"The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (William L Shirer)

Here's another case where I don't really have much to add. This book is an undisputed classic, and only misses out on being the definitive history of the west in World War II because of Winston Churchill's memoirs - not exactly fair considering he was Prime Minister of the UK at the time.
So is this book as good as its reputation holds? In two words, uh, yes. This is the kind of history book I eat up - extremely long (over a thousand pages), but always readable. Admittedly, I skipped a few pages, but this is due more to the Nazis being one-note than anything else; The run-up to the launching of the invasion of Poland features a bunch of meetings which boil down to "Now we will invade Poland" and goes on a little long.
But this is the only part of the book that drags - a small section of a huge tome. The author concentrates more on what are to me the more interesting parts of the regime - its coming into power and adolescence, and less on its inevitable distruction. Not too much attention is paid to military matters except as how they impact the Reich as a whole - a wise decision, I think, given the wealth of material otherwise available purely about the battles fought. The usual caveat applies that any history of Nazi Germany is going to be a downer, but if you're not sick of World War II and can handle being depressed for over a thousand pages, this is a great read.

Grade: A

"O Albany!"

O Albany: Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels (William Kennedy)

This book is a mess. I read a review that states that a "straightforward, chronological history" - you know, the kind that makes sense - would "waste Kennedy's storytelling talents"; So instead here's this, which seems like Kennedy sat down with a tape recorder, then took his rambling and slapped the whole thing into a book. I just couldn't follow this book at all; On one page we're in 1890, the next page it's 1916, the page after that World War I has just ended, and the page after that we're in 1865 and Lincoln is visiting. Frankly, I think Albany has an interesting enough history that starting at the beginning with the Dutch arriving would be worth reading, but I couldn't make heads or tails out of this disaster. I note on the cover leaf that portions of this book appeared in the Knickerbocker Press, and if this is just a bunch of newspaper columns thrown together - it would explain, if not excuse, the mash between the covers.
(Also, "Fearless Ethnics", what?)

Grade: F

"Holy Sh*t!"

Holy Sh*t! The World's Weirdest Comic Books (Paul Gravett & Peter Stanbury)

Well, it's pretty much all there in the title - here's a interesting little book collecting some of the world's oddest comic books, running the gamut from Italian porno spider-woman knockoffs to the Archie-styled Hansi ("The girl who loved the swastika"). Each comic includes a full-page cover, a sample frame and a short discription. My only real complaint is that I'd like to see more of some of these; If you want to see more "Trucker Fags in Denial" or "Godzilla vs Barkley", who knows how easy those are to track down. (Also, it would be nice if the book was a little bigger, but then it wouldn't exactly be a bathroom book.) My personal favorite is Genus, specifically the "Special Extra Large Lesbian Unicorn Issue" featured here (the author dryly notes that the extra large "refers to the size of the issue, not the lesbian unicorns").

Grade: B

"If Chins Could Kill"

If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor (Bruce Campbell)

When reading autobiographies, I find it's important to know what you're getting into - are you getting a book the author actually wrote themselves, or a lazy cash grab where they talked into a tape recorder? Luckily, this is the genuine article, an entertainingly conversational, breezy autobiography about the actor's life and career. Bruce is a good stoyteller, and even his childhood - a subject in autobiographies which I have complained about before and I'm sure I will again - is never boring to read, although I did find myself shaking my head and some of the pranks he pulled with his brother.
Once Bruce gets to college and starts making horrible Super-8 movies with Sam Raimi the book really picks up, with the most ink given to his best known roles in the (let's be honest) absolutely terrible movies "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2". This book was published in 2002, so if you're a huge Bruce Campbell fan you might want to be aware that it's not exactly up to date, but then again if you're a huge Bruce Campbell fan you probably own this already instead of parousing obscure book review blogs to see if it's something you're interested in.

Grade: B+

"Deliverance Lost"

Deliverance Lost (Gav Thorpe)

I had high hopes for this book. It's about the Raven Guard, another one of the long-neglected space marine chapters, finally getting a turn in the spotlight as they try to rebuild after Isstvan V. It's all right, but the book has a major problem - it never seems t get out of second gear. The issue, I think, is that Corax, the head of the Raven Guard, goes back to Earth to get some forbidden technology that will let him rebuild the legion, which drives the narritive, except that we already know his plan isn't going to work, because we'd have already heard about it in other novels if the Raven Guard got 75,000 new recruits in a month and defeated Horus right off the bat.
So that's one issue. On top of that, this book has surprisingly strong ties to "Legion", and you might be a little bit lost if you haven't read it; The Alpha Legion is attempting to infiltrate the Raven Guard and steal the technology they're getting to rebuild. I find the Alpha Legion is a little less annoying when they're sharing the book with the Raven Guard instead of the cryptically named army units they were paired up with in "Legion", but I still wanted to see more Raven Guard. Amazingly, even THE CABAL from Legion shows up, with little to no explination.
Now I kind of feel like this review is too much about the Alpha Legion, which I guess is fair since this book suffers from it too. Really, this is just a perfectly serviceable middle-of-the-road Horus Heresy novel. I've seen some people complain that there isn't enough fighting, which I can understand, but don't personally agree with. If you already read Legion, you might as well take the plunge, but I can't really recommend that you go too far out of your way to read this otherwise.

Grade: C

"By Reason of Insanity"

By Reason of Insanity (Randy Singer)

Boy, this is tough. This is another free Kindle book, and this one I actually finished, although I kind of wish I hadn't.

Let's start with two minor issues: One, our dashing hero is kind of a douchebag (he sees the female lead and wants to help her because she's "an attractive woman at the mercy of the system" - if you're a man or he doesn't find you attractive, well, fuck off). Also, he has dumb facial hair.
Two, there's several boring pages where our author is playing high stakes poker, which is even more boring to read about than I assume it is fun to actually play.

With that out of the way, here's the real big roblem with this book: It's fucking dumb. The writing itself is OK, but the plotline itself is stupid in a I-can't-believe-I-just-read-that kind of moronic. About halfway through the book, a professional, court-expert psychologist is brought in to examine a person under suspicion of being a serial killer who is reporting hearing voices and having visions. This person is suspected of possibly having DID, commonly known as multiple personality disorder. Try and guess what this psychologist does.

1.) Ask for a series of interviews to attempt to diagnose this person.
2.) Guess that these visions are real and supernatural, because Belshazzar had a vision before Babylon was sacked by the Persians in the Old Testament.

Spoiler alert: It's number two. I think you can guess what the problem with this book is now. As it turns out, the female lead is psychic and is having visions from God. Really. Everything else in the book is totally straight and scientific - except that at the age of 25, this reporter suddenly develops psychic powers that give her visions. This opens a whole can of worms (Why does this just happen now? Is Jesus giving her these visions? If so, why? If he can give her these visions, why doesn't he just stop what he's sending her the vision about?) that the author never examines, because, ummmm, (indistinct mumbling). It's bad. No, not even bad; It's fucking terrible. It's kind of sad, too, the author really isn't a bad writer, it's just the plot with these beyond moronic super powers is a waste of time for everyone involved; You might as well as have it all be a dream for how plausible any of it is. The author is, as I found out after reading this, apparently considered "The Christian John Grisham", but a more accurate title might be "The Shitty John Grisham Who Writes Bad Books".
Also, the icing on the cake - the female lead, who's in jail for 70% of the book, has one of those "Hi, nice to meet you, now we're in love" romances with her lawyer, the dumb-bearded douchebag up above. Blech.

Grade: F-

"Lady Chatterly's Lover"

Lady Chatterly's Lover (D.H. Lawrence)

Well, God help me, I tried, but I just couldn't make it through this book. It's just too British; I got 67 pages in, and it's nothing but British class-consciousness, being navel-gazed and fretted over. I'm sure it picks up, but I just couldn't stand to read any more. The writing itself is fine, but the subject matter is incredibly tedious to an American like me. YMMV.

Grade: N/A 

"Food Rules"

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual  (Michael "Bossy" Pollan)

The idea here is simple: Pollan takes his rules from his previous book (Eat food, mostly plants, not too much) and expands them here by giving you tips on how to follow them. I like his approach - he realizes that you're not going to remember every rule he gives you, so he re-states them various ways - to get you to avoid chemicals, he advises that you don't buy food with a chemical a third grader couldn't pronounce, but then also suggests staying away from the center of a grocery store and getting fresh produce on the one end and diary on the other.
This is actually pretty helpful, but I gave up about a third of the way through when I got to "mostly plants," where he suggests that you treat meat as a "special treat". Fuck off, Pollan - I want a burger! This is where the book goes from helpful advice mode to annoying nutritionist uncle lecturing you at thanksgiving mode. (This is also where you're forbidden to get anything drive-thru - which I know isn't healthy for you, but holy hell, live a little!) Eventually I put the book down because I wanted to just go out and start eating Big Macs for spite; Pollan, in annoying lecture mode, makes you want to do the opposite of what he's saying.

So I dunno - I did get something out of this book, and you may get even more. If you, apparently like the author, have time in between getting home from work and going to sleep to do nothing but cook up a nice big meal, by all means pick this up - unfortunately this doesn't apply to me and, I suspect, most people anymore.

Grade
First Third: B+
Last Part: D+