Legends & Lattes is a quirky fantasy story involving a battle-tested orc named Viv that simply wants to open a coffee shop in the city of Thune. On a previous adventure, she had discovered the wonderful drink known as coffee and was instantly hooked. The
The Five Warrior Angels trilogy by Brian Lee Durfee was originally intended to be a five book series; a pentalogy. However, the publisher insisted on a trilogy, so the series ended up being a trio of three hefty tomes. I would have preferred this series
The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy is Tad Williams’ masterful epic fantasy. The series includes The Dragonbone Chair (1988), Stone of Farewell (1990), and To Green Angel Tower (1993). I only discovered Tad Williams when I made a concerted effort to read more fantasy, starting
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom is nearly a decade old but could not be more timely. The book focuses on various forms of superintelligence, but the one most jarring and current is Artificial Intelligence (AI). This books is loaded with incredible insight but
Look Me In the Eye: My Life With Asperger’s is the memoir of John Elder Robison. The brother of Running With Scissors author, Augusten Burroughs, John Elder was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the age of 40. It was Augusten’s prompting that led to John Elder
The Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim is a coffee table book showcasing the adventure Pete McBride and his friend Kevin Fedarko took through the Grand Canyon. Their trek was not the popular “rim to rim” hike that many take. This extreme journey, assigned by
Rinker Buck’s Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure borrows Mark Twain’s title from the 1883 classic, Life on the Mississippi. But while Twain focused on his early steamboat days, Buck sets out to recreate a journey from Pennsylvania to New Orleans on a
Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West, written by Hampton Sides, is a wonderful biography of the legendary Christopher “Kit” Carson (1809-1868). But it is also much more. America’s wild west was full of many interesting characters, and Kit Carson is near the
I came across Red Caddy: Into the Unknown with Edward Abbey completely by accident. Previously, I was ignorant of Charles Bowden and his writing. I had first heard of Edward Abbey when assigned Monkey Wrench Gang for an environmental history class at Northern Illinois University.
Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild is a beautiful collection of essays about truly wild encounters. Craig Childs recounts his amazing and often unbelievable adventures in moving prose. His writing makes you feel like you are there with him, looking through his eyes. The