The Toadstool Bookshops of Keene, Milford, and Peterborough, NH

Excellent exposition on initiation from the perspective of Thelemic philosophy.

If you were charged with the task of building the Great Pyramid, how would you do it? Jean-Pierre Houdin tackles this puzzle from the perspective of an architect. In this highly readable and convincing book, Brier (an American Egyptologist) and Houdin (a French architect who is not an Egyptologist) explain the latter’s theory of how the Great Pyramid was built. Secret of the Great Pyramid is something of a page-turner, and I can imagine that Houdin’s peers will eventually accept his theory.

Coyote has been inhabited for 50 years now by people seeking refuge from Earth’s environmental ruin. Having gotten settled in pretty comfortably, it’s decided that it would be a good idea to explore the rest of the planet. A team of professionals with backgrounds in the various sciences embarks on the expedition. Meanwhile, customs inspector/ex-convict Hawk Thompson quickly learns more than anyone before him about the quiet alien race that maintains a base on Coyote. Now in paperback.

In detective Feliz Gomez’s newest adventure, he must keep a power struggle among werewolves in Charleston, South Carolina from becoming a bloodbath that spills over into the lives of the humans. While on the job in Charleston, a gang of vampires tries to kill Felix, and an old girlfriend gives him the cold shoulder.
Another humorous look at denizens of the supernatural through the eyes of Colorado’s favorite vampire-detective. Get an early start on your summertime reading!

Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch, and Last Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Long ago, there was a War in which the forces of Light and the forces of Dark were so evenly balanced that, were the War allowed to continue, there would be absolutely no survivors. To prevent total annihilation, the leaders of the opposing sides decided upon a truce and drew up the Grand Treaty. The forces of Light created a group called the Night Watch, whose job was to make sure the Dark Ones didn’t violate the Treaty. The forces of Dark instituted a Day Watch to make sure that the Light Ones didn’t violate the Treaty. And a third group, the Inquisition, was formed to arbitrate disputes between the Watches.

These entertaining books, set mostly in modern-day Moscow, follow the career of Light Magician Anton Gorodetsky, an agent of the Night Watch.

Lukyanenko’s Watch series is built upon an interesting metaphysics and is peppered with Russian humor.

Twilight Watch

I found this book surprisingly interesting. Pollack describes the similarities and differences between ice & climate of the North and South Poles. He lays out the history of ice, explains how ice moves. A good deal of space is devoted to illustrating how global warming is occurring and the role ice plays in this. Pollack also talks about the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)and its view on the seriousness of climate change; the causes of climate change and how this will shape the future of life on earth.

I hadn't read The Three Musketeers before and was a little worried about my lack of French, but I decided to give it a try anyway. Pevear's English translation is wonderful and his historical notes - illuminating! I didn't know that the story was originally serialized, and I knew almost as much about French history. (Which is just to say that I learned something.)

The story itself is fast paced and so highly engaging that the French names couldn't slow me down! I heartily recommend this translation.

Allen Steele is a marvelous hard science fiction writer. The books of his Coyote Trilogy are top-notch, as is Spindrift. Galaxy Blues continues the story.

After much planning, Jules Truffaut decides to sneak aboard a Coyote Federation flagship with the aim of starting a new life on Coyote. After stealing a shuttle and crash landing on Coyote, he finds himself being escorted to Coyote’s prison, there to await his deportation back to earth. But before he can be deported, a billionaire entrepreneur makes him an offer he can’t refuse.

In this nearly wordless children's book, we find that a simple misunderstanding makes a shortcut anything but.