Friday, December 07, 2007

A Quick One Before I'm Away

Fiction

Beyond Eden by S.L. Linnea. NO idea what this one is about. My wife suggested I purchase it.

The Black Lizard Big Book Book of Pulps edited by Otto Penzler. Oh my. Over a thousand pages of noir goodness in two novels and over fifty stories. From Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and others.

T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton. Eh.

DVD

Waitress starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion (the guy from Firefly), Cheryl Hines, AND Andy Griffith. There was a crazy lesbian at one job I worked at who had an infatuation with Keri Russell. I mean crazy. If I had the authority I would have fired her. Heck, I would have had the sense not to hire her.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

NonFiction Stack

NonFiction

Free For All: oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library by Don Borchert. Longtime California library employee tells all. drug busts, neglected kids, burkha-wearing breakdowns, sex toys in the book return. The most interesting events I've had were the AWOL soldiers getting arrested in Kansas, and the shapely lady in tight green pants with no underwear in Arizona.

Identical Strangers: a memoir of twins separated and reunited by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein. Elyse and Paula both knew they were adopted. But not until Elyse was in her thirties and tried to track down her birth mother did she get the shock that she had a twin sister. What's worse, the twins were separated as infants for a psychological study.

Utter Incompetents: ego and ideology in the Age of Bush by Thomas Oliphant. Well, I'm guessing Oliphant is anti-Bush. "How could some of the smartest, most experienced and politically savvy people in Washington screw up so badly?"


Father Knows Less, Or: "Can I Cook My Sister?"
by Wendell Jamieson. City Editor of the New York Times is caught flatfooted by his son's queries.

Day of Battle: the war in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson. Atkinson won the Pulitzer Prize for the first book in his World War Two series, An Army at Dawn. The Italian campaign seemed to always play second fiddle to the landings in Western France. But, after reading a couple memoirs and histories I found out that A LOT happened there.

Clapton: the autobiography by Eric Clapton. Drugs, booze, drugs, booze, rehab, drugs, booze, rehab.

The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. The current plan on Iraq.

All the Rage: the Boondocks past and present by Aaron McGruder. Compilation of strips and all the ones that were edited and censored. Plus some interviews.

Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. Jump rope, palm reading, building a campfire, math tricks.

Knives 2008 edited by Joe Kertzman. Be still, my beating heart.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. Martin's reminiscing of his wild and crazy guy days. He wore the white suit so people could see him better.

Combat Techniques: an elite forces guide to modern infantry tactics by Chris McNab and Martin J. Dougherty. I saw the authors to this and thought, "Hey, I'll get that." But, the book comes in and I find that this Andy McNab is not the former British soldier and current novelist Andy McNab. Dang it.

Warrior: a visual history of the fighting man by R.G. Grant. A DK book. Very high quality survey of warfare through the ages.

Complete Guide to Attics and Basements by Philip Schmidt and Matthew Paymar. Guide to finishing and fixing attics and basements. Great. Like I have not been trying to finish the dang kitchen for the last four months.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Twenty More - Ruth The Page Is On A Processing Tear

Science Fiction

Making Money by Terry Pratchett. A comedic novel, don't let the Science Fiction tag scare you away. The efficiency of the Postmaster General of Ankh-Morpork is noticed and he is promoted to run the Royal Mint.

Large Print

Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts. Who cares? Let's get to the Mysteries.

Mystery

Crimson Eve by Brandilyn Collins. Wacky cover photo of the author with odd highlighting on the back. Something about an English estate agent having an assassin after her.

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. Fourteen year old Cynthia awakes to find her family completely disappeared. Gone with no trace. Twenty-five years later a follow-up newspaper article on her story ends with her father's old hat mailed to Cynthia in Connecticut. Ooohh, sounds suspenseful and thrilling.

All Shots by Susan Conant. A dog mystery for women.

Best American Mystery Stories, 2007 edited by Carl Hiaasen and Otto Penzler. WIth Lawrence Block, Laura Lippman, John Sandford and a bunch of other people.

Noble Lies by Charles Benoit. This had a real good review. Mark Rohr has been bouncing around the globe for the last decade and ends up as a bouncer in a Thailand whorehouse. Robin Antonucci comes from the States and asks Mark's help in finding her brother, Shawn. Easy money for Mark; squire her around and take her cash. But, when they meet a Thai whore claiming to be Shawn's wife and two men are killed Mark is in trouble with the local thugs.

Cutthroat by Steve Brewer. Solomon gage is billionaire Dominick Sheffield's "troubleshooter". Sheffield's sons are making trouble in Africa and Solomon is sent to either clean up - or make a mess - to get them out of trouble.

Fiction

God's Demon by Wayne Barlow. Another very good review. The demon's in Hell have ruled under Prince Beelzebub ever since Lucifer's failed revolution in Heaven. Lord Sargatanas is the only demon to regret his actions and miss Heaven. Now Sargatanas wants to go back an starts a rebellion in Hell to try and earn his way back to Heaven.

All Through the Night by Suzanne Brockmann. "A Troubleshooter Christmas"

Tipperary by Frank Delaney. Epic story of Ireland told by nature healer Frank in 1900.

Song For Night by Chris Abani. "How do we get through that minefield?" you ask your fellow soldiers. Easy, send one of those kids through to clear the mines. "What if they set one off?" you ask. Easy, cut out his tongue beforehand so he won't scream.

Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow by Dedra Johnson. Mistreated girl Sandrine has a lousy mother and as a light-skinned black is subject to abuse by both black and white in 1970s New Orleans.

Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell. Iris gets a call telling her that Great-Aunt Esme is being released from the mental wing of the Cauldstone Hospital after Sixty-one years. "I have a great-aunt?" What secrets will this unearth?

Faraday Girls by Monica McInerney. Maggie attends the family's Christmas in July celebration and "uncovers unexpected family history and learns that the women she thought she knew so intimately all have something to hide."

Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. Some novel of "shocking import".

Redemption by Lee Jackson. People carry their ID everywhere, gas prices are insane, and a black market and barter system has taken root. When ex-con Ben Trinity walks into Redemption, MT he's followed by Homeland Security.

Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola and Cristopher Golden. Graphic novel by the author of Hell Boy. Baltimore unearths a vampire on the battlefields of World War One France. Lightly illustrated.

Kill Zone by Jack Coughlin and Donald A. Davis. Coughlin is a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant and sniper. His recent autobiography, Shooter, was pretty good so I have high hopes for this sniper themed novel featuring - wow, what a coincidence! - a Marine Gunnery Sergeant sniper. Coughlin looks like he has chunked out and avoided the barber since his retirement a few years ago. Good for him.

Just Beyond the Clouds by Karen Kingsbury. Christian Fiction.

LARGE PRINT

Large Print

Dark of the Moon by John Sandford. Murders in rural Bluestem, MN and detective Virgil Flowers in on the case.

Black and White by Dani Shapiro. Clara Brodeur's famous photographer mother is dying. Clara still angry over the "unsettling nude portraits" of her that made her mother famous.

Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson. Cissy is getting divorced, her two year old is acting out, and her family members are dying off. Cissy notices strange things: perfume inteh air, missing belongings, footsteps.

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon. Lord John fights with his Regiment in Germany and investigates his father's shameful death from seventeen years before.

Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Chick lit author and action author team up for a chicktion novel.

Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta. Local High School human sexuality teacher and local soccer coach clash over her course.

Gift by Richard Paul Evans. Some Christmas thing.

Devil's Labrynth by John Saul. Ryan is sent to Catholic boarding school after his father's death. A new priest's infatuation with exorcism seems to bring in evil rather than drive it away.

Fiction

Christmas Letters by Debbie Macomber. This must be a donation, it's dated 2006.