Hey, guys, it seems like an eon since the CARLMAN reviewed any nonfiction but we got some new books that looked interesting (one of the perks of being a guybrarian is getting to see new stuff before it hits the shelves), so I checked them out. All three were books about NASCAR. Now I'm not a racing fan but these books were very interesting.
The second was
Pit Stop Secrets by K. C. Kelley. Man, it's
amazing what the guys in a pit crew have to do! And how fast they have to do it. Incredible feats of strength and skill have to be done at lightning speed while cars zip past only a short distance away. Unbelievable! This book breaks down all the steps of a pit stop and even has pictures. A really good read!
The third was
NASCAR Tech by Bob Woods. It's easy to design and build a NASCAR car, right? Just take a car off the assembly line and drop in a souped-up engine, huh?
WRONG AGAIN!! That's how it was back in the early days of racing but now it's almost as high-tech as building an X-wing fighter. Well, that's an exaggeration, of course, but I couldn't believe how much advanced technology goes into building NASCAR cars and race tracks. You'll be surprised too. Check out this book and see!
If you love racing or if you simply like to find out new stuff, these are the books for you!
BTW, May is a good month if you're a racing fan, especialy if you live in the Charlotte area. The
NASCAR Hall of Fame opens May 11, the annual
Speed Street festival is May 27-29, and the
Coca-Cola 600 takes place on May 30. Good times for fans of high speed and high
Hey Guys, Master Jedi Zack here once again.
Just like THE CARLMAN, I have been crazy busy this summer (not to be confused with just plain CRAZY like Darth Bill) and so I didn't post about as many books I would normally. I did help lots of guys who came into my library find great books, does that count?!
Awhile back, I talked about the first book in the Something Wickedly Weird series called The Wooden Mile. I have recommended this book to just about every guy who comes into my library and they all love it. If you haven't read it yet you really should go pick it up, 'cause it is awesome! They are also good quick reads just like THE CARLMAN talked about in his last post.
Now the library has books 2 (The Icy Hand) and 3 (The Silver Casket) of the series. If that isn't enough for you book 4 (The Darkling Curse) is on its way as well. I haven't yet read past book 1, so I guess I have a project for the fall once all you guys are back in school and my library gets all quiet and boring once again.
Hey, all you reader guys out there, it's Carl with the Summer Reruns. There is where I recycle reviews of old favorites. It's summer, it's hot, we've been busy, and I haven't been able to finish anything new lately. So here are some links to old reviews. These are really good books that deserve more attention. Most of them are rather short and can be read quickly, which can be a good thing in these days before school. I'll start with the most recent reviews and go go the oldest. (btw, some of these posts refer to events going on at the time. Don't let that confuse you) Click on the title and see the full review.
The Last River by Stuart Waldman--What a great adventure! And it really happened!
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling--a true oldie but goodie. These stories are about as far away from the Disney version as you can get! No custesy, cuddly animals here but real and savage nature. And the real Ka the Snake is one of the spookiest creatures you'll ever meet.
Hey, Bill and Zack, do you have any old favorites you'd like to tell them about?
Carl
All RIGHT!! The new cover for The Last Olympian has finally been unveiled!! The only place to see it, though, is on Rick Riordan's blog or the Percy Jackson book site. (The book site also has a Last Olympian video) Go take a look, guys. This cover is really, really impressive!! And there's an interview with Blackjack, Percy's personal pegasus. How long is it until May 5, when The Last Olympian comes out? TOO LONG!!!!!
Well, while I sit patiently and wait, let me tell about another really Good Quick Read. Wait--before I do, let me ask----would you ever eat a
worm?? Would you eat
15 worms?? "NO
WAY!" Is that what you'd say? Would you do it for
fifty dollars? Hmmm, that makes it different, doesn't it? That's the idea behind
How To Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell, a book that's been making guys laugh for 36 years! Billy and his friends Alan, Joe, and Tom are sitting around one day and Alan, who's one of these pushy, come-on-I-bet you're-chicken types, bets Billy that he wouldn't eat a worm.
Billy says that anyone could eat
one worm. Then Alan bets Billy to eat one worm a
day for fifteen days. Alan will give him $5o if Billy wins. Joe and Tom will be witnesses to make sure no one cheats. The worms can be fried, boiled, or cooked in any way and Billy can use ketchup, mustard, or whatever he wants to get them down. Can he do it??? It's pretty funny to find out. Billy starts to get grossed out (I bet!!) but then he gets used to his new diet! Alan starts to panic and comes up with
goofier and
crazier schemes to keep Billy from eating those last worms. It's
funny, guys!! And it's a Good Quick Read. A lot of the "chapters" are only one or two pages long. Go read it! And enjoy your grilled-cheese and worm sandwich!
Carl
PS--there are no bad words in this book, but at one point Billy calls Alan a b----d and it was a real surprise to me. I wanted to make you aware of it.
Hey, gang, it's Carl and it's February 11. That means I should be dancing around the place with my new copy of The Demigod Files. Well, I can't because the library doesn't have one yet. It takes longer for the library to get books than it does for the bookstores and not even the Great and Powerful CARLMAN can bend the laws of time and space and get it here sooner. So I wait.
In the meantime, I just finished another book that I call a Good Quick Read. These are books that are short or that you could read quickly. This wasn't short (it was 232 pages) but the type was big and so there weren't that many words on a page. Anyway, the book was
Getting Air by Dan Gutman. It's a survivial story about 14-year-old Jimmy and his little sister Julia plus Jimmy's friends Henry and David. They're all flying out to California to participate in a skateboarding tournament. What happens next? Well, I don't want to say because it took me by surprise. I'll just tell you that it took a lot longer to get there than they planned! You'll like it. And you can read it quickly. I read it in a couple of hours and that's an accomplishment because I read slsowly.
How did I like it? I thought it was pretty good. It wasn't terrific but was still good--good enough to make me want to keep reading until the end, but not so great that I wanted to drop everything else until I finished. Like the Percy Jackson books. Or the Akimbo books. Or the Barnstormers or the Erec Rex books. On the scale of 1 to 5 stars, I'd give it a 3. Try it and tell me what you think.
And if you want to find more Good Quick Reads, click on the Good Quick Reads tab (or lLabel) under this post.
Carl
PS--I updated the list of all books we and you have talked about. You'll find in the Links on the left-hand side of the page.
And be sure to vote in the poll to find out, during Valentine's season, what GUYS love!
"Imagine living in the heart of Africa. Imagine living in a place where the sun rises each morning over blue mountains and great plains with grass that grows taller than a man." That's how this terrifiic series starts.
Akimbo and his family live on the edge of a nature preserve in Africa. 
In the first book, Akimbo and the Elephants by Alexander McCall Smith, young Akimbo tries to save a herd of elephants from poachers (thieves who kill elephants for their ivroy tusks) through a really dangerous plan. In the other one, Akimbo and the Crocodile Man, he goes with a scientist to tag a female crocodile and her babies. Crocodiles are deadly, right? That's what Akimbo and the Crocodile man find out!! These books are short but REALLY GOOD!!! It always amazes me how a first-rate writer can fill a short book with action and suspense while making you see and feel what the characters do. Alexander McCall Smith is first-rate and so are these books. There are two more in this serires:
They're easy enough for younger readers and exciting enough for older guys. Go get them!!
Carl
Our friends at the Guys Read blog turned me on to a site called Guys Lit Wire (another really good blog about boys' reading--although it's mostly for middle-school guys) which coined the phrase "heroic nerd". They define heroic nerds as "men so driven by the urge to know, to see and understand, they make bold, mad leaps into uncharted territory." They were talking about Thor Heyerdahl and his crew, scientists who, never having sailed before, built rafts made of reeds and went 4300 miles across the Pacific to prove a theory. Well, I just read a short but good book called The Last River: John Wesley Powell and the Colorado River Exploring Expedition
about such a man. John Wesley Powell was the first person to canoe the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Was he a Heroic Nerd? You bet!! He was a college geology professor who was determined to explore the Green River and Colorado River just because no one had done it before. Why not? Because they were so full of rocks, rapids, and dangerous waters that no one, not even the Native Americans who lived there, dared to try. And the most incredible part? John Wesley Powell had only one arm!!
Yes, he lost his right arm in the Civil War but didn't let it stop him. On May 24, 1869 he and his crew set out on wooden canoes to travel a completely unexplored area of the West, through unknown canyons and down unknown rivers, where they had no idea what rapids might be ahead. If anyone got hurt, ran out of food or supplies, well, they were in the middle of the American desert and many, many miles from anyone. AND they made this trip in the middle of summer when the temperature could reach 115 degrees!! How anyone could make that expedition AND survive in nothing short of UNBELIEVABLE!! Stuart Waldman has written a short but realy good book and Gregory Manchess has created illustrations that will make your jaw drop--especially that picture in the middle of the book of the Grand Canyon. PLUS--This book has a very cool feature; the title page folds out and displays a map that stays out while you read the book. That way you can follow the map as you read the story!Plus there are excerpts from the crew's journals and photos taken when JWP went back and explored that area again. PLUS there's a link to a website that shows 400 photos taken on those trips. Can't wait to see them!
This is a good one, guys! Don't miss it!!!
Carl
Here's another one of my Blasts From the Past--in other words, a book that I've reviewed before but still think is terrific. This one is The 2000 Year Old Man Goes to School by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner. It was funny when it came out in 
Hello! You've been nominated for a BBAW award. Please contact lenoreva at hotmail dot com within 48 hrs for further instructions. thanks!
this book looks a little bit scary to me, I do not think I would like it. I like more Non-fiction books.
Do you think it will be good?
Jakob Black
Have you ever been Rick Rolled? It's a really good way to end the summer.
Shikamaru Nara
The promblem is you did not tell me about the book at all you just said there are two books in the libray nothing about what the book is about so......