Netsurfer Recommendations

Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration
Paul Gilster
Springer; ISBN: 038700436X

While travel to the stars is a fundamental premise of science fiction, it's actually very, very hard to do in real life - hard, but not impossible. Paul Gilster takes a serious look at what it would take to reach the nearby stars given current and near-term technologies. The most plausible interstellar mission is a robotic probe that would travel to nearby stars and return data within the lifetime of the researchers who sent it off. There is prodigious serious scientific literature about the subject, dating back to the famous nuclear-bomb-propelled Orion project. Gilster's book is a layman's survey of the science involved in interstellar flight, and if there is any complaint to be made, it is that the text is not technical enough. He includes many high-level workable concepts, but without the little details his readers will probably be waiting for. Fortunately, they can consult the exhaustive bibliography, which alone is worth the price of the book to anybody with an interest in the subject. Gilster concludes that the technology to achieve star flight is almost here, and the only serious obstacles to sending a probe to nearby stars are economic and cultural. This is a must for any serious space enthusiast.

Flashman on the March
George Macdonald Fraser
Knopf; ISBN: 1400044758

It's 1868 and Sir Harry Flashman, holder of the Victoria Cross and hero of the British Empire, is once again running away. This time, he runs from the relatives of an Austrian princess whom he seduced on board the ship that carries the body of the executed Emperor Maximillian from Mexico back to the old country. It's clearly time for old Flashman to make himself scarce, and it is a sign of his desperation that he would volunteer (!) for an expedition to rescue European hostages held by Theodore, king of Abyssinia. The king feels slighted - Queen Victoria has failed to respond to his letter - and so he holds a few hundred of Her Majesty's subjects as hostages. Flashman becomes embroiled in one of the most famous non-fictional expeditions of Victorian England, an adventure he'll have to use all his wits, cunning, and finely honed cowardice to survive. This is exactly what fans of George Fraser's long running Flashman series have come to expect. If you're new to this terrific historical series, you can get started with the original " Flashman: From the Flashman Papers, 1839-1842".

Charlemagne's Tablecloth: A Piquant History of Feasting
Nichola Fletcher
St. Martin's Press; ISBN: 0312340680

The tradition of a large, sumptuous meal indulged in by a collection of people to celebrate some event - in short, a feast - is ancient. The tradition certainly predates the early Roman, Chinese, and Persian versions Nichola Fletcher writes about in her look at feasting through the ages. It's not surprising that Fletcher finds common elements across cultures that make the feast a universal human experience. This is a book for foodies as much as it is a history lesson; it's a source of ideas for the truly ambitious feast planner. Fletcher defines "feast" broadly, ensuring that if you're looking for inspiration on how to gastronomically impress anything from a large tribe to a romantic prospect, you're likely to find it here. There are great medieval tables, baroque French meals, stylized Japanese tea ceremonies, even the simple pleasures of eating rats when starvation knocks at the door. And yes, there is cannibalism, a fixture of feasts in Aztec, certain Pacific Islander and, symbolically, Christian cultures. It's a delicious look at the intersection of food and gatherings though the ages.

Mind Game: How the Boston Red Sox Got Smart, Won a World Series, and Created a New Blueprint for Winning
Steve Goldman, Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts
Workman Publishing Company; ISBN: 0761140182

Last fall, baseball and nearly all of New England celebrated the Boston Red Sox and their first World Series victory since 1918. Wonderboy general-manager Theo Epstein had gathered in enough of the proper sort of talent to get the Red Sox first into the playoffs, then past the rival New York Yankees in one of the greatest playoff series of all time, then past the overwhelmed St. Louis Cardinals to win it all. A year later, Epstein has resigned, one star pitcher is recovering after a season lost to injury, a second star throws baseballs for the New York Mets, and slugger Manny Ramirez again wants to leave. Epstein gained fame for subscribing to stats-oriented strategy, an analytic approach to the game promoted by the folks who wrote this book, the folks at Baseball Prospectus. "Mind Game" will let the letdown Red Sox Nation relive the glory of 2004. The book is a series of essays in the Baseball Prospectus style that follow the season in roughly chronological order. If you've paged through "Moneyball", this is your next read.