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 [...]

Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

What was Ben Franklin like?  What did he do?
 His great achievements were accomplishments of the mind, so let’s start there.  Intellectually, he was vigorous, curious, and eclectic.  His great strengths were:

He observed phenomena with an open mind.
He derived new and groundbreaking insights from his observations.  This was his genius.
He turned his insights into practical use.

Those qualities he applied [...]

Reading with an IPAQ / Golden Steps to Respectability

GOLDEN STEPS TO RESPECTABILITY, USEFULNESS, AND HAPPINESS ‘
Being a Series of Lectures to Youth of Both Sexes, on Character,Principles, Associates, Amusements, Religion, and Marriage by JOHN MATHER AUSTIN, 1851
It all starts with the IPAQ 111.  One of the reasons I bought it was to use as an electronic reader.  Sort of like carrying a paperback [...]

Benjamin Franklin, by Walter Isaacson – started, again

I want to read more biographies.  I want to know – and be inspired by – how other people work through the difficulties in their lives to achieve their goals.  I thought Lincoln’s Melancholy was great – I’m looking for something like that.  Benjamin Franklin is a Christmas present from last year.  I started it, [...]

The Price of Privilege, by Madeline Levine, 2006

I read this book at the recommendation of my son’s teacher.  Now I know what she thinks about the job we parents are doing!   I’m kidding (mostly):  She strongly emphasized that she was recommending this as a fellow parent, not as a teacher to her students’ parents.
Very well written, very interesting.  Not very suprising – I [...]