Thursday, July 28, 2011

Ooh La La. Now THAT Is A Book

NonFiction

German Automatic Weapons of World War II by Robert Bruce. Neat close-up photos of the mechanisms and how the parts fit together. Dirty, rotten, stinking, filthy nazis had some mechanically fascinating weapons. The Fallschirmjaegergewehr is fascinating. I should take this on summer vacation.

Music Translated Into Binary, Digital Language, Written Into a Thin Sheet of Metal, Then Layered Into a Plastic Disc

Gold by Steely Dan. "Expanded edition includes 4 additional recordings over 60 minutes worth of music."

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Packers, Commandos, Witches, AC/DC, Jockeys, Mobsters

NonFiction

Rockers and Rollers: a full-throttle memoir by Brian Johnson. Lead singer of AC/DC remembers his life after recalling whatever cars he owned at the time. "Now I know I take the piss out of Porsches a lot, but it;s only because racing against them is so difficult, because they never break, sort of."

Family Secrets: the case that crippled the Chicago mob by Jeff Coen. Shootings, bombings, loansharking.

Aaron Rodgers: leader of the pack by Rob Reischel. Lots of big color photos.

Return to Titletown: the remarkable story of the 2010 Green Bay Packers edited Joe Funk. Game by game with many color photos.

The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals edited by Gail Damerow. Providing nests for your ducks and geese to lay their eggs in helps keep the eggs clean and protects them from being cooked by the sun.

Pavement Chalk Artist: the three-dimensional drawings of Julian Beever by Julian Beever.

Rights of the People: how our search for safety invades our liberties by David K. Shipler. How have our rights to privacy and justice been undermined? What exactly have we lost?

Boy Who Came Back From Heaven by Kevin and Alex Malarkey. Is that last name a kind of joke? I'm late on buying this one, I should have noticed it's absence earlier.

Heaven is for Real: a little boy's astounding story of his trip to heaven and back by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent. Same story, different kid.

10 Commando by Ian Dear. Ten Commando was composed entirely of men who came from Nazi-occupied countries such as Holland, Poland, and France.

Enter Night: a biography of Metallica by Mick Wall.

Fiction

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher. Magic in Chicago.

Gamble by Felix Frances. Felix finished this one his father and he started.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Missed One: Hobo With a ShotguA

DVD

Hobo With A Shotgun starring Rutger Hauer. A recommendation from novelist Tom Piccirilli.




I wonder if they reference Hitcher.

The Return of Christa Faust (and Lee Goldberg) Plus Rural Murder

DVD

Small Town Murder Songs starring Peter Stormare, Jill Hennessy, Martha Plimpton. Cop whose small town has not had a murder in decades has one now. Cop is determined to find the killer even with mistrust of state cop in charge of the investigation.

Doctor Who: Series Six, Part One starring The Scrawny Doctor, English People. The Doctor lands in 1960s America and other places with aliens.
My family spends way too much time watching Doctor Who and Top Gear on BBC America. Then Boys #1 and #2 tell me about the horsepower ratings and top speeds of exotic sports cars. "If Top Gear reviewed the Hyundai Sonata they would call it the Hyndai Snot-ta!" [Hysterical laughter]

The Lincoln Lawyer
starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, John Leguizamo, Bryan Cranston, Marisa Tomei. Impressive cast list, huh? The book was good and this film version is supposed to be pretty decent. I wonder how they work in a topless McConaughey. Maybe exiting the shower? At the beach? Wearing a tank top?

Fiction

Supernatural: Coyote's Kiss by Christa Faust. An original novel featuring characters from the television show. Let's look at the back... Guided by the tattooed, pistol-packing bandita on a motorcycle, Xochi Cazadora, the brothers are plunged into a terrifying world of Aztec gods and monsters. Yep, that sounds like a Faust novel all right.

Justice by Karen Robards. An uninspired cover.

The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines. A good cover. Teen girl in 1942 secretly works her PI dad's recent case when she hears a boy at her school is involved. Sneaking out of the house, dancing at the Savoy, double-crossing her friends...this one sounds like a Megan Abbott novel.

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore. This may be a YA novel. Girl from family of witches prefers to separate that from "normal" life. While ranch-sitting for an aunt a dangerous ghost is more than she can handle.

NonFiction

Tied In: the business, history, and craft of media tie-in writing edited by Lee Goldberg. I used to sneer at tie-ins until I read what G0ldberg had to say. I have not, however, read what the other Goldberg (Tod) has to say. I can now find out because his is the first piece in here, Does a Real Writer Write Tie-Ins?, and directly addresses my past distaste for tie-ins.

The Deer and the Naturalist: dreamwork and the soul's journey by Mary Edwards.

Large Print

Monument to Murder by Margaret Truman.

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver. James Bond novel with bigger type.

Against All Enemies by Tom Clancy.

AudioBooks on CD

Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich. 7 CDs at 8.5 hours. Guy steals moon rock for his girlfriend. Gets arrested.

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson. 10 CDs at 12.6 hours. Robots eat people. Or something.

Music on CD

Nina Simone: 17 masters by Nina Simone. 17 selected tracks.

Monday, July 25, 2011

CDs by Gordon Lightfoot, David Bowie and other, lesser beings

Music on CD

Sleeps with Angels by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

Waiting for the Sun by The Doors.

Strange Days by The Doors.

Young Americans by David Bowie.

The Best of Earth Wind and Fire: Volumes 1 and 2 by Earth, Wind, and Fire.

Broken Arrow by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

Morrison Hotel by The Doors.

L.A. Woman by The Doors.

John Lennon Collection by John Lennon.

The Band by The Band.

Gord's Gold by Gordon Lightfoot.







Talking Book by Steve Wonder.



Cosmo's Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Willie and the Poor Boys by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

One of Those Nights by The Eagles.