The important thing about me

After reading The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown, Garrett’s 1st grade class wrote about what makes them special.  I think some of the kids’ stories provide wonderful insights into how they feel about themselves:
The important thing about me is I am a good sport.
I am nice.
I am fun to play with.
But the important thing about [...]

Sharing Knife Volume 3 Passage, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Lois McMaster Bujold can’t write a bad book.  Her thoughts are interesting, her phrasing is beautiful, her worlds are wonderfully constructed.  But, but, but – I just can’t get into the Sharing Knife series.  I only care mildly, not deeply, about what happens to the characters.  I can put these books down and go to sleep [...]

The Silent Speaker by Rex Stout

Any book about Nero Wolfe – what great stuff!  The Silent Speaker has a story line that I don’t quite follow – a man dies, two institutes are pitted against each other, I can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys – or maybe they are all bad guys.  But one doesn’t read a [...]

Crystal Dragon by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

As always, I love the way Lee and Miller use words.  Unfortunately, the story itself was not much to my interest.  The first 2/3 of Crystal Dragon has our heroes searching for a mysterious set of equations.  The authors exquisitely and painstakingly build up a world – how it operates, what are the physics behind it, [...]

Crystal Soldier by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Crystal Soldier is the third in my list of books I am indulging in before getting back to technical reading.  I’m having such a great time!  Crystal Soldier is a prequel to the Liaden Universe series.  The authors, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, are very clever – it’s interesting to see how they fleshed out the brief details mentioned in their [...]

Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn

Too much magic in this book for me.  Life seems pretty easy when you can just ring your enemies with a wall of fire and make yourself invisible.  Magic is not nearly as exciting as working your way towards some goal, inch by inch, never knowing if you will get there, making incremental, infinitesimal progress, [...]

The Safe-Keeper’s Secret by Sharon Shinn

Oh, bliss!  I became exhausted always worrying about work and studying to improve my skills.  I decided I was going to take some time and feed my brain things to make it happy.  I decadently ordered 4 books from Amazon (4 for 3 plus Super Saver Shipping = $21).  Two were Sharon Shinn books and [...]

In praise of Cardinal Camera

I wanted to buy a small digital camera.  How hard could it be?  I went on the Internet and reasearched cameras.  I read about megapixels, auto stabilization, batteries, focus, zoom, ISO simulation, etc.  Holy cow.  There are so many options, and so many cameras out there!  What to buy?  I couldn’t decide.  I decided to [...]

Sisyphus

Found this quote on “Kate Harding’s Shapely Prose” blog for Jan. 9 about Hillary Clinton running for president:
We don’t know what to do with a woman like that. We keep telling her what her place is, and the bitch just won’t listen! It makes a lot of people nervous. It makes me unutterably grateful. I [...]

You just go on

Harra was silent for long enough for Lem to pass around the stone jug one last time, in the dim moonlight and shadows.  Then she said, “You go on.  You just go on.  There’s nothing more to it, and there’s no trick to make it easier.  You just go on.”
“What do you find on the [...]