Friday, March 01, 2013

Milwaukee Music, Swedish Serbs, South Dakota Sniper

Milwaukee Music 

Power Ballads by Will Boast.  I read this book and enjoyed it.  Only one or two stories are actually set in Milwaukee.  Short stories that revolve around a professional drummer in Chicago.  The drummer loves jazz music but makes money by playing in various bands and playing on a big name tour.  A neat look at working musicians.

Swedish Serbs

Easy Money by Jens Lapidus.  One of the few members of the Nordic crime wave I have read.  Well, listened to.  I heard the audio version of this Stockholm crime drama and enjoyed it.  A business student rises in the drug trade while ostensibly searching for his missing sister.  A native Serbian is stuck in middle management of a Stockholm crime ring and does not mind the brutality.  An Argentinian convicted for drug trafficking escapes prison with an eye for revenge. 

South Dakota Sniper

Merciless by Lori Armstrong.  Former Army sniper Mercy Gunderson is a newly hired FBI Special Agent assigned to Rapid City.  Her job is boring and disappointing.  I have not read this book but did enjoy talking with Lori Armstrong at Bouchercon in St. Louis.

Others

Burn Palace by Stephen Dobyns.  Small town Rhode Island is newly haunted by supernatural or mysterious events.  I read a good review.  I think.

Shadow and the Crown by Patricia Bracewell.  The cover image says Female protagonist in swords and knights romance.  The flyleaf says Yeah, that guess is about right.

Robert's Rules of Order: newly revised: 11th edition by Henry M. Robert III.  We needed a new one. 

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Wny Did I Order This?

Why Did I Order This?

Scaling Force: dynamic decision-making under threat of violence by Rory Miller and Lawrence A. Kane.  Why did I order this?  I'm sure I took someone's online recommendation but I cannot recall where.  Maybe from that comic strip's (Unshelved) weekly recommendations.  Let me see.  Yeah, they did

Anyway, the authors list six levels of force from presence to lethal.  This looks pretty good.


Large Print
  
The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter.  Bob Lee Swagger solves the assassination of President Kennedy.

Magnificence by Lydia Millet.  The fly leaf says a widow inherits a mansion with stuffed animals and meets "uniquely damaged humans".  Let's lay on some thick sarcasm and say, "Oh, what an original idea.  A widow moves and meets wacky people and they all heal each other."

Fiction

Crystal Cove by Lisa Kleypas.  One of our romance paperbacks written by Kleypas has gone out 42 times.

Monday, February 25, 2013

I've Actually Read Three of These Authors

Ones I've Read

Benediction by Kent Haruf.  He writes tales of rural life, old rancher dudes, and families with generational gaps.  This novel has a guy with terminal cancer, a new pastor in town, and other stuff.  The book is probably worth your time.

A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks.  I read Faulks's Birdsong and liked it.  Birdsong was a World War One tale and well done.  I have the movie version at home on DVD but that thing is three hours long and I'm not sure I want to tackle it.

Suspect by Robert Crais.  Crais writes good thrillers and is best know for his series characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.  This is the PTSD one with a PTSD Police Officer and a PTSD Army dog teaming up to fight PTSD and bad guys.  I wonder if the dog dies in the end.

I've Never Read These People

Calculated in Death by J.D. Robb.  Does Nora Roberts farm these out to ghost writers?  Maybe she collaborates with ghost writers.  I write this because she really cranks them out.

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.  Picoult has curly hair.

Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow.  I have a theory that Stabenow's whole career exists as a way to write off her trips to Alaska and all the National Parks as business expenses.

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke.  Ugh.  Red velvet birthday cake.  That's what I got every year at school.  My mother would order one for me from through the Gustavus Adolphus cafeteria.  Not that the cake was bad but it's not to my taste.  Each year I'd eat some and put it in my dorm room mini-fridge where the cake would dry out.  I'd cut off the dried bit and eat the inside and finally throw away the husk.

The Unofficial Guide: Disneyland 2013 by Bob Sehlinger, Seth Kubersky and Len Testa.  Once again they neglected to hire Victor Gischler for this series.

Be Saddened, Cheer Up, Go For A Walk

Be Saddened

Kill Anything That Moves: the real American war in Vietnam by Nick Turse.  Policies set at the top of the chain of command resulted in widespread killings and murders of noncombatants on the ground.  Including children.

Cheer Up

Monty Python's Flying Circus: all the bits: complete and annotated annotations by Luke Dempsey.  Script of each television episode with annotations and screenshots.  880 pages of very heavy paper meaning this book will start to fall apart after 2-3 checkouts.

  • "Accident Black Spot" is a regular sign on British roads.
  • Richie Benaud, former Australian cricketer, was a longstanding Australian cricket commentator in the U.K. and around the cricketing world.
  • The lawn mowers are both called "Betta-Cutta."
  • Tooting is about 12 miles east of Hounslow.
  • "My brain hurts" is a phrase still heard regularly in the U.K., and all because of this sketch.
  • British people enjoy criticizing the French whenever possible, and one of the chief knocks is to question their personal hygiene.
  • Yes. Yes. Yes. (a maniacal look in his eyes) Yes, yes Mr Phipps. I love seeing the customers when they come in to complain about some book being damaged, and ask to see the chief librarian and then...you should see their faces when the proud beast leaps from his tiny office, snatches the book from their hands and sinks his fangs into their soft er...(collects himself) Mr Phipps...Kong! You can be our next librarian - you're proud majestic and fierce enough...will you do it?
Garfield Fat Cat 3-Pack: volume 16 by Jim Davis.  Elementary school kids love these Garfield volumes.  I know two kids who quote these comics.  I know two kids where one pretends to be Garfield and the other pretends to be Odie and the 'Garfield" yells at the 'Odie'.  I know two kids who pretend to be cats and try to purr.  I know two kids who get yelled at to "stop that and get out of here!"

Go For A Walk

Ice Age Trail Atlas by the Ice Age Trail Alliance.  "105 detailed color hiking maps".  This is a reference copy.  Do Not Steal The Maps!  We have a photocopy machine you jackape.