Jaime Salazar
This has an interesting premise: it’s a true tale of an American yuppie in the French Foreign Legion. However, it’s marred by the author’s boasting about his sexual exploits and the fact that he deserts before he does anything very interesting.
Karl Johnson
This is a fascinating quest wrapped in a double biography. The book tells the story of Dai Vernon, master magician, and his quest for the elusive and - many thought - legendary card sharp who could deal from the center of the deck. That man turned out to be a fellow from Missouri named Allen Kennedy. It’s about the two men, the magician’s search for the man he heard about while working carnivals during the Great Depression, and about the worlds they lived in: the world of entertainment and the world of gambling.
In researching this book Ken Wells had the perfect job: travel the length of the Mississippi drinking beer, meeting beer drinkers and writing about them both. Every other chapter or so strays from the river to the wider world of American beer, and, while interesting, these read more like Wall Street Journal pieces (Wells is a WSJ reporter) than “Travels With Charlie“, but the beerlogue chapters more than make up for it.
Travel plus beer: a winning formula.
William Forstchen and Newt Gingrich
Forstchen and Gingrich finish their alternate history in style. Over all, this is one of the best alternate histories ever Avoiding most of the sins of the genre it manages to be both credible and surprising.
William Forstchen and Newt Gingrich
“Second verse, same as the first”… but better. Often, the middle volume of a trilogy drags, but not in this case. Here the alternate history continues with more credible action starring recognizable historical figures in new roles.
William Forstchen and Newt Gingrich
This alternative history asks, “what if the South would have won at Gettysburg?” Forstchen and Gingrich answer that question in great detail and go on, in this and subsequent volumes of the series, to spin a plausible and intriguing tale.
