"The Mists of Avalon"

The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

Let's take a nice break from massive, nerdy history books to read a massive, nerdy women's studies retelling of the Arthurian legend. (I'm not kidding about how massive it is - the parts just dealing with Arthur's mother is enough text to have been a full-sized novel by itself.)
Where viewing the story through the eyes of the female characters didn't really work for The Penelopiad, it works wonderfully here, breathing new life into the old, tired story. The male characters stay offscreen unless what they're doing effects the women, so the book's real hero is Morgaine, with the villian being played by Geunievere. Gwen here seems to have severe agroaphobia along with the intellect and emotional maturity of a five year old - in other words, she comes off as a perpetually terrified, charmless, child-like, dumb weirdo. Arthur doesn't come off that much better, and neither does Lancelot, come to think of it. I think part of the problem - and this is so wide-spread that it even effects Morgaine - is that the main cast at times acts forehead-slappingly out of character. This seems to be a result of the story having to hew more or less to the original myth. It's annoying, but I suppose in the end a good tradeoff for how well the end result turns out. Even though the book runs over 800 pages, it really only drags when we're following Gwen around being dumb and scared, and these stretches are a drop in the ocean (albeit parts I recommend skipping anyway). Highly recommended.

Grade: A

"Does A Bear Sh*t in the Woods?"

Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods?: Answers to Rhetorical Questions (Caroline Taggart)

Perfectly inoffensive little bathroom book that - well, just read the title, really. This book's good for a larf, with Taggart's over-literal interpretation of the questions and informative if misguided answers keeping it moving along. The one thing I wished had been included as the author answering my  my favorite question - what is the sound of one hand clapping? (Ask me next time you see me in person and I'll generate the sound.) That's really it, so prepare yourself for the sound of a grade being assigned...

Grade: C

"Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age"

Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age 1792 - 1815: Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics (Robert B Bruce, Iain Dickie, Kevin Kiley, Michael F. Pavkovic, Frederick C. Schneid)

There's a whole series of these books; Like the others, this is a nice introduction to the time period you're looking at, with bunches of nice drawings (although I started skipping the map pages). I feel like I missed some details as the authors seem to assume - safely - that you're not reading this book in a vacuum and it's either being read as an appetizer for, or a companion to, another book about the time described. That being said, this book isn't particularly enthralling on its own, but it's perfectly serviceable. That sounds like faint praise indeed, and I really don't want to condemn this book too harshly. The book accomplishes what it sets out to do, and I can't ask for more than that.

Grade: B

"You Must Be Skidding!"

You Must Be Skidding! (Tony Davis)

A fun little bathroom book about ridiculous cars, including some I've never seen before - no easy feat given my enjoyment of this particular weird little sub-genre. Davis' dry humor is quite good, but my favorite part is the goofy illustrations, with the absolute stand-out being a sad little kid bundled up in winter gear tooling down the road in a refrigerator with wheels, a windshield, and a trailing power cord. Great stuff.

Grade: A

"Bushwhacked"

Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (Molly Ivins & Lou Dubose)

I love how when you go to the Amazon page for this, it screams
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).

I mean, I don't want to be rude, but is there a really huge demand for this book? To sum it up in one word - one devastating word, in the world of politics - it's (bum bum bum bum bum bum)

Dated. 

It's well written and entertaining, but let's be honest here: No matter how big an asshole move it is, do people remember old W as one of the worst presidents because he refused to ratify Clinton's workplace ergonomics legislation? I'd say no, and this book was published before the epic, presidency-destroying bungles of, say, Iraq's disastrous occupation, and eating birthday cake while New Orleans was destroyed. Going back and reading this book now, the two things that leap out are Enron, and the very start of the Iraq war. Everything else, horrible as it is, seems like small potatoes compared to what W ended up doing before we got a responsible adult in the white house again (wow - more like bite size political opinions.blogspot.com! -ed). 
So should you read it? If you find it for free like I did, sure, but given the age of the material, this is hard to recommend otherwise.

Grade: B? Yeah, let's go with that.