Dan Brown is to art history what Michael Crighton is to science. Read it if you must, but don’t take a word of it as truth.

It’s a white-knuckle ride along with the Raider’s team doctor during their inter-Oakland stint, back in the wild pre-steroid-testing days of the 80s. Anyone who follows pro sports would have to be pretty naive not to think that the organizations aren’t exactly putting the health & welfare of their players before the bottom line, but it’s still shocking to read such a bald narrative of how these decisions are made. Having been a Los Angeles Raiders fan back then (before the move back up to Oakland soured me on Al Davis forever), I can remember a lot of the games & events that Dr. Huizenga discusses - the double-K.O. of QBs Marc Wilson & David Humm at Soldier Field, Marcus Allen’s mysterious ankle injury, the tragic death of Stacey Toran, Vince Evans & the strike players of ‘87, Bo Jackson’s broken hip - and it’s fascinating to get a medical perspective on all of this. Recommended for anyone who’s a sports nut.

A lovely genre-defying novel—part political thriller, part love story, part survival drama. Patchett’s lush, lyrical characterizations lift what would have otherwise been a crazy-impossible plot into the realm of can’t-stop-thinking-of-the-characters lit. An enjoyable read!

Cat Bordhi’s book on the moebius loop is a bit of a one-trick pony, but you gotta admit, it’s a really good trick. The patterns are the same thing over & over again in different gauges, but the cast-on technique is clearly explained & was quite easy to pick up. This one’s a good addition to the knitting library.

Formulaic plot - little girl, growing up in the South with an abusive father & only a photograph of her dead mother, finds love & redemption with a quirky surrogate family - is leavened by glowing prose. Kidd’s deft use of symbolism never gets overbearing. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This fictionalized tale of a real “plague village” is gripping & well-written. I enjoyed the twist at the end!

A pale shadow of The Mists of Avalon. This is the story of three magical women behind Arthur’s throne, his half-sisters from Igraine by Gorlois - the requisite blonde, brunette, and redhead. One marries Merlin, one seduces her brother (producing Mordred, natch,) and one is just plain evil. The scholarship is evident but the plot lurches along in great leaps & jolts. This was evidently a late-in-life book for Ms. Chapman - the MS was discovered among her papers and published posthumously—and one gets the feeling that it might not have been quite finished when she passed on. There are so many good reinterpretations of the Matter of Britain out there, this one felt like a waste of time.

Mike Nichols is a giant in the Midwestern pagan community, so I was thrilled when I had the good fortune to meet him at a local festival & hear him give a talk about the Wheel of the Year. He is personable, erudite, & quite charming. His seminal book on the eight Sabbats comes off exactly the same way—informative & conversational, scholarly without becoming pedantic, & just plain fun reading. Required reading for witches & students of paganism!

A fairly formulaic outing in the modern-joe-travels-to-the-past genre, but it’s a solidly entertaining read. The Connecticut yankee is in this case a struggling single mom from the Valley, and the court is an edge-of-the-empire garrison town in 2nd century Rome. She learns the requisite life lessons about what’s really important as she deals with lice, plague, war, and the Emperor (who just happens to be passing through…) The wild improbableness of it all didn’t detract too much from the fun.

The kitschy chapter titles & silly cartoons keep it light, but the subject matter is dead serious. This book should be on the required-reading list for everyone living the gated-community, SUV-driving, instant-credit lifestyle. The final chapters on the transition to voluntary simplicity are full of wisdom & eminently practical suggestions.