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  • Jeremy Byman: Madame Secretary: The Story of Madeleine Albright (Notable Americans)

    Jeremy Byman: Madame Secretary: The Story of Madeleine Albright (Notable Americans)

  • Thomas Merton: The Seven Storey Mountain
    Loves France. Interesting spiritual metaphors, a bit heavy-handed metaphysically. Not sure what I'll think about it when I finish.
  • J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)

    J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
    I loved it. And no, I'm not going to tell you what happens. Go read your own book.

  • Glenn Yeffeth: Finding Serenity

    Glenn Yeffeth: Finding Serenity
    This book adds quite a bit to the enjoyment I have in Serenity and Firefly, discussing, as it does, themes and story arcs in a scholarly format, and applying them to the larger "story" universe. Being a book of collected essays, it's easy to read a bit at a time; I highly recommend.

  • Elizabeth Kostova: The Historian

    Elizabeth Kostova: The Historian
    Excellently done; very similar in style to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. Yet again, however, I find myself reading a vampire-book. Who knew there were so many? They've definitely grown in mainstream popularity recently.

  • William Gibson: Neuromancer

    William Gibson: Neuromancer
    Picked this up on recommendation from everyone! Very enjoyable - I haven't finished, but I'm about five chapters from the end, and I'm getting the feeling that nothing will maintain itself as I understand it, which is lovely for sci-fi. I'm going to finish reading now...

  • Robin Hobb: Ship of Destiny

    Robin Hobb: Ship of Destiny
    The last of the Liveship Trilogy from Robin Hobb, and my personal favorite. I seem to be revisiting stuff I've read before, but that's nothing new for me - I love re-reading. To get the most out of this series, I'd start at the beginning with Ship of Magic. I like Hobb because she is strong on characterization, although others have criticized that because it necessarily entails being a bit slower on plot. The first book is mainly characters, but the narrative speeds up into the second and third books, and by the time you hit Ship of Destiny, you are fully entered into the conflicts and troubles of the LiveShip world.

  • Juliet Marillier: Daughter of the Forest

    Juliet Marillier: Daughter of the Forest
    One of my perennial favorites, although if you don't like first person narratives, you should stay away. A re-working of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, this swan-story is gripping in its intensity and full of well-wrought characters. I'm never able to put it down.

  • Stephen Barnes: StreetLethal
    Picked this up on a whim, and boy, was it whimsy. Actually, it wasn't bad, seeing as how I expected it to turn out to be complete pulp, and while it will never hit my top thirty, it had a clever plot, an interesting set of characters, and what was probably a fresh look at cyberpunk when he wrote it in 1994.
  • Andre Norton: The White Jade Fox

    Andre Norton: The White Jade Fox
    I've never read any Andre Norton before, but I picked up a few in a used book store to check them out. I thoroughly enjoyed this one; the pacing is well done, the characters not bad, and the story exercises restraint, which is novel and allows for much more intelligent reading. A good "yarn."

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« February 2008 | Main

Ain't Misbehavin' - 2nd attempt

Okay, so that was weird.  I opened a post, brainstormed a bit, put in a fake (rather joke-y) title, and hit enter by mistake...and it published!  So for anyone out there who saw an entry titled "Ain't Misbehavin'" - you weren't hallucinating.  Much.  :-)

Isn't that a great title though?  Implies all sorts of rather racy things while at the same time being completely innocuous. 

I don't really have much to say today; just getting back into the swing of things.  It's Holy Week, which I should probably reflect on.  But it's also Thursday, which means I have come to the near-end of the week without falling off the world.  My brain is becoming free, but slowly. 

Happy Thursday, everyone!

March 20, 2008 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

St. Patrick's Day is coming up - let's break out Danny Boy!

Or...not so much. 

I just thought this was funny, so I thought I'd share it. 

March 06, 2008 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Minn Star Trib deserves email death

Okay, this is just an annoyance, and I'm throwing it out there just because.

Probably two years ago, I signed up with the Star Tribune in Lileks' home city so I could read his tri-weekly column online.  The login information they sent me never worked, and I gave up, because I wasn't willing to waste my time dealing with the Trib (in another city, no less).

Since then, I have received an average of three spam messages a week from the Star Tribune.  I too could get coupons to use at the Mall of America; I too could subscribe to the Minneapolis Sunday paper (it only costs your left big toe and a small piece of your soul - not including shipping); I too could get advance notice of the state fair.  Never mind the fact that I live in Seattle, have no interest in the Mall of America other than their rather amazing Lego store, and am rather fond of my soul. 

Like all born suckers, I tried to "unsubscribe" - this is where they walk you through a long and incredibly involved process in which you have to try to use the login information that never worked in the first place in order to ask them to remove an email address they shouldn't be using anyway. 

And I still get their emails.  Grrr.

(You'll notice I am not including a link to the Trib's website - trust me, this is for your own protection...you could get sucked in!)

March 06, 2008 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)