On the one hand, I admire the honesty of somebody from the medical (or semi-medical) profession admitting that amphetamines, ritalin, adderall, and friends are not always used to treat legitimate issues. On the other hand, this book is an odd duck, not really a physical's desk reference, not really popular enough for a mass audience. And there are major conceptual and organizational difficulties.

The first is that this book isn't really a debate. Moore's has a clear point of view: Amphetamines are addictive and dangerous when used without supervision, but fine when used appropriately, and that medical professionals are almost always correct in their supervision. Where the larger categories of "appropriate" come from are not examined. Much of the history and culture is drawn directly from Rasmussen's excellent On Speed and Iversen's Speed>Ecstasy>Ritalin, which I have not read but also looks quite good. The toxicology information is drawn from the standard desk reference.

This book is very much a lit review, and while there's nothing wrong with this, it feels like something written by a clever undergrad. Shallow, unorganized, a little repetitive, no real insight into the field. The relatively recent list of drugs is good, but as for behavior modification, neuroenhancement, and anti-aging, this book entirely fails.

I'm a little bit obsessed with John Boyd and his theory of the OODA loop, but I knew little about the man himself. Corman paints a picture of a brilliant iconoclast: swimmer, fighter tactics instructor, engineer, Pentagon warrior, and finally philosopher-strategist. Corman draws heavily on the memories of Boyd's Acolytes, the six people closest too him in his career, his reticent family, and the public record. As Corman will freely admit, sometimes the myth overtakes the man, but the myth is more correct.

Boyd was a character. He had three good ideas in his life, which is three more than most people have. He literally wrote the book on air-to-air combat, revolutionized aircraft design with Energy-Maneuverability theory, and his OODA loop has become the dominant strategic metaphor of the 21st century. But for all that brilliance, and his frequent tactical victories and "hosings" of those who opposed him, he lost the war. Pentagon procurement is still very expensive gold-plated systems. Get-along managers rather than principled warriors are promoted. And Boyd's personal life was a wreck, and he died practically penniless and alienated from his children. But for all that, this was a great book and a great biography.

To share one bit of Boydian wisdom: You can either be somebody or do something. Follow the rules, agree with your superiors, and you'll rise to the best of your abilities but accomplish nothing. Stick to your principles, fight for what's right, and take no shit from anybody, and you may go down in flames but you'll have fought with honor. It's your life, so what will you do with it?

A classic of historical fiction. I did't love this book as much as many others do, but it's impossible to deny its greatness.

First and foremost, The Darwin Elevator is classic-style action packed post-apocalyptic scifi, with teams of mercenary scavengers shooting it out with subhuman zombies, and various megalomaniac bad guys waging war for control of the last resources.

What puts The Darwin Elevator above the crowd is hints of Big Ideas, in the mysterious plan of The Builders, enigmatic aliens responsible for constructing a space elevator in Darwin, Australia and then releasing the SUBS plague which utterly destroyed human civilization five years prior to the events of the book. Definitely a great and mysterious Outside Context Problem.

This wasn't the best novel I've ever read, but it was good fun, and solid enough to make me want to check out the sequel.

The essays and cartoons in this book are an American treasure.

I've read a lot of books about war, but this is the truest one. Bill Mauldin was a soldier in WW2 who saw action in North Africa, Italy, and France. An infantryman with a talent for drawing, he was selected for the 45th Division paper and then Stars & Stripes, where his "Willie and Joe" cartoons became instant classics, depicting the truth of life on the front lines, where ordinary men struggled through mud, bad food, long marches, and the all too present threat of random death. There heroism is in their endurance, their ability to deal with the absurdity of war while remaining human, and never letting their buddies down.

What a book! Larson delightfully mixes the grand achievement of the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 with the grasping ambition and dark underbelly of late 19th century Chicago, and one of it's most notorious residents-serial killer H.H Holmes. Cliffhangers chapters keep you reading, and I was equally fascinated by the construction of the Expo and Holmes dark adventures in murder.

I've always had an interest in Scientology--the whole 'charismatic redhead scifi author invents religion, defrauds millions, sails around on yacht' thing sounded like a dream. But Scientology as it exists is a nightmare, a brainwashing cult that at best charges extortionate amounts for nonsense and at worst, cuts a person off from their family and imprisons them in slave labor camps.

Going Clear is the definitive account of Scientology as it exists today, a massive corporation run for the benefit of David Miscavige and a handful of Hollywood superstars. Wright is most interested in the chaos at the top, as viewed through the eyes of a number of senior defectors, but he also delves into the history of Scientology. His account is more favorable to L. Ron Hubbard than many-treating him as a brilliant charlatan who immense life work is of value mainly because of its scope and amibition, rather than its coherence or utility. Operation Snow White, the largest domestic espionage operation in US history, is also treated briefly. But these flaws cannot detract from the authoritative collection of narratives that Wright has gathered on one of modernity's most evil movements.

"Best of" Collections are tricky beast. Writers of the Future has a mandate to focus on unpublished authors, which I appreciate, but this collection was a little bit of a dud. The stories were workmanlike, but only a few excited me and none blew me away. Traditional SF is a minority, with most of the collection devoted to fantasy (did we really need 2 'waifish deformed girls with magical powers at the shore stories?), horror, and religious (but not explicitly Scientologist) fiction.

Not a bad book for people who like strange fiction, and since I got it for 50 cents at a used bookstore I'm happy, but far from vital either.

I'll confess I'm nostalgic for the bad old days of the Bush Era, when we plunged into a senseless war in the Middle East on flimsy pretexts, when the constitution and civil liberties were trampled in the name of security, theocratic thugs and business suited crooked ravaged the country, and above all *I* could hate the moronic man-child that called himself the President.

Well, Kreider hits that nostalgia just right. As a person he lays it into Bush relentlessly, flaying open the hypocrisy and fear of that sad era. As an artist, he is a treasure-Hunter S Thompson and Ralph Steadman in one. Every line of his frantically inked cartoons is dripping with style and venom, and this book has over 100 with accompanying short essays explaining his creative process (booze, bitches, late night phone calls, Vicodin) and current events. The only problem with Kreider is that he retired in 2009, although I'm sure that like Jesus, he is just waiting for when we need him.

The Silo series is at it's heart a mystery. Wool works because it drags us into the murky workings of Silo 18. The kicker (*Wool spoilers ahead*) that the inhabitants of the Silos are the ones who killed the world is one of the better twists in science-fiction.

Shift, as a prequel to Wool, doesn't have the same emotional impact. The question is 'Why are the Silos?' rather than 'What are the Silos?' and the answer is neither as convincing nor compelling as the one in Wool. The story bounces between the origins of the Silo project in near future, an earlier revolt in Silo 18, and how Solo became the last survivor of Silo 17, trading cheap cliffhangers for real emotional investments.

Shift's not bad, but it's nowhere near as good as Wool.