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"Changes" by Jim Butcher 
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 My introduction to the long-running Harry Dresden series, and it has me hooked. Hard. Equal parts hard-boiled noir detective and sci-fi fantasy, "Changes" is a sort of "The Long Goodbye at Hogwarts." Dresden is a Chicago-based private eye, and a full-on wizard. His ex-lover is now almost a vampire, he's got a platonic sort-of friendship with a local cop, and, it turns out, a daughter he never knew about. (Read my interview with Jim Butcher.) |
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"The Edge of Physics" by Anil Ananthaswamy
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 Science journalist Anil Ananthaswamy had the ability through his work to travel to some of the most remote scientific outposts on the planet, to where cosmologists are setting up sensitive instruments as far from the elecgtromagnetic pollution of civilization as possible. The result is part travelogue, part popular science – and Ananthaswamy has a nice touch with both. From the South Pole station to a frozen lake in Siberia, from the high desert of the Andes to a venerable observatory overlooking the suburbs of Southern California, Ananthaswamy introduces not only to the latest research into our understanding of the universe we find ourselves in, but to the characters that these researchers very much are. (Read my interview with Anil Ananthaswamy.) |
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"The Killer" by Tom Hinshelwood
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 A paid assassin is the protagonist in Tom Hinshelwood's debut novel, a spy thriller that is equal parts Patricia Highsmith and Robert Ludlum. Fast-paced, smartly done – one of the best of its kind in a while. (Read full review.) |
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"Treasure of the Golden Cheetah" by Suzanne Arruda
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 Set in pre-war colonial Africa, the Jade del Cameron mysteries hearken back to the era of Hemingway and Bogie, and author Suzanne Arruda mostly pulls it off with style. Del Cameron, an American woman of mixed ethnicity working in British Kenya, works a variety of odd jobs, mostly packing backcountry tours and safaris. She has a pet jaguar, two men vying for her hand in marriage, and a series of murders to solve. Fun stuff – read this, and you'll want to delve further back into the series. (Read my interview with Suzanne Arruda.) |
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"Muhammad Ali and the Greatest Heavyweight Generation" by Tom Cushman
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 An insightful collection of memoirs and essays from the longtime Philadelphia Daily News and San Diego Evening Tribune sportswriter who made boxing his specialty. With regular access to some of the greatest figures in the heavyweight division's true golden age – Ali, Frazier, Norton, Foreman, Holmes – Cushman's book offers an insider's view of a very special time in the history of prizefighting. (Read my interview with Tom Cushman.) |
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"I So Don't Do Spooky" by Barry Summie
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 The follow-up to 2008's "I So Don't Do Mysteries," Barrie Summy's sophomore title follows lead character Sherry's stepmom, the principal at her junior high school and the apparent subject of a stalker. As in the first book, Sherry assists her late mom (now in ghost form, after she was killed on the job as a police officer) in solving the mystery. Good stuff, as Summy's writing grows in confidence and polish. (Read full review.) |
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"Matthew A. Henson's Historic Arctic Journey" by Matthew A. Henson
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 A reissue of Henson's memoir of leading Adm. Robert E. Peary's multiple (and finally successful) attempts to reach the North Pole, commemorating the century anniversary of that final attempt. Given a more politically correct title (it was originall published in 1912 as "A Negro Explorer at the North Pole"), the new edition benefits from an opening essay by Deirdre C. Stam that gives some important context to the times, to Peary's quest, and to what his acknowledgement of Henson's role meant to race relations in the United States in the early 20th Century. Still, Henson's own account of his role in organizing the eskimo dog teams is what will rivet fans of any good adventure book. |
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"The Only Thing Worth Dying For" by Eric Blehm
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 Straight-forward narrative follows a Green Berets A-Team charged with getting Hamid Karzai, a popular tribal leader, back into Afghanistan to help organize resistance to the Taliban. Karzai eventually became president of Afghanistan, but every member of that A-Team was killed or wounded. Author Eric Blehm's old-school, "just the facts" style does a nice job of presenting the soldiers' personalities and experiences. Read my interview with Blehm.) |