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finished: 1/13/10
edition: mmp
what is it: another of those mystery / horror / police-procedural "thrillers". One of the Pendergast books. The first of the "Diogenes cycle" thereof.
thoughts: Agent Pendergast, you so crazy. I agree with your taste in gelato, however.
I'd like to see the 'Sunday school' (catechism class?) that produced this kind of recall: "Despite everything, D'Agosta felt a chill go down his spine; he knew from Sunday school that this was perhaps the holiest Christian monastery in the world, built in 1224 by St. Francis himself" (514). Remember, it's Pendergast who has the eidetic memory. D'Agosta is just a New York cop, albeit a very competent one. Is there some forgotten tradition of making young Catholics memorize lists of monasteries' foundings and founders? If there is, I'm not aware of it. Clumsy infodumps like this pull me out of the otherwise speedy pageturner-pace these books maintain.
edition: mmp
what is it: another of those mystery / horror / police-procedural "thrillers". One of the Pendergast books. The first of the "Diogenes cycle" thereof.
thoughts: Agent Pendergast, you so crazy. I agree with your taste in gelato, however.
I'd like to see the 'Sunday school' (catechism class?) that produced this kind of recall: "Despite everything, D'Agosta felt a chill go down his spine; he knew from Sunday school that this was perhaps the holiest Christian monastery in the world, built in 1224 by St. Francis himself" (514). Remember, it's Pendergast who has the eidetic memory. D'Agosta is just a New York cop, albeit a very competent one. Is there some forgotten tradition of making young Catholics memorize lists of monasteries' foundings and founders? If there is, I'm not aware of it. Clumsy infodumps like this pull me out of the otherwise speedy pageturner-pace these books maintain.
finished: 1/10/10
edition: mmp
what is it: mystery / horror / police-procedural thing, set in deepest darkest rural Kansas
thoughts: Agent Pendergast needs to have a talk with Agent Cooper. Memory crossing? Side note - googling "Chongg Ran," the name of the obscure Tibetan art practised by Pendergast, brings up a link to a Death Note fic in the Pit of Voles.
edition: mmp
what is it: mystery / horror / police-procedural thing, set in deepest darkest rural Kansas
thoughts: Agent Pendergast needs to have a talk with Agent Cooper. Memory crossing? Side note - googling "Chongg Ran," the name of the obscure Tibetan art practised by Pendergast, brings up a link to a Death Note fic in the Pit of Voles.
Barack Obama - Dreams From My Father
Jan. 11th, 2010 02:14 pmread: on an airplane, technically before the start of the New Year, so I am cheating by recording this
edition: pb
what is it: memoir written well before Obama took office.
thoughts: Well-written, thoughtful, introspective, unwilling to yield easy answers or prescriptions. Obama as a child sounds adorable, even while adult!author!Obama isn't shying away from exploration of his flaws.
edition: pb
what is it: memoir written well before Obama took office.
thoughts: Well-written, thoughtful, introspective, unwilling to yield easy answers or prescriptions. Obama as a child sounds adorable, even while adult!author!Obama isn't shying away from exploration of his flaws.
read: during winter break
edition: mmp
what is it: Amazon says it's a supernatural thriller. It's sort of a mystery-with-paranormal-elements and it stars an FBI agent who has been trained by Tibetan monks.
thoughts: Maybe I shouldn't have read the last of the series before the others. Anyway I enjoyed it and I've been digging for previous books since I've gotten home. Also, is there anything Agent Pendergast can't do? Probably not.
edition: mmp
what is it: Amazon says it's a supernatural thriller. It's sort of a mystery-with-paranormal-elements and it stars an FBI agent who has been trained by Tibetan monks.
thoughts: Maybe I shouldn't have read the last of the series before the others. Anyway I enjoyed it and I've been digging for previous books since I've gotten home. Also, is there anything Agent Pendergast can't do? Probably not.
Libba Bray - A Great and Terrible Beauty
Jan. 11th, 2010 02:07 pmread: during winter break. Borrowed it from my grandmother.
edition: trade pb
what is it: some sort of Victorian-era paranormal YA
thoughts: I won't be seeking out the sequel. Too much two-dimensionality, too little thoughtful exploration.
edition: trade pb
what is it: some sort of Victorian-era paranormal YA
thoughts: I won't be seeking out the sequel. Too much two-dimensionality, too little thoughtful exploration.
read: during winter break. Actually read this one first, though it's the sequel to Trial of Flowers.
edition: trade pb
what is it: gritty fantasy adventure. Contains journeying outside the City Imperishable on a wild expedition. Also there is a sentient ice bear. She is not a YA sort of ice bear.
thoughts: I cannot wait until the next book in this series comes out. Randomly, I find it simultaneously jarring and endearing when the author uses names from other works in this -- off the top of my head, there's a Maldoror Street (Comte de Lautreamont allusion?), a dwarf named Bijaz (Herbert allusion?), and some fairly overt onomastic borrowings from the Book of the New Sun.
edition: trade pb
what is it: gritty fantasy adventure. Contains journeying outside the City Imperishable on a wild expedition. Also there is a sentient ice bear. She is not a YA sort of ice bear.
thoughts: I cannot wait until the next book in this series comes out. Randomly, I find it simultaneously jarring and endearing when the author uses names from other works in this -- off the top of my head, there's a Maldoror Street (Comte de Lautreamont allusion?), a dwarf named Bijaz (Herbert allusion?), and some fairly overt onomastic borrowings from the Book of the New Sun.
read: just after winter break, because I found the second book in the series at Borders, and then I had to get the first book (this one) from the library when I got home
edition: trade pb
what is it: kickass urban fantasy, roughly of the New Weird stripe
thoughts: this was so very very inventive, and keen, and wondrous, and sickening in places (as New Weird fiction tends to be, due to the emphasis on bodily transformation)
edition: trade pb
what is it: kickass urban fantasy, roughly of the New Weird stripe
thoughts: this was so very very inventive, and keen, and wondrous, and sickening in places (as New Weird fiction tends to be, due to the emphasis on bodily transformation)
Dan Simmons - Carrion Comfort
Jan. 11th, 2010 01:55 pmread: over winter break
edition: 20th-anniversary
what is it: horror! has 'mind-vampires' who are evil elderly people. also involves the Holocaust.
thoughts: this was a really, really good read, and uncomfortable when it needed to be.
edition: 20th-anniversary
what is it: horror! has 'mind-vampires' who are evil elderly people. also involves the Holocaust.
thoughts: this was a really, really good read, and uncomfortable when it needed to be.
Christopher Rice - The Snow Garden
Jan. 11th, 2010 01:53 pmread: over winter break
edition: mmp
what is it: sort of a mystery/horror thing
thoughts: Mediocre prose, fairly entertaining if improbable plot. At least it's not Dan Brown. Also, yes, this is that Christopher Rice, son of the Anne Rice.
edition: mmp
what is it: sort of a mystery/horror thing
thoughts: Mediocre prose, fairly entertaining if improbable plot. At least it's not Dan Brown. Also, yes, this is that Christopher Rice, son of the Anne Rice.
The purpose of my DW this year!
Jan. 11th, 2010 01:51 pm... will be to keep track of the books I have read this year.
I read a LOT over my winter vacation. And I want to post an entry for each book, if only as a placeholder for review. So you are probably going to get a flood of short entries from me on your f-list, and I apologize for this. It shouldn't happen again. I will understand if you want to remove me from your subscriptions, folks.
I read a LOT over my winter vacation. And I want to post an entry for each book, if only as a placeholder for review. So you are probably going to get a flood of short entries from me on your f-list, and I apologize for this. It shouldn't happen again. I will understand if you want to remove me from your subscriptions, folks.
happy things
Jul. 9th, 2009 04:33 amWe found a possible local source for very very affordable timothy hay. It's a farm about 20 minutes away from our town, and they grow timothy hay for the local horse [farms? ranches? places?]. They just harvested and have a few bales left over after selling to the horse [places]. I don't know whether this is a onetime thing relative to their harvest or whether they will have more hay at this farm in the future, but even if it works out just this once, that saves us about $50.
(The bunnies and Ortwin the guinea pig require timothy hay. Hay is important for their digestive health, and alfalfa hay is too high in calcium. Momo especially can't have too much calcium in her diet -- she has a real problem with bladder sludge.)
Also, Ortwin's 'fleece quilts' are working out well for him. I read about these on the Cavy Spirit forum (I think that's where, anyhow): you layer polar-fleece over towelling. The polar fleece wicks the moisture away from the animal's feet, and the towelling absorbs it. Guinea pigs, unlike rabbits, aren't so good about using litterboxes, you see ... Anyhow, so I had cut up some old fleece blankets we never use, and folded the pieces in half, with towels in between the fleece. Then I sewed the towels and fleece together, in what looks like an extremely inept and tipsy one-way-stripey quilted fashion. Not so great at keeping hand-sewn seams straight, and I don't have a sewing machine. But I didn't want the towels to wad up inside the fleece or anything - hence the 'quilting' rather than just sewing it all up along the sides. Fortunately the guinea pig doesn't mind a less-than-beautiful quilt; for him, it's just a blank canvas for his wonderful messes. Ortwin has two fleece quilts now and I'm working on a third.
(The bunnies and Ortwin the guinea pig require timothy hay. Hay is important for their digestive health, and alfalfa hay is too high in calcium. Momo especially can't have too much calcium in her diet -- she has a real problem with bladder sludge.)
Also, Ortwin's 'fleece quilts' are working out well for him. I read about these on the Cavy Spirit forum (I think that's where, anyhow): you layer polar-fleece over towelling. The polar fleece wicks the moisture away from the animal's feet, and the towelling absorbs it. Guinea pigs, unlike rabbits, aren't so good about using litterboxes, you see ... Anyhow, so I had cut up some old fleece blankets we never use, and folded the pieces in half, with towels in between the fleece. Then I sewed the towels and fleece together, in what looks like an extremely inept and tipsy one-way-stripey quilted fashion. Not so great at keeping hand-sewn seams straight, and I don't have a sewing machine. But I didn't want the towels to wad up inside the fleece or anything - hence the 'quilting' rather than just sewing it all up along the sides. Fortunately the guinea pig doesn't mind a less-than-beautiful quilt; for him, it's just a blank canvas for his wonderful messes. Ortwin has two fleece quilts now and I'm working on a third.
(no subject)
May. 6th, 2009 01:03 amI am not yet sure what I'll use this account for. If I write any book reviews, I'll crosspost them here, certainly. I don't intend to post anything "fannish" here. I feel the need for a place free of that, and this space feels smaller and safer than LJ.
Going to visit my mom this weekend. Not sure how I feel about that, but it was my idea.
Going to visit my mom this weekend. Not sure how I feel about that, but it was my idea.
a soft landing
May. 1st, 2009 02:05 pmHere I am with a proper Dreamwidth account of my own. Hello!
I'm quite happy that I was able to get the username I wanted. I've been using this name on the Internet for some time, but it had already been taken when I went to create a semi-public LiveJournal for myself, and I did not want to be helarctos+[random numbers].
Helarctos means sunbear. The rabbit in the icon is one of my rabbits, a lionhead rabbit named Sunbear. The picture was taken when he was a baby and had much more distinct markings than his current melange of tawny-grey.
If I know you, I'm happy to meet you again here. If I don't yet know you, I'm happy to meet you for the first time.
I'm quite happy that I was able to get the username I wanted. I've been using this name on the Internet for some time, but it had already been taken when I went to create a semi-public LiveJournal for myself, and I did not want to be helarctos+[random numbers].
Helarctos means sunbear. The rabbit in the icon is one of my rabbits, a lionhead rabbit named Sunbear. The picture was taken when he was a baby and had much more distinct markings than his current melange of tawny-grey.
If I know you, I'm happy to meet you again here. If I don't yet know you, I'm happy to meet you for the first time.
