It kills me, sometimes, how people die.–Death This is an unusual review for me. Normally, I like to let a book settle a bit, think about what I want to say and give my opinions time to come together. I finished The Book Thief only 9 hours ago. By the time I got through the last CD I was a… Read more
Someone in Amsterdam is enjoying my copy of Ambrosia. I have torn my luggage apart, but somehow my copy did not make the flight home with me. It’s sort of fitting, really, because according to Ambrosia, Amsterdam has a thriving electronic music scene. Sadly, I don’t get to take advantage of that when I’m traveling there on business, but one… Read more
I previewed this illuminated New Testament back in October. I got my review copy a few weeks later and it has hardly been in my hands since. I have passed it around to a number of people to get their opinions and over the long holiday weekend I had a chance to look at the comments I got and to… Read more
I would almost – almost – rate any Given Doomsday as the sci-fi equivalent of a beach read. There’s some action, some mystery, some sex. It’s a quick read and hits all the standard sci-fi cliches, if you like that sort of thing. There are vampires, shape-shifters, seers and assorted other demons and paranormal creatures, people with unusual powers, people… Read more
Legerdemain: French term (literally “light of hand”) commonly used to refer to sleight of hand or magical manipulation. The term could have been James Heaphy’s job description. Legerdemain is the story of Heaphey’s time in Morocco, working for U.S. Air Force intelligence. At the time, the United States had a secret cache of nuclear weapons, hidden in an air force… Read more
No, really. Bible Illuminated The Book: New Testament is an illustrated (or Illuminated) bible, featuring contemporary photographs and a new text layout. There are no verses – text is laid out in standard paragraph format. Key concepts are emphasized in different ways: boxed, enlarged quotes; red text; yellow highlighting. Nearly every page has a photograph – they come in different… Read more
I am working my way through the Elvis Cole novels by Robert Crais. I’m not reading them in any particular order – however they happen to turn up at the library or the bookstore is fine with me. I am glad, though, to have read this one fairly early on. It gives a fascinating look at Elvis’ family history and… Read more
When Georgia Post says short stories, she means it. None of the 25 stories in this volume are more than about 2 pages long. They are all on the same theme: marriage or the lack thereof. There are wives who want to hang on to their husbands, husbands cheating on their wives, widows who want desperately to be remarried and… Read more
In 1666, sixteen years after his death, the bones of Rene Descartes were dug up in the middle of the night and transported from Sweden to France under the watchful eye of the French ambassador. This was only the beginning of the journey for Descartes’ bones, which, over the next 350 years, were fought over, stolen, sold, revered as relics,… Read more
Most people have never heard of the Trouser Wars of 1964, probably because they didn’t actually happen. That is Forgotten Fashion by Kate Hahn in a nutshell – the story of fashions and trends and clothes and marketing gimmicks that never happened. Fashion is such a crazy industry that some of these are almost, really very nearly the sort of… Read more