The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly

This is an excellent, well plotted crime / legal novel. It brings together two of the author's characters of other novels in an interesting way.

Woodworker's Guide to Sharpening, by John English

This book has quite a different feel to it than the Lee book on sharpening; there's more of a net-net feel, and many pointers to commercial products. I find it an excellent complementary text; the instructions are generally quite clear and helpful.

On the other hand, the sharpening station plans are quite poorly done.

Still, though, I recommend this book.

Hand Tool Essentials, by the Editors of Popular Woodworking Magazine

An absolutely fabulous collection of articles by some of the best woodworking writers around; people like Christopher Schwarz, Don McConnell, and Adam Cherubini. Definitely worth buying!

Woodworking: The Right Technique, by Bob Moran

This is very good. Not at the level of Korn's book, but still worth buying. What I particularly liked is the even-handed coverage of both hand and machine techniques. It is annoying to read materials about jointing an edge, for example, that presume you'll use a power jointer - when you might in fact use a hand plane. This book didn't go very deep, but it went deep enough and certainly has breadth.

Woodworking Basics, by Peter Korn

This is a must read for anyone interested in woodworking. I can't over-emphasize how excellent a resource this is.

The Use of Hand Woodworking Tools, by Leo McDonnell

This is an excellent book! If you're at all interested in woodworking, or even carpentry, this is an essential reference book.

Written in 1978, it hardly seems dated. After all, not much has changed in hand tools since then. Apparently it was a text book, perhaps for a community college course in carpentry?

Highly recommended, albeit for a niche audience. And available as a used book, through Amazon.

The World is Curved, by David Smick

Let me be net-net here (in sharp contrast to the author): don't bother reading this. Unless you have time to burn.

It isn't that it was uninteresting - I enjoyed the personal anecdotes the most - it just didn't have any new thinking punchlines.

I was also unhappy with the book's flow; I found it difficult to figure out what the author's point was, or where he was going with an argument.

The Handplane Book, by Garrett Hack

I wanted to know more about how to tune up my handplanes. For those of you wondering, these are fundamental to woodworking: they take a small shave of wood, enabling boards to meet each other tightly for jointing them together in a variety of ways. It is important to working with wood.

About a quarter of the book was interesting. The remainder was more about planes than I ever wanted to know. The target audience seems to be collectors of old planes and those who are unnaturally obsessed with this topic.

The Table Saw Book, by Kelly Mehler

This book will tell you more about table saws than you knew you wanted to know. But it is more of an entry level, beginner's guide than a long-term useful reference for a hobbyist woodworker. And the author's fascination with European saws is annoying: most folks in the target demographic for this book are not eager to spend $5,000 on a European saw.

One good takeaway though: a saw with a riving blade is better than one without, all things considered.

The Charlemagne Pursuit, by Steve Berry

Berry's latest Cotton Malone spy adventure follows his usual formula. That is to say, the personal involvement of a US President is unconvincing, the extent of the bad guy's evil deeds is convincing, it all ends up just swell but with an open door to the inevitable next book.

I really can't complain as it mostly held my interest.