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Check out the new reviews by Dan
 Christine supports cello playing and makes pots and pots of tomato sauce while reading many books, listening to music, and spending time paddling and hiking in our beautiful state. In her free time she trains dogs and employees.
Check out Christine's X Picks here and listen to 100.1 KTHK FM Wednesday mornings at 7:45 for Christine's Picks of the week with Dead Air Dave. She also very much recommends The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, and any of the three Dexter novels by Jeff Lindsay. And anything by Patty Griffin. And for anyone in the mood to spend some time with Joni Mitchell check out Joni Mitchell's latest disc Shine and Herbie Hancock's River: the Joni Letters.
 Dan can be found near large bodies of water investigating string theory when not selling books.
The Hit books by Lawrence Block
Block is one of the most prolific crime novelists out there, and, among
several ongoing series is this one, which includes Hit Man, Hit List,Hit Parade and Hit and Run. I have now read two of them, and they are
very entertaining. They won't win any big literary awards, but they are
fun and well written diversions.
The hero (or antihero?) is Keller, a hit man who kills for a living. His"control" is Dot. He gets a "job" from her (she handles all the business
arrangements) and carries it out as anyone else would: simply do your
best, professionally and emotionally uninvolved. It's just a job. The
interaction between Keller and Dot is very droll. They live in New York,
Keller in NYC and Dot in upstate. Keller has a sardonic outlook on life,
but still has a real personal life; his hobby is collecting stamps.
Whenever he is taking care of a job, he takes time out to visit the
local stamp collectors and sees what he can up with.
I think they are well written with fun plots and realistic dialogue.
Those who like the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay might like these.
Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
This is not a definitive date-by-date history of the Civil War. The
subtitle is The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. The first part of
the book follows Lincoln and the several contemporaries that were his
opponents, in separate narrative threads, with the threads coming
together later in the book. In fact, many of the major events of the
Civil War are dealt with only as a context for displaying the shifting
allegiances, political subterfuges and raging personalities of Lincoln's
Cabinet and his military command. We get deep insights not only into
Lincoln's personality, but those around him as well., including his
family and personal aids. It makes for fascinating reading, as the
differences (and some similarities) between the political machinations
of Lincoln and his administration and the administrations of today are
most vivid.
The book is wonderful, clearly written, engaging and a joy to read. It
is a welcome addition to the mountains of literature on Lincoln and the
Civil War, giving us a detailed insight into the personalities of
Lincoln and his administration.
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson (to be published September 9, 2008)
In Anathem, Neal Stephenson has created a gigantic book (about 900 dense
pages) of many layers. The story takes place in a very Earth-like world,
whose society has been divided into two main segments: the maths, which
contain a limited number of avout, and the Saeculum, the secular world.
The avout live a monkish life, devoted to the study of mathematics,
philosophy, semantics, science, ethics, martial arts etc, but there is
virtually no worship of god (except for the study of religion as a
social institution). All of this takes place with almost no technology.
Their has been some sort of a Dune-like Jihad against scientific
instruments, computers and technology, with just a very few
scientifically advanced tokens grandfathered in from earlier ages.
The Saelculum contains the vast majority of the population, where
religion runs rampant, society ebbs and flows and technology is
abundant. The two segments of society rarely interact, except for a
once-in-ten-years opening of the gates between them.
The story follows Fraa Erasmus and a number of his cohorts from one of
the maths. Something has been discovered in the sky by one of the other
monks (who has been "drummed out" of the math), and Erasmus and his
friends try to figure out what it is. Once they figure out what is
happening, they have to determine what to do about it.
In setting up Orth, the world described in Anathem, the author takes
quite a while to establish the structure of his world. It takes about a
hundred pages before anything "happens." Once you get going though, the
story and the characters really grab you, and I was very anxious to see
what happens to our heroes. If you have the patience to keep going, you
will be truly rewarded for a deep, thought provoking and original story.
Previous Dan Picks
 Ed is a longtime bookstore worker and expert in all things Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Andre Norton, and much of the rest of any Science Fiction/Fantasy section. Don't ask him to spell, however - we have reports that his spelling tests made his fifth grade teacher cry.
Post Mortem
By Patricia Cornwell
Kay Scarpetta's early tale of the medical examiner. Lots of good twists and turns.
Kirby: King of Comics
By Mark Evanier
Excellent illustrated biography of Jack Kirby, co-creator of most of Marvel universe: Captain America, Fantastic Four, Thor, Avengers, Hulk, X-Men, New Gods, Mister Miracle, Forever People. A must for anyone who loves comics.
Matarese Countdown
By Robert Ludlum
OK Sequel to The Mararese Circle. Rehash of the better 1st book. Not as exciting, but a fun read.
What the Dickens
By Gregory Maguire
Subtitled Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy. Fun read. A great interpretation of the origin of tooth fairies. More of a juvenile setting than his other works. Well done as a sitting around a fire story telling.
Starship Troopers
By Robert A. Heinlein
Classic by a master of S.F. A society in which only those who have served in the military can vote, or hold public office. A young man enlists in peace time, only to be tested by an invasion from outerspace. Much better than the movie loosely based on the book.
Time Enough For Love
By Robert A. Heinlein
The Conclusion to a reoccurring character, Lazarus Long 1916-4272. Introduced in the Unpleasant Profession of Jonathon Hoag, and reappearing in Methuselah's Children. This finishes up his life and multiple death stories. A fun and thought provoking read.
Crystal Singer, Killashandra, Crystalline
By Anne McCaffrey
Three books that make up the story of crystal mines, Killashandra's, life. Food story telling by the creator of the Dragon World series. Should be read in order. Light Hearted S.F. with vibrant plots.
Previous Ed Picks
 KC grows six foot tall tomato plants, eggplants and zucchini. Her most prized vegetable is a gigantic pumpkin which she plans to use to build a low-impact garden shed.
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
By Isabella Bird Bishop
Women were scarce enough in the West of the late nineteenth century, and a middle-aged English lady traveling alone, by horseback, was a real phenomenon. It was during the autumn and early winter of 1873 that Isabella Bird made this extended tour of the Rocky Mountain area of Colorado, when she was on her way back to England from the Sandwich Islands.
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
By Candice Millard
After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil's most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.
Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative.
The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
By Andrew Lycett
Based on thousands of previously unavailable documents, Andrew Lycett, author of the critically acclaimed biography Dylan Thomas, offers the first definitive biography of the baffling Conan Doyle, finally making sense of a long-standing mystery: how the scientifically minded creator of the world's most rational detective himself succumbed to an avid belief in spiritualism, including communication with the dead.
Conan Doyle was a man of many contradictions. Always romantic, energetic, idealistic and upstanding, he could also be selfish and fool-hardy. Lycett assembles the many threads of Conan Doyle's life, including the lasting impact of his domineering mother and his wayward, alcoholic father; his affair with a younger woman while his wife lay dying; and his nearly fanatical pursuit of scientific data to prove and explain various supernatural phenomena. Lycett reveals the evolution of Conan Doyle's nature and ideas against the backdrop of his intense personal life, wider society and the intellectual ferment of his age. In response to the dramatic scientific and social transformations at the turn of the century, he rejected traditional religious faith in favor of psychics and séances — and in this way he embodied all of his late-Victorian, early-Edwardian era's ambivalence about the advance of science and the decline of religion.
Lycett is the first biographer to gain access to Conan Doyle's newly released personal archive — which includes correspondence, diaries, original manuscripts and more.
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters
by Jon Lellenberg
This annotated collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's previously unpublished private correspondence offers unique insight into one of the world's most popular authors. For the first time, Conan Doyle emerges from the shadow of Sherlock Holmes, revealing a man whose character and exploits rival that of his famous creation. In particular, Conan Doyle's correspondence with his mother exposes his endless search for fulfillment and success outside the Holmes stories. At age sixteen Conan Doyle began studying medicine at Edinburgh University. Just months shy of graduating, he made the adventurous decision to accept a position as a surgeon on a whaling ship heading to the Arctic. He returned to Edinburgh, graduated, and struggled to establish his own medical practice while simultaneously writing and promoting his stories. He suffered years of disappointment as both doctor and author; yet, to his amazement, just two months after the first Sherlock Holmes short stories, he had garnered such a following that he completely abandoned medicine for literature. As the public clamored endlessly for Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle explored other pursuits: He was a doctor during the Boer War, a World War I correspondent, and the foremost spokesman for Spiritualism. As his life changed, Doyle's correspondence with his mother remained constant. In his letters to the Mam, Doyle shares the dismay he felt over the critical reception of his other writing, and as his irritation with the Holmes adventures mounts he announces his desire to kill off the character. She is his confidante and trusted counsel throughout her long life. The editors are known for their expertise and scholarship on the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. Daniel Stashower is an award-winning mystery novelist and author of Teller of Tales, a widely praised biography of Conan Doyle. Jon Lellenberg is the U.S. agent for the Conan Doyle estate and author of The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Foley is the writer's great-nephew and executor of the estate. Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters will be a must-have collection for readers interested in the author, Sherlock Holmes, and the Victorian era.
Previous KC Picks
 Linsay: Unicycle champion, web designer, and former farmer, Linsay loves sushi, hammocks, and a two year old named Emily. When she is not at Sundance, she is busy perfecting her sangria recipe and grading college essays.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak has earned its place on my list of favorites. From its circular and layering plot, to its vividly detailed descriptions, The Book Thief will keep you reading until the very end, when, after you've wiped away the tears, you may want to start all over again.
Using an unlikely narrator, The Book Thief chronicles the life of Liesel Meminger, a child of Nazi Germany raised by caring foster parents on Himmel Street. Her story is surrounded by death, discovery and defiance, though she never realizes the impact of her generosity. Liesel learns the value and power of words and it is those words that ultimately save her life. Zusak has earned his rank as a New York Times best selling author as his characters are complex and haunting and his descriptions are original and captivating - “How those clouds stumbled in and assembled stupidly in the sky. Bumping into each other. Apologizing. Moving on and finding room.” He has created a devastatingly historic world that lasts well beyond the turning of the last page.
The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch is one of the better environmentally toned novels I've read, mainly because it is first a novel about 13 year old Miles O'Malley, an observant, Rachel Carson loving, marine life collector, and only secondly a book about the changes of environment. It is easy to get lost in the majesty of the creatures that Lynch brings to life, but the character of Miles keeps the reader focused and ultimately wondering, "what is the world trying to tell us?"
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, translated eloquently by Ina Rilke follows the violin playing narrator and his best friend Lou, two city youths, through their re-education during China's Cultural Revolution. It is not through physical labor on Phoenix Mountain, but through the illegal discovery of books, that the city youths learn about life. This short novel jumps through time and perspective but never wanders from the lyric language and honest storytelling that, no doubt, made Sijie a best selling author.
Previous Linsay Picks
 Lynn lives in the desert with bunnies, large tailed rats, deer and any number of other friendly creatures. She is an expert on children's books, building sustainable homes, tea, coffee, social niceties, and walks in the moonlight.
The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a wordless graphic novel - not ordinarily my cup of tea - but the beautiful, mystical artwork and tender story completely won me over. It's my pick for any person who loves lovely and unusual books.
Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones by Judy Schachner. Once again, Judy Schachner has written my favorite Skippyjon Jones book - simply because each of her four Skippyjon titles is absolutely wonderful! They are so much fun to read aloud, and the incredible artwork, so full of expression and detail, makes each book a treasure.
Toot and Puddle by Holly Hobbie
Previous Lynn Picks
 Mike has lived in Reno from the beginning of time.
The Money and the Power by Sally Denton and Roger Morris is a powerful portrayal of Las Vegas, possibly the most unique city in America. A poignant look at the gangsters, politicians, and civic leaders who helped shape the destiny of this famous gaming Mecca and how its tentacles spread throughout the world from the White House to Cuba to gunrunners in the Middle East.
Previous Mike Picks
Philip has either owned or worked in a bookstore for nearly 28,000 years while expanding his knowledge of Buddha, Erle Stanley Gardner and the perfectly timed pun. While he feels that the world is his bulletin board, he's not much for writing blurbs, but he is more than willing to discuss his latest picks, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, The Story of Tibet by Thomas Laird, in person. OK, maybe just one blurb...
The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door
30 poems of Hafez,
Translated by Robert Bly & Leonard Lewisohn
Fifteen years in the making. A rich presentation of 14th century Sufi mystic poet Hafez.It is said that Hafez cannot be translated, but with Robert Bly's considerable poetic skills & highly regarded Persian & Sufi scholar/practitioner Leonard Lewisohn as his collaborator, we may at last have a real taste of the Wine that Hafez is dispensing.
Philip's most recent praises go out to: The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehoringer, Film Club by David Gilmour, and Into the Forest by Jean Hegland.
Previous Philip Picks
 Stephanie is a Buckeye native who reads mysteries obsessively and shares a house with her husband and two big dogs.
Deadwood by Pete Dexter is a tale of the Dakota Territories and Wild Bill Hickok told by this National Book Award winning novelist. Any fans of HBO's Deadwood who are out of episodes to watch - try this Wild West tale.
Previous Stephanie Picks
 Troy is a 40ish dude who was born in rural Wisconsin but has lived in Reno/Sparks since 1977. His 14 years in music retail experience attest to his passion and belief that the best music can help one re-experience one's innocence. His many neuroses are soothed and comforted by his loving and patient wife Tammy, and his sons Logan and Devon, and daughter Bailey. He is very good with the family cats, but is currently working on inadvertently wiping out every last fish in the family tank,
As the official Sundance music dude, Troy's picks can be found on the Music page. |
