This is an important book. Williams chronicles his life in hip hop culture and his eventual break from that culture as he moves away from negative values (empty materialism, denigration of women) into a life of self examination. Along the way he becomes a philosophy major and Williams is particularly gifted at explaining difficult concepts in language that makes them seem quite simple. Although this is not an introduction to Heidegger or Hegel, you will walk away understanding the ideas they propound. The book is filled with extraordinary insight about the values hip hop culture promotes, what it is like to grow up middle class and black in America and how pernicious the hip hop values are for most young, black people. Williams is very insightful and is most compelling when he reflects on his life. One caveat: WIlliams seems somewhat uncomfortable and overly self-conscious when writing about himself and the people he knows and in the early part of the book, the writing is stilted. Persist! This is a book that is well worth reading.

Standage is at his best telling a story, whether it be Napoleon’s strategy, the invention of canned food, or the Berlin airlift. The book is weakest in the early chapters where, of necessity, Standage weaves many strands together, jumping around geographically and temporally, tracking the move from hunter/gatherer to agriculturally based societies. The stories of Stalin’s and Mao’s famines are completely gripping; the analysis of the relationship between dictatorship and famine is compelling; the story of the green revolution, fascinating. If you think you might enjoy this book, read it. You will.

Long on plot and short on character, this rather wooden first novel was not bad enough to stop reading but not good enough to recommend. Although the novel is set in Manitoba, there is no real sense of locale; it could be anywhere. The details that establish time do not seem intrinsic to the plot - which is odd in a coming of age story set in the 1950's to 1970's. All in all, a mediocre first attempt.

Taut, riveting, a real page-turner- pick your cliches and they will all be true. This beautifully executed thriller fulfills all the expectations of the genre, generating pulse-racing excitement and fast paced action. This book is easy to recommend - and I do.

The seventh in a series, this book will probably be of greatest interest to individuals who have enjoyed the previous six and to those who love historical mysteries. Set in sixth century Constantinople during the reign of Justinian and Theodora, the book left me wanting to know more about the era but with no comparable desire to explore the series.