Here’s another one: The Communist Manifesto And Other Revolutionary Writings.

Even though you will find Marx and Lenin here, do not be misled by the title. This book has writings relating to the American (Jefferson, Payne) and French (Sieyes, Marat) Revolutions as well as movements in India (Gandhi) and the Czech Republic (Havel).

If you “rebelled” against the policies of George Bush by voting for Barack Obama, this book is for you. If you are going to rebel against the policies of Barack Obama by voting for the as-yet unnamed Republican nominee, this book is for you. If you disdain “party politics” and favor candidates such as H. Ross Perot and Ron Paul, this book is for you.

A coloring book?

Yes, a coloring book, but also more than that (and you can’t beat the price-$3.95).

It is a concise telling of the story of Beowulf-his fight with the monster, his fight with Grendel’s mother (not Angelina Jolie) and his fight with a dragon enraged by the theft of a cup (we’ll see that again in The Hobbit).

It is also a very nice source of images.

Review by Patrick Jost

This book contains a very nice set of weapons for fighting the war of chess.

Designed for beginning to intermediate players, this book, by national master and noted chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini, consists of a series of alphabetically arranged topics from advantage to weakness.

One nice feature of the book is that the games are played through-there are no sequences of moves to be visualized or worked out.

Review by Patrick Jost

Tolkien drew from mythological content at all levels: tales, of course, but, as can be seen here, names as well. The original meaning of “Gandalf” appears to be “magical elf” but, thanks to Tolkien, it has become synonymous with “wizard!”

This book is a wonderful introduction to the Poetic Edda-worth reading on its own, more so if you are a fan of the work of Tolkien!

Review by Patrick Jost

Mabie offers brief retellings of some of the best stories, but preserves continuity.

As an example, he tells how a taunt from Loke results in the determination of the dwarves (who are master craftsmen) to create something spectacular. They do-the magic hammer Mjolner, which returns after being thrown. While it was being forged, the smith was distracted by a fly, causing its handle to be too short…

The hammer is stolen by the frost giants. Thor and Loke disguise themselves as a bride and bridesmaid to retrieve it. The giants are fooled by the disguises, and the hammer is back in Thor’s hands.

The dwarves also forge a magic cord to bind Fenris-Wolf, but the binding comes at a terrible cost: the right hand of the god Tyr.

The Eddas were well known to both Richard Wagner and J. R. R. Tolkien, and serve, in part as source material for their work.

Review by Patrick Jost

Arabic exhibits the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia; a difference between varieties of the language.

In the case of Arabic, there are many dialects throughout the Arabic speaking world (North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East). Many of thes

e dialects are mutually incomprehensible.

There is a another style, though, based on the language of the Koran (or Qur’an). This is the language used in the Arabic media and is the most common written form.

Thackston’s book is an excellent introduction to this variety of Arabic. It is of limited use to the person about to leave on a vacation to Egypt (a phrasebook is what is needed), but, for more thorough study, this is the place to start!

If so, go here.

This last Saturday, I went to Hole in the Wall Books in Falls Church. It happened to be Free Comic Day. I appreciate comics as an art form, but am not a fan; there is something very appealing, though about being able to select from a large selection of free comics.

While looking around, I found this book.

Howard Hughes is one of my favorite historical figures. Both my father and I worked for him, indirectly, so he’s a more than honorary member of the family.

He was an amazing man of many accomplishments.

This book (one of many about Hughes) is meticulously researched, and steers well clear of the easy sensationalism about Hughes: the women and the (later) eccentricities.

The book was/is clearly marketed as a tie-in to Scorsese’s film The Aviator, but the book stands on its own.

Things were done differently back then. Howard Hughes didn’t ask for a bailout, he made his own!

These languages, which have often been neglected, are becoming increasingly important.  Turkey obviously enjoys an important strategic position. Among other things, it controls access to the Mediterranean from the Black Sea.

Azerbaijan is the site of the first production of petroleum, and continues to serve as a key player in that industry.

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan not only have vast, unrealized wealth in natural resources, but they are also emerging as alternatives for adoption to Russia given the situation there.

Turkmenistan is home to some fascinating archaeological sites, and has the world’s fourth largest reserves of natural gas.

Turkish, Turkmen, and Azeri enjoy a high degree of mutual intelligibility. There are many grammatical features common to the Turkic languages, and exposure to them, through Lewis Thomas’ book, could be the first step to mastering some of the less documented, but by no means less important languages in the Turkic family.