Book Reviews - 2003

Here are the current books for 2003. The count stands at: 39

Woodworking: The Right Technique by Bob Moran ( 1/5/2003)

I was reading a few Woodworking magazines and found they didn't really teach me enough. So I went to Amazon and found this book highly recommended. I started reading it and was a little disappointe... (more)

Body For Life by Bill Phillips ( 1/10/2003)

My wife got us this book for our anniversary and decided we should try the program. We were both a little overweight at the time and were struggling with losing weight since the kids were eating up so... (more)

Billy Straight by Jonathon Kellerman ( 1/27/2003)

I'm not a huge Kellerman fan. In fact, it took me a few tries to get through a couple of his books. So I approached this with some trepedation, however, I didn't have anything else since we were on va... (more)

Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking 1&2: A Step-By-Step Guidebook to Essential Woodworking Technique by Tage Frid ( 2/11/2003)

This was my second book about Woodworking, though the first one I picked up. It's a reprint of two old books bound together, written by an older gentleman and it reads like it. Or at least that's w... (more)

2nd Chance by James Patterson ( 2/20/2003)

The second installment of the Woman's Murder club from Patterson. Once again written from the point of view of a woman, which is an intersting thing in itself. I thought the first book was written too... (more)

Hugger Mugger by Robert B. Parker ( 2/23/2003)

A Spenser novel, which I usually like, but this one wasn't typical. Spenser heads to Georgia to help a horse ranch, a rich horse ranch with some realy strange people in the family. No Hawk, which was ... (more)

Vector by Robin Cook ( 2/24/2003)

This book didn't get a great review on Amazon, but it was a bargain and I've enjoyed Robin Cook's writing, so I grabbed it. The book is timely after 9/11 considering it looks at a Russian who is creat... (more)

The Devil's Code by John Sandford ( 2/26/2003)

A departure from the Lucas Davenport novels. A fairly radical departure. You get a character that is on the other side of the law. A painter, a hacker, a freelancing, semi-legal, ex-special forces guy... (more)

Watchers by Dean Koontz ( 3/5/2003)

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A March to Madness by John Feinstein ( 3/15/2003)

OK, I like the book. Maybe it's just me, after all I did go to Virginia, an ACC school, but I think that Feinstein's writing is great for telling the story of actual events. I like his style of moving... (more)

Monster: A Novel by Jonathon Kellerman ( 4/1/2003)

I started reading this novel not being a huge fan of Kellerman. The last one I read was pretty good, so I didn't have a bad attitude at the start. Even if I had I doubt it would have lasted. This is a... (more)

Chaos Theory: a Novel by Gary Trist ( 4/5/2003)

The description of this book looked interesting, so I bought it. Then I started reading it. And it was moving slow, two teenages accidently (they think) kill a cop posing as a drug dealer. I was th... (more)

Dr. Death by Jonathon Kellerman ( 4/5/2003)

After reading Monster I was looking forward to this book. In fact, I picked it up immediately when I was looking for another book. And I was disappointed. It was slow and hard to... (more)

Shutdown by R. J. Pineiro ( 4/9/2003)

As I started reading this, I first thought that it was one of the Pinerio's that I've already read. Then I thought that the story was swiped (somewhat) from Black Rain, the movie. Well, neither one... (more)

Porsche 914 4 Cy Owners Workshop Manual 1969-76 by John Harold Haynes, ( 4/18/2003)

As with all the Haynes manuals, this is a basic book that assumes you know something about cars. If you do, it nicely covers most of what you need to work on your car. For me, I had the emergency brak... (more)

Sea Hunters II by Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo ( 4/19/2003)

You'd have to really like shipwrecks to like this book. Like the first one, it's a series of NUMA adventures for shipwrecks. Or other lost historical vehicles with some maritime link. This one include... (more)

One Year Off by David Cohen ( 5/3/2003)

Sell your house, cars, and buy a round the world airline ticket. Plan some stops, research some attractions and countries, and quit your job. Oh, by the way, take your wife and 3 under-10 kids with yo... (more)

Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age by Stephen Levy ( 5/9/2003)

I've always been interseted in cryptography, though I'm not sure I have the aptitude to really be good at it. Anyway, that led me to get this book along with the fact that I've read Hackers, by Mr. Le... (more)

Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen ( 5/14/2003)

I remember this. The whacky characters, the eccentricities of their actions, the silliness of the situation, the seemingly endless number of plots. Just as I start to get the characters straight, anot... (more)

The Unix Haters Handbook by Daniel Weise ( 5/15/2003)

It's funny, takes a somewhat humorous look at Unix, mostly from the past. It doesn't really apply to Linux, so don't get your hopes up Microsoft lovers. This book mostly is from a mailing list at MIT ... (more)

Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen ( 5/22/2003)

What happens when tourists start getting killed in Florida? Nothing. A hilarious account by Hiassen of a reported gone crazy, starting a terrorist group to rid Florida of development. People in fac... (more)

Mortal Prey by John Sandford ( 7/1/2003)

The first Clara Rinker / Lucas Davenport novel was my favorite Sandford novel. And this one exceeded it. It's not set in Minneapolis, instead it find Clara getting hurt in an assasination attempt and ... (more)

Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen ( 7/1/2003)

My birthday book and another great one for Hiassen. It's my fourth and they must be getting easier because I pick up the characters quicker. This time it's a plastic surgeon that's the bad guy. More c... (more)

A Civil War: Army Vs. Navy a Year Inside College Footbal Purest Rivalry by John Feinstein ( 7/1/2003)

Roger Staubach was my hero as a kid. To some extent, he still is; he's someone I'd like to meet. And I almost went to the Naval Academy for college. I read some biographys of him and seriously conside... (more)

Up Country by Nelson Demille ( 7/14/2003)

This is the second Paul Brenner book, the first being The General's Daughter. And I watched Basic this weekend as I was finishing up this book and that made it mo... (more)

Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen ( 7/21/2003)

One of his earliest, which is why I started it when I got my collection of Hiasseens. The writing is less polished, but I think this is where you early on get introduced to the former Governer, Clinto... (more)

Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen ( 8/4/2003)

Another classic Hiaassen novel. This one about a stripper that gets caught up in zany adventures with a bouncer friend looking to scam the insurance industry. This is one of the better reads by Hiaass... (more)

Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen ( 8/22/2003)

Skink is back, this time after strapping himself to a bridge during a hurricane. With the usual collection of whacky and zany characters, and more criminals than usual, this is quite the read. A ho... (more)

The Paris Option by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds ( 8/25/2003)

I picked this up on a whim, taking a chance. I haven't always been thrilled when a new writer takes over for another. In this case, however, I was pleasantly surprised. The book is well written, delve... (more)

The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy ( 10/3/2003)

I wondered what was next for Clancy. Ryan is President, basically done everything there is to do, getting old, how can you continue the series. This is how. Jack Jr. gets involved in a group workin... (more)

The Cassandra Compact by Robert Ludlum and Phillip Shelby ( 10/9/2003)

Jom Smith is back. Another Covert One novel that wasn't as good as the Paris Option of the Altman code. However it has the same fast paced, spy ridden adventures that you expect from a Ludlum novel... (more)

Four Blind Mice by James Patterson ( 10/11/2003)

Another Alex Cross novel. This time he's about to retire and gets called back in by his friend Sampson to help save a friend. It's a former Army friend of Sampson and they think he's been framed, supp... (more)

The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum ( 11/4/2003)

A classic Ludlum. Written so well that I had to go check out Ludlum's site. I learned he really did write this, and has a backlog of books, which will be released over the next few years. A great s... (more)

The Hades Factor by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds ( 11/18/2003)

The book that started the Covert One series. Jon Smith is out of town and you only meet his fiance briefly before she's infected and dies, practically in his arms. From there he's on the run, an ou... (more)

Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen ( 11/18/2003)

It starts out different from his other books and doesn't have Skink in it. It's a whole different type of book, not quite the freewheeling zany story as his other books, but still pretty good. The ... (more)

The Trench by Steve Alten ( 11/20/2003)

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Prey by Michael Crichton ( 11/24/2003)

How does it feel if your wife is having an affair? If you lost your job and ended up staying at home with the kids while your wife's career took off. The book starts out with the narrator running t... (more)

It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong ( 12/1/2003)

I heard Lance interviewed a few times on the Jim Rome show and Jim has pumped this book many times, so while searching for something, I grabbed it. 
 
As I st... (more)

Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler ( 12/23/2003)

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