Welcome to alexctelander.com! Simply click on any of the icons below to see: book reviews, my portfolio, or my Stream of Consciousness page. To go to the BookBanter podcast, click on the BookBanter banner.
Spring is here! And to keep you occupied for this new season there are fifteen new book reviews for you to enjoy, which you can see by clicking on the book covers below. I also gone out of my way to simplify the site, or at least the main page here. So a lot lets things to click on, however nothing has really been taken away. Most of the old links that were on this page, such as my biography and various writings, are now collected under the "Portfolio" page. In the left column you will notice a GoodReads widget, which will now keep up to date on everything I'm currently reading and how much I like it. I promise there will be a new "Stream of Consciousness" in the next update. The BookBanter podcast continues to go very well, with new episodes now on the 1st and 15th of every month. The new episode with my interview with Bernard Cornwell just went up. If you would like to get on the BookBanter mailing list to keep up to date on new episodes, just send an email to bookbanterpodcast@gmail.com. Think that's about it, until next time!
Alex C. Telander.
04/01/09
Book Banter:Welcome to Episode 5 of BookBanter and this month’s episode features my interview with bestselling historical fiction author Bernard Cornwell. Some of his books include the successful Sharpe series, the Grail Quest series, and the Saxon Chronicles series. His latest book, Agincourt, centers on the monumental battle of the Hundred Years War where the British miraculously beat the French against unbeatable odds. Continue . . .
THE HUNT FOR PLANET X: NEW WORLDS AND THE FATE OF PLUTO BY GOVERT SCHILLING: Dutch author Govert Schilling is an internationally acclaimed astronomy writer who has published more than forty books and written for many publications, including New Scientist and Science; he even has an asteroid – 10986 – named after him. In The Hunt for Planet X, he answers just about every question you might have about our solar system, from why Pluto was demoted from being a planet, to who discovered which planet, when, and how.Continue . . .
CONTAGIOUS BY SCOTT SIGLER: Scott Sigler began his writing career by recording podcasts of his books and attracting the interest and support of listeners around the world. This eventually landed him a publishing contract. After the success of last year's Infected, Sigler quickly followed up with the sequel Contagious. Continue . . .
THE SOMNAMBULIST BY JONATHAN BARNES:Welcome to a Victorian England where a little bit of magic still exists, as well as some possible time traveling, and some of the strangest and most unusual characters you’ll ever meet.There is the title character, the Somnambulist as he is known. An outlandishly tall giant who never says a word and is a strange looking creature who attracts the interest and eyes of everyone he passes, and has an addiction to milk; as a matter of fact milk appears to be the only thing he ever consumes. Continue . . .
THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE BY SALMAN RUSHDIE: Sir Salman Rushdie, best known for The Satanic Verses which earned him multiple death threats forcing him to leave his native land and live in Britain, returns with what he calls his “most researched book” which took “years and years of reading,” in The Enchantress of Florence. Continue . . .
RASL BY JEFF SMITH: Writer and artist Jeff Smith, of Bone fame, returns with an original concept in Rasl. In The Drift, Rasl is a classic young tough guy who's been messing around with magnets and magnetic fields and has invented a way of traveling across dimensions into parallel universes.Continue . . .
BORN TO BE GOOD BY DACHER KELTNER: In a time when this world seems a bleak place with suffering and death across the continents, economies plummeting, societies approaching collapse, and a general despair in the air, one has little else to turn to.But then there’s Born to Be Good. Continue . . .
THE CANTERBURY TALES BY GEOFFREY CHAUCER, TRANSLATED BY BURTON RAFFEL:The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by one of the greatest writers in history, up there with William Shakespeare himself.Originally published in the late fifteenth century, it has appeared on high school reading lists, and serves as one of the most important medieval texts – if not the most important – ever written and published. Continue . . .
HOW TO LIVE: A SEARCH FOR WISDOM FROM OLD PEOPLE (WHILE THEY ARE STILL ON THIS EARTH) BY HENRY ALFORD:Henry Alford has written for Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and is the author of Municipal Bondage. In his latest book, How to Live: A Search for Wisdom From Old People While They Are Still on This Earth, he does just that, providing insight and viewpoints from those who will not remain for much longer on this earth to give those who still have a while to go a greater respect and appreciation for life and what one can accomplish with it.Continue . . .
DAEMON BY DANIEL SUAREZ: Daniel Suarez has designed and developed enterprise software for the defense, finance, and entertainment industries, as well as being an independent systems consultant; he’s also an avid gamer.So it’s no surprise that in Daemon he has created a world and plot that involves all these facets, resulting in a fast-paced, riveting, exciting novel that is a combination of classic Michael Crichton and The Matrix. Continue . . .
DEATH’S DAUGHTER BY AMBER BENSON: Calliope Reaper-Jones has a simple life in New York, a city she loves.She cares little for her boss and job, but enjoys the fashions and the stores, and is on the lookout for the perfect hunk to marry and spend the rest of her life with. And Calliope thinks she might’ve found him, when she’s all set to go on a first date and finds a monster standing outside her door. Continue . . .
DROOD BY DAN SIMMONS:Our Mutual Friend was the last book that Charles Dickens wrote “THE END” to and published. On June 9th, 1865, Dickens was on a train journey with his mistress. A section of track over an upcoming bridge was missing, but the warning to stop the train hadn’t been set far enough away, and at this time for a train to make an emergency stop it was required to pull the emergency break on each car.Continue . . .
I SAW YOU . . . EDITED BY JULIA WERTZ:The next time you pay a visit to Craigslist (and I’m sure you check it every day now for the job postings), look under the “Personals” column and you’ll see a option titled “Missed Connections.”It’s where men and women seeking women or men recount a recent chance meeting with someone who captured their heart in the blink of an eye.Continue . . .
THE THING ABOUT LIFE IS THAT ONE DAY YOU’LL BE DEAD BY DAVID SHIELDS:David Shields, author of Dead Languages and Body Politic: The Great American Sports Machine tackles a heavy subject that most of us spend each and every day trying to ignore and pretend will not happen as much as possible: death.The title says it all, and Shields doesn’t beat around the bush, putting the irrefutable truth right there in front of you.Continue . . .
AGINCOURT BY BERNARD CORNWELL: There are few battles in the history of the world that are most remembered by name, even by those who know or recall little from their high school history classes.The Battle of Hastings is one; the Battle of Trafalgar is anther; the Battle of Thermopylae is perhaps another, known to a lesser extent. Then there is the Battle of Agincourt (or Azincourt, as it is known in French), which took place on October 25th, 1415. Continue . . .
