The Last Song :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews I love, Roger Ebert. The last paragraph is the best. 🙂 (tags: movies funny writing)
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Charles Shulz, The Code of the Woosters, Digital Photography
Stuff I’ve read lately: Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaelis Who knew that Charles Schulz was such a prickly pear? And a fascinating artist. His rise to prominence as a cartoonist occurred when I was a tiny tot in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and the perspective I had of the Peanuts
Read on »What I’ve Read Recently
The problem I had with being unfocused and skipping from book to book seems to have passed, post-wedding. At one point, I believe I had 9 books partially read. I haven’t gone back to finish any of them, but started fresh with some lighter summer reading in order to carry paperbacks on the plane with
Read on »Spychips by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre
Recent reading: Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre From the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Radio-frequency identification (RFID) “tags” are small wireless devices that emit unique identifiers when interrogated by RFID readers or sensors. Today, both government and the private
Read on »Twilight
After complaining that I’m frustrated by my start and stop reading lately, I sat down with our next book club selection, Twilight, and finished it in less that 24 hours. Abiding by the first rule of book club, I won’t discuss the book, but obviously I blazed through it. (it’s about vampires, and I liked
Read on »Recent Reading
It was about this time last year that I got behind in reviewing what I had read recently and gave up and simply posted a list of recent reads. Must be the time of year. I’ve definitely been having trouble getting through any book; I have tons of things half read, and I’m very frustrated
Read on »Book Review Catch-Up
I’m way behind on writing little synopses of the books I’ve finished this year, so I’m consolidating this latest list. Looking back, this happened about this time of year last year, too. Must be a trend. Anyways, here’s what I read since whenever. Sword of the Guardian: A Legend of Ithyria (Legends of Ithyria) by
Read on »Heir to the Glimmering World
I also can’t find enough time to write a synopsis of Heir to the Glimmering World – a book I picked up in Chicago last July and just finished reading, so again I’m going to cheat and give you the synopsis/review From Publishers Weekly instead: Ozick’s previous novel, The Puttermesser Papers, revolved around one quirky
Read on »The Thirteenth Tale
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to write a synopsis of The Thirteenth Tale – (I’ve been meaning to since I finished this fun, enjoyable book three weeks ago!) so I’ll have to cheat and give you Amazon’s instead: Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield’s debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale.
Read on »The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
A strange Victorian Steampunk novel that I enjoyed, despite it’s length and rather confusing cast of villains. Celeste Temple is a young English woman raised in the West Indies and residing in London awaiting a future wedding to her fiancĂ©, Roger Bascombe. When he sends her a curt note breaking their engagement, she decides to
Read on »Water for Elephants
21-year-old Jacob Jankowski is studying veterinary medicine in 1931, in the depths of the Great Depression, when his parents are killed in an auto accident. Jacob discovers they had mortgaged their lives to fund his schooling, and he is now penniless. Reeling from grief, he walks away from his final exams and drops out of
Read on »Book Review – Rough Magicke
Author John Houghton sets his novel Rough Magicke in northwest Indiana, in the fictional county of Annandale originally created by classic Hoosier author Meredith Nicholson in the novel The House of a Thousand Candles – the locale corresponds pretty closely to the city of Culver, Indiana, a town nestled in around Lake Maxinkuckee, south of
Read on »Book Review: Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl This is my favorite of the year, and will probably make the list of of my favorite books ever. I’m not sure I can do it justice in reviewing it, but I hope I can do a bit better than Publishers Weekly, whom I’m going to quote
Read on »The Book of Fate
The Book of Fate
by Brad Meltzer
Books I’ve Read Recently
Company: A Novel by Max Barry Amazon Description: “With broad strokes, Barry once again satirizes corporate America in his third caustic novel (after Jennifer Government). This time, he takes aim at the perennial corporate crime of turning people into cogs in a machine. Recent b-school grad Stephen Jones, a fresh-faced new hire at a Seattle-based
Read on »Books I’ve read Recently
Garden Accents: Simple-To-Build Projects to Enhance Your Yard or Garden (How-to Gardening) Quite a few interesting building projects for hardscaping your garden. I read this over while drawing up plans for our flowerbeds. Pit of Vipers (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective) #18 by Carolyn Keene There are 21 books out now in this all
Read on »Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things
Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things: How to Turn a Penny into a Radio, Make a Flood Alarm with an Aspirin, Change by Cy Tymony ISBN: 0740738593 NON-FICTION – A small guide to how to MacGyvver yourself out of situations using objects you may have with you. I checked the book out from the library, so
Read on »Short Book Reviews
How Nancy Jackson Married Kate Wilson and Other Tales of Rebellious Girls and Daring Young Women by Mark Twain and John R. Cooley Library Journal: “A dozen minor Twain pieces to show how Twain used some of his slight fictions to idealize his daughters Clara and Suzy Clemens as romantic, rebellious, and daring adolescents in
Read on »The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald I first read this book when I was still a kid — either in junior high or high school, and I don’t remember caring too much for it, and feeling impatient to ge to the end. We read it again for our book club, and I’m very glad
Read on »Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life
Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life by Paul Ekman NON-FICTION – Paul Ekman is a scientist and psychologist who has studied human emotion for several decades, especially how emotion is expressed in the face and voice. Ekman provides insight into a number of questions — When do we become
Read on »Progress Report
So far this year, I’ve read 30 books, and many of them have been pretty light reading. I guess I’m quite a bit behind Bush. At this point, I’ve pretty much abandoned my New Years Reading List and gone off on wild tangents, which seems to be a commentary on my life in general somehow.
Read on »The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe Description from Amazon.com: Not since Moby-Dick… No, not since Treasure Island… Actually, not since Jonah and the Whale has there been a sea saga to rival The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, featuring the greatest sea-faring hero of all time, the immortal Pirate Captain,
Read on »On Bullshit
On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt A small, funny book I picked up at the library after the author was interviewed on the Daily Show – it’s a scholarly inquiry on the definition of “bullshit.” From the Amazon.com description: “More pertinent is Frankfurt’s focus on intentions–the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting,
Read on »Sundown Towns
Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen I threw in the towel and bailed on reading this book in depth, which I’ve resolved not to feel bad about. I did skim a lot of it though. I’m a HUGE fan of sociologist Loewen’s books, and this one is good, but
Read on »Don’t I know you?
Don’t I know you? by Karen Shepard FICTION – A mystery/thriller set in 1976 Manhattan about a woman, Gina Engel, who is murdered in her own apartment and discovered by her 12-year-old son Stephen. He narrates the first part of the story as he deals with his grief and tries to piece together anything he
Read on »“Cloud Atlas” and “The Whole World Over”
I haven’t much time to write a coherent review of each of these books, so I’m going to crib from Amazon to describe the plots. Sorry for that…. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell “… Mitchell’s third novel weaves history, science, suspense, humor and pathos through six separate but loosely related narratives…. this latest foray relies
Read on »Mini Book Reviews
I, Robot Isaac Asimov The classic sci-fi set of short stories by Asimov about Robots and their relationship to man. Asmimov sets out the famous “Three Laws of Robotics” that have influenced much science fiction writing since the stories were originally published in the 1940’s in sci-fi magazines, and then collected in this book published
Read on »Mini Book Reviews
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak A great exploration of the history of the popular girl detective novels and the women who wrote them. I learned a couple of surprising things — that Nancy Drew was far and away the most popular of the Stratmeyer Syndicate’s kid book
Read on »Books I’ve Read Recently
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus I enjoyed this light, comic novel as a easy summer reading book. I have to admit being frustrated by the level to which “Nanny” — the young female protagonist — put up with the crap of the Manhattan family that hired her to take care of
Read on »Mini Book Reviews
I’m currently making my way through a couple of bigger books — The Watchmen (Absolute Edition) by Alan Moore, and A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster. But in between I’ve read a couple of shorter, fun books. The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island by Weta Workshop An
Read on »Book Review: Don’t Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Professional web designers probably read the highly popular first edition of Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability when it came out in 2000, but the second edition is worth a re-read, because author Steve Krug has honed his craft to a fine point, and everyone can use a refresher on
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