Sunday, January 31, 2010

Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys

Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys this is a delightful novel from the Canadian actor and dramatist. Absolute a British soldier gets himself entangled in the American Revolution. Spies, conspiracies and love quickly developed. Historical accuracy is decent but I actually didn't mind when inaccuracies popped up. The main character is so over-the-top and fun. Think Flashman only without the cowardice. I broke my cardinal rule with a series I went out and purchased the other two books right away.

Highly recommended!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Smoke on the Water by Brian Daley

Smoke on the Water by Brian Daley this is the 1st novel in the Gammalaw military science fiction series. It was published after the author's death although according to his web site he did have much to do with it. Unfortunately the book is just terrible. Characters speak in info dumps. Descriptions are spotty with concentration on clothing. Dialogue is artificial going for cute one liners over substance. The plot such as I was able to make out is a group of soldiers lose a war as part of their surrender their shipped off to fight somewhere else. Way too many subplots here. According to reviews the second book is much better but I don't think I'll be trying it any time soon.

Not recommended.

The Perseids and Other Stories by Robert Charles Wilson

The Perseids and Other Stories by Robert Charles Wilson an afterward describes the short stories in this collection as being "loosely connected". They are in fact so loosely connected I didn't figure this out for myself until I had read 3/4 of the book. I was starting to get annoyed it seemed like the book kept repeating the same plot devices. Now, knowing that's part of the idea I feel a little more charitable towards it. Characters are occasionally weird for weirdness sake. Descriptions are memorable. Some of the events are a little too close to horror for my taste.

Mildly recommended.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship by J. F. C. Fuller

Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship by J. F. C. Fuller was part of the great reassessment of U. S.Grant The book is a joint biography of Grant and Lee describing their abilities and faults. There's an outline of the war in general to put things into context. It's hard to review something like this. So much of what's here is now part of the accepted narrative of the conflict. There are a few novel ideas. The discussion on tactics and logistics for instance.

Recommended.

Funny article on offline book piracy

Offline Book "Lending" Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

World Enough and Time a Romantic Novel by Robert Penn Warren

World Enough and Time a Romantic Novel by Robert Penn Warren this is the last book I was supposed to read for the Southern reading challenge but I didn't actually finish it. Well not until now anyway. It's historical fiction that describes the lead up to a murder. Why did it take me so long? The narrator a historian wanders his way through discussions of all sorts of things that aren't really germane to the plot. Long historical asides that go on and on. The characters themselves, although interesting are infuriating. Particularly the female lead who is unable or unwilling to just explain what she wants. The male lead interprets her warnings to go away by deciding he needs to revenge her on a former friend of his who did the woman wrong. What I was expecting was a morality tale but that collapses in the last hundred pages where instead of going to the gallows he is rescued.

Not recommended.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Live by the sword, die by the sword

Nancy Grace Must Appear on Camera for Depo

Canon canada's crappy sales team

It is embarrassing that Canon canada's purchase form would not allow me to set my billing address as a Po Box.  Then when I complained they had the gall to whine about security.  Funny the bank didn't mind mailing a new credit card to a Po Box last week.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Thought on late night TV

Kari Byron cleans up good.....

Quotation [occasional]

I don't want to live in a world where Scott Brown's daughters are available but affordable healthcare isn't.
-- Andy Borowitz, on Twitter

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Ancient Goddesses The Myths and the Evidence by Lucy Goodison

Ancient Goddesses The Myths and the Evidence by Lucy Goodison this is made up of a collection of essays. As the title suggests, it discusses the archaeological evidence for the "mother Goddess". This was the idea that various societies at one time worshiped a goddess to the exclusion of male deities. Supposedly the societies was peaceloving and ruled by women. The essays showed no culture actually had this in practice. The essays discuss areas including the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and Western Europe. Each of the authors is a self proclaimed feminist. Which nicely takes away an argument against the book. Sections concludes with a further reading list. Lots of illustrations of the different artifacts.

Highly recommended!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Who Owns the World: The Surprising Truth About Every Piece of Land on the Planet by Kevin Cahill

Who Owns the World: The Surprising Truth About Every Piece of Land on the Planet by Kevin Cahill this book through an extensive list attempts to describe who owns what, how much it's worth, what it's used for and what if any legal protections exist for keeping it. Naturally this takes a lot of tables and numbers. The data is framed in a rather odd way. He argues that land ownership is a human right. As his own data demonstrates however, not that many countries throughout history have agreed with him. There's also a tendency to get hung up on technical accuracy as opposed to reality. For instance, the queen does own all of Canada's land but, as a property lawyer explained to me the only time the Crown takes advantage of this is if you don't pay your taxes. I can't speak to the accuracy of the numbers. He does point out where numbers conflict. There is no bibliography or notes as such but he does describe where he gets the data. I think you could look most of it up online if you wanted to.

Recommended for the wealth of information on almost every country in the world.

Note:This book was provided through Librarything's early reviewer Program.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Amazon reviews useless

Now they're getting 1 star if there's no Kindle.

The Android's Dream by John Scalzi

The Android's Dream by John Scalzi an alien ambassador is murdered. Complicating things is that the aliens require a gift from Earth. This is a genetically modified sheep. Which isn't going to be that simple. The book is inventive with a devastating wit. The first chapter, for instance, is a fart joke. Diplomats, lawyers and religion get skewered along the way. Did I mention that a religion worships sheep?. A great read for a long winters evening.

Highly recommended!

Monday, January 18, 2010

With suppliers like this who needs enemies?

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed with Secret "Jesus" Bible Codes.

The Danger Tree: Memory, War and the Search for a Family's Past by David Macfarlane

The Danger Tree: Memory, War and the Search for a Family's Past by David Macfarlane this is a history of one Newfoundland's family's experiences during and after WWI. Three of the brothers had been killed in the fighting. The book has a lot of literary flourishes. I'm usually not impressed with this sort of thing in a nominally historical work. Just what's been embellished? I'm going to let it slide in this case maybe because it's done so well. It's actually more of a character study of the three brothers as well as the author then of the conflict itself.

Recommended.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

A Military Revolution?: Military Change and European Society, 1550-1800 by Jeremy Black

A Military Revolution?: Military Change and European Society, 1550-1800 by Jeremy Black  this is a rather short booklet that tries to argue whether there was a revolution in military affairs or not. Black attempts to make the case that the major changes in tactics were actually from later in the 18th century instead of the 17th. That instead of being created by the absolutist state they were a benefit of the changes in government. Their are lots of citations and a further reading section. There are some illustrations.

Recommended.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Deadly Force: Firearms and American Law Enforcement, from the Wild West to the Streets of Today by Chris McNab

Deadly Force: Firearms and American Law Enforcement, from the Wild West to the Streets of Today by Chris McNab describes the history of the use of guns by police throughout American history.  This is published by Osprey.  Before this my experience with them was solely based on the various short heavily illustrated titles on different military topics.  This is 300 pages with only 2 photo inserts and not a 3D computer generated map in sight.  McNab argues convincingly that throughout time there's been increasing professionalism and militarization of police use of force.  The development of swat teams in the 1960s and 1970s specifically.  He sometimes gets bogged down in describing events.  In the introduction he claims that he's just going to give the facts without moral judgments.  Unfortunately he repeatedly does exactly that.  Defending police use of force by pointing out that they were scared.  Strangely he doesn't consider that this also extends to the other individual involved.  This is certainly not the last word on the topic but it is an interesting place to start.

Recommended.

Note:This book was provided through Librarything's early reviewer Program.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The War for All the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo by Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins

The War for All the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo by Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins this is a rather strange book. It's an introductory history of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic wars. No knowledge is assumed at all. Terms like "striking the colors" are defined in the text. On the other hand it's an amazing 560 pages long which would be rather daunting for the newcomer. The authors are looking for colorful scenes as opposed to scholarly analysis. It's a decent narrative history although some of the snap judgments can be annoying. There's a brief further reading section. Contains notes and a bibliography.

Mildly recommended.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Thought for the day

I've been weeding my RSS reader today.  Came to the realization that one blog author was pretentious and full of it.  Unfortunately it took me about a year to come to this conclusion.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Quotation [occasional]

"Democracy and Parliament are not being sidestepped — they are only being suspended"
Brent Rathgeber, Conservative MP

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher this is the third book in the Dresden Files series of fantasy mysteries. This one involves vampires, an angry fairy godmother and enemies from Dresden's past. His repeated escapes by using legalistic loopholes as opposed to skill is a little frustrating. The conclusion changes things between Dresden and his love interest. Which will be interesting going forward. I'll pick up the fourth book.

Recommended.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Battle: A New History of Waterloo by Alessandro Barbero

The Battle: A New History of Waterloo by Alessandro Barbero a few new insights backed up with the latest in scholarship makes this an excellent history of Napoleon's final defeat. Nice coverage of the Prussians movements during the day including the skirmishes that slowed them down. The introduction and conclusion seem a little rushed. If you're not an expert on the time you may be a bit confused. The different phases of the battle are described in a clear way. It helped me get a few things straight that I hadn't considered before.

Highly recommended!

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

The Deniable Agent: Undercover in Afghanistan by Colin Berry

The Deniable Agent: Undercover in Afghanistan by Colin Berry I'm never really sure how to review these things.  This is a biography however there are certain things that are obscured for security reasons.  So not exactly that good as a source but a very good read.  This describes the authors time in Afghanistan recovering weapons that were given to the Afghans by the west in their war with the Soviet union.  Berry is double crossed and finds himself in prison in 2002-03.  Considering the detainees controversy in Canada the torture this westerner experienced is chilling. Berry writes with wit and sarcasm that had me chuckling a few times.

Highly recommended!

The Liri Valley: Canada's World War II Breakthrough to Rome by Mark Zuehlke

The Liri Valley: Canada's World War II Breakthrough to Rome by Mark Zuehlke this is a detailed soldier's eye view account of the breaking of the German defensive system in Italy by the Canadiens.  Zuehlke has written several books on Canadian campaigns in WWII.  He is to be commended for finding witnesses and bringing to light sources that have never been used.  The only weakness here is that the account of the strategic background is confused at times.

Recommended.

Monday, January 04, 2010

The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001 by Sue Townsend

The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001 by Sue Townsend this is the collection of journal entries that originally appeared in the Guardian newspaper.  It is seventh in the series.  Unfortunately it comes off as a sort of best hits collection.  The characters are static at this point which doesn't surprise or bother me that much.  I did find it frustrating that Adrian navigates his way through the same events.  He falls in love with his therapist, is in a dysfunctional relationship, writes angry correspondence, his parents fall back into love and there's even a debate over school dress code.  The wider social commentary is muted.  I'm not sure if that was a space concern.  The last 10 pages are very good they deal with the characters reactions to 9/11.  I only wish there was more.

Recommended only for those familiar with the series.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher this is the second in the Dresden Files fantasy mystery series. Like the first book this is fluff. Werewolves are terrorizing Chicago. There are various permutations and conflicts making for a fast pace plot with lots of twists and turns. With an extensive series like this the main thing is whether not to continue. I've already purchased the third book so this held my interest enough to make the next sale.

Recommended.

Revolution and Intervention: The French Government and the Russian Civil War, 1917-1919 by Michael Carley

Revolution and Intervention: The French Government and the Russian Civil War, 1917-1919 by Michael Carley a little light reading over the holidays.  OK maybe not.  Scholarly book on French policy towards the Russian revolution and civil war.  It was pretty incoherent between economic interests who wanted to back the Whites and the politicians for the most part who wanted to cut deals with the Reds.  There's extensive use of archival sources and papers of the relevant officials.  It would help to have a working knowledge of the conflict and Czech legion before starting out.

Recommended.

Best of the year 2009

Following my usual tendencies this post is a little late.  Last year I read 196 books.  About half of those have been reviewed on the blog.  I'll probably turn out a few more in the upcoming days.  Of those books I read and reviewed here are the best.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year

May it be better than the last.