Wicked City by Ace Atkins

Atkins is the writer selected by the estate of the late Robert B. Parker to continue the Spenser series. IMHO, so far he's done okay. Not great, but Parker himself didn't do great all the time, so I'd say good enough. Anyway, I thought I'd check out his own novels.

Wicked City is the "based on true life" story of ( Read more... )

Prime by Poppy Z Brite

A re-read. The original write-up is here (on LJ) and here (on DW). Still highly recommended -- more highly, actually, since the good Doctor Brite could use the money these days.

A Confederation of Valor: Valor's Choice/The Better Part of Valor by Tanya HuffA re-read, but not one I wrote up before. This is, of course, a ( Read more... )

Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell

Re-read. Didn't say much about it the first time (January 11, 2004--I'd really only just started doing this) and I don't have much to say now. Interesting book. Recommended.

The Panda's Thumb: more reflections in natural history by Stephen Jay GouldOne of the great science writers of the last ( Read more... )

All Spell Breaks Loose: a Raine Benares novel by Lisa ShearinThe latest and probably last of the Raine Benares series (I was gonna link, but there's five of them so if you want the details just check the tags for Lisa Shearin) finds Raine and her allies raiding the goblin kingdom to overthrow Nukpana and destroy the Saghred, the magical artifact ( Read more... )

1491: new revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles C. MannThis is an overview of what Native Americans may have been like before the arrival of Europeans. There's a lot of speculation, and to his credit Mann is not afraid to present both sides of any argument, even the ones that contradict the point he wants to make ( Read more... )

The Invention of Air: a story of science, faith, revolution, and the birth of America by Steven Johnson

The titular invention, the discovery of oxygen, itself takes up very few pages near the centre of the book. The main focus of the book is a biography of one Joseph Priestley, who did discover oxygen but had no idea how to deal with it. The ( Read more... )

The Devil in the White City: murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America by Erik LarsonThe titular White City is the grounds of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1892, a fair created solely for the purpose of making the French feel bad. There was also something in there about celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus ( Read more... )

Being Shelley: the poet's search for himself by Anne WroeHaving read a good bio of Byron, I decided I needed to find a good one of Shelley. Sadly, I found this one instead. Wroe seems to have written with intent as much poetic as informational; now that I've finished I don't think I'm any the wiser about Shelley's life or personality. In fact, ( Read more... )

The "God" Part of the Brain: a scientific interpretation of human spirituality and God by Matthew Alper

Alper basically looks for evidence for God and spirit through science, including biology and neurology. An interesting and thought-provoking book. Recommended.

Bad Astronomy: misconceptions and misues revealed, from astrology to the Moon ( Read more... )

Counter-knowledge: how we surrendered to conspiracty theories, quack medicine, bogus science and fake history by Damian ThompsonSo, other than the words used in that extraordinarily long subtitle, how does Thompson define "counterknowledge"? "Misinformation packaged to look like fact". Thompson proceeds to rip into a variety of types, including ( Read more... )