This war history book about the U-boat war in the Atlantic during World War II has one of the best balances of strategy, tactics, and firsthand experience that I’ve read.
Guy Delisle's PYONGYANG
This graphic novel depicts a two-month visit to North Korea by animator Delisle to supervise children’s TV animation work subcontracted by Delisle’s French employer.
Guy Delisle's BURMA CHRONICLES
This comic strip depiction of Delisle’s year in Burma as a “house-dad” while accompanying his Doctors Without Borders wife is simultaneously touching, funny, and scary.
Peter Bernhardt's “THE ROSE'S KISS: A NATURAL HISTORY OF FLOWERS”
I started paying attention to flowers last year. My son gave me a camera that takes decent closeups. I started carrying the camera while walking our dog down by the creek near our house and while working in our yard.
Osamu Tezuka's PHOENIX: A TALE OF THE FUTURE
The artwork is nowhere near the level of detail and sophistication present in the author’s Buddha graphic novel series, but the story’s scope is vast. It begins in the year 3404 when the human race is decaying. The periodic intervention of the mystical Phoenix is all that stands in the way of total physical collapse of the Earth.
Osamu Tezuka's BUDDHA (volumes 1-8)
My knowledge of Buddhism and the Buddha is minimal. I approached this 8-volume manga series purely out of curiosity when I saw it sitting on the shelf in the graphic novels section of the Alexandria Public Library.
Richard Corfield's LIVES OF THE PLANETS: A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Corfield starts at Mercury and works his way out. In the process he summarizes what we know now about the solar system (circa 2007) now that we’ve had several decades of (mostly) robot exploration.
Richard Corfield's THE SILENT LANDSCAPE: THE SCIENTIFIC VOYAGE OF HMS CHALLENGER
In 1872 the HMS Challenger left England on a two year voyage of scientific discovery.
Whenever I feel I’ve been reading too much non-fiction or I just want to read a good story with interesting characters I turn to W. Somerset Maugham.
Ed Regis' WHAT IS LIFE: INVESTIGATING THE NATURE OF LIFE IN THE AGE OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
In this fascinating and accessible book Ed Regis concludes that the maintenance of metabolic processes is really the primary indicator of “life.” But by the time that point is reached in the book, it doesn’t really matter.
Chiara Frugoni's A DAY IN A MEDIEVAL CITY
If all you know about the Middle Ages consists of warfare, popes, and kings, and you want to know what daily life was really like, this is the book for you.
Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar's CODE-NAME DOWNFALL: THE SECRET PLAN TO INVADE JAPAN AND WHY TRUMAN DROPPED THE BOMB
Allen and Polmar convincingly demonstrate Truman’s justification for dropping the atom bomb on Japan to end World War II.
C.J. Box's “IN PLAIN SIGHT”
One of a series of novels by this author about a fictional Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett, IN PLAIN SIGHT tells a gripping story that intertwines murder, family feud, politics, and a love of nature and the outdoors
Sue Halpern's “FOUR WINGS AND A PRAYER”
The subtitle of this book is “Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly.” I was caught by this book’s beguiling tone, its lovely writing, and its respect for science and the mystery of the unknown that drives people to “do science.”
Oliver Sacks' SEEING VOICES: A JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF THE DEAF
This 3-part book by Oliver Sacks from 1989 reviews the history of deaf education and language, the neurological underpinnings of language acquisition and deafness, and the student uprising at Gallaudet College in 1988.
Peter Watts' BLINDSIGHT
Peter Watts’ Blindsight is hard SF. Normally I like hard SF but I had some trouble with this one:
Anthony Lewis' FREEDOM FOR THE THOUGHT THAT WE HATE: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT
This little volume is packed with an amazing amount of readable information about the history of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, libel, privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.
Helen Nicholson's THE CRUSADES
I assigned three tags to this book review:
Evelyn Fox Keller's THE CENTURY OF THE GENE
Cloning, evolution, and the Human Genome Project are often in the news. One of my 2008 New Years’ Resolutions was to learn more about genetics and molecular biology. I had resolved to “get smarter” about DNA and its role in evolution and in generation-to-generation stability and inheritance.
“Captain” Alatriste is an ex-soldier in 17th Century Madrid who scratches out a living via odd jobs and spends part of his time gabbing and drinking at a local bar. An old “friend” tosses him a job which is initially to scare a pair of English travelers but turns out to be a contract for murder.