Edward's Reviews

My daughter is 8 and recently decided to become a vegetarian, which, even in veg-friendly Santa Cruz, has created some interesting culinary conundrums. We recently discovered El Cantaro, a vegetarian/vegan taqueria in Monterey, and have been hooked on trying to recreate the same depth of flavors at home. This cookbook gave us several great tips and recipes to help build flavorful dishes and have since incorporated several into our weekly routine. Highly recommended! 
—ED

If you're a fan of Jim Thompson and/or David Goodis, you will love Galloway's modern spin on crime noir. Following the lives of two low down thieves, this thriller spurns the police perspective for the black hearted view of the criminal. It's a refreshing, if not bleak, departure from the police procedural that seems to dominate modern mystery/thriller writing. If you like Gillian Flynn and her romps through the dark side, you'll love this slow burn.  
—ED
 

Beloved Reading Rainbow host and Star Trek alum Levar Burton makes his novel debut with a prescient speculative gander at a near future United States that is embroiled in a civil war set off by the racially motivated assassination of the POTUS. Burton deftly twists three character arcs into a razor sharp examination of American life in these dark modern times. Part The Road, part Lucifer's Hammer. —Ed

Rickey Henderson is one of the most talented and interesting athletes to ever set foot on the baseball diamond. His all-time stolen base record is as unlikely to be broken as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Long-time baseball writer Howard Bryant deftly explores Henderson’s cultural impact and unique personality as well as his baseball exploits. Bryant follows Henderson’s meteoric rise from fast young outfielder to baseball superstar, a rise that also helped create salary parity for athletes of color. Henderson was an icon and iconoclast who played the game his way, with no apologies. Terrific for baseball fans.  —Ed

From the twisted mind of Fabian Nicieza (co-creator of the comic book character Deadpool) comes this tongue-firmly-in-cheek send-up of the American suburbs and the noir-ish detective novel. A former FBI profiler, now a stay-at-home mom, stumbles across a murder at a gas station and joins forces with a local small-time reporter to unravel a tightly wound ball of intrigue. With a lot of humor, some scathing critiques of middle class life in the ’burbs, and some solid whodunnit craftsmanship, this book is a top-notch mystery debut.  —Ed

I stumbled across my first Whole Earth Catalog in the 1990s and was instantly entranced by its weird eco-futurism disguised behind a mail order catalog that was laced with nuggets of hippie literature and surrealist art. Before reading this biography, I had no idea how this strange cultural phenomena came about, but quickly learned it was all thanks to a former Merry Prankster and iconoclast, Stuart Brand. Brand’s vision and offbeat ventures inspired hippies and helped give vision to Silicon Valley icons like Steve Jobs. This is an fascinating read into one of the more interesting, but largely unseen, influences of post-war American culture. Also good for those interested in how San Francisco went from weird artist enclave to Silicon Valley hub. —Ed

Mickey is angry at almost everything. One day he comes across an ad for The Anti-Book, which promises to make everything better. He orders a copy, hoping to cleanse his life of his dislikes, but finds out things are never that simple. Raphael Simon (previously Pseudonymous Bosch) wrote this funky tale about a grumpy boy learning to accept change and to love those who love him. A fun, funny, fast-paced book that explores the depth of the human experience with great care and nuance. — Edward

My kid wants to be a marine scientist and also loves goofy, fantastical creatures. This book—filled with amazing scientific illustrations that are tweaked just enough to make them hilarious—might be the most perfect combination of things to inspire her. The rhyming, playful text expertly supports the illustrations with fun facts about these strange sea animals. It’s a wonderful menagerie of funky aquatic creatures for the curious kid and future marine scientist. — Edward