Books: Alphabetical

The first third is intriguing then it just jumps ship.

I couldn’t be bothered to write a review.

My first post The Exapnse the T.V. show novel and it’s a good one. What makes it good? The... more

An incredibly prescient book from the 19th century that basically lays out everything that is wrong with the practical... more

The historical fiction version of A Feast for Crows with the church versus the crown. It’s a thick but quick-paced read... more

I bought this on a whim when I saw the price dropped to $20. Kudos for the completeness and,... more

The final book the The Tripods trilogy delivers a satisfying conclusion to the story. I picture the aliens looking like Sigmund... more

Virginia Postrel is a great, thoughtful writer and, although I am not terribly interested in the topic of glamour,... more

A tale of dueling magicians who go through ever more elaborate lengths to uncover each other’s secrets. It’s all... more

Penn details his weight-loss journey and his wacky diet. It’s an interesting take on how we view food and... more

Looks like I am ending the year on a YA fiction kick. Prey is the story of a young boy (aren’t... more

This book is really an economics lesson presented in layman’s terms. The plot and characters are merely a device... more

Decent mystery. A nice change of pace from A. Christie.

Johan Norberg wrote one of the clearest accounts of the 2007 financial meltdown and, after that dismal tale, he’s back with... more

I agreed with many of his main points on stereotyping, democracy, propaganda, and the inability for a potential voter... more

Racing the Beam is a fairly accessible look at the technology behind the Atari 2600 video game console. Apparently the... more

The harrowing true life account of three airmen who are adrift in a rubber raft for thirty-four days following... more

The most recent book in this series builds up to a grand conclusion, an last-stand battle of epic proportions,... more

A nice collection of works by Eric Ravilious. This isn’t too text heavy, but each print gets a few... more

Catching up on a classic I missed in high school. I thought it was okay, but not the sort... more

Mildly amusing tale of a guy who choses to recreate memories down to exacting detail. Reminded me of how... more

A better title for this art book would be Etching from the Renaissance. The book covers the dawn of... more

In the 1960s Fritz Eichenburg illustrated many classics as part of the Heritage Press series of books. This one... more

A very well done Aubry/Maturin story. More Maturin centric than usual, which is refreshing.

Required reading for anyone who is sick of the political name calling and soft bigotry that permeates every single... more

Rather boring and pointless.

Leave it to The Phantom Surfers to release an instrumental surf record without any music, singing, talking or audio... more

While wood engraving was the method of illustrating books for at least a century, there doesn’t seem to be... more

A pretty straightforward detective mystery which, despite the cover of the book, has very little to do with baseball.... more

Season of Storms is a fitting palette cleanse after the main Witcher series thud of an ending. There’s no... more

I listened to the audiobook version which features many of the original cast members reprising their roles. The book... more

Mamet’s political coming out book doesn’t offer much new insight into conservatism. Instead it cribs a lot from Thomas... more

This is a fantasy novel I picked up based strictly on the reviews and auto-recommendations online. I enjoyed it... more

A compilation of humorous essays by eighteen conservative authors in which each tackles the merits and faults or various... more

Another exciting Hornblower sea tale. This one was a much better read than the last, although, outside of the... more

This is a strange old book. It’s a Nancy Drew style mystery but the main character is a teen-aged Shirley... more

Loses steam about 150 pages into the book.

This is the story of an American GI who returns to Sicily years after the war to find the... more

This is the first Western I’ve ever read. Written in 1933, Silvertip is the story of a gray-templed gunslinger who likes... more

Another rambling philosophical tome from Taleb. It expands on the idea that good policy emerges from the participants having... more

Well, this isn’t the next Kingkiller book, but, fortunately, I wasn’t expecting that. The author himself goes to great... more

This was my first cyberpunk novel (if you don’t count getting stuck in Neuromancer on the IIgs). I thought it was... more

I really do like Vin Packer’s pulp thrillers. This book continues her knack for creating conflicted and dark characters... more

I enjoyed the first half of the book in which the Discworld is introduced to the first all-powerful sorcerer... more

The second book in this series moves along nicely as the various characters continue to do the things they... more

A short, quick read that goes by even faster because of the blunt writing (or blunt translation as the... more

The title and cover art have absolutely nothing to do with the story within the pages of the pulp... more

Does look and feel matter? That’s one of the questions posed in this book about the ever increasing emphasis... more

I gave it a 6 and I don’t remember why.

Published in 1964, this book presents itself as a scientific analysis of swinger culture. The opening chapters are filled... more

The second collection of Witcher short stories is actually the first or something like that. You’ll need to Google... more

I went into this book knowing nothing of the many Mrs. Peregrine books/movies/after-dinner mints. Unless Shirley Temple is the main character,... more

This was a fairly by-the-numbers fantasy story with the usual characters: a wizard, a prince, a dwarf, a thief... more

A hu-hum offering in the series. I accidently skipped a book… didn’t seem to matter.

A mostly Poirot-free Poirot novel. It was okay, I guess, but pretty forgettable. What was I talking about?

Essential reading for understanding that people who might disagree with politically are not evil or stupid, they are just... more

Another yarn about corrupted youth from Vin Packer. This time it’s four disenfranchised teenage boys who become a vigilante... more

The penultimate entry in the Expanse-o-verse has the crew scattered across the galaxy and we’re finally getting a glimpse... more

A fairly good sci-fi novel about a pair of telepathic twins separated when one goes off to survey new... more

The Witcher continues with more of Geralt not fighting monsters. There’s a conclave of sorcerers, a double-crossing, a big... more

Libertarian disaster porn that moves along nicely until the actual disaster hits (figuratively) about two-thirds into the book. At... more

A memoir of what living in The Soviet Union was like in the 60s and 70s. Bukovsky spent most... more

I had thought that this was the conclusion of the entire Song of Fire and Ice series, but aparently this is... more

After a very Geralt-centric novel, this fourth book in The Witcher series returns to the Ciri being the primary... more

This book in the Aubry/Maturin series benefits from a clear plot line of espionage.

Sorry, no review.

Most of the paintings featured in this coffee table art book are preliminary studies for major works. The time... more

A well-paced survival story about a bunch of teenagers abandoned on a desolate planet. There is some delving into... more

The Twisted Ones was another 1950’s pulp novel reprinted as an eBook by Prologue Books and available for free download.... more

A very good read that is a critical analysis and brief history of text adventures. The first half gets... more

This is a memoir of life aboard a merchant vessel in the early 1800’s. It is also noteworthy as... more

The main thesis of Tyranny of Clichés begins with the notion that conservative and libertarian arguments tend to get rebutted, not... more

Another quality pulp novel from Prologue Books. This one is filled with at least half a dozen cheating spouses... more

The third book in this series is finally bringing things together for most of our main characters. I am... more

This is the first book I’ve read that was written by a saint. It’s the description of an ideal... more

This is your standard mass-market artist overview with plenty of high quality color images. The writing is to the... more

After seeing Jess Franco’s movie of the same name, I noticed that this ebook was available for free at... more

The subtitle of the book is “Anagram Record Reviews” and that pretty much sums it up. Take a record... more

This short novel tries to show how it was possible for normal German’s to just sit back and let... more

A dystopian novel that predates Orwell’s 1984 by a decade or two and was banned in Russia until the... more

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m one of those nuts who actually likes The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. It has been years since... more

A fairly blah read from Vixen Press. This one is pretty short on plot and lacks the hardboiled edge... more

Book two in the Mistborn series continues this the storyline directly after the climactic events of the first novel. This... more

Martin Gardner died around the time this book was released. Like many of his books, it compiles articles and... more

That title is quite a mouthful, ain’t it? I am continuing my recent excursion into econ-type books that are... more

Young adult fiction about giant three legged machines that transform children into mindless teenagers when they turn thirteen. So... more

The title of this book would suggest that it is purely about having a hopeful outlook about world events.... more

This book started off okay enough and was pretty interesting for the first hundred pages or so. The premise... more

Apparently, I liked this one.

Book two in this excellent series is just about as good as the first. The story picks up right... more

I read a large chunk of this book in draft form as he serialized it on his Substack blog.... more

A writer takes in his dead friends widow only to discover she’s a slob who speaks like Tarzan but... more

My copy was bought used and man-o-man does it smell musty. The odor is, at best, like a stack... more

I have been slowly building out a little library of wood engraving books and this one is a book... more

There are very few books detailing the technical aspects of wood engraving out there. This is about as close... more

While it’s almost structured as a defense of the “misuse” of words such as literally and like, McWhorter’s book is a very... more

A bit of speculative fiction showing how the world would deal with a zombie apocalypse. The book is written... more

Another solid Discworld novel with lots of vivid characters and humorous situations.

No review written.

Another comic’s memoir, but this time it’s actually funny. The first half is really is much better, in which... more