Joe's Reviews

If you’re someone who appreciates a good rant, then chances are you make a few new rules each day yourself. You know, when you’ve had all you can take, and for a moment you imagine you’re omnipotent and you issue a proclamation, a new rule, regarding some bit of nonsense that will no longer be tolerated. However, yours are probably not as hilarious as the ones in Bill Maher’s A–Z collection, The New New Rules.

What could The Daily Show with Jon Stewart correspondent John Hodgman possibly contribute to humanity after writing not one, but two exhaustive compendia of complete world knowledge? After teaching us how to tell the future using a pig spleen and publishing the definitive list of 700 hobo names, he now brings us...a third compendium of complete world knowledge, explaining, for instance, how it is that a helicopter achieves flight (by rapidly twisting gravity). Your complete knowledge is simply incomplete without it.

Here’s a book that takes you across America, cocktail by cocktail, without the necessity of a designated driver. You’ll explore the regional flavors, traditions, and lore of the American cocktail, guided by the editors of Imbibe Magazine, one of my favorites to read cover to cover. How about a refreshing Big Bay Storm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and perhaps a St. Louis Southside before returning home for a California Bubble Bath? Bottoms up!

War is among the few human experiences that have changed so drastically, and yet remain the same. What It Is Like To Go To War is bestselling author Karl Marlantes’ (Matterhorn) own personal Iliad and Odyssey. In it he vividly recounts the nightmarish chaos of combat, the primal inner experience of a trained Marine, the confusing and painful journey back to civilian life, and the ways society can make that transition easier.

If you find yourself a little fuzzy on how we got into our current economic mess, Matt Taibbi is here to remind you. Griftopia clearly illustrates the complexity of bubble economics. His witty contempt for the greed that has wrought so much hardship around the world is thoroughly satisfying. And, because it's now in paperback, you can comfortably hold it with one hand while you shake a fist in the air!

If there's anyone else who can write on a wider range of topics than Christopher Hitchens, and do so with such breathtaking erudition, I'm not aware of them. Arguably, Hitchens' latest collection of over one hundred essays taken mostly from Slate, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair is a perfect example. From the religious beliefs (or lack thereof) of America's founders, to the affront of intrusive table service in fine restaurants, Hitch covers it all.