Laurell K. Hamilton has banged out 21 Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books. The fact that her name is ten times larger than Anita’s is proof that the writer has become more important than the story. While this a good thing for the publisher and the author, it’s not always a good thing for the reader. The first half of Kiss The Dead really got my hopes up. We find Anita Blake acting as a US Marshall, chasing down bad guys, talking business with her Cop buddies. She even mentions in passing that she sometimes works as a Reanimator. There’s a…
Category: book review
Good Calories/Bad Calories
Gary Taubes wrote the interesting and thought provoking Why We Get Fat-it’s all about the Carbs, the highly processed Carbs. In Good Calories, Bad Calories he picks up where he left off, continuing to put forth his theory about why the Western Diet is the greatest act of evil in human history. Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health reads like the footnotes from most other books. He talks at length about the many Diet Trials and the many doctors and the many government agencies who set out to prove how bad things…
Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base
Area 51 has gained legendary status over the past couple of decades. It’s one of those places that seems to be both real and fantasy-and according to author Annie Jacobsen that’s just the way the CIA, Air Force, Dept of Atomic Energy, and countless other super secret government agencies want it. Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base is fill with stories from the Cold War, Atomic Weapons, and UFOs. And despite the fact she talks at great lengths about how far the hidden powers will go to keep Area 51’s secrets, she accepts at face…
Keep The Change
Steve Dublanica wrote one of my favorite blogger-makes-good books called Waiter Rant, in which he tells the world what he thinks about restuarants and the dinning public at large. He lived and died by how much he was tipped-and he hated people who didn’t tip, much as an Assembly Line Portrait Photographer hates people who don’t buy. In Keep The Change, Steve ventures into the universe of tipping. Being a poor schmuck myself, my own tipping activities are limited to restuarants with wait staff and my semi-annual haircut. And I’ll be honest, I’d rather not tip the random woman at…
The Hunger Game Trilogy
Do something shocking every thousand words. —A.E. van Vogt A few spoilers. The Hunger Games Trilogy is a compelling roller coaster of shocking moments and it also meets the most important standard that any fictive writing can-it elicits emotion in the reader. By the time I got to the last page of Mockingjay I was ready to swallow a handful of poisoned berries myself. Easily the best of the books is The Hunger Games, where our moody hero Katniss chooses to sacrifice herself so that her little sister will not have to die in the…
God, No!
God, No! is a collection rants, some of which are about being an atheist, and many of which appear to be random blog posts about nothing in particular. Being a rich and famous guy, he talks a lot about hanging out with other rich and famous folks, and mentions many times that one of the benefits of being rich and famous is having a lot of naked women wander in and out of his life. He’s also very fond of repeating himself, which kind of works in standup comedy, but gets old pretty fast on the printed page. Penn Jillette…
Fiction Ruined My Family
Jeanne Darst recounts a life filled with wrong choices, poor decisions, and a general lack of interest from her alcoholic parents and her apathetic sisters. As might be expected, this is not a happy story, but it has it’s occasional funny bits. I can’t think of any at the moment, but I did smile once or twice. Fiction Ruined My Family is not really about Jeanne Darst, it’s more about her father and his quest to write the ultimate tell all book about Zelda and Scot Fitzgerald. By the time I finished this collection of personal horror stories I found that…
Absinthe & Flamethrowers
How cool is a book that gives you detailed instructions on how to make gunpowder? Pretty damned cool. Turns out there is more to making black powder-as author William Gurstelle prefers to call his gun powder-than Captain Kirk made it look when was kicking Gorn ass with a bamboo cannon. For one thing, you need pure ingredients. William advices that you make you own charcoal, since the stuff you use in a barbeque is full of all kinds of impurities. He recommends buying the sulfur and saltpeter. Once you have made the black powder you can go on to make…
Distrust That Particular Flavor
William Gibson has written some great novels and one of my all time favorite short stories-Burning Chrome. Most of his stuff has not held up well over time, he talks a little too much about Virtual Reality-even after it’s pretty much turned out to be a bit of a bust. Or maybe it just hasn’t been long enough, and once we are all living in The Matrix we will see what a true visionary Wiliam Gibson really was. His last couple of novels are sort of sci fi, in that they have a lot of science and a lot of…
Beer Is Proof That God Loves Us
Here is the tale of one man’s love for his favorite beverage: Beer. From it’s humble beginnings as everyone’s everyday drink, to it’s latest mutations into 32 per cent proof hard core booze, Charles Bamforth explains why beer is the best of all the alcohols. I’m not a drinking man, not even beer. But I am a reader and Beer Is Proof That God Loves Us is a good read. Charles tells a loving story of beer, often mentioning beers of the world that I have never heard of. He tells how all beers are now owned by one or two…