From the back cover: In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time. Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping … [Read more...] about Thunderstruck by Erik Larson: B
Nonfiction
Sixpence House by Paul Collins: B+
From the book jacket: Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside—to move, in fact, to the little cobblestone village of Hay-on-Wye, the "Town of Books," boasting 1,500 inhabitants... and forty bookstores. Antiquarian bookstores, no less. Inviting readers into a sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the … [Read more...] about Sixpence House by Paul Collins: B+
Between Good and Evil by Roger L. Depue and Susan Schindehette: B
From the back cover: No one gets closer to evil than a criminal profiler, trained to penetrate the hearts and minds of society's most vicious psychopaths. And no one is a more towering figure in the world of criminal profilers than Roger L. Depue. Chief of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit at a time when its innovative work first came to prominence, he headed a renowned team of … [Read more...] about Between Good and Evil by Roger L. Depue and Susan Schindehette: B
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.: B+
From the back cover: On the morning of December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of … [Read more...] about My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.: B+
Interior Desecrations by James Lileks: B+
From the back cover: Warning! This book is not to be used in any way, shape, or form as a design manual. Rather, like the documentary about youth crime Scared Straight, it is meant as a caution of sorts, a warning against any lingering nostalgia we may have for the 1970s, a breathtakingly ugly period when even the rats parted their hair down the middle. What does this … [Read more...] about Interior Desecrations by James Lileks: B+