Taking on the System: Rules for Change in a Digital Era (Kos)
I felt bad finding this in the dollar store. Even Amazon has this marked down to $6. I guess it's because it was published in 2009, and since it was written by one of those tricky Internet guys, the information in it is old news? Either way, I liked this book. It's a bit brief - it doesn't feel like its 290 pages, certainly - but I thought there was a lot of good information in here, and even if it's two years old, it still seems quite valid to me. Given the brevity of the book, I don't know that I'd pay too much for it, but it's a steal at a dollar, and I wouldn't complain for six, either.
$1 price: A-
$6 price: B
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
"The Hundred Years War"
The Hundred Years War: The English in Frace 1337-1453 (Desmond Seward)
In contrast to the monstrous history books I usually read, this book is positively bite-sized; You get the whole history of the (slightly over) 100 years war from a god's eye view. Seward never stops unnecessarily, and as a result the book never bogs down. Since the roses are never stopped and smelled, you may not be too pleased when famous persons or battles are ushered onstage, dealt with, and shuffled off instead of being investigated further, but I liked this approach. I'd view this as a book to read to get a basic grounding (or even to see if you're interested in the time period), and after reading it, you can move on to more specific books covering whatever you're interested in, or a more in-depth history of the war itself.
Grade: B+
In contrast to the monstrous history books I usually read, this book is positively bite-sized; You get the whole history of the (slightly over) 100 years war from a god's eye view. Seward never stops unnecessarily, and as a result the book never bogs down. Since the roses are never stopped and smelled, you may not be too pleased when famous persons or battles are ushered onstage, dealt with, and shuffled off instead of being investigated further, but I liked this approach. I'd view this as a book to read to get a basic grounding (or even to see if you're interested in the time period), and after reading it, you can move on to more specific books covering whatever you're interested in, or a more in-depth history of the war itself.
Grade: B+
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Hark! A Vagrant
I'm a big fan of Kate Beaton so I was super excited to get this one. Contains funny comics about such topics as Georges Danton, the Bronte sisters, and a very fat Shetland pony. A lot of the comics are on her site for free, it's true. BUT. Supporting someone like Beaton with cold hard cash is worthwhile. Must read for history nerds and webcomic fans.
Grade: A++
Grade: A++
Sunday, April 22, 2012
"Mass Effect: Ascension"
Mass Effect: Ascension (Drew "Should Have Added This Name To my Spellcheck Library" Karpshyn)
Yes, here's another Mass Effect novel. This one takes place after the first game, instead of being a prequel like the last one, and I think comes off better for it; The universe is fairly established now, so instead of "And here's what a Turian looks like!" it goes right into the action, which is pretty good. I still can't really recommend this book for non-Mass Effect fans - by now you'll be confused if you don't know what a Quarian or a biotic is - but it's a good read. In the way the original novel lead into the first game, this book leads into Mass Effect 2, although I found it entertaining even having played Mass Effect 2 already. I never want to bust out the old IF YOU'RE A FAN OF X, YOU'LL LIKE THIS trope, so we'll leave it at this: If you've played any of the Mass Effect games, there's certainly worse uses for your $8.
Grade for N7s: A-
Normal Civilian Grade: C
Yes, here's another Mass Effect novel. This one takes place after the first game, instead of being a prequel like the last one, and I think comes off better for it; The universe is fairly established now, so instead of "And here's what a Turian looks like!" it goes right into the action, which is pretty good. I still can't really recommend this book for non-Mass Effect fans - by now you'll be confused if you don't know what a Quarian or a biotic is - but it's a good read. In the way the original novel lead into the first game, this book leads into Mass Effect 2, although I found it entertaining even having played Mass Effect 2 already. I never want to bust out the old IF YOU'RE A FAN OF X, YOU'LL LIKE THIS trope, so we'll leave it at this: If you've played any of the Mass Effect games, there's certainly worse uses for your $8.
Grade for N7s: A-
Normal Civilian Grade: C
Thursday, April 19, 2012
"Ghost in the Wires"
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker (Kevin "Free Kevin Mitnick" Mitnick)
If you grew up at a certain time, you may have witnessed the at-times ubiquitous Free Kevin movement of the late 90's and early 2000s. Mitnick had - has? - a reputation as a famous evil computer mastermind wizard, but reading his book, I was struck at how more times than not, he got the information that he needed by practicing social engineering instead of any computer skills. In fact, by the second half of the book, you'll be reading "I social engineered" easily double the amount of times he's actually hacking in anywhere.
That's not to say the book is any less interesting - Mitnick's titular adventures, which include time on the lamb after the FBI gets wise to him, is gripping stuff. Since this is Mitnick's own book, he of course comes off as the hero, but I have a lot of sympathy for him regardless, since his hacking is presented as a form of curiosity (he's not using stolen credit card numbers or anything). My only caveat is that the book is a little bit technical - Kevin and his co-author usually stop to explain the more in-depth concepts, but if you don't know what a BBS or a phone phreaker is, you may find yourself a little lost. With that said, I really enjoyed this book, and I'm confident it's a great read for fellow nerds, if maybe not this author's mom.
Grade: A
If you grew up at a certain time, you may have witnessed the at-times ubiquitous Free Kevin movement of the late 90's and early 2000s. Mitnick had - has? - a reputation as a famous evil computer mastermind wizard, but reading his book, I was struck at how more times than not, he got the information that he needed by practicing social engineering instead of any computer skills. In fact, by the second half of the book, you'll be reading "I social engineered" easily double the amount of times he's actually hacking in anywhere.
That's not to say the book is any less interesting - Mitnick's titular adventures, which include time on the lamb after the FBI gets wise to him, is gripping stuff. Since this is Mitnick's own book, he of course comes off as the hero, but I have a lot of sympathy for him regardless, since his hacking is presented as a form of curiosity (he's not using stolen credit card numbers or anything). My only caveat is that the book is a little bit technical - Kevin and his co-author usually stop to explain the more in-depth concepts, but if you don't know what a BBS or a phone phreaker is, you may find yourself a little lost. With that said, I really enjoyed this book, and I'm confident it's a great read for fellow nerds, if maybe not this author's mom.
Grade: A
Monday, April 16, 2012
"The Last Valley"
The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam (Martin Windrow)
Here we go again: Another one of my patented huge (656 pages without bibliography), depressing (see subtitle), immensely gripping (see grade) history books. Windrow makes good use of the expansive page count, giving flavorful detail and context to the titular battle, and sticking around for 50 pages afterwards the close the case. The detail Windrow can go into at times will drill all the way down to the kind of rice holder a typical Veit Minh soldier would carry his rations in, so by the time the battle starts you're well acquainted with each force, which does make it a little more depressing when they're killing each other with mortar rounds, napalm, all kinds of guns, flamethrowers, and eventually spades and fists as the battle devolves into horrible trench fighting.
The only complaint I have - and I had to look far and wide for something to complain about - is that Windrow can occasionally get a little over-enthusiastic about listing all the units posted to a location; I understand why, but I eventually started skipping these parts, as I had enough trouble keeping the divisions straight, let alone the battalions and companies. With that aside, if you're interested in the subject at all, this is the book to get.
Grade: A-
Here we go again: Another one of my patented huge (656 pages without bibliography), depressing (see subtitle), immensely gripping (see grade) history books. Windrow makes good use of the expansive page count, giving flavorful detail and context to the titular battle, and sticking around for 50 pages afterwards the close the case. The detail Windrow can go into at times will drill all the way down to the kind of rice holder a typical Veit Minh soldier would carry his rations in, so by the time the battle starts you're well acquainted with each force, which does make it a little more depressing when they're killing each other with mortar rounds, napalm, all kinds of guns, flamethrowers, and eventually spades and fists as the battle devolves into horrible trench fighting.
The only complaint I have - and I had to look far and wide for something to complain about - is that Windrow can occasionally get a little over-enthusiastic about listing all the units posted to a location; I understand why, but I eventually started skipping these parts, as I had enough trouble keeping the divisions straight, let alone the battalions and companies. With that aside, if you're interested in the subject at all, this is the book to get.
Grade: A-
Thursday, April 12, 2012
"Silver Tower"
Silver Tower (Dale Brown)
Hey, remember in 1993 when Gorbachov was overthrown by the Evil Russian Communists (TM) and a moderate, pro-USA faction took over in Iran and we all flew in our spaceplanes to our armored space stations full of lasers and particle beams? Good times. That's the setting for this enjoyably dated techno-trash, centered around the titular Silver Tower, a space station the US uses to keep an eye on the Soviet invasion of Iran, until it comes under spaceplane attack from the resurgent Commies. I'm sure when this came out it was a chilling look at something something or a pulse pounding blah blah, but now it's a charmingly goofy retro-future full of cartoon characters. Frankly, I think this helps the book rather than hurts it, but I'm not sure I'd really recommend this book unless you love:
1.) Tom Clancy-style trash
2.) Evil Russian Communists (TM)
3.) Goof-ass visions of the 90's and now that never came to pass
If you do meet all three criteria, please contact my parents, who I'm going to be giving this book to, and you may want to act fast before they take it to the used book store.
Grade: B-
Hey, remember in 1993 when Gorbachov was overthrown by the Evil Russian Communists (TM) and a moderate, pro-USA faction took over in Iran and we all flew in our spaceplanes to our armored space stations full of lasers and particle beams? Good times. That's the setting for this enjoyably dated techno-trash, centered around the titular Silver Tower, a space station the US uses to keep an eye on the Soviet invasion of Iran, until it comes under spaceplane attack from the resurgent Commies. I'm sure when this came out it was a chilling look at something something or a pulse pounding blah blah, but now it's a charmingly goofy retro-future full of cartoon characters. Frankly, I think this helps the book rather than hurts it, but I'm not sure I'd really recommend this book unless you love:
1.) Tom Clancy-style trash
2.) Evil Russian Communists (TM)
3.) Goof-ass visions of the 90's and now that never came to pass
If you do meet all three criteria, please contact my parents, who I'm going to be giving this book to, and you may want to act fast before they take it to the used book store.
Grade: B-
Monday, April 9, 2012
"A Place in History"
A Place in History: Albany in the Age of Revolution, 1775-1825 (Warren Roberts)
I wanted to like this book; I thought you could read Bloody Mohawk and then this for a nice overview of the capital region's history. Unfortunately, Roberts wanders around far too much. Half the book is about the French revolution, which is interesting, but isn't really about Albany, and the lack of focus really hurts the book. The very beginning, about the battle of Saratoga, and the very end about the Erie Canal manage to stay on topic, but the bulk of the book - a framing device examining the lives of six people who visited Philip Schuyler, and then a long biography of a French noblewoman who spent a whole two years in New York - meanders unpardonably. Most of the characters we get substantive biographies of end up going to France, or fleeing from France, or are French noblewomen, and ten pages into a biography of Gouvernor Morris where he's been getting laid in Paris for pages, I find myself flipping back to the cover and making sure I'm still reading a book that's about Albany in the revolutionary period. I'm sure there's a good book in here somewhere, but I have to regretfully attach the "badly needs an editor" tag and assign the dreaded
Grade: D
I wanted to like this book; I thought you could read Bloody Mohawk and then this for a nice overview of the capital region's history. Unfortunately, Roberts wanders around far too much. Half the book is about the French revolution, which is interesting, but isn't really about Albany, and the lack of focus really hurts the book. The very beginning, about the battle of Saratoga, and the very end about the Erie Canal manage to stay on topic, but the bulk of the book - a framing device examining the lives of six people who visited Philip Schuyler, and then a long biography of a French noblewoman who spent a whole two years in New York - meanders unpardonably. Most of the characters we get substantive biographies of end up going to France, or fleeing from France, or are French noblewomen, and ten pages into a biography of Gouvernor Morris where he's been getting laid in Paris for pages, I find myself flipping back to the cover and making sure I'm still reading a book that's about Albany in the revolutionary period. I'm sure there's a good book in here somewhere, but I have to regretfully attach the "badly needs an editor" tag and assign the dreaded
Grade: D
Friday, April 6, 2012
"Art of the Mass Effect Universe"
Art of the Mass Effect Universe ("Various")
A very nice, high-quality artbook about, well, you can guess which universe, I'm sure. A little more detail on 1 and 3 would be nice - about 50% of the book is ME2 - but I really liked how you get to see the different concepts for characters that were never used, and the commentary on discarded ideas is spare but illuminating. Maybe not worth $40, but for the $26 I got on Amazon I'm very pleased. That's all I have to say.
Grade: B+
A very nice, high-quality artbook about, well, you can guess which universe, I'm sure. A little more detail on 1 and 3 would be nice - about 50% of the book is ME2 - but I really liked how you get to see the different concepts for characters that were never used, and the commentary on discarded ideas is spare but illuminating. Maybe not worth $40, but for the $26 I got on Amazon I'm very pleased. That's all I have to say.
Grade: B+
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
"The World's Worst Aircraft"
The World's Worst Aircraft: From Pioneering Failures to Multimillion Dollar Disasters (Jim Winchester)
At last, the stunning finale to the trilogy! You won't believe what happens to your favorite characters from "The World's Worst Cars" and "The World's Worst Weapons!"
No, I'm lying; It's just another book, which is about (checks title) bad airplanes. I don't know a lot about airplanes, so I was more interested in the parade of unbelievable disasters from the wild and wooly teens and twenties, where putting eight wings and sixteen motors on a houseboat looks comparatively sane. As for the rest of the book, well, it's an interesting bathroom book, and I wasn't expecting or asking for more than that.
Grade: B
At last, the stunning finale to the trilogy! You won't believe what happens to your favorite characters from "The World's Worst Cars" and "The World's Worst Weapons!"
No, I'm lying; It's just another book, which is about (checks title) bad airplanes. I don't know a lot about airplanes, so I was more interested in the parade of unbelievable disasters from the wild and wooly teens and twenties, where putting eight wings and sixteen motors on a houseboat looks comparatively sane. As for the rest of the book, well, it's an interesting bathroom book, and I wasn't expecting or asking for more than that.
Grade: B
Sunday, April 1, 2012
"Dead Witch Walking"
Dead Witch Walking: The Hollows, Book 1 (Kim Harrison)
Ladies and gentlemen, it's finally happened. Brace yourself - a free Kindle book that didn't make me want to die! Yes! A free e-book that wasn't about God giving court reporters magical psychic powers or Evil Muslim Terrorists meeting at Shoney's to plan throwing grenades into churches or small towns putting up christmas trees right in the road and being surprised when cars hit them! The curse has finally been broken, which is kind of funny since the book is all about an alternate Earth where vampires, werewolves, pixies, witches, etc. live side by side with humans. And it's good! I mean, it's not great literature, but it's clever and brisk and at one point the main charecter turns herself into a mink and the bad guy captures her and puts her into a rat-fighting league to try and bump her off without leaving any evidence behind. I mean, I can pick some nits - the main charecter starts by leaving her job at the supernatural equivilant of the FBI, which reacts by putting out a hit on her, which everyone seems to think is normal and makes sense, but which I myself never understood. But really, I'd be happy with this book even if I'd paid for it, and at the price of free, I'm not gonna complain. Heck, I may even pick up some of the other books in the series, no doubt all part of the author's evil plan in offering the first one for free.
Grade: B+
Ladies and gentlemen, it's finally happened. Brace yourself - a free Kindle book that didn't make me want to die! Yes! A free e-book that wasn't about God giving court reporters magical psychic powers or Evil Muslim Terrorists meeting at Shoney's to plan throwing grenades into churches or small towns putting up christmas trees right in the road and being surprised when cars hit them! The curse has finally been broken, which is kind of funny since the book is all about an alternate Earth where vampires, werewolves, pixies, witches, etc. live side by side with humans. And it's good! I mean, it's not great literature, but it's clever and brisk and at one point the main charecter turns herself into a mink and the bad guy captures her and puts her into a rat-fighting league to try and bump her off without leaving any evidence behind. I mean, I can pick some nits - the main charecter starts by leaving her job at the supernatural equivilant of the FBI, which reacts by putting out a hit on her, which everyone seems to think is normal and makes sense, but which I myself never understood. But really, I'd be happy with this book even if I'd paid for it, and at the price of free, I'm not gonna complain. Heck, I may even pick up some of the other books in the series, no doubt all part of the author's evil plan in offering the first one for free.
Grade: B+
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