Tag: book of the week

#rsrh Book of the Week: The Jersey Sting.

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: when it comes to blogging, there are hassles.  Nothing like dangerous hassles, or even the ones associated with ‘mere’ hard physical labor: but it’s not all beer and skittles.  You have to wade through a lot of junk… and the more well-known that you are, the more junk you have to wade through.  After a certain point, you get sent junk to wade through – and you have to be polite about it, too.

Still, there are news stories that make up for the hassles.  One of these was in 2009, when I woke up to discover that the NJ Hudson County Democratic party had just been thrown into jail – and it just kept getting better.  It is a glorious day for partisan political blogging when one discovers that “human organ trafficking” is an actual charge on the rap sheet associated with one’s political opponents.  The posts write themselves.

All of which is why I’m making The Jersey Sting: A True Story of Crooked Pols, Money-Laundering Rabbis, Black Market Kidneys, and the Informant Who Brought It All Down Book of the Week.  Normally, I’d shorten the title of these things to just the title, but that subtitle deserves its proper place in all of this.

And so, farewell to The Best of Randall Garrett.

Book of the Week: The Best of Randall Garrett.

I’m going with The Best of Randall Garrett: 43 Novels and Short Stories (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics), despite the fact that it’s only available on the Kindle, for one basic reason: Randall Garrett is quite possibly the most under-appreciated and overlooked science fiction writer of the 20th Century, and you will not regret reading him.  If you only know him from the Lord Darcy series then it’s not so bad, but the man had an effortless way of writing that makes it fairly incomprehensible to me why he wasn’t more commercially successful.  (Shrug) It happens.

And so, farewell to Marque and Reprisal.  Fun series.

Book of the Week: Marque and Reprisal (Vatta’s War)

Marque and Reprisal (Vatta’s War) is actually the second book in Elizabeth Moon’s space opera/war/trade series, but I’m still waiting for the first one in the mail and the reviews all seem to think that this was a better book than the first one anyway.  It’s space opera; it’s a good read; and I’m not really all that amused at what recently happened to Elizabeth Moon… despite the fact that she doesn’t like people like me very much.  But that shades into politics.

And so we remove Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook from the oven, and allow it to cool.

Book of the Week: Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook

I picked Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook for a pretty simple reason: I just got a thank-you note from a couple of friends who got married recently, and it referenced cooking.  Well, this is a cookbook that I have found invaluable, particularly since I’m the one who cooks dinner for the family.  You see, I know how to follow a recipe, and I know how to adapt a recipe, so arguably I know how to cook… but I don’t know how to cook a lot of the stuff that I like to eat.  If you know how to follow directions, but you lack the knowledge base past “put foil on pan.  Put meat on foil.  Put dial on broil and wait until meat is cooked through” then this book will help you with your secret shame.  It will tell you how to make lemonade – and don’t laugh; the proportions are not immediately obvious.

And so we… move… Known and Unknown: A Memoir. Am I being paid for that product placement? I wish.

Book of the Week: Known and Unknown.

Known and Unknown: A Memoir is, obviously, the new book coming out next month by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  Apropos of nothing in particular, the title made my (much less political) wife laugh in appreciation of its wittiness – or cheekiness – which gives me some hope that the text will be as good.  It certainly will make the Usual Suspects start screaming…

And thus, The Arrival… departs.

Book of the Week: The Arrival.

I flipped through The Arrival in the library yesterday while riding herd on my eldest, and it’s really pretty good. It’s a graphic novel that uses fantastic imagery to give the 21st Century reader an idea of just how mind-altering it was to immigrate to America in the 19th century. I mean mind-altering in a good sense, of course: I’d say ‘transformative,’ but the spell check doesn’t recognize that as a word and it’s probably wise to do so. Anyway: I liked it.

And so, adieu to Hogfather

Book of the Week: Agatha H. and the Airship City.

Actual thought process on this one:

I don’t know why people are making such a big deal about a reprint of Agatha H. and the Airship City (Girl Genius) anyway OH WOW IT’S AN ACTUAL HONEST-TO-GOD BOOK INSTEAD OF JUST A HARDCOVER OF ALL THE COMICS WHICH WOULD NOT BE A BAD THING BUT OH WOW THIS IS SO COOL.

And so, adieu to The Difference Engine (Spectra special editions).

Book of the Week: The Difference Engine.

The Difference Engine was one of the first alt-history/steampunk books that I ever read; and it pretty much gave me a permanent taste for both.  I suspect that the maps help: I love alternate history maps.

And so adieu, GURPS Basic Set: Characters, Fourth Edition.  I have not forgotten why I was thinking about you, never fear.