The Life and Times of a Navy Husband

Await Your Reply: A Novel by Dan Chaon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I defy anyone to read the first page of this novel and not be compelled to finish it.
Await Your Reply is about identity theft and high-tech criminal enterprises. Think Tom Ripley, if he were alive and at large in today’s world.
But, and [...]

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Instapaper is a godsend for Kindle users.
I’ve written a couple posts about my search for an application that would make moving web content to the Kindle a simpler process. I have found that application.
With Instapaper, you get a little “bookmarklet” (a little button that goes on your browser’s bookmark toolbar or in your bookmarks drop-down [...]

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Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
If you’re looking for some hard-edged, well-written science fiction, you’ll like Iain M. Banks. This was my first Banks novel. He showed up on my radar when I read a particularly favorable cover blurb on his latest book, Transition, from William Gibson. So I [...]

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The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Michael Lewis is one of my favorite non-fiction writers: a great storyteller and a great “explainer.” He’s written several books about the business world (Liar’s Poker), and he’s also written about sports.
The Blind Side is obviously in the latter category, [...]

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I’m on one of my occasional short fiction kicks. I’ve discovered a great podcast, the New Yorker fiction podcast in which one of the magazine’s current fiction contributors reads one of their favorite stories from the archives. It’s a great way to sample some of the classics.
I’ve also been dipping into Richard Ford’s A Multitude [...]

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The Zenith Angle by Bruce Sterling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Zenith Angle was disappointing. I ignored other reviews that said as much because I’m a fan of Bruce Sterling’s work. Ah, well.
The ingredients of a good Sterling novel are here, but he over-seasoned the dish. Perhaps in an attempt at satire, he essentially [...]

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The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a virtuoso performance. John Barth is a born storyteller, and The Sot-Weed Factor makes full use of his talents. There are tales within tales, here, and they’re all told with a seductive sense of humor.
The story follows a woefully innocent (you could [...]

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The Stand by Stephen King

My review

rating: 4 of 5 starsGreat book. King knows how to write a very good yarn: his characters are well-defined, sympathetic, and believable.
He also knows how to draw you into the story, into the world. He provides enough detail, but not too much. And he’s never [...]

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The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder

My review

rating: 4 of 5 starsThis book is a classic. If you’re interested in the history of the computer business, you’ll really enjoy it.
Kidder follows a team of engineers at Data General as they design, build, and debug a new machine for [...]

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Rabbit Redux by John Updike

My review

rating: 5 of 5 starsUpdike can be hard to read. You have to commit. But if you commit, you won’t regret. The plot of this book, like Rabbit Run, simmers slowly and builds organically to a very satisfying conclusion, and along the way, you get [...]

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