Tuesday, November 18, 2008

An overweight, alcoholic, degenerate gambling, former heroin and cocaine using, cigarette smoking, prostitute hiring, near death comic writes a book

NonFiction

Too Fat to Fish by Artie Lange. Contrary to this entry's title I like Artie. Artie is a funny guy with some amazing stories. So he wrote a book. Amazing stories. If you like this we also have Artie's "concert" video (shot in a bar) Artie Lange: it's the whiskey talkin' and his movie Beer League.

Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook by Phyllis Pellman Good. 1400 slow cooker recipes.

Outliers: the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell. How much do environmental factors like family, birthplace, birth date and culture effect a person's success?

Monday, November 17, 2008

I should be happy about all the new things but I do have other work to do

Fiction

Paperbacks - All Sizes

Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two by Drew Karpyshyn. After the Sith War the last surviving Sith, Darth Bane, instituted the Rule of Two: all Sith must have an apprentice. Bane's apprentice Zannah has impressive powers. The only Jedi believing there are remaining Sith is out to stop Bane and Zannah.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert. Set in WI with punk band chick looking for her punk band mother who ran away years ago.

Sex Club by L.J. Sellers. A birth control clinic is bombed and a client turns up dead in a dumpster. One of the clinic's nurses, Kera, starts to investigate the victim's Bible group.

Gun Work by David J. Schow. Carl Ledbetter's wife has been kidnapped in Mexico. Unable to pay the million dollars demanded Carl calls for help from the deadly man whose life he once saved in Iraq.

A Hell of a Woman: an anthology of female noir edited by Megan Abbott. "Dark tales of lonely housewives, diner waitresses yearning for more, schoolgirls with dangerous ambitions, hustlers looking for one last score..." From Busted Flush Press, out of Houston, who sent us a bunch of bookmarks once.

Fourth Victim by Tony Spinosa. Spinosa is Reed Farrell Coleman. Heating oil business owners Joe and Bob, featured earlier in Hose Monkey, are facing a crime wave against heating oil businesses. Five heating oil truck drivers in Long Island have been robbed and murdered. One driver saved the life of Joe when they were both in the NYPD and Joe and Bob follow a confusing trail on the way to solving the murder.
Spinosa/Coleman writes some great stuff.

Hardcovers

Leaving Whiskey Behind by Dorothy Garlock. I like whiskey. I thought about picking up some Jamesons when I was at the Super Target in Fitchburg but decided since I have stuff at home already I did not bother.

The Archbishop of Andalusia by Andrew M. Greeley. A Blackie Ryan novel.

Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb. Murder in 2060 New York with a poisoned priest.

Cross Country by James Patterson. Who cares?

A Mercy by Toni Morrison. Are these books really any good? I know Morrison gets press and good reviews but is the story interesting. Let me rephrase that, would I enjoy the story?

Snake Dreams by James D. Doss. Murder and romance with Charlie Moon on the Ute Reservation.

Joker by Brian Azzarello. The Joker is being released from the Arkham Asylum and eager to regain his power as a crime lord.

Large Print

Heat Lightning by John Sandford. Detective Virgil Flowers gets a call about a dead body at a veterans memorial in Stillwater, MN. The victim is left in the same way as one a week ago and Flowers works to find the killer before there is another killing.

Rustler by Linda Lael Miller. Some cowboy romance with a reformed crook named Wyatt wooing, and getting wooed, by the prim Sarah who has a secret history of her own.

Wedding Belles by Haywood Smith. Lifelong friends aid one woman whose 28 year old daughter is marrying one of their high school classmates.

Fisherman's Bend by Linda Greenlaw. Jane Bunker left violent Miami for for the quiet life in Maine. But she still runs into murder and mayhem.

Grace by Richard Paul Evans. Young Eric finds Grace dumpster diving for food and lets her stay in the family tree house. Grace tells horrific stories of her home life but Eric's brother tells about Grace's hideout and she is sent back home.

So Long at the Fair by Christina Schwarz. Job decides whether to stay with his wife or leave for his mistress while vengeful events in 1963 start to come back to haunt him.

NonFiction

Outliers: the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell. "Why do some people succeed far more than others?"

The Price of Government: getting the results we need in an age of permanent fiscal crisis by David Osborne, and Peter Hutchinson. Budgeting and results in government.