The Home Machinist's Handbook $13.97
by Doug Briney

Here's everything the do-it-yourselfer needs to set up, and operate a handy-man's machine shop. Areas covered range from shop requirements and proper lighting to buying, using, and storing tools.

Look inside the book!

Engineer to Win $17.47
by Carroll Smith

This book is considered to be essential to any robot builder's library.

This book can look a little daunting as you flick through the pages, however, once you begin to read it, you realise just how good it is! Starting with a basic metallurgy and physics course that most school text books should look to copy, Mr. Smith keeps interest in what could be a somewhat tedious subject using witty comments and practical observations. He then leads us through steel making, alloy processes and finally on to the application of all of the above in the racing car. A brilliant book from start to finish.

Look inside the book!

The Art of Electronics $70.00
by Paul Horowitz (Author), Winfield Hill (Author)

This is the thoroughly revised and updated Second Edition of the hugely successful The Art of Electronics. Widely accepted as the single, authoritative text and reference on electronic circuit design, both analog and digital, this book has sold over 120,000 copies, and has been translated into eight languages. This book revolutionized the teaching of electronics by emphasizing the methods actually used by circuit designers--a combination of some basic laws, rules of thumb, and a large bag of tricks. The result is a largely nonmathematical treatment that encourages circuit intuition, brain storming, and simplified calculations of circuit values and performance. This completely new edition responds to the breakneck pace of change in electronics with totally rewritten chapters on microcomputers and microprocessors, substantially revised chapters on digital electronics, on op-amps and precision design, and on construction techniques. Every table has been revised, and many new ones have been added. The new Art of Electronics retains the feeling of informality and easy access that made the first edition so successful and popular.

Look inside the book!

Student Manual for The Art of Electronics $35.00
by Paul Horowitz, T. Hayes

This book is the student companion for The Art of Electronics listed above.

Look inside the book!

Pocket Ref $10.36
by Thomas J. Glover

This concise reference guide covers Air & gases, Computers, electronics, General information, Geology, Hardware, Math, Money, Steel and metals, Surveying and mapping, Weights and measures and more. Paper.

Books by William Gibson

The Hicthhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy, err Series
by Douglas Adams

Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250 and Race It!, 2nd Ed. (used and new from $22.43)
by Ron Champion

What a concept! Building your own car! With this book Ron Champion outlines a plan for building your own Lotus Seven/Westfield clone. Some sections may be not as detailed as some people would prefer but overall it is excellent and informative. There are lots of builders and discussion groups that readers could join and learn from. The most valuable part of this book, in my opinion, is how to build the frame. The frame is built from square section steel tubing and welding equipment is required. Parts like the nosecone, windscreen, etc. can be fabricated or bought. There are quite a few Seven clone manufacturers around the world. The 'for as little as..' part may be a slightly incorrect but its much cheaper than most kit cars. In the course of building this car the reader will have to learn a lot about suspensions, drivetrain and engine rebuilding, fibreglass work, etc. It's almost like an outline for a course in Motor Vehicle Technology! I must say that this is one of the best car books I have ever read and if you've ever had schoolboy dreams of building your own roadster type car then you've definitely got to get this book!

Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving $12.57
by Bob Bondurant, John Blakemore

If you're interested in learing to drive race cars, this book is a great place to start. It teaches you the basic skills such as proper seating and hand placement, heel toe downshifting, cornering and other fundamentals. There is, however, no substitute for actual hands-on training and wheel time, and the book emphasizes this.

Look inside the book!

Starship Troopers $6.99
by Robert A. Heinlein

I am constantly amazed at those who denounce Heilein as fascist (even bearing in mind the noble tradition in American political debate to let libel substitute for discourse). Because he postulated a mildly totalitarian society in ST, why is he pilloried for it? Anyone who has read a cross section of RAH's other books (including the charmingly idiosyncratic travelogue Tramp Royale) knows that Heinlein was adamantly opposed to all forms of governmental coercion. So here he poses a possible society in which the franchise is only awarded to veterans (who incidentally are volunteers - no draft) and briefly discusses how that came about, it's just setting the stage for the real point of this novel, which is the relationship between the professional soldier and the society he protects. Duty, honor, integrity... that's what this book is about, not the glorification of war. Heinlein pulls no punches, even with the powered armor and pocket nukes this war is no walkover, it's nasty, brutal, and ugly. People (that is, humans - "our" side) get maimed and killed, where anyone would find glorification in the descriptions of combat is beyond me. What Heinlein is saying is that some things must be defended, even at the risk of our own lives. So the society he postulated is not an idyllic one by our own standards... it wasn't by his, either. Others have commented adversely about the unsympathetic nature of the enemy and wanted more development of them, but Heinlein deliberately and artificially created an adversary who was entirely unhuman and a war which was flatly unambiguous - this isn't Vietnam, you can't feel empathy for the aliens, or wonder if this is the right fight, or even concede the justice of their cause. This is a pure crusade, something which seldom if ever comes along in human history. That simply distills the story to its essentials - the soldier's relationship to his society, remember? For a true political manifesto, read his "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," where he espouses his libertarian philosophy. He is realistic enough there to have it miss realization in the end, because while libertarianism makes an admirable ideal it's an unworkable utopian reality - face it, we can't trust each other all the time, and there are some of us who need government support to varying degrees, and sometimes natural disasters overcome our individual abilities. But please don't make RAH responsible for your own prejudices - reread this book, jettison your "cold war paranoia" putdowns and think about what Johhny Rico is fighting for and why. Observe his evolution from aimless teenager into professional soldier fighting for his people's survival. And for those reviewers who obviously are basing their comments on the film - shame on you! Let's display at least a modicum of intellectual honesty here, please!

The Puppet Masters $5.99
by Robert A. Heinlein

Earth was being invaded by aliens and the top security agencies were helpless: the aliens were controlling the mind of every person they encountered. So it was up to Sam Cavanaugh, secret agent for a powerful and deadly spy network, to find a way to stop them--which meant he had to be invaded himself!

Look inside the book!

Tunnel in the Sky
by Robert A. Heinlein

It was just a test . . .
But something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. What was to have been a standard ten-day survival test had suddenly become an indefinite life-or-death nightmare.
Now they were stranded somewhere in the universe, beyond contact with Earth . . . at the other end of a tunnel in the sky. This small group of young men and women, divested of all civilized luxuries and laws, were being forced to forge a future of their own . . . a strange future in a strange land where sometimes not even the fittest could survive!

Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages $22.75
by Mario Batali, Mark Ferri

Sure to excite lovers of the best Italian cooking, Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages reenvisions classic home cucina with enticing results. Batali, known to fans as "Molto Mario" from his Television Food Network shows, and as chef-owner of Manhattan's much-loved Po and Babbo restaurants, presents nearly 250 of his favorite recipes, traditional and innovative, for delectable salads, pastas, grilled specialties, ragus, and desserts, among others. The collection, inspired by the cooking of Borgo Cappene, a hillside village in northern Italy, and Greenwich Village, where Batali culls exemplary ingredients for his restaurants, reflects Batali's commitment to simple cooking--impeccable ingredients sensibly combined and properly prepared. Cooks seeking deeply flavored, smartly presented dishes will embrace Batali's recipes for everyday meals and for entertaining.
Arranged by courses, antipasti through formaggi and dolci (cheese and sweets), the uncomplicated dishes include White Bean Bruschetta with Grilled Radicchio Salad, Baked Lasagna with Asparagus and Pesto, and Roasted Porgy with Peas, Garlic, Scallions and Mint. Gorgonzola with Spiced Walnuts and Port Wine Syrup with fresh fruit would make a lovely conclusion to any dinner. Throughout, Batali provides advice on dish preparation; there are 32 pages of color photos and dozens of black-and-white shots of life in Batali's two villages. Batali's reliance on the best ingredients simply prepared, rather than on fussy restaurant techniques, places his dishes squarely in the realm of home cooks. They'll find his book a keeper.

Look inside the book!

The New Laurel's Kitchen: A Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition $13.97
by Laurel Robertson, Brian Ruppenthal, Carol L. Flinders

The New Laurel's Kitchen includes plenty of simple, beat-the-clock recipes - who doesn't need them? But it refuses to blur the distinction between natural foods and fast foods. If you need forty-five minutes to bake a potato or cook brown rice, fine. That's good, solid wind-down time, precious in today's hurried world: time to cut up green beans, or prepare a cauliflower curry; time for the children to dry the lettuce and help make an Appley Bread Pudding. Laurel's kitchen has its own pace - a human pace, that lets other things happen besides just dinner. Good health is the first concern here, and foods that support it are rendered irresistible: dishes like Mushrooms Petaluma, Poppyseed Noodles, Lazy Pirogi, and Sebastapol Pizza. These are well-tested and innately manageable recipes, homespun, but with a generous splash of the sophistication that has swept the food world in recent years.

Look inside the book!

I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking $22.75
by Alton Brown

Alton Brown, host of Food Network's Good Eats, is not your typical TV cook. Equal parts Jacques Pépin and Mr. Science, with a dash of MacGyver, Brown goes to great lengths to get the most out of his ingredients and tools to discover the right cooking method for the dish at hand. With his debut cookbook, I'm Just Here for the Food, Brown explores the foundation of cooking: heat. From searing and roasting to braising, frying, and boiling, he covers the spectrum of cooking techniques, stopping along the way to explain the science behind it all, often adding a pun and recipe or two (usually combined, as with Miller Thyme Trout).
I'm Just Here for the Food is chock-full of information, but Brown teaches the science of cooking with a soft touch, adding humor even to the book's illustrations--his channeling of the conveyer belt episode of I Love Lucy to explain heat convection is a hoot. The techniques are thoroughly explained, and Brown also frequently adds how to augment the cooking to get optimal results, including a tip on modifying a grill with a hair dryer for more heat combustion. But what about the food? Brown sticks largely to the traditional, from roast turkey to braised chicken piccata, though he does throw a curveball or two, such as Bar-B-Fu (marinated, barbecued tofu). And you'll quickly be a convert of his French method of scrambling eggs via a specially rigged double boiler--the resulting dish is soft, succulent, and lovely. But more than just a recipe book, I'm Just Here for the Food is a fascinating, delightful tour de force about the love of food and the joy of discovery.