Charlie Huston. Sleepless: A Novel. New York: Ballantine Books, 2010. 368 pages. Charlie Huston’s latest novel is a thought-provoking mix of several strands: noirish mystery, police procedural, hard medical science fiction (think ANDROMEDA STRAIN), dystopian near-future Los Angeles, narco-thriller, zombie horror-fest, and philosophical love story. It’s a credit to the author that all of these […]
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book reviewsJane White. America, Welcome to the Poorhouse: What You Must Do to Protect Your Financial Future and the Reform We Need. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: FT Press, 2010. 247 pages. I’m leery of anyone who tells you what bad shape you’re in, then says that they and only they can help you get out
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book reviewsKim Nelson. A Desert Gardener’s Companion. Tucson, Arizona. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2001. 328 pages. Gardening in a desert isn’t easy, but in A DESERT GARDENER’S COMPANION, Kim Nelson offers helpful advice about how to tend trees, flowers, vegetables, and herbs in the arid southwest. Written from her Arizonan perspective, it’s nonetheless valuable to those who
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book reviewsMiklos Vamos. The Book of Fathers. Translated by Peter Sherwood. New York: Other Press, 2009. 480 pages. This is a thoroughly Hungarian novel that has some crossover appeal, particularly if you think 19th century Russian novels are too light-hearted. Twenty pages in, an entire village is laid waste, not for any strategic military objective, but
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book reviewsJames McCommons. Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 285 pages. Transportation is a big part of the American national character. We’ve all learned how canals helped to tie the fledgling United States together in the ante-bellum period and railroads did the same
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book reviewsWilliam R. Eadington and Meighan R. Doyle, editors. Integrated Resort Casinos: Implications for Economic Growth and Social Impacts. Reno: Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming, 2009. 309 pages. In November 2005, Harrah’s Entertainment announced plans to partner with Slovenia’s Hit group to build what was described as a $1.5 billion destination casino
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book reviewsHarold S. Kushner. Conquering Fear: Living Boldly in an Uncertain World. New York: Alfred F. Knopf, 2009. 192 pages. Humans are the only animals that fear the future–a consequence of the gift of foresight. Harold Kushner, best known as the author of WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE, takes on fear in this quick
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book reviewsMichael Greenberg. Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life. New York: Other Press, 2009. 240 pages. Longtime fans of Doctor Who, the British sci-fi tv classic, talk about watching it “from behind the sofa.” Scared out of their wits by the Doctor’s horrifying adversaries like the Daleks, Cybermen, or Autons (but definitely not the Myrka) they
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book reviewsEditors of Babble.com. Dirt is Good for You: True Stories of Surviving Parenthood. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2009. 256 pages. This book is intended for “urban, hipster” parents, which I’ve concluded is code for “since we pay $2500 a month for a 4th floor 800 square-foot walkup, we think we’re better than people who live
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book reviewsRon Abell. Tap City. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1985. 274 pages. This is hardly a new release, but I just read this book for a class I might be teaching about gambling and media. And it’s a book I should have read a long time ago. Tap City is about a fictional Seven-Card Stud
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book reviewsJerome Tuccille. Gallo Be Thy Name: The Inside Story of How One Family Rose to Dominate the U.S. Wine Market. Beverly Hills: Phoenix Books, 2009. 288 pages. The American wine industry has seen tremendous change over the past eighty years. Driven (mostly) underground by Prohibition, winemakers faced several obstacles after repeal in 1933, chiefly American
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book reviewsTimothy Egan. The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 352 pages. Forest fires are a perennial concern, particularly in the American West, as is government stewardship of public lands. This was no less true in 1910, when the Forest Service was young and the worst fire
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book reviewsJames David Robenalt. The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 209. 400 pages. Warren G. Harding has been consistently ranked as one of the nation’s worst presidents, and doesn’t get points for personal ethics: after his death, there were numerous scandals in his administration, and he was notoriously
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book reviewsRyan Boudinot. Misconception. New York: Black Cat, 2009. 224 pages. Misconception is a novel in the form of a memoir with a twist: we get the same story from two perspectives. But this isn’t just a case of he said, she said: it’s a thought-provoking exploration of both memoir and memory. The memoir sections deal
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book reviewsKatherine Russell Rich. Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 384 pages. In 2001, editor and author Katherine Russell Rich decided to spend a year in India learning Hindi as a way of better understanding both India and herself. The literary result is Dreaming in Hindi, a memoir of
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book reviewsHoward J. Morris and Jenny Lee. Women Are Crazy, Men Are Stupid: The Simple Truth to a Complicated Relationship. New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2009. 240 pages. Relationship books are always popular, and since a flood of books by purported experts hasn’t stopped couples from breaking up, why not a book by a boyfriend/girlfriend pair
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book reviewsDonald McRae. The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow. New York: William Morrow, 2009. 422 pages. Clarence Darrow was one of the most polarizing figures of the early 20th century. He was at the forefront of several of the era’s most widely publicized trials, including the McNamara brothers’ 1912 trial for allegedly bombing the LA Times
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book reviewsJack Sheehan. Quiet Kingmaker of Las Vegas: E. Parry Thomas. Las Vegas: Stephens Press, 2009. 346 pages. Wow. That was my reaction to finding out that a biography of Parry Thomas was coming out. Thomas, the man who it said said “flipped the switch that turned on the lights in Las Vegas,” is easily one
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book reviewsJohn Buntin. L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City. New York: Harmony Books, 2009. 409 pages. In this lengthy exposition of Los Angeles police and corruption, John Buntin examines the career of two Angelenos: Bill Parker, who became one of the LAPD’s most important–and controversial–chiefs, and Mickey Cohen, who occupied
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book reviewsTrisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile. I’d Trade My Husband for a Housekeeper: Loving Your Marriage after the Baby Carriage. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2009. 176 pages. It’s another Amazon Vine review, and another advice book. If you wonder why I review so many of these, its because there seem to be a lot of them
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