Reviews

Dauntless by Jack Campbell is the first book of his military science fiction series, The Lost Fleet.  It tells of the adventures of John “Black Jack” Geary, a military commander from a previous era whose legend has become more than the man.

A group of college kids head up to the woods for a weekend campout, only to fall into the murderous plot of a couple of backwoods hicks.

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A couple of friends head out to their cabin in the woods to make repairs on their vacation home-to-be, only to run into some paranoid college kids who seem bent on their destruction.

Please, judge this book by its cover.

Dongen tells the story of the tulip from ancient times, when the tulip was first admired as early as the 1050s in the area of what is now China, Tibet and Russia. Tulips are also mentioned frequently in Arabic and Persian poetry.

Wonderful, thought provoking scholarship.  Not easy reading, exactly.

Robert B. Parker is mostly known for his crime fiction, but his final novel published before his 2010 death was the fourth in a series of terrific westerns.

The setting is San Francisco, current day.  A wayward teen never adopted has maxed out on state help and is forced out into the world.  As the story unfolds the back story of Victoria’s life is revealed, including the many mistakes she has made.  She has a

This book is one of those novels that makes you want to keep a notebook near you, so you can write down all the terribly witty and wonderful things people say (maybe in hopes of using them yourself someday and coming off as spontaneously brilliant as the heroine).

Yet another great science fiction thriller by Michael Crichton was published posthumously, completed by science and fiction writer Richard Preston.

A collection of 100 close-up color photos of exotic butterflies against black backgrounds. It’s an adult book that held the interest of 5 children for over an hour. Some photos capture the top and bottom sides of the butterflies. Visually stunning.

I found a lot of helpful information in The Art of Running Faster. Like many how-to running books, I had to skim for what interested me and skip what didn’t. I found learning about fartleks and other training strategies extremely helpful.