Next Week in the Bookstore: Grateful Dead, Juveniles from Celebs, and Wheel of Time #11 - Page 4

My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Waging War on Terror by Louis J. Freeh, rebuts the claims of Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies with the story of the former FBI director's struggle to strengthen and reform the Bureau from 1993-2001. This is Freeh’s entire story, from his Catholic upbringing in New Jersey to law school, the FBI training academy, his career as a US District attorney and as a federal judge, and finally his eight years as the nation’s top cop. "Bill Clinton called Freeh a 'law enforcement legend' when he nominated him as FBI Director. The good feelings would not last. Going toe-to-toe with his boss during the scandal-plagued '90s, Freeh fought hard to defend his agency from political interference and to protect America from the growing threat of international terrorism. When Clinton later called that appointment the worst one he had made as president, Freeh considered it 'a badge of honor.'" (Publisher's release notes)

From Mark Bittman, the New York Times food writer known as "The Minimalist," The Best Recipes In The World: More Than 1,000 International Dishes To Cook At Home delivers exotic recipes for the home cook, and "brings together in a single volume recipes from astoundingly different traditions, wildly varying cultures, and totally separate inspirations. Nevertheless, the book coheres and avoids becoming a jumble by being focused through a unique intelligence... On facing pages one finds Korean braised short ribs with ginger, garlic, rice wine, and chiles fronting Spanish oxtails with white wine, bacon, carrots, celery, and thyme. Both recipes contain beef, both follow a basic braising technique, yet one can hardly mistake their very opposite effects at the table... Useful for all library cookbook collections." —Mark Knoblauch, Booklist

For your gift list or music library shelf, The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics comes with commentary by compiler David Dodd. "Like many fans before him, Dodd spent hours passionately trying to find the deeper meanings in the Dead's songs. In 1994 the Internet may have been in its infancy, but Dodd knew the Web was the perfect to tool to help him annotate the entire Dead catalog. So began the building of his incredibly popular Web site. The fruits of his labors lie within the pages of this encyclopedic book... It is worth mentioning, this book should not be viewed as a cheat sheet, but a tool giving lots of background and cross-references. The interpretations are still up to you. Be forewarned, this book can be extremely habit forming." —Rob Bracco, Amazon.com review

Note: Although Amazon says The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics can be shipped today, it is actually not released until October 11th.

I've never caught the Jordan fever, so my list is fairly short this week. I'll take the Freeh, and choose one of the two cookbooks (probably the Southern Cooking double-bill). My one must-have, though, is the Sobel Planets.

Article Author: DrPat

DrPat is the blog signature used by an old coot who hoards books, dances Argentine Tango, cooks a mean venison chili, and is happy to be along for the sag while my spouse does a marathon bicycle ride. …

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