I re-read Greg Rucka's Critical Space in anticipation of the release of his new book Patriot Acts. Rucka's easily one of my favorite thriller writers and Critical Space is one of the top thrillers I've read in the past few years. I've re-read it probably two or three times. Space and Acts are the 5th and 6th books in his Atticus Kodiak series, but they're still kicking all kinds of ass. Great plots with even better character beats. No one is safe. People screw up and make bad decisions. The writing is tight.
In Critical Space, Kodiak is hired to protect an unusual client... one of the world's top ten assassins, who's being hunted by another one of The Ten.
In Patriot Acts, Kodiak hunts down the killer of one of his best friends, all while being framed for crimes he didn't commit.
Great reads, well worth the time and money. I devoured Patriot Acts in the space of a day. One of those "can't put it down" type books.
Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm by William Bass and Jon Jefferson. A non-fiction memoir of William Bass, forensic anthropologist famous for starting the Body Farm. Great read.
"In this memoir, Bass, a premier forensic anthropologist, recounts how a life spent studying dead bodies led to the creation of "The Anthropolgy Research Facility" (aka the Body Farm), a plot of land near the University of Tennessee Medical Center where Bass and his colleagues monitor the decomposition of human corpses in various environments. The book is structured around the 1981 creation of the Body Farm, and the early chapters focus on some of Bass's trickier cases to demonstrate his need for more information about the science of forensics. The later chapters take a closer look at how the scientific analysis of Body Farm corpses has helped Bass and other anthropologists solve some of the toughest and most bizarre cases of their distinguished careers... - Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc."
I also re-read a couple graphic novels - Action Philosophers Giant-Size Thing Vol. 1 and Action Philosophers Giant-Size Thing, Vol. 2 by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey.
Short, hysterically funny romps through various intellectual and philosophical disciplines, in comic book form. Can't beat that. Fun and smart. And useful for helping to remember that philosophers are just a buncha guys and gals as full of crap as everybody else.
"Not so much in the spirit of Classic Comics, but more in the spirit of extremely intelligent kids set on making fun of everything, this collection of Action Philosophers! issues 1–3 is a zany sendup of philosophers, with the occasional mystic thrown in. Van Lente has clearly done his research, and Dunlavey draws it in a blocky, 1950s meets punk-rock style. Starting with Plato, they illuminate the theories, problems and implications of 12 thinkers. Ayn Rand fails as a screen writer in Hollywood, creates objectivism then flits between reason and temper tantrums (did you know Alan Greenspan was a follower?). Freud and Jung duke it out while a Freudian "passive mother" presents her penis-envying daughter with a dildo. Thomas Jefferson sleeps with Sally Hemings in the "All-Sex Special" section, which also features Saint Augustine. (Auggie ogles a hot Roman babe and declares, "Give me chastity and continence... just not now!") The twist is that, while demonstrating that the lives of philosophers make great tabloid fodder, the comics get the theories right. Totally irreverent and manically imaginative, it's perfect for any bright college kid who likes being a pain in the neck. - Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved."
"...Employing a hyperbolic comedic voice and over-the-top gag-style cartooning, Van Lente and Dunlavey examine the history of philosophy one wild-and-crazy thinker at a time. Sections like "Hate the French" include chapters on Descartes, Sartre and Derrida, all cleverly explicated for the general reader. Descartes's section, of course, begins as blank panels, as the philosopher applies his rigorous doubting to the world around him. And Derrida's deconstruction results in the comic book itself breaking down. Derrida is also represented as "The Deconstructionator" complete with gun and sunglasses, while Karl Marx emerges as a grandfatherly type who takes kids on a magic carpet ride "into the wonderful splendiferous world of commodities!" None of this satire interferes with the content of the work-in fact, it's enhanced. By taking a lighthearted, often silly approach to serious work, this funny, insightful series manages to make difficult theories easily understood, and knotty thinkers like Ludwig Wittgenstein and Thomas Aquinas emerge as, if not easy reading, at least friendly thinkers. (Dec.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. -- Publisher's Weekly"
Finally, last year at one of the JET meetings I picked up a small book called The Heart of Phi Phi's Children. They were selling it to raise money for charity, and I'm always a sucker for that kinda thing. I think it started from being given the small little milk carton-banks for Unicef back in Catholic Elementary School. But anyway, I finally sat down and read through it in my spare time, and... well, it'll just crush your heart if you've got anything at all resembling a soul. It's the stories of children who lived through the huge Tsunami at the end of 2004.
http://www.smilewithpum.com/Pages/heartofphiphi.html
'The Heart of Phi Phi's Children' is the follow up to the best selling book; 'The Children of Phi Phi Island'.
The book this time tells the story of 11 children who lost one or both of their parents when the tsunami struck the island of Phi Phi in Thailand's Andaman Sea.
This book will help 11 orphans of the tsunami to succeed in life by offering them the possibility to go to school, but it will also contribute to the Children of Phi Phi Island project.
http://www.childrenofphiphi.com/pages/index1.html
The book 'The Children of Phi Phi Island' is a collection of real life stories concentrating on the terrible tsunami that hit Phi Phi Island on the 26th December 2004. These stories are written by children, they tell their accounts of the day, they give us an insight into their fears, worries, and losses, but they also speak on a positive note about their joys of Phi Phi life, their school, their friends and family. All of the stories are accompanied by a drawing. These drawings tell a story in themselves, the child's innermost thoughts, expressed with crayon.
"Please live with hope."
I tried to find some weblinks or something where you could still purchase the book or make a donation, but all I could find were the links above. I can only hope that it's hard to find a way to donate because they're all doing relatively okay. I should've bought another copy of the book. Or something.
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