Alec Nevela-Lee
Welcome to the golden age of ridiculously long subtitles.
If one enjoys, or, more likely, grew up enjoying classic science fiction, this is worth reading. Nevela-Lee shows how editor Campbell seeded the writers in his pulp stable with story ideas. He also goes into a lot of detail about Hubbard and the murky origins of Scientology. Be warned, though, that if you admire these men your admiration might not survive reading about their relationships and attitudes towards women.
Dewey Lamdin
It’s always hard to say much about series books. So: this is the latest in the Alan Lewrie series, it’s a good read, and there’s not much naval action in this one.
David Plowden
Around 1970 I bought a remaindered copy of Plowden’s “Farewell to Steam”. It was one of the things that influenced me to become a photographer (which I didn’t manage to do). I’ve loved his work, which has always reminded me of Walker Evans’, ever since.
“Heartland” is a beautiful book and the text is almost as good as the photos. His appreciation for place jumps out of every picture. Plowden is a great artist whose work should be more widely known.
Hugh Thomas
The subtitle of this book pretty much says it all. It’s an old-school narrative history, great if you’re interested in the time and place — as I am — but a bit of a slog.
Alexander Fullerton
I see it’s been a long time since I read the first two books of this series. In this volume Fullerton’s protagonist, Nicholas Everard, is sent on a clandestine mission to Istanbul to disable the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben. Most of the book is about Everard’s submarine journey through the Dardanelles dodging mines, patrol boats, and anti-submarine nets. It’s full of technical detail, the quantity of which occasionally gets in the way of the story.
Harvey Wang
This book consists of interviews with several dozen photographers — some well known, some less so — about the transition from silver-based photography to digital photography. It also includes interviews with the inventor of the digital camera and the creator of Photoshop.
A range of views about the digital transition are presented, from skepticism to grudging acceptance to enthusiasm. The interviewees’ thoughtful observations made for interesting reading.
Alec Soth
This collection of black and white photos from around the United States, mostly shot at gatherings of one kind or another, reminded me of Bill Owens’ “Suburbia”. I know it was an artistic decision to use only minimal captions, but I’d like to know more about the subjects, and I dislike it when photo book designers put the text at the end of the book, especially when, as with “Songbook”, there aren’t even any page numbers.
Gilles Mora
This brought back a lot of memories of the work of photographers I studied from the time I picked up a 35mm camera in high school till I graduated from college with a photojournalism degree in 1976. The photos are well chosen and nicely reproduced and the commentary is opinionated in a good way.
As with the songs of that era, there’s work in the book that I didn’t like then, but that I very much like now.
Julian Stockwin
Thomas Kydd fights beside Thomas Chochrane and speculates in maritime insurance.
I’m happy to see that the Kydd series is back on track following the previous disappointing volume.
Fletcher Knebel
In this 1965 novel a president starts showing signs of paranoia and plans to subvert the Constitution to root out his enemies. One might call it prophetic. What’s disheartening is that, while Knebel could imagine a president going mad, he couldn’t foresee a day when the president’s own party would pretend the madness didn’t exist.
“Night of Camp David” is a solid political thriller, but very much of its era. By which I mean twenty-first century readers might be offended by the way gender and race are handled and surprised by its portrayal of a functioning federal government. It’s a good read, but sad.