Monday Book Pick: Area 51
Area 51 by Bob Mayer
The first is a series of ten books (currently). I’ve just read this one, the series intro, and found it fast paced and fun. Now I enjoy a good conspiracy as much as the next person, perhaps more, and this book is based on the infamous Area 51, and throws in Pyramids, the Nazi obsession with the occult, and Ancient Astronauts! A good adventure pulp novel. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Monday Book Pick: Super Freakonomics
Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and SStephen J. Dubner
The Rogue Economists are back. This one is as fun as the first one. They tackle a wide range of issues, including:
- Why walking drunk as, if not more, dangerous than driving drunk
- This history of the economics of prostitution in the US, and a look at the low and high ends of modern prositution in the US.
- Why the solutions to global climate change a group of really smart people came up with are so different than the solutions Algore wants.
Oh, there is more, those are just a sample. Here is one data point that shouldn’t suprise you, a “low end” prostitute in Chicago is much more likely to have sex with a Chicago police officer than be arrested by Chicago police officer.
Monday Book Pick: Tiger by the Tail
Tiger by the Tail by John Ringo and Ryan Sear
The latest in John Ringo’s Paladin of Shadows series. Mostly written by Ryan Sear from an outline by John Ringo. As you should remember, the first book in the series, Ghost (a Monday Book pick in in 2009), was one Ringo felt he had to write from a personal perspective, but never thought it would be published. Not only was it published, but it was a run away best seller that won an award as a Romance novel for its open and honest look into the B&D/S&M world from the viewpoint of a Het male Dom. Tiger by the Tail follows the Kildar and his dour band of warriors to the South Pacific, where they are hunting pirates as a training exercise. Of course, things get interesting from there. It’s a fun filled action series, so expect battles, adventure, beautiful exotic women, spies, and references to really good beer. Ringo handed the bulk of the writing to Ryan Sear. Sear has been the fellow writing the current Executioner series (originally written by Don Pendleton). A gritty pulp series about an Army sniper in Vietnam who’s family has been destroyed by the Mafia, so he declares a one man domestic war on the Organized Crime families. One of the cool things about that series was the firearm gearhead detail. This is something that Ryan Sear has brought into the Paladin of Shadows series and personally, I think it fits well. The characters are a little wooden compared to the previous books, but that isn’t unexpected since this is the first time Sear is taking them out for a spin. Close enough to be recognizable to fans of the series, so as they say “good enough for government work.” Like most books in the series, there is some sex, but this primarily an adventure pulp of the old school, which is a good thing.
Monday Book Pick: No Easy Day
Filed under: American History, Monday Book Pick, US Military
No Easy Day by Mark Owen & Kevin Maurer
This is an autobiography of a US Navy SEAL, and member of DEVGRU, who took part in Operation Neptune Spear. That was the mission where Osama bin Laden died of acute lead poisoning, when one of the SEALs shot him in the head. It is a very stright foward book that tells the story of how Mark Owen (not his real name) trained and deployed prior to the mission, as well as the boots on the ground perspective of how the operation took place. It is not a political book, the authors don’t have political axes to grind. They do make an honest assesment of VP Joe Biden though. A good and honest read. Well worth the money and time invested.
Monday Book Pick: Armageddon 2419 A.D.
Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan
From 1919 comes the original “Buck” Rogers novel. He wasn’t called “Buck” until later, after the comic strip picked up steam. Here he is just Anthony “Tony” Rogers, a WWI vet trapped in a cave mine and emerges centuries later to help lead the second American revolution as they take down the Han Overlords who took over the world centuries eariler. A good solid adventure story with a couple of decent and one really bad sequels written decades later.
Monday Book Pick: Alexander Outland: Space Pirate
Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch
It’s a Space Opera! It’s a pulp Story! Humor, romance, sex robots, a princess on the lamb, and the best pilot in the Galaxy!
If want fun, adventure, and even more raw sewage that you swing a smugger’s space ship at, this is your book. It’s not high art, but a fun read!
Monday Book Pick: OSS Commando: Final Option
OSS Commando: Final Option by Charles Sasser
A military thriller set in the final days before the D-Day invasion in 1944. The hero is Captain James Cantrell, a former Chicago homicide detective, now a member of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services). His mission is to keep the secret of the D-Day landing location from the Germans. He has a landing craft sunk underneath him, survives a bombing attack in downtown London, parachutes into Nazi occupied France, breaks into a heavily guarded castle, and has not one, but two beautiful women to deal with. One a Nazi spy and other a member of the French resistance forces.
Monday Book Pick: The Jefferson Allegiance
The Jefferson Allegiance by Bob Mayer
A political thriller with conspiracies linked to secret branches of organizations founded by the Thomas Jefferson (author of the Declaration of Independane and the third President) and Alexander Hamilton (first Secretary of the Treasury). Plenty of action and lots of history. A tasty bit of reading for somebody like me, who likes thrillers, conspiracies and American history.
Monday Book Pick: The Martian Emperor
The Martian Emperor (A Chronological Man Adventure) by Andrew Mayne
Second in the series. The first was my pick back in early June. In this book, our hero and heroine pick up a number of months later. They travel to New York City by way of Smith’s private, and off the books, train, in order to face a new menance. The “Emperor of Mars” is blackmailing the Earth. They run into his old friend Theodore Roosevelt, and have a series of adventures. During the course of said adventures, we learn some more about Smith and his background. A ripping good yarn and well worth the $0.99.
Quote of the Day
This is a point I tried to make over and over again in Liberal Fascism. Poisons are determined by the dose. A little nationalism is healthy, a lot of nationalism is dangerous. A little social solidarity is moral, too much is immoral. When a conservative tempers his social conservatism with libertarianism or when a Libertarian tempers his utopian tendencies with an appreciation of tradition, it’s not called hypocrisy, it’s called wisdom.
— Jonah Goldberg