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"The Last Man on the Moon" by Eugene Cernan 
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 Commander of the final Apollo moon mission, Cernan gives a bare-bones but illuminative history of his role in the space program. Like all of the astronauts of his era (and many of us who grew up in its long shadow), he wonders why we stopped reaching for the stars and began settling. |
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"Americans Into Orbit" by Gene Gurney
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 My kids' school library cleaned out all their old pre-politically correct history and science books; this look at the early American space program was pretty solid history, even if written for the younger set. |
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"A Private View" by Anita Brookner
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 Not as dark as "Hotel du Lac," but still haunted by some disturbing undercurrents. Retired British gentleman gets his hormones in an uproar over sensual young American girl. Will he come to his senses? Should he? Brookner has a nice touch for such questions. |
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"Six Memos for the Next Millennium" by by Italo Calvino
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 Just barely got this in before the millennium! The late Italian novelist/abusrdist Calvino organized five lectures for Harvard (he died before completing No. 6) about his theories of literature. Provocative stuff for anyone who still believes in literature as art. |
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"Hemingway's Chair" by by Michael Palin
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 Read this on a flight from D.C. to San Diego, and it was the best flight I've ever had. Monty Python's Palin is a wonderful story teller with believably eccentric characters and twists of plot to delight O. Henry. |
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"Hotel du Lac" by Anita Brookner
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 Dark little novel about a woman trying to get away from her past, but confronted with the reality that none of us really can, that the mere fact of attempted escape is itself an act of bondage to the past. |
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"The Kingdom of Zydeco" by Michael Tisserand
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 Best, most complete history of Louisiana's zydeco music yet. Well-written and informative, but Tisserand seems too wed to the cultural and psychological barriers between Creole and Cajun and ignores, or at least glosses over, the important cross-pollinations. (See review of the CD that was released at the same time as the book, compiled by Tisserand.) |
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"Fortunes of War" by Stephen Coonts
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 I hate to put down other folks' creative works, but I'm not quite sure this novel even qualifies in that category. Ridiculous story line and two-dimensional characters made this almost unreadable. |
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"The Kingdom of Shivas Irons" by Michael Murphy
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 The sequel to "Golf in the Kingdom." Answers some hanging questions from the first book, but not nearly as enchanting. |
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"Golf in the Kingdom" by Michael Murphy
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 Golf as metaphysics. Sometimes kind of doofy, but mostly it works as the narrator relates his encounter with Shivas Irons, Murphy's own mythical (or is he?) Irish golfing semi-deity. |
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"Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet" by Stephen Segaller
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 Well-written history of the Internet, based on the TV mini-series of the same name. (See full review.) |
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"Cosm" by Gregory Benford
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 This is what sci-fi ought to be: Benford creates a wonderful new world – a new cosm, actually, about the size of a bowling ball, yet the same as our own universe. Great idea, great story. |
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"Being Digital" by Nicholas Negroponte
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 I'm very interested in computers and high technology, yet just a year after reading this book, it registers nothing – not even after reading the Barnes & Noble synopsis. Not a good sign ... |
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"The Other End of Time" by Frederick Pohl
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 This seemed kinda dopey, even for science fiction. Humans repairing an abandoned space station are kidnapped, end up in some war on other side of the universe or galaxy, and end up winning, sort of. Didn't do much for me ... |