| Philipp Jakob Spener: Pietist Patriarch by K James Stein, 334 pages James Donahue 11 June 2004 Very good biography of the populizer of the Pietist movement (the movement that put the evangelical in the German Evangelical Church). As a sidenote, church history may be the only remaining field that uses the word "patriarch" in titles in a non-condemnatory way | The VAX DCL Programmers' Reference, VMS 5.0 by K M Leisner and D B Cook, 297 pages Steven Krise 11 September 2009 Exactly as the title says: a programmer's reference to VAX DCL, so don't expect in-depth coverage on the topics. |
The Mandalorian Armor (1998) by K. W. Jeter, 387 pages James Donahue 08 January 2007 Did you know Boba Fett survived the Sarlaac Pit? |
Slave Ship (1998) by K. W. Jeter, 324 pages James Donahue 10 January 2007 Oh, silly Bossk, when will you learn that you cannot compete with Boba Fett? |
Hard Merchandise (1998) by K. W. Jeter, 338 pages James Donahue 17 January 2007 Who knew that Boba Fett was such a kick-ass? |
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, 96 pages Steve Gadd 12 January 1996 |
Blood Secrets by Karen E. Taylor, 283 pages Jeff Gadd 09 October 2002 Deirdre Griffin a vampire has to find a vampire killing people she knows. |
Bitter Blood by Karen E. Taylor, 319 pages Jeff Gadd 17 October 2002 Next of Deirdre Griffin where she has to come back in New York,cause more vampires are killing people she knows. |
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter, 393 pages Mike Gadd 04 December 2002 Not a bad rookie effort but it certainly won't have 'Patricia Cornwell glancing nervously in her rearview mirror' as the book jacket claims. Characters are too one-dimensional and the climax falls flat. How lame is it to have the bad guy drown because he can't swim? We're supposed to be satisfied by this? I think I'll likely pass on book 2. |
Kant and the Fate of Autonomy by Karl Americks, 351 pages James Donahue 22 August 2002 Americks aptly relates the misreadings and outright disagreements that Kant's successors had with Kant himself. Focuses on Fichte, Reinhold, and Hegel. Dense but worth it. |
Homebrew Favorites by Karl F Lutzen & Mark Stevens, 250 pages Steven Krise 02 May 2009 A collection of recipes compiled mostly during the period of 1988 to 1992 (book was published in 1994). So, the book offers a good snapshot at common homebrew practice at the beginning of the homebrew renaissance of the 1990s. |
Terrorism and Communism by Karl Kautsky, 234 pages James Donahue 24 February 2003 The famous Marxist-humanist takes on Lenin and the Bolsheviks in 1921. Kautsky scorns the impatience and dictatorial pretensions of the Soviets, arguing that proletariat revolution can only can about through popular and democratic means and not back-door tribunals and coup d'etats. |
The Poverty of Philosophy by Karl Marx, 209 pages James Donahue 04 February 2003 Marx's quarrel with Proudhon over the (im)mutability of economic categories. |
Love and Responsibility by Karol W, 319 pages Micaela Larkin 28 July 2006 In my newest holy roller phase, I decided to take on Pope JPII's first foray into Catholic marriage, and in some ways it provides a practical foray (psych/bio/philo) look into his later developed theology of the body. Good reading! It also is useful for assessing one's own descent into utilitarianism in one's personal life. Or the hefty book can be thrown at people who need to wake up! |
Labyrinth (2005) by Kate Mosse, 508 pages Jennifer Dear 28 May 2007 |
Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity by Kathryn Sklar, 330 pages James Donahue 09 March 2004 A biography of Harriet' sister. Keeping it within the family. Beecher was America's first Martha Stewart as well as the one who singlehandedly made teaching and nursing womens' first occupations. Good scholarship here, but more concerned with Catherine's womanhood than her personality. |
The Truce At Bakura (1994) by Kathy Tyers, 311 pages James Donahue 29 January 2007 After the destruction of the Death Star, the Alliance and Empire team to battle invading aliens. Not the best book I've ever read. |
Sense of Evil by Kay Hooper, 357 pages Kristin Schrock 31 July 2004 A serial killer is after the women of a quaint little town. It'll take a psychic FBI agent to catch the killer. This is a sub-par thriller. The twists were obvious and it was heavy in exposition. But the cover was bright yellow, which is why I picked it up off the shelf. |
An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison, 195 pages James Donahue 20 June 2005 An excellent primer on bipolar disorder. To paraphrase those cheesy commercials: Jamison is not just a Johns Hopkins professor specializing in bipolar, she's a client. Seems like this is hitting a lot of people close to us - to name two just in D.C.: Susan Philips and Jabes Schuppe. Powerful stuff. |
The Worst Person in the World and 202 Strong Contenders (2006) by Keith Olbermann, 267 pages James Donahue 02 January 2007 My favorite: Neil Cavuto's ridiculous headlines during his news show, which have always angered me (and, yes, gotten my attention in airports, etc.): Examples: "Civil War in Iraq: Made up by the media?", followed by "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could it be a good thing?" |
Sir Edward Grey (1971) by Keith Robbins, 372 pages James Donahue 07 July 2006 Grey was Foreign Secretary of Great Britain from 1905 to 1916, and the author of several fly-fishing books that were "too bookish for the fisher and too fisherly for the bookish." |
The Guards by Ken Bruen, 291 pages Jonathan Misirian 19 July 2006 My first dip into the crime-noir genre was a delightful swim. Bruen’s sparse style accentuates his word selection, making you feel as if you are reading a script to a 1940’s Bogart movie. |
The Killing of the Tinkers by Ken Bruen, 244 pages Jonathan Misirian 29 July 2006 Irish crime-noir writer Bruen’s second book in his Jack Taylor series. Taylor’s a down-and-out former policeman, who battles the bottle, his past, and memories of dead friends. Bruen’s sparse yet literate style of writing is like a Guinness: soft to the eyes and a hammer to your gut. |
The Magdalen Martyrs by Ken Bruen, 274 pages Jonathan Misirian 03 August 2006 Readers long for the mystical moment when the novel you are reading transcends into ‘literature.’ This occurs but once every dozen or so books and happily for me, did with The Magdalen Martyrs. Bruen’s style isn’t for all, reflecting the harsh conditions of the protagonist’s life. Death, street justice, drugs and death, all find there way into yet another compelling story. |
the Dramatist by Ken Bruen, 242 pages Jonathan Misirian 11 August 2006 The fourth installment in the Jack Taylor detective series, by crime-noir writer Ken Bruen. Somewhat disappointed by the now too-formulaic narrative development, yet Bruen’s style continues to impress. Sparse and acerbic, Bruen heroically brings the surprisingly sympathetic character of Jack Taylor to life. |
American Skin (2006) by Ken Bruen, 280 pages Jonathan Misirian 09 March 2007 Bruen’s back, perfecting his craft of writing sparse, literate, and violent crime noir. The genre is unique; in that for what it lacks in character development is made up in fast pace, lucid and taut writing. American Skin is Bruen’s attempt at moving the setting to the US, hence the adopting of Springsteen’s song as the title for the book. Murder, betrayal, love lost, and hard drinking...its all here. |
Calibre by Ken Bruen, 182 pages Jonathan Misirian 13 August 2007 Crime noir writer Bruen writes in a manner that makes you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut. His characters develop and speak in sparse, yet rich dialogue. This new series is set in a London police station, where the difference between the right and wrong is mostly absent. For those that like a quick read, an out-loud laugh or two, Bruen’s novels are for you. |
Vixen (2003) by Ken Bruen, 200 pages Jonathan Misirian 14 August 2007 Renegade London cops track down a ruthless killer, in this the second in Bruen’s Detective Brant series. Think The Shield, set in modern London |
Blitz, or Brant hits the blues by Ken Bruen, 268 pages Jonathan Misirian 13 September 2007 Literary crack. |
Night Over Water (1991) by Ken Follett, 400 pages Brad Snyder 15 September 2007 Disappointing |
The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Tale of a Boy and his Backyard Nuclear Reactor by Ken Silverstein, 240 pages Jaqi Ross 28 September 2004 In the summer of 1995, a teenager in a Detroit suburb, a mediocre student with a relentless scientific curiosity, managed to build a rudimentary nuclear breeder reactor in a shed behind his mother's house, using radioactive elements obtained from items as ordinary as smoke detectors. He got so far along in his efforts that when the Feds finally caught up with him, the EPA used Superfund money (usually spent on the worst hazardous waste sites) to clean up the shed. Building on a Harper's article, Silverstein, an investigative reporter for the L.A. Times, fleshes out David Hahn's atomic escapades, and though it takes a while for the story to kick into gear, readers will be sucked in not just by how Hahn did it but how he was able to get away with it. His "pathologically oblivious" father comes in for the sharpest criticism, but Silverstein takes note of the teachers who failed to pick up on Hahn's cues (his friends called him "glow boy") and the Department of Energy official who offered crucial tips on creating a neutron gun. Silverstein also examines the pronuclear ideology Hahn picked up in the Boy Scouts (where he had earned an atomic energy merit badge) and dated government publications that touted nuclear power while glossing over setbacks in the troubled breeder reactor program. And though there's little mention of how easily terrorists could duplicate Hahn's feat, perhaps the accomplishment of one obsessed teen is scary enough in its own right. |
Restoring the Reformation: British Evangelicalism and the Francophone Réveil, 1816-1849 (2006) by Kenneth J. Stewart, 254 pages James Donahue 29 December 2007 Very impressive church history on an understudied topic. Too many Protestants are unaware of the Continental roots of their faith. But I should caution that this is a former dissertation that has the blocky composition required by the profession. (The title alone is a good example of this.) Still: Its worth the effort to wade through the academic style, especially if you (like me) hail from a Pietistic and European-Reformed background. |
Red Star Rogue by Kenneth Sewell, 305 pages Tony Pisarenkov 25 December 2006 An account of a Soviet submarine, evidently commandeered by a rogue KGB faction, that sank while attempting to launch a nuclear missle on Hawaii in 1968, its salavaging by the CIA in the mid-1970s and the subsequent coverup that continues to this day. While a gold mine for both submarine geeks and Cold War wonks, it's surprisingly readable by someone who is neither, but given that the real story has not been declassified by either government, and isn't likely to be, the ultimate satisfaction of having learned something historically factual is absent. |
Wondrous Strange: The Art and Life of Glenn Gould by Kevin Bazzana, 528 pages Tony Pisarenkov 23 October 2007 Exactly what a great biography should be: revealing without being gossipy, admiring without being adulatory and, above all, tremendously engaging. |
A Brief History of the Dead (2006) by Kevin Brockmeier, 252 pages Jonathan Misirian 14 March 2007 Brockmeier’s novel is set in two realities… one is the near future of those living, the other reality is the netherworld where recently deceased people ‘live’ for as long as they are remembered by those not yet dead. Brockmeier resurrects the Greek mythological Lethe, and makes the interplay between the two realities a source of rich insight |
Defending the Damned: Inside Chicago’s Cook County Public Defender’s Office (2007) by Kevin Davis, 308 pages Jonathan Misirian 08 August 2007 Davis follows a specific case, in which the defendant was charged with killing a Chicago police officer. Through the process, he receives unparalleled access to the Public Defenders strategy sessions, court hearings, and unfettered access to the family of slain officer. Davis humanizes a profession that many scorn, while shinning light on an at-times corrupt legal system. |
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, 371 pages Steve Gadd 05 July 2005 Reading this story, you get a bit of a feel for what Afghanistan has been through over the last thirty years. Mostly the author pulls out all the stops trying to break your heart with an overly tragic story. |
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, 371 pages Brad Snyder 31 August 2006 Every Afghan I have ever known is incredibly charming, funny, and hospitable, not at all like the pictures of the country of their origin we are so accustomed to seeing on the nightly news. I think of Dorr, proprietor of the Bamyan Restaurant in Herndon, VA. What great food and what a wonderful human being. It's hard to believe his home country was once so lovely, as it is in this story: for a while anyway. But even as the author paints a picture of beauty and plenty, he crafts characters that remind us all that even in a lush and beautiful place, the reality of the Fall effects us all. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. This is a story of friendship, betrayal, and redemption, with a new twist of sadness in every chapter. |
Saddam's Bombmaker by Khidhir Hamza and Jeff Stein, 337 pages Tony Pisarenkov 18 March 2003 The story of Iraq's nuclear weapons program written by its chief scientist, who escaped after the bomb was perfected to the point that only its excessive size prevented it from being mounted on a missile. The story of the escape alone makes the book worth reading, but what it tells about how Saddam and his system operates makes it essential reading given today's (literally) situation. |
The Everything Family Tree Book by Kimberly Powell, 305 pages Steven Krise 24 May 2009 A complete introduction and overview to the process and sources of genealogical research. |
The German Education of Philip Schaff (2002) by Klaus Penzel, 157 pages James Donahue 16 June 2007 |
Male Fantasies (Vol 1) by Klaus Thiewelt, 435 pages James Donahue 10 February 2003 Examines the phantasmal world of Nazi youth. Attempts to get at their world view by examining their attitudes towards sex, chaos, and women (who were equated all too often.) Disturbing but profound. |
The Box Man by Kobo Abe, 178 pages Jaqi Ross 25 July 2004 The nature of identity itself is the ostensible subject of this bizarrely fascinating existential novel from the great Japanese fiction writer and dramatist Kobo Abe. In the story, a man decides to give up the self that he has been all his life to attain a state of blissful anonymity. He leaves his world behind and moves onto the streets of Tokyo. He puts a large box over his head, cuts a hole for his eyes. It is as strange as it sounds, and it's also a terrible read. NOT recommended. |
Pietism as a Factor in the Rise of German Nationalism by Koppel Pinson, 207 pages James Donahue 27 June 2004 |
The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin by Kris Lundgaard, 157 pages Brad Snyder 10 March 2006 Puritan John Owen wrote extensively on sin and sanctification over three hundred years ago. Lundgaard has written a brief synopsis of Owen's work in which he challenges us to recognize sin as the destructive force in our lives that it really is. |
Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore, 400 pages Micaela Larkin 08 June 2007 Gore's daughter writes political chic lit. |
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, 295 pages Steve Gadd 30 July 1998 After hearing about him for so long, I was not so impressed by my first exposure to this author. Have to try again later. |
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, 295 pages Steve Gadd 17 September 2002 This book is just dumb. The story is dumb, the writing is dumb, and the author's drawings are dumb. Here are the three most clever things in the book: 1) The author inserts himself as a character. 2) He calls mirrors 'leaks.' 3) He describes some commonplace things in a super-literal fashion. This last gimmick is actually amusing a few of the hundreds of times he uses it. Really, there's nothing here that would surprise you coming from a slightly precocious fourteen-year-old. Why is this guy such a favorite? |
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, 287 pages Kristin Schrock 17 December 2002 I love Kurt Vonnegut, and it's not just because he's from Indianapolis. This is an absurdist doomsday book. It's funny and quick without the poignance of Breakfast of Champions (my favorite) or Slaughterhouse-5. Vonnegut is amazing because he has written a great deal using himself as the narrator--what's even more amazing is that I don't mind. |
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, 341 pages Kristin Schrock 24 March 2003 I love Kurt Vonnegut, but this one doesn't have the zip of his other works. He creates a dystopia in which the world is run by managers and engineers and machines replace the workforce (so, really, it's a sort of "work sucks" book). The dramatic oomph of the book rests with our hero who is continually faced with choices but through circumstances is never allowed to make them. Also, he may or may not hate his father (which may be buried in most of Vonnegut's books). |
Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut, 318 pages Kristin Schrock 25 September 2003 I loved Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse 5, so everytime I crack open another Vonnegut book I keep hoping to experience the same joy. Alas, this was not it. A pleasant enough read about Abstract Painting, World War 2, and, because this is Kurt Vonnegut, disappointed fathers. |
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut, 215 pages Brad Snyder 02 February 2009 Vonnegut's anti-war/science fiction/account of the firebombing of Dresden. |
Burn Factor by Kyle Mills, 353 pages Steven Krise 23 October 2003 "If you haven't read Kyle Mills yet, you should--I do." It's funny that Tom Clancy, a) uses a run-on sentence and b) thinks I care what he reads. The lame cover quotes aside, the book was pretty good. Go ahead, be like Tom and me. Read the damned book. |