Monday Book Pick: Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy
Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy by Gwyneth Cravens
In honor of Lenin’s birthday, I’m going to repeat the Monday Book Pick from May 11, 2009. An environmentalist opposed to Nuclear Energy did some honest research and came to the conclusion that only Nuclear Power can provide the base load of clean electricity needed. Actual science trumps rhetoric.
Monday Book Pick: The Sting of the Scorpion
The Sting of the Scorpion by Warren Stockholm
Delightfully dark pulp. Kurt Reinhardt is the product of Nazi genetic engineering in a world were the Germans won WWII and occupied America for sixty years. He was bred to be super solider but didn’t like the job. After another war which saw American regain its independence, he immigrates to America and works his way to wealth. Of course he has serious issues, which he works out by fighting crime in slums of Pittsburgh It’s dark, gritty, and nasty. Just what you want in Noir Pulp.
Monday Book Pick: Time’s Last Gift
Time’s Last Gift by Philip Jose Farmer
This classic is back in print, so if you haven’t read it yet, go do so! In the not so far future from now, time travel is discovered. You can only travel backwards in time, and there is a limit of how far back you can go. So a team of scientist is sent back as far as possible, to the early days of Homo Sapiens. So far back, North Africa was lush plains and forests. Here is the plot twist, one of the team members is not quite what he presents himself as. He is in fact, much older than his other team members, since he been given the gift of immortality (or an extremely long life span) by a Witch Doctor he saved from a leopard in the African jungles he was born in. If you haven’t guessed who the tall gray eyed ringer is by now, you haven’t read enough Farmer.
Monday Book Pick: The Five Tibetans
The Five Tibetans: Five Dynamic Exercises for Health, Energy and Personal Power by Christopher S. Kilham
I learned these yoga exercises at a martial arts seminar a couple of decades ago. Found the book years later. I find them very useful in jumpstarting your metabolism. Best done in the morning. I find that if I do them in the evening, I’m up past 2AM.
Monday Book Pick: The Mad Goblin
The Mad Goblin by Philip Jose Farmer
I’m seeing a lot of Philip Jose Farmer’s work come back into print, which is a good thing. The Mad Goblin is one of two parallel sequels to A Feast Unknown. This one focuses on James “Doc” Caliban (yes, based on Doc Savage), half brother of the fellow Tarzan was based on. Both are former agents of “The Nine.” A group that discovered the secret to extremely prolonged life thirty thousand years ago and has ruled the Earth from behind the scenes since then. This is adventure pulp at its finest, with Farmer paying tribute to one of his favorite fictional characters.
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.