Wham-O super-book : celebrating 60 years inside the fun factory! / Tim Walsh.
OK, I just looked at the pictures, but oh, the pictures! It brought back the smell of super elastic bubble plastic (apparently banned soon after my childhood memories were formed) and how much I wanted Magic Sand. Two stars.
Gastroanomalies: questionable culinary creations from the golden age of American cookery, James Lileks
The first Lileks book I read, I was mostly just enjoying the vintage food illustrations as a cookbook collector. Now I am appreciating his excellent writing. Yay. Four stars.
Endangered recipes: too good to be forgotten, Lari Robling
When you change old recipes to fit modern sensibilities, they are no longer endangered, they are just recipes. One star.
Back in the days: photographs, Jamel Shabazz
It reminded me a bit of the website Sartorialist: photographs of New Yorkers looking their best. But it’s all in the 1980s and it’s all hip hop fashion. Everyone knows how to pose like a record cover! I especially liked the women posing in their office work outfits. Two stars.
On the take: from petty crooks to presidents, William J. Chambliss
Mostly skimmed for the bits about police corruption in Seattle in the 1960s, and it certainly has plenty of that. It also covers the general theme of organized (and not necessarily Mafia) crime, civil servants, and politicians all being intertwined. Interesting. Two stars.
The soul of medicine: tales from the bedside, Sherwin B. Nuland
In retold stories of his comrades’ most memorable patients, all identifying details have been changed but everything else is searingly real. The failures are even better than the successes, plus a great commentary on some bad doctors. Four stars.
The séance, Iain Lawrence
This book really really took place in the 20s. You can tell because everybody’s sitting on flagpoles and swallowing goldfish and saying jeepers and whatnot. Also, if everybody else has to become unusually stupid so that your hero can solve the mystery, maybe you need to structure your book a little better. Other than those two huge flaws (and making Houdini and jerk and moron, when in fact he was awesome), the book was fine. Two stars.