read a book with a character in a black suit on the cover or with a spy as the main protagonist.


• Read a book by a russian author or with a russian main/side character.


• Read a book with numbers on the cover or with a science centric plot.


• Read a book with a skeleton on the cover or where a character sacrifices himself for love.


• Read a book with a square or cube on the cover or where a character gets his powers from a non-human/alien artifact.


• Read a book with a gauntlet on the cover (can be part of an armored character) or where an immortal character plays a significant role.

The only requirement is that the books have to be at least 100 pages long, and of course the shorter the better since I'd like to be able to cram a lot of books in the time I have left. For the items in italics I have already something in mind, but any suggestion would make me happy, because some of those... total blank! Laser beams? Hammers? Russian authors?? Help!