Books

Holmes On The Range by Steve Hockensmith has got to be one of the best stories published in 2006. This is Mr. Hockensmith's first novel.

The most recent addition to our understanding of our difficulties in Iraq, State of Denial by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward deals less with military insights and operations than with the conflicts and tensions among the personalities involved.

A story with relatively few words but full of meaning, The Music of Life is the life of a frustrated musician. The story is told by a narrator who meets the musician in a train station probably in Siberia and in a snowstorm.

Among the most illuminating, and hence the most damning recent volume about the war in Iraq is Fiasco, by Thomas E. Ricks. Like other recent books, the author describes in detail the dysfunctional decision-making that has plagued our endeavor in Iraq. But he highlights the lengthy series of critical turns and cross-roads that we have taken in the nearly four years since the invasion--any of which might have led us away from disaster and toward a stabler and less uncontrollable occupation.

Hasn't conventional wisdom always held that liberals are champions of the poor and conservatives are generally indifferent to the poor? Haven't we learned anything from role models such as Barbra Streisand and Al Gore? Learn the truth about those often referred to as religious fanatics.

Gustavus Cheyney Doane was a soldier, inventor, author and explorer who felt he should be famous for "discovering" Yellowstone National Park and wealthy from one of his inventions. But neither fame nor wealth came his way. Instead government bureaucracy ignored him, scholarly jealously kept him out of the history books and fate snubbed him on his tombstone.

"It’s because Hillary embodies everything that’s wrong with the baby-boom generation. She’s ruthless, greedy, self-righteous, and imbued with an absurdly elevated sense of her own worth," says DeBrecht. Which is why, just like her husband, Hillary won’t bow out gracefully. And to DeBrecht, that’s both sad and potentially disastrous for the country.

If words give us a sense of “the man,” then words can also give us a sense of “the woman,” in this case Hillary Clinton. With many in the Democratic Party urging her to run for president, it’s a good time to take a look at her speeches and various quotes as a way to uncover her true ideology.

Hillary Clinton joins such classic characters as Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch as a scheming Yuletide villain in a new Christmas book for children that features many well-known liberals trying to shut down the Christmas season.

It’s Christmas and holiday time, that special time of year when the frustrated, the bored, the sex-deprived and the married converge at oh-so-festive office and industry parties looking to make an extramarital hook-up. Logical? You bet…but not too smart, according to Judith E. Brandt, author of THE 50-MILE RULE: Your Guide to Infidelity.

A new book that recently hit the market proclaims that women tend to remember the emotional events of their lives better and have larger areas for language than men that, in turn, have larger brain areas for aggression and action and 2½ times more space than women’s brains for the sexual drive.

Now anyone can think like a rocket scientist. A professor of aeronautics and astronautics shows how, illustrating the methods in The Seven Secrets of How to Think Like a Rocket Scientist.

Inspiring blend of breakthrough science and human interest follows one father's quest to help his daughter find her voice.

People who have lower levels of self-esteem prefer crime and detective stories that confirm their suspicions in the end, while those with higher self-esteem enjoy a story that goes against expectations.

While browsing the philosophy section in a quaint and generally inaccessible bookshop, we came across a miniature tome. A closer view confirmed the title is indeed On Bullshit and informed us that the author is one Harry G. Frankfurt.