this is a first book in a projected trilogy. After an apocalypse society is structured by the range of color individuals can see. There are a complex series of regulations, punishments and restrictions. Those that fall foul are given demerits. Our hero is sent out to an outlying community to work off a punishment with his father. All is not as it seems there are conspiracies within conspiracies and much double crossing. The world building is magnificent. Fforde has gone above and beyond as far as making these arbitrary regulations seem real. I was less impressed with some of the characterization. I'm getting tired of the quick to violence, sarcastic female lead that the male lead is terrified by but attracted to. Two female characters say nearly the same sarcastic comment. That struck me as being sloppy editing. I will be pre-ordering the sequel. A rare action for me.Highly recommended!
Note:This book was provided through Librarything's early reviewer Program.
doing some short reading for Christmas. A computer expert is sent in to organize Mcdonald Hall the students rebel in typical fashion. Pretty dated with the technology used so I'm not sure how well this would read to a younger reader today but I enjoyed it.
time for some more nostalgia. This is part of the young adult humor series Bruno and Boots. The boys want to fund a pool which leads to crazier and more bizarre schemes. Amusing I'll have to remember this for my nephew.
is a novel that covers a pilot's first week in a RAF squadron during the battle of Britain. Characters are drawn with a broad brush and are pretty stock. This was enjoyable all the same even though its publication in the late 1960s meant that it's perhaps a little less than honest where it comes to foul language and adult situations. A quick bit of fluff for the holidays.
the rear jacket copy makes it sound like this book includes an investigation of the primary sources contained on the plotters who attempted to blow up parliament. Unfortunately documents are mentioned but are only sparingly quoted from. What we get instead is a rather disjointed discussion of the investigation of the plot. This is only for the expert there are more assumptions here then fax.
this is the second book chronologically in the series. As the title suggests are hero finds himself in the military. They invade a planet that is completely peaceful. He tries to defeat them while taking revenge on their commander. Like the first book the humor is mostly a farce. I enjoyed it and it's a nice distraction but certainly no deep thoughts here.
this is one of those attempts to determine the transition point between two eras of history as a title suggests the ancient and medieval. This is done through looking at three different phenomena that took place roughly at the same time during emperor Justinian's reign. These were new techniques in architecture, bubonic plague pandemic and Byzantine campaigns to reconquer Italy. Unfortunately the book gets bogged down in some strange digressions. Rosen talks about arguments for evolution and creationism which really seemed out of place. This could have been made a lot tighter with some judicious editing.
is an Osprey campaign title on this failed attempt of Poland's resistance to seize control of Warsaw. Forczyk's spends much of his time discussing the run up to the launch as well as the political background in London and Moscow. Both the British and Russians are criticized but he also acknowledges some baffling strategic decisions on the part of the resistance. They don't seem to have done any sort of basic strategic planning. Like for instance attempting to seize the telephone exchange. The book is rounded out with the usual information on uniforms and weapons.
seemed to be a logical book to read considering the recent United States debate over escalation in Afghanistan. Berman using unclassified material as well as correspondence with the players describes the thought process that went into the decision to increase troops in Vietnam. He argues convincingly that Johnson instead of the best way to win Vietnam instead chose the alternative that meant that they would lose slower. The domestic concerns were also more telling than any military or strategic decisions.
contains several short stories, an introduction and a historical note on the world of Earthsea. Perhaps most amusing is Le Guin's attempts to separate herself from those horrible hack fantasy writers who just turn out stuff for the money. As opposed to the stories contained in this volume which are supposedly organically sprung from the whole. Okay whatever. Much like the last volume the overarching theme is women good, men lazy, sexist and incompetent. I finished this thing three days ago and I'm having problems remembering what happened. There isn't really much memorable here. I will probably complete the series with book 6 but I don't think it'll happen any time soon.
This describes the loss of 14 East India company ships to storms or French as well as the British campaign to seize Mauritius. If you've read the naval fiction of Patrick O'brien you already know something about the individuals involved. The book is careful to point out where history and fiction diverge. I was occasionally frustrated because Taylor often has several narrative threads going at the same time and has to backfill to explain things. That being said a fun book for a winters evening.
covers in vignettes the authors work on the official biography of Churchill that ran to an astonishing 8 volumes. Gilbert writes engagingly if occasionally he seems to be a little too impressed with his abilities and contacts. I found the most interesting section to be on Churchill's secretaries the often anonymous women who took transcription. I've read a lot on Churchill so it's hard for me to say whether if someone new to him would get much out of this. But if you do have an interest in him don't pass this up.
biography of the Brazilian F1 world champion. This was published in 1973 so his exploits in North America are not covered. The text is frustrating at times Hayward a South African journalist includes explanatory information randomly throughout the first person narrative of Fittipaldi's descriptions. There's quite a bit on Lotus and the technical challenges of the cars and circuits. If you can look past the disjointed narrative this is an excellent book for the auto racing fan of the 1970s.
this is book 4th in the Earthsea series. Characters from the earlier books older now come together to try to live out the last years of their lives peacefully. It doesn't last when an enemy from the past returns. The story although well written lacks a certain something there isn't the same narrative drive that was in the first three books. Which isn't necessarily saying much. Real world concerns seem to come to the four much more in this book than the others. There's a section on child abuse for instance which seems out of place. I was surprised to discover that this received the Nebula in 1991.
this is the first chronologically in the Stainless Steel Rat science fiction series. The main character is a master thief and con artist. This book describes his first heists and education into that profession. This is fun occasionally amusing brain candy no deep thoughts here. I've already ordered the next book The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted .
a fascinating encyclopedia like look at medical techniques and ailments experienced by the men who became Confederate generals in the American civil War. Entries span their lives from birth through death. Some are more detailed than others. Some of the most interesting were those I'd never heard of Stonewall Jackson was not the only hypochondriac for instance. There's no attempt to discuss whether their ailments affected their military judgment. There's a glossary of terms as well as citations to sources.
[aka Lord Moran] a recent reprint of the medical doctors experiences taking care of Churchill. Lots on different personalities British, American and Russian including all the big ones. An introduction by Watson's offspring tries to deflect the criticism put forward by Martin Gilbert and others about its accuracy. Pointing out that the "diary" that doesn't actually exist was more of a literary device than anything else.
describes the north African campaign from 1940 through the final collapse of the German and Italian forces. Strawson tries to keep his level of analysis on the troops themselves which is unusual most histories of this campaign focusing on the high command arrangements. He does share some unusual perspectives he thinks very highly of Wavell and Auchinleck. I think there's definitely some hyperbole there particularly his statement that Wavell is one of the great captains of history. Discussion of the battles are clear and easy to follow.
this is the second book in an ongoing mystery series. Jonah Geller is a Toronto private investigator who was asked to investigate the suicide of the daughter of a developer. This leads to the high stakes world of construction. Shrier is excellent at characterization, if a touch stereotypical at times. The plot is fast moving. The conclusion was a little over the top. I'll be looking for the first book in the series.
is a science fiction novel the first in a series. John suffering from amnesia must help protect his community from an attacking army of Azteca [like the Aztecs] who want to human sacrifice everything in their path. The book takes quite a while to get going but the last third with the race to find an abandoned piece of technology is well worth the journey. The dialog which is based on Caribbean dialect takes some getting used to but it does make the thing nice and atmospheric. I'll try the sequel.
is the author's memoirs of his WWII experiences. Mowat deservedly has a reputation of being an elegant writer with many colorful expressions. Unfortunately there's a artificiality to the work particularly in the dialog. I just can't believe WWII Canadian soldiers would say anything remotely like this. This does cover the Sicily and Italian campaigns which is unusual enough to be interesting.
I really hate sales departments that put the word "complete" in the titles of their history books because history is never complete. That complaint out of the way this is an excellent book that describes the breaking of German and Japanese military codes in WWII. There's a nice balance between anecdotes about the personalities and highly technical accounts of the decryption. Not surprisingly the story mostly revolves around Enigma and Purple there's also a fascinating section on American attempts to break Russian codes. Finished off with some notes onwhat the Germans were reading. There are a few general history errors he brings up the old canard about Polish cavalry charging tanks and mistakenly refers to the MKVD as the KGB.
an American intelligence official tries to track down links between a money launderer and terrorism. A wealth of real world info is unfortunately delivered in minute detail by characters I just didn't care about. An ARC.
a lesser novel from the master of espionage fiction. He seems to be more interested in telling the rambling back story than actually getting to the plot. An aid workers kidnapped a mercenaries hired to rescue him.
this was sold to me as a spy novel but it's more of a family saga. Unfortunately it's very over written. Instead of just telling us that their first landlords husband in Scotland died of a heart attack it's described in the pros. An ARC.
written at the time of Vietnam this discusses Just War Theory in the context of the Christian tradition. Unfortunately the number of straw men make the book next to useless.
a terrible translation from German does little to hide the rather silly idea of tracing Germanic people's through language. He spends little time trying to prove his case instead going in for broad statements.
is a humorous look at the major individuals in classical music. Barber relates genuine information that is in and of itself amusing. For instance what Bach left behind when he hurriedly quit one of his posts. This information is easy to pick out from the puns that litter the text. There are cartoon illustrations throughout. Most of them illustrating one of the puns.
is a snarky sendup of "New Labor". The Prime Minister much to his horror has lost touch with British Society so he enlists one of his security guards to help him get back in touch with his people. The humor here is done with broad strokes. Townsend's disdain for what the Labor party has become is quite obvious and it's accurate from what I understand. I was chuckling throughout most of the book.
tries to give a general history of this culture in the British isles, France, Italy and the Middle East. Unfortunately the osprey format is too short to do this well. What we get instead is a dizzying list of names and places with very little information. If you're already an expert on this time you'll be able to follow this but that doesn't make much sense considering the audience the publications are aimed at.
is a fantasy novel that has a lot of buzz behind it but doesn't deliver. Quentin Coldwater melancholic and whiny spends most of the book complaining about whatever it is currently happening to him. This has been compared with Harry Potter and Narnia. There's no subtlety and this Grossman specifically mentions Hermione's teeth shrinking. Narnia references are slightly concealed since the characters are going to end up traveling there Grossman dozen want to get in legal trouble. The ideas themselves although derivative do put an interesting spin on things but the book as a whole fails in two respects. First as mentioned earlier unsympathetic characters that develop very little throughout the book. The second problem is the lack of an antagonist. The plot tends to wander sometimes reading more like an outline than anything else. There is a final showdown which at least does in retrospect explain some of the past events but of course I'm not going to go back and reread it just because I have those pieces now.
I'm late to the party on this oh well. Harry Dresden is the only wizard/private investigator in Chicago. There's been a horrific murder he must find the culprit, while trying to deal with skeptics and the White Council that oversees magical affairs. This is the first book in a long ongoing series. Storm Front is not great literature. World building is occasionally laughable seriously he's the only wizard in the world doing this sort of thing? Characterization particularly a female characters is borderline offensive. The plot is only move forward by happenstance. All that being said I can't help feeling a certain guilty pleasure in this. I'm willing to give the second novel a chance. Butcher does have the gift for telling a story so that it only falls apart when you come back and think about it later.
memoir of the authors and her husband's time as tutors to a Prince and Princess in Saudi Arabia. As typical for books of this genre much of the book is taken up with dealing with culture clash. The couple is vocal in their Christianity. Although they did seem to tap it down a little bit in the country. They eventually run afoul of palace politics declared PNG and deported. I was ready to give this a lukewarm review but the concluding section is very powerful and really raised the book.
is a travel memoir of the author's many trips to Italy over the last few years. Husak a teacher by trade has written a 350 page "what I did on my summer vacation" essay. If you're interested in anything beyond some reviews of hotels and historical sites you may be disappointed. There's nothing profound here. It's still charming all the same. She's not afraid to discuss the dynamic between herself and her husband. There's a tendency to repeat information perhaps a slightly more involved editing would've been useful.
typical Osprey Men-at-Arms title this one on the skirmishers of this German kingdom. Most of the book is taken up with discussion of uniform and weapons. There's a little bit on tactics and training. I don't know much about this area so I can't really comment on accuracy but, on face value nothing here sounds to outlandish.
this is simply put the gold standard in Nelson biographies. Knight works his way through Nelson's life in often excruciating detail dispelling myth after myth along the way. Even so what remains is the portrait of a great naval tactician. His character flaws jealousy and stubbornness are not ignored. Substantial appendices that contain biographies of important individuals, information on ships and a time line round out the book. Massive bibliography for further reading.
third in the Earthsea Cycle. Magic is leaking out of the land Ged with a young companion Arren [a prince from a distant land] is sent to discover why. Of the three so far I consider this to be the weakest. There are several episodes along the way but it doesn't seem to mesh into a whole. Le Guin who isn't terribly subtle at the best of times really beats you over the head with the theme. Death is not to be feared. The ongoing momentum of the series means that I'm probably being nicer to this than it deserves. My patience is starting to run thin. My understanding is that the next book is in the same universe but with a different main character we shall see.
nice short heavily illustrated booklet on this battle of the First World War. Christie who acts as a battlefield tour guide has here distilled his knowledge of visiting the battlefield into a highly readable account. There are also scattered throughout the text several short biographies of participants most of them fatalities. There's a concluding section on In Flanders Fields. There aren't any citations but there is a further reading section in the back. My only criticism is that there's a touch of hyperbole in the text at times. I picked up a bunch of these recently and will be reading through them in chronological order.
conclusion to the alternate history/mystery trilogy. It's the 1960s but, different than it is recorded in history books. Russia has been defeated destroyed by nuclear weapons, Britain is a police state. A peace conference will be held in England and the Duke of Windsor has invited himself much to the chagrin of the authorities. Carmichael now in charge of the Watch[British KGB or Gestapo] must maintain his position so that he can covertly undermine the regime. As with the other two books in the trilogy there's a split narrative. The other one follows his adoptive niece whose to be presented to the Queen. Two things bother me.
is an espionage thriller involving the fight over Kashmir. Our hero a Pakistani intelligence official must fight those in his own government that wish to start a war between the two nuclear armed nations. There's also a romantic subplot which is a little over the top but it does tie in nicely with the plot. The characters do tend to talk in infodumps which was rather annoying. The action sequences are well thought out and wonderfully described. Possible plot holes are dealt with by characters discussing them head on and giving explanations. A welcome change from other thriller writers who simply ignore them. Both for the choice of heroes and topic this is an unusual work that deserves a wide audience.
second in an alternate history/mystery trilogy. England made peace with the Nazis. The society is becoming fascist. Inspector Carmichael returns this time to try to stop an assassination plot on the British Prime Minister and Hitler. The narrative also includes the perspective of the would be bomber an actress. This is a bridge between the first and third book but it is still enjoyable. Ethical decisions about loyalty and duty are at the front particularly with the ending.
you may remember my grumbling during Memorial Day coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 that Americans don't seem to understand just who else has liked racing historically. So I picked up this book. This is a decent look at Auto Union and Mercedes during the 1930s including the NAZI support for the race teams. They competed both in Grand Prixs [where they were nearly unbeatable] as well as hill climbs. There was also an attempt to take the land speed record. There are pictures on nearly every page as well as posters and the like. There's some discussion of the different drivers their personalities. As typical for books like this there's a section on post-WWII fudging of the historical record.
standard Osprey treatment of this key battle in the desert campaign. Made sense of the sometimes confusing different operations. Lots of pictures and maps. Frequent discussion of the different commanders, not just Montgomery and Rommel.
and books 
and 
The BBC obituary can be found 
a clear and well written military/political history on this mediaeval English war. Explains in detail how King Stephen managed to win the war but lose the peace. There's quite a bit here on 12th century warfare, tactics and fortifications. The book is oversized and on every page there's a picture or illustration. There's also info on visiting the sites today.
is the first in a projected seven book fantasy series. Locke a young con artist must steal enough money to make a sacrifice for those that through his lack of foresight he killed. At the same time the Gray King is terrorizing organized crime in the city with a series of gruesome murders. Interspersed are flashbacks where we learn more about the society and Locke's history. I really enjoyed this. The flashbacks are handled nicely. Characters are well done. The plots are intricate but laid out well and it's easy enough to believe the reactions of those involved. I'll be picking up the sequel. Unfortunately it appears that there's been some delay with the third volume.
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