The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil (Stephen Collins)

Okay, I'm going to admit it: I read this book because of the title. You can probably guess what it's about from the cover; our hero Dave's boring life is disrupted when he grows a gigantic beard that is evil. Actually, I'm not sure the beard really is evil; it seems more like an agent of chaos disrupting the boring, dysfunctional society that Dave lives in. Either way, I enjoyed reading this; it's a quick little read, but the art is great. I might recommend getting it out of the library since you can finish it in under an hour, but otherwise I don't have a bad word to say.

Grade: B+

"Fall of Giants"

Fall of Giants (Ken Follett)

I made it 300 pages into this before giving up. This is a historical novel about a bunch of different families starting just before World War I, and it turned into a real slog rather quickly. I couldn't put down a different Follett book, The Pillars of the Earth, and I really feel the difference is a simple one: Pillars of the Earth has one, single overarching narrative thread that may touch many people and subplots, but keeps everything tied together; Fall of Giants is missing this, and is instead very, very loosely woven from five or six threads that barely rub up against each other. Almost every character's thread is interesting, but jumping away from them to dive into another, almost totally unrelated one kills all the momentum, and eventually makes the book a chore to read. I'd recommend taking a pass on this one.

Grade: C-

"Commie Girl in the O.C."

Commie Girl in the O.C. (Rebecca Schoenkopf)

Commie Girl in the O.C. begs many questions: Why am I reading Commie Girl in the O.C.? Why do I own Commie Girl in the O.C.? I wish I could answer these questions, but I can't. The mystery surrounding Commie Girl in the O.C. is, I'm afraid, more interesting than the book itself, which mostly reads like a series of newspaper columns or short blog posts from somewhere in the 2000s, and which I quickly found myself putting down to read The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America (review possibly forthcoming). I don't recommend Commie Girl in the O.C.; even at under $7 from Amazon, it's just not worth the extensional crisis.

Grade: D

"The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish"

The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish: My Life in Churchill's School of Spies (Noreen Riols)

I'm really torn about this book; the author's story working in SOE during World War II is very interesting, but the book really seems to need a good editor. The raw material of the author's story is fascinating and she has a great voice, but it reads like a tape recorder was put in front of her and she told a bunch of interesting stories; I think the book could be vastly improved if it was set in chronological order, or at least had a stronger main narrative. As it is it's like spending an afternoon hearing the author reminisce, and while that's no bad thing, in its current form I ended up reading it in an afternoon and then forgetting most of it.

Grade: B

"The Devils' Alliance"

The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939 - 1941 (Roger Moorhouse)

Kind of the European version of Japan 1941. As you can guess from the title, this book covers the strange period of time where Nazi Germany and Stalin's USSR were allies, starting just before the pact was signed and ending with the German sneak attack in June 1941. This is obviously a pretty depressing book, but as a look at a often-ignored period of time, it's fascinating; I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at how cynical Hitler and Stalin both were given that they both agreed to the titular devil's alliance, but here we are. My only caveat is that this is something of a niche title. I found the book very interesting, but a 432-page history of two years about World War II where World War II isn't happening between the subjects is kind of a hard sell. That said, this is probably an excellent appetizer to read before a solid history of the European front in WW2.

Grade: B+

"A History of Britian in 36 Postage Stamps"

A History of Britain in 36 Postage Stamps (Chris West)

This was an interesting book to read; I know basically nothing about postage stamps, and not a great deal about the period of British history covered (1840 - the modern day). I enjoyed reading it, but the history is very basic, and it mostly just left me wanting more. I can easily recommend this for school kids, history novices, and people with an interest in postage stamps; otherwise I'd probably give it a miss.

Grade: B-

"Kushiel's Dart"

Kushiel's Dart (Jacqueline Carey)

A big fantasy novel about a courtesan who's tossed into a high-stakes world of political intrigue in late medieval fantasy Europe. For the first 300 pages or so this was really hard to put down; Carey's great at world-building and weaving exposition, and the world she's made is pretty interesting. Unfortunately the book eventually slows down and starts dragging, hamstrung by two issues, one big and one small. The big one is that it's simply too, well, big - the paperback comes in at a hair over 900 pages, and it's not hard to suggest some useless parts that could be cut (my recommendation would be the entire Master of the Straits storyline, which not only adds almost nothing to the story, but feels very out of place having a super-powerful wizard in a very low-magic setting). The second issue is that the characters are not always fleshed out as much as one would hope; our heroine and the main cast mostly come off pretty well, but the head antagonist is barely more than a sketch.
All in all, I guess this is a good beach book, but it's hard to really recommend seeking it out unless you pass it on the shelf at the library.

Grade: B