I found this book While I was waiting in line to check out at the library. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. It was first published in 2003. This is the 2009 updated edition. It has some good ideas on getting the most for your money. If anyone out there likes [...]

Since I’ve been blogging about tons of children’s books lately, I thought I’d mix it up a little and tell you what I thought of this lengthy, mostly serious, near-encyclopedic history of science. I’ve read just about every book Bill Bryson has written, but it wasn’t until I listened to this one that I was [...]

 
 
 
 
 
Why does this always happen to me?  I have this habit of putting lots of books that I want to read on hold at the library and then they inevitably all come in at the same time!  Now I have these three that all need to be read in the next two weeks!  Good thing [...]

As a kid I read a ridiculous number of horse books, but in the past two decades I can’t think of even one equine-related work of fiction written for an adult that has crossed my path.  How can this be?  Oh sure, there’s at least one mystery series that would fit the bill, but I [...]

Don’t let the title fool you, this story has nothing to do with fish. Artie Lange, a stand up comedian that works every weekday morning on the Howard Stern Radio Show decided to write a book about his life. Known for his raunchy humor, Lange writes about his life from birth to his current life [...]

I’ve never found a book on etymology or language in general that I haven’t loved at first sight, but this one should appeal to even those among us who aren’t completely obsessed with words.  The Word Snoop includes great explanations of why English is so complicated and unusually arbitrary-appearing in its grammar and spelling and [...]

This book is about the history of a painting as it passes from one owner to the next.  There are eight little stories from present day, back to the original conception of the painting by the artist.  The artist may or may not be Johannes Van der Meer or, that is, Vermeer.  This may be a [...]

Despite the sizeable pool of fantastic works of fiction from which I’ve fortunately chosen to read so far in 2009, I can say without a doubt that The Golden Compass is hands down one of the best.  It’s a bit surprising that the His Dark Materials trilogy escaped my attention for so long, but fortunately [...]