As a kid, I loved reading Encyclopedia Brown books, even when I was old enough that the mysteries were really simple to solve and I realized how absurd it was that Chief Brown needed his son’s help to solve cases. I didn’t read quite as much Hardy Boys, except for one summer when my younger brother and I plowed through the local library’s collection of them. Marc Burnett has taken both series, added a dash of Lemony Snicket and a knowing wink, and come up with “America’s next great kid detective:” Steve Brixton.

The first book, The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity, introduces us to twelve-year-old Steve. Steve is obsessed with the Bailey Brothers Mysteries and always carries a copy of The Bailey Brothers’ Detective Handbook in his backpack. He has a secret book-box in which he’s stashed his detective notebook (including his list of the Fifty-Nine Greatest Books of All Time: the Handbook and the other 58 books in the Bailey Brothers series). He’s even a card-carrying detective, thanks to the twelve cereal box tops and $1.95 he’d mailed in for his Genuine Detective’s Investigation License.

Steve goes to the library to check out a book about Early American Needlework for a school report, and suddenly it seems the whole world is after him: men in black jumpsuits and greasepaint break rappel through the skylight, and a black van squeals up to the library doors. Without giving away too much of the plot, I can tell you that the rest of the story involves Librarians, a sailor disguise, running from the cops, and some very shady characters, who are all after “Detective” Steve Brixton. Ironically, Steve has to solve a mystery to prove that he’s not really a detective, clear his name and just maybe help save one of America’s most important secrets.

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity was published in October 2009; a paperback version should be out this May. Unfortunately Steve Brixton’s “official website” at brixtonbrothers.com is still just a placeholder, though it promises to teach you tips and tricks to help you become a private investigator. You can, however read an excerpt on Simon and Schuster’s site.

I came across the book at the library and was intrigued by the goofy text on the back cover and the over-the-top cover illustration. (Of course, you can’t judge a book by its cover, so I read it in a day.) It’s recommended for ages 8-12, but any adults who grew up on Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown are sure to get some laughs, too. I loved the way Steve discovers that what works for the Bailey Brothers doesn’t always work in real life; but at the same time the adults in Steve’s world are fairly ridiculous and easily misled and do act somewhat like characters from Encyclopedia Brown. It’s parody and homage at the same time.

Buy The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity from Amazon, or check it out at your local library!

Wired: Secret agent librarians! Kid detectives! Fake moustaches! What’s not to love?

Tired: Not a whole lot, actually—Steve Brixton makes Encyclopedia’s job look easy.

Instant Egghead Guide: Physics

You’ve gotta love a book that follows “Chapter One: Matter” with “Chapter Two: Quantum Theory.” The Instant Egghead Guide: Physics by Brian Clegg and Scientific American does just that, and then continues on through chapters about Light, Relativity, Forces and Energy. The cover calls it “60-Second Science,” and each subject is a two-page spread that takes about a minute or two to read. The chapter about matter, for instance, is broken down into subjects such as atomic structure, various phases of matter, string theory and the big bang.

Each subject has three short sections: The Basics, On the Frontier, and Cocktail Party Tidbits. The Basics is just that: a very simple, straightforward explanation of the topic at hand. On the Frontier is usually a little extra information, sometimes but not always about the current state of knowledge on a subject, or perhaps an example of how this bit of information is used in practical applications. Cocktail Party Tidbits is the fun stuff: little trivia about Einstein or a snarky remark Feynman once made.

My main complaint: the book tends to shy away from using formulas, probably to make things more accessible for the “Math is hard!” contingent, but I ran into this sentence which I had trouble parsing until I realized they were using the parentheses as in math, rather than as in English:

As mechanical work is the force applied times the distance moved, and power is work divided by time, then power is also force times (distance over time)—that is, force times velocity.

(The other potential source of confusion is spelling out “times” in a formula which also includes “time.”) I don’t know if avoiding mathematical notation really does anyone any favors or just muddles things a bit. Fortunately, this sort of thing didn’t occur too often but this particular case stood out for me.

Also, I think this is the first time I’ve read an entire physics book without a single diagram in it, which is a shame. I think a few well-constructed diagrams would have gone a long way toward making some key concepts easier to understand and remember.

Those of you who are physics geeks most likely won’t learn anything new from this book (except some nifty trivia that will come in handy next time you’re at a cocktail party, whatever that is). But if you need a refresher course—if, say, your high schooler starts asking you about things you haven’t studied since you were in high school—this is a handy book to have around.  With a little over 100 topics, you can spend just a few minutes a day and get a pretty good overview of physics in a short period of time. At the very least, it’ll help you get a few more of the jokes on The Big Bang Theory.

The Instant Egghead Guide: Physics is available from Amazon or other fine booksellers.

Wired: A broad overview of physics in bite-sized, easy-to-swallow chunks.

Tired: Some diagrams and mathematical formulas would have been nice.

Note: St. Martin’s Press provided a review copy of the book for GeekDad.

(image: John Booth/Kirk Demarais)

To this day, I’m convinced that inside a panel in the back of my parents old station wagon (circa 1983) there are still Star Wars figures lodged, trapped forever. Or perhaps in the grubby hands of some other kid who tried to hide his toys back there. It’s a feeling that will never go away. This is the feeling that author John Booth conveys in the introduction of his book Collect All 21! Memoirs of a Star Wars Geek - The First 30 Years. To be drawn into an authors brain and immediately associate and sympathize with his point of view - in the introduction - has got to be a sign that the rest of the book is going to be like a nostalgic walk through your childhood and growing up geek. Guess what? It was.

Full disclosure before I continue, I recently reviewed another memoir, Deus Ex Comica which is written by author Adam Besenyodi. John Booth, who is also a fellow GeekDad writer, was the editor on that book. This book, Collect All 21! was written by GeekDad John Booth and edited by Adam Besenyodi. Did you get all that?

So ready to travel down the Death Star that is my memory, I sat down with a cup of organic hot chocolate the other night during our one day of winter at my Florida residence. The residence from which I recently sold my collection of Star Wars figures. Yes, with Celebration V coming up next year and now getting a book about Star Wars handed to me, I felt the pang of regret that is well deserved. John’s book didn’t make that feeling go away, in fact in his collection of memories related to Star Wars, it only amplified it.

While John collects a good plethora of childhood experiences surrounding Star Wars there is a bit of noticeable memory loss and fogginess that he has made no qualms about working into his memoir. Often a recollection is stated to be a possibility, especially when it comes to exact times (birthday or Christmas for example.) While in a historical memoir this might be interpreted as a grievous error, in a memoir about the impact and excitement of Star Wars on a child, it makes perfect sense. Unless we all have completely unaltered hippocampuses (not sure of the plural of that - Ed. Note: that would be “hippocampi”) then all of our childhood memories are fuzzy recognitions of significant events.

John drives us from his first official purchase of the Darth Vader figure (over the handsome, but girlish Luke) to his official collecting later in life. From the original 21 figures, to the hundreds of licensed products over the years. Breaking up his cleverly titled memories are two paragraph factoids about his life that almost proves he’s not making too much up. These “proofs of purchase” remind the reader that John’s Star Wars obsession is much more than that. Growing up, it was a way of life.

While the critic might say that John’s memories of growing up in the shadow of Chewbacca are not particularly special, it’s our association and familiarity with those memories that force us to emotionally react to the feelings and excitement that the young John feels. The critic might also say that John’s writing is a bit on the choppy and disconnected side, but that critic must not realize that he’s reading a memoir - about Star Wars. Not written by a movie insider or an actor about their time on the films, but from the perspective of a grown child, sharing with us the greatest part of his youth and what has shaped him as an adult.

A couple things about the book bear mentioning as well. The artist who did the cover art - Kirk Demarais - is no stranger to the sci-fi world, after getting a shout out from J.J. Abrams back in April’s “Mystery Issue” of Wired. Also, check out John’s site for some blurbs from Clone Wars writer George Krstic.

Wired: A great coffee table book for the Star Wars fan who has everything. There is no way for a true Star Wars fan to pretend they don’t have the same giddy recollection of their childhood with Star Wars - whether they were born in the 70’s or in the 90’s.

Tired: You almost have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy even a paragraph of this book. While John does a good job with picking things out of his past that energized and fueled his love for Star Wars, if you don’t love it as much as him you’d think he was a crazy person. Niche material for sure.

John Booth is an independent author, if you are a huge Star Wars honk, head over to Amazon and buy the book!