Horoscopes for the Dead - Billy Collins

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this one, but it didn't really work for me.  Sure, Billy is a good poet, and I have enjoyed some of his earlier books.  This one, however, seemed like he ran out of things to say and just got cuter and sillier while he discussed more meaningless little things.

Love and War in the Apennines - Eric Newby

We were captured off the east coast of Sicily on the morning of the twelth of August, 1942, about four miles out in the Bay of Catania. It was a beautiful morning. As the sun rose I could see Etna, a truncated cone with a plume of smoke over it like the quill of a pen stuck in a pewter inkpot, rising out of the haze to the north of where I was treading water.


A remarkable story of the author's capture and escape during WWII.  His adventures around Italy, evading both the Nazi's and the Italian fascists, is a tale of adventure and the humanity of the Italian people who assisted him.

Edible Stories - Mark Kurlansky

You know you are on the edge when you live in Seattle, with nothing more to the continent than Puget Sound. The sound looks like a white-gray sheet of aluminum, often stained slighthly darker by ripples of rain, as though the rain had gotten the water wet. ...If it were true, as was once believed, that you could fall off the edge of the world and be devoured by a giant turtle, Seattle would be a place where that might happen.

I loved this funny and inventive novel told in sixteen parts.  Each part is a stand-alone chapter based on a different edible item.  Original and well-written, it is hard to imagine anyone not enjoying this book.

Edward Weston - Manfred Heiting

Edward understood thoughts and concepts which dwell on simple mystical levels. His own work- direct and honest as it is -  leaped from a deep intuition and belief in forces beyond the real and the factual.

This is a great small compilation of Weston's work in the Taschen Icon series.  It is small in size, but the quality is excellent, especially considering the inexpensive price.  An article on Weston written by Ansel Adams provides insight into this great and ground-breaking photographer.