Category Archives: Library

Here’s a thought

Posted on May 2, 2010 | Comments Off on Here’s a thought

“In Victorian America, death was discussed open and honestly, but the topic of sex was considered taboo.  In the United States today, it is just the opposite.” –from Widow’s Weeds and Weeping Veils.

Via TOCWOC.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Civil War, Genealogy, Library, Obituaries

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Flashforward

Posted on April 30, 2010 | Comments Off on Flashforward

I enjoyed the hard-science aspects of this book, despite its unusual number of typos (proof that even mainstream publishing needs line editing) and Sawyer’s penchant for callous heroes. I was lucky in that I’d never heard of the TV series (until I read some of the other reviews at Amazon) and so was not distracted by comparing the book to it.

By callous heroes, I mean the Japanese engineer’s decision to leave her dead child in the street (to the care of strangers) so she can get back to work. It was of a piece with the hero of Calculating God who decides that his spiritual enrichment justifies leaving his children to grow up without him. It’s really just Sawyer’s hell-bent determination to move his plot at whatever cost.

But the physics-philosophy of this tale—Is the future immutable? Is free will an illusion?—is worth the effort to overlook the flaws. Even the Canadian author’s usual digs at American gun ownership and lack of socialized medicine. When authors like Sawyer reach a certain peak of fame, not only does the editing of their books decline, but they feel free to push their politics. Pity that.

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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space

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Flawed book covers

Posted on April 30, 2010 | Comments Off on Flawed book covers

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This is one of Heinlein’s older juveniles. Note the ninety-five cent price. It’s from this site that mocks some book covers, this one for the astronaut’s day-glo orange trousers. Hmm. Mr. B. and I enjoyed the tale as a bedtime story a few years ago, despite the tedious courtroom passages which weren’t near as funny as the author tried to make them.

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Posted in Library, Mr. Boy, Scribbles, Space

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Quang Pham out of the race

Posted on April 28, 2010 | Comments Off on Quang Pham out of the race
Pity. I liked Pham. Maybe he’ll run again. Meanwhile, his memoir is newly in paperback and worth a look.

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Posted in Iraq, Library, Scribbles, Troops, Viet Nam

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Preserving eggs in water glass

Posted on April 25, 2010 | Comments Off on Preserving eggs in water glass

Was rearranging a bookshelf when I encountered my Mississippi grandmother’s 1928 copy of Holland’s Cook Book, a product of the Texas Farm and Ranch Publishing Co., whose founder more or less started the State Fair of Texas.

I found and reread the part about how to clean and salt butchered hogs. Still fascinating. I thought there was also a section on cooking possum, but I couldn’t find it. Then I stumbled over the instructions for buying a few dozen eggs in April, when they’re cheap, and preserving them until the following winter (almost fresh) when they’re not.

Takes a big crock and eight or so quarts of water mixed with sodium silicate, also know as “water glass.” Any drug store will have it, it says there. Something tells me probably not nowadays. But I could be wrong. Seems when Obamalot ran its stupid cash-for-clunkers program, dealers were supposed to kill the clunker by injecting water glass into the engine.

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Posted in Library, Obamalot, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Amazon sheep

Posted on April 24, 2010 | Comments Off on Amazon sheep

My “helpful review” percentage has fallen again at Amazon. It’s now down to sixty-four percent. I had the temerity, you see, to give failing grades to some books almost universally adored, or otherwise take some contrary view. When you don’t run with the sheep at Amazon, a few of them will leave the herd long enough to nip at your ankles. Not that I care, frankly. I do the reviews because I enjoy doing them. They also are a way of promoting my own work, as anyone clicking on my name atop a review will be taken to my page with its profile stuff–including references to my two indie books.

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Posted in Library, Scribbles

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Adelsverein: The Harvesting

Posted on April 24, 2010 | Comments Off on Adelsverein: The Harvesting

As I am with all good books, I was very sorry when this one was over. This conclusion of the 2008 trilogy really wasn’t enough for me. How about a fourth book? Or more? Hayes loves her characters and makes us love them, too, and so we long to learn how the new generations will fare.

It helps to be versed in Texas history as she deftly insinuates her Germans and Americans into a lot of it, including in this volume the early cattle drives, the Indianola and Galveston hurricanes, and the tragic readjustment problems of some of the kidnap victims of the murderous Comanches. I am surprised to find just two Amazon reviews for the book. At least the sales ranks indicate that it and one and two are selling. They deserve a wide audience, particularly in Texas where they will best be appreciated. Bravo.

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Posted in Civil War, Library, Texana

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