Free (and semi-free) Literary Books for the Kindle (US & UK)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Free (and semi-free) Literary Books for the Kindle (US & UK)

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.ClassicKindle.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Your guide to the best free and inexpensive classic e-books for the Kindle. Because some conversions are sloppily done, a free download can be a waste of time. These are books that are out of copyright, but never out of style! Many are from before 1923, but some were published between 1923 and 1963. I link to the US & UK versions.

MY REVIEW: There are a LOT of free books for the Kindle - most of them coming from before 1923, because that's when the copyright date went into effect. Anything published before 1923 is in the public domain, anything after that....may or may not be.

But everyone's getting into the act with these public domain books - there are often several versions available. And some of them have just been scanned in - which always results in a few errors which may or may not have been corrected before being uploaded to the Kindle.

So this blog is really helpful and well worth the 99 cents a month, to save time finding professionally produced books.

Sample post:

Tristram Shandy - by Laurence Sterne The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, a novel by Laurence Sterne, published 1759 through 1767. (US Edition) (UK Edition) That is, additional pieces came out over the years, but now all are collected into one novel.

This is said to be a very funny and at the same time, very difficult novel. (Proust & Joyce are also in the funny, but difficult category – not to scare anyone off.)

The book has a rather famous beginning with the protagonist’s conception. And here it is:

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly consider'd how much depended upon what they were then doing;--that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;--and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost;--Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,--I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that in which the reader is likely to see me.--Believe me, good folks, this is not so inconsiderable a thing as many of you may think it;--you have all, I dare say, heard of the animal spirits, as how they are transfused from father to son, &c. &c.--and a great deal to that purpose:--Well, you may take my word, that nine parts in ten of a man's sense or his nonsense, his successes and miscarriages in this world depend upon their motions and activity, and the different tracks and trains you put them into, so that when they are once set a-going, whether right or wrong, 'tis not a half- penny matter,--away they go cluttering like hey-go mad; and by treading the same steps over and over again, they presently make a road of it, as plain and as smooth as a garden-walk, which, when they are once used to, the Devil himself sometimes shall not be able to drive them off it.

Pray my Dear, quoth my mother, have you not forgot to wind up the clock?-- Good G..! cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same time,--Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question?

Did you follow that? Did you find it funny? Then this book is for you! I have to say it is funny and I like the analogy about us being so hard to budge from the tracks laid out for us early in life. To me that is more thoughtful than funny . . . This is yet another candidate for the “first modern novel.”

RECENT POSTS:
--Dracula's Guest -by Bram Stoker
--Tristram Shandy - by Laurence Sterne
--“Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887” – by Edward Bella...
--The Lifted Veil- by George Eliot
--Wuthering Heights - by Emily Brontë.
--A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United ...
_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
___________________________
Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)
The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth

The Annoyed LIbrarian (arts and entertainment, literature)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: N/A

WEB ADDRESS: http://blog.libraryjournal.com/annoyedlibrarian/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The Annoyed Librarian is possibly the most successful, respected, and desirable librarian of her generation. She has no other interest than to bring her wit and wisdom to the huddled librarian masses yearning to breathe free. The Annoyed Librarian is a free spirit and you are lucky to have her.

MY REVIEW:
I love the sense of humor that the Annoyed Librarian displays, and I love her writing. I also love the insight she gives into reading and public libraries, for all that sometimes her news is pretty damn depressing. (The percentage of folk who read is dropping every year....)

Highly recommended.

Sample post:

Reading is Hip
The AL often depends on the kindness of strangers, whether it’s obsessive stalkers who drive up blog traffic or kind readers who send great stories.

From one kind reader comes this delightful story from Chicago: Chicago Public Library’s ‘Library Lounge’ Nights Aim To Make Libraries Cool Again. Chicago, as you might know, is a toddlin’ town, the kind that Billy Sunday couldn’t shut down, and the Chicago Public Library wants to take advantage of that.

As part of a “Not What You Think” campaign (and by god you had better not think of books!), the CPL is heading to local bars to hand out library cards and tell “young, professional urbanites” all about the library. I think it would be better to host parties in the library itself, but maybe there’s a rule against that.

Having been a young, professional urbanite myself once upon a time – at least if you count librarianship as a profession – I can only applaud and approve. It’s a great idea to associate libraries with alcohol and good times.

I myself frequently sit on my balcony sipping wine and reading an improving book. Not today, of course, since the weather where I am is much too wet, but frequently.

However, while Lounge Nights might be a great idea, this story promoting them is pretty bad from beginning to end.

The title is just weird. When were libraries ever cool? If they were never cool, they certainly can’t be cool “again.” Isn’t the writer familiar with library stereotypes?

Sadly, I don’t think the writer is familiar with library anything, and as usual we have a news story promoting libraries written by someone who hasn’t set foot in one for decades.

For example, it begins, “If the last time you saw your library card was senior year of high school, then there’s a good chance it’s still tucked away in your “East of Eden” paperback.”

Huh? Maybe if the “young, professional urbanites” went to high school in the fifties or sixties, but which of them is likely to have read “East of Eden”?

We also find out that “In addition to having the opportunity to sign up for a library card, Chicago residents can also learn about the valuable resources available to them at CPL. Hint: it’s much more than the microfilm we all sifted through for term papers in the ‘90s.”

Again, huh? Did we all sift through microfilm for term papers in the ‘90s? Something tells me the writer’s experience with libraries is very limited.

To be fair, she’s most likely prompted by the CPL’s Director of Marketing, who tells us about the public library collection: “We get to show off the fact that we have popular music; you know, our music is not all classical, our movies aren’t all black and white from 1945.”

That’s pretty much been the case in libraries for decades, so this is hardly news to anyone who has used one. It also seems to imply that classical music and classic movies are somehow bad, or maybe just stuffy. Classical music is great, and classic films are way hipper than any library.

The marketing director naturally enough has to give out the standard promotional line for libraries these days: “we are kind of not what people originally thought; we are very relevant, we are hip.” We wouldn’t want people to think that libraries weren’t hip. That would be a tragedy.

Librarians have been saying that for decades, and nobody seems to be listening. Millions of people use public libraries, and even they probably don’t think libraries are hip.

The problem with a lot of library marketing (if marketing is really the word for it) is that it’s hard to market an incoherent brand, and librarians are doing all they can to confuse what used to be the most coherent brand of all.

What are libraries for? Reading. That’s why the ALA has those goofy posters with celebrities that say READ. The posters don’t say, WATCH, or LISTEN. Reading. Literacy. Books. Magazines. More books and magazines than you could ever afford, and a wider selection than you would likely see elsewhere. Everything else libraries do is secondary.

And reading is hip. Think about the huge public discussion of books everywhere from Amazon reviews to Library Thing to book blogs. Books are hip. Reading is hip.

You won’t hear that from librarians very often these days, though. Libraries are apparently relevant and hip because of all the stuff they do that has nothing to do with books or reading. Unfortunately, “a whole bunch of stuff that isn’t about reading” isn’t a very catchy slogan.

I suggest instead a new slogan. Instead of “libraries are hip because they have a mishmash of things unrelated to reading,” libraries could market the one thing they do very well and that everyone already knows about.

RECENT POSTS:
--How Does Your Library Promote Fake Celebrations?
--Death of the Author
--Reading is Hip
--Books, No Books
--The Last Perk of Librarianship
--Libraries and Class
--Libraries and Riots
--Outsourcing and the ALA
--Busy Isn’t Enough
--Celebrate Banned Sites Day!


_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
___________________________
Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)
The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth

Kevin Lee Allen Design Blog (Arts and entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Kevin Lee Allen Design Blog , by Kevin Lee Allen & Kathleen McDonough

WEB ADDRESS: http://klad.com/blog/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Our take on the world of design and the world

MY REVIEW: This is an enjoyable blog, and worth it for only 99 cents a month. The posts are frequent. They aren't very long, for the most part - a single photo shared and some comments on it. But the authors do have interesting things to say about design, so check it out!

Sample post:

Bus Stops as Art and Architectural Folly

Bus Stops are ubiquitous and often under designed, to say the very least. There is one near us that is designed, using the term loosely, but without sense of scale or context; faux (read bad) Victorian set in a faux (read well done in the early 20th Century) Tudor shopping village.

Every once and awhile some interesting bus stops show up on the Internets. The one at left is simple, fun and green. OK, it is yellow, but it is environmentally sound as it reuses bits of retired school buses. Context and placement would be key to this design being ultimately successful.

We’re not all matchy-matchy. Eclectic neighborhoods are more fun than over the top thematic installations. Nonetheless this structure will stand out everywhere, but it has to be placed properly in order to stand out properly. It would clash violently in the Tudor Shopping district. On the other hand, this would be fun near a plaground or a park.

Architectural Follies are a great way to inject set design into everyday life. We love these bus stops as accents. Even commuters deserve a smile. And not a back-lit advert to be seen.

Plus, what fun to create and use in a film or television commercial?

RECENT POSTS:
--Bus Stops as Art and Architectural Folly
--Lovely Lighting
--They did that with cardboard?
--Moder[n]ism in the Movies
--Shiny is good



_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Book Brouhaha (arts and entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: Yes

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Book Brouhaha, by Alain Gomez

WEB ADDRESS: http://bookbrouhaha.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The articles in this blog cover various topics that are intended to highlight the short story genre. Guest short story authors are frequently featured.

This blog also provides reviews for works that are 10,000 words or less only. This is a somewhat unique feature as most blog reviewers focus primarily on novels.

MY REVIEW: Book Brouhaha seems to be a misnomer, since this blog focuses on the short story rather than the book. But that's a mere quibble. This is an excellent blog for those folks who are interested in short stories - and I have to admit in today's busy world it's a lot easier to find the time to read short stories rather than novels.

The short story is a distinct form from the novel - believe it or not its much harder to right a short story, as one has fewer words in which to accomplish the story...no padding allowed, which you can get by with in a novel.

Author interviews, short stories, short story reviews.

Highly recommended.

RECENT POSTS:
--The Short Story Project
I was introduced to the short story genre in high school and simply fell in love. It's completely different from reading a novel. A novel ...
--Review of "Against Her Fading Hour" by Isaac Sweeney
Summary: Three heart-wrenching short stories. In "Handi-Cure," Elisa is a widow looking for acceptance in the world. She tries to find it...
--Guest article by Jennifer Conner from e-publishing company Books to Go Now
People aren’t reading less, in fact I feel people are reading more than ever. Readers want to escape if even for a short time for romance, a...
--Author interview: James Everington
How did you become interested in short stories? By reading great ones; the first book of short stories I remember really impressing me was ...
--Author interview: Isaac Sweeney
How did you become interested in short stories? In school, the assignments were always to write short stories or poetry in the creative writ...

_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Geektress: Powered by Science (arts and entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Geektress: Powered by Science, by Brenda Kirk

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.geektress.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Geektress is a website aimed at science fiction / fantasy / comic-book loving nerds everywhere. It's a news, reviews, and opinions blog written exclusively by women who love geeky stuff, and aren't afraid to share.

MY REVIEW: If you're a science fiction or fantasy fan, man or woman, I urge you to subscribe to this blog. The author writes well and with entusiasm, and covres a variety of media - TV, books, movies. THere's recaps and reviews of TV series and comics...just about everything. Check it out.

Sample post:

Game of Thrones Read-Along, Week 1
(It's a long post, I share only a few paragrpahs. It is also illustrated with photos from the TV series. Check it out online)
In Shakespeare’s tragedies, there’s always this major turning point where someone has killed someone else and then events have to play themselves out, usually with everyone dead at the end. The turning point of A Game of Thrones happens before the book even starts. Jon Arryn, Hand of the King, dies, and as Eddard Stark comes to find out, his death was really murder.

The first 200 pages of A Game of Thrones sets this murder theory up. We also get a lot of introductions and character development in these pages. A lot of what happens in these first pages shape the characters into who they become several books down the line.

Lots of plot threads start here. Members of the Night’s Watch encounter White Walkers – ghostly zombie type creatures bent on murder and destruction. Eddard Stark learns of Jon Arryn’s death and King Robert comes to Winterfell to ask him to take the dead man’s place as Hand of the King. Jon Snow, Eddard’s bastard son joins the Night Watch on the wall and Tyrion Lannister, dwarf and brother to Queen Cersei accompanies him. We also meet Daenerys Targaryan, the last Princess of the Dragon as her brother sells her into marriage with Khal Drogo, a barbarian horse lord.

There is tons of back story that goes along with these events, that make these events more than simple plot points. The most important bit of back story involves Robert’s Rebellion. We learn that 17 years ago, Robert usurps the throne from Mad King Aerys II – Daenerys’ father. Robert also murders Rhaegar, King Aerys’ heir and Daenerys’ oldest brother, for kidnapping his betrothed and raping her a million times, which eventually results in her death. Robert’s betrothed is Lyanna Stark – Eddard Stark’s sister. So, Robert, Eddard, and Jon Arryn storm The Trident and take down the mad king. King Aerys II had also done a whole lot of other awful things, including murder Eddard Stark’s father and older brother and a bunch of other people just because he felt like it. Robert murders Rhaegar and his wife and their newborn baby. King Aerys’ queen manages to escape with her younger son Viserys and Daenerys, who is still in the womb. Robert becomes King and everyone lives not so happily ever after.

The horror of those events drive most of our characters throughout the series. Maybe Robert’s Rebellion was the turning point. Robert disrupted several generations of crazy inbred Targaryan rule. Perhaps the universe is not happy with this. Aerys was a psychopath, but he was the trueborn Targaryan heir. This might sound silly, but in many real life cultures, a king is god’s own avatar on earth. Kill that avatar and all hell breaks loose.

Anyway… Martin gives us eight different character perspectives in this first book and we get all eight of them in the first 200 pages. In my mind, the most prominent POV is that of Eddard (Ned) Stark. Out of all the batshit crazy characters you will meet in this series, Eddard stands out as a rock of reason. He can be harsh at times but is also compassionate when he needs to be. He loves his wife and children and is a hard but fair Warden of the North. Ned is an Everyman. He is the easiest to relate to even though sometimes his noble actions make you want to do a facepalm because you know they’ll bite him in the ass later. Ned is too trusting and too willing to think everyone else is like him – putting honor and duty above personal gain.

Part of what makes Ned such a likeable character is that we also see him from the POV of several of his children – Jon, Sansa, Arya, and Bran. They all love and respect him. Through his children we see that he is a good father as well as a good Warden. We also see Ned through is wife Catelyn’s eyes. Catelyn had been betrothed to Ned’s older brother Brandon before he was murdered by Aerys. As honor and duty demanded, Ned took his brother’s place and married his brother’s bride. Catelyn came to love Ned over the years and she is devoted to him, giving him five children and hoping for more. Through Catelyn, we see that Ned is also a good husband.

I have one note on Catelyn as a character. I don’t like her. Everything she does throughout the series is forever colored by her interaction with Jon – Ned’s bastard – in Bran’s sick room. In a major plot point, where we see for the first time that no character is safe from death or destruction, Jaime Lannister shoves Bran out a multistory window after the boy witnesses him and his twin sister, Queen Cersei, having their affair.

(Continued at the blog)

RECENT POSTS:
--Smallville: And don't forget the magic rocks!
--GoT Read-along, Week 2
--I like big links and I can not lie
--Next Quarter's Shirtless Beheadings Flick Looks Good
--Wish List Wednesday: The Galaxy Far Away Edition
--Battle Bands: Squishy And Bossy
--Game Of Thrones Read-Along: Week 1




_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Ebook Reader Geek (arts and entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: eBook Reader Geek , by Greg Diaz

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.ebookreadergeek.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Fun blog dedicated to digital reading and ebook readers.

MY REVIEW: I'm not sure how long it will take for ebook readers to take over from books. On the one hand you can get a whole library into a slim piece of metal that you can hold in one hand, on the other hand, if you lose a book - that's all you lose. If you lose your ebook reader, you've lots thousands of dollars worth of books!

Nevertheless, it's fun to read abou tthe various ebook readers - the Kindle, the Nook, etc. and the various books that you can read on them and the games you can play on them.

If you're interested in that type of thing - check out this blog. Lots of fascinating and informiative info.

RECENT POSTS:
--Nook Ereader vs Kindle
--5 Awesome Kindle Magazines for Mom
--Nook Color To Add Flash Suport and Apps
--7 Wacky Ways To Protect Your Kindle
--Patent Leather Nook Color Case in Red

_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Netfix Instant Play Picks of the Moment (arts and entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Netflix Instant Play Picks of the Moment, by Paul J. Marasa

WEB ADDRESS: http://netflixinstantplaypicks.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: A weekly guide to the classic, the offbeat, and the overlooked on Netflix Instant Play

MY REVIEW: Netflix is an organization that allows you to watch TV shows and movies on your computer, as well as borrow DVDs via mail, and keep them for as long as you want without an overcharge fee. If you just watch on the internet, it costs $9 or so a month, if you also want the DVD option, it's a few dollars higher.

If you watch a lot of movie and TV, this is the way to go, as they've got classics from the US and Britain, foreign stuff, and new movies. Occasionally it's a pain. I recently wanted to watch This Proud Valley, an English movie from 1939 starring Paul Robeson. I couldn't watch it instantly, I would've had to order the DVD. Fortunately it's up on Youtube (but there, you have to watch it in 10 minute increments.)

This blog reviews only those movies that are avaiable to watch via the Internet. It's a great idea - if you're looking for new experiences, this blog describes movies - on a weekly basis - that might intrigue your attention.

Highly recommended.

Sample post

Sweet Land (2005)
In the rural Minnesota of Sweet Land, post-Word-War-I anti-German sentiment ostracizes mail-order bride Inge (Elizabeth Reaser). She cannot even attend, let alone get married in, her husband-to-be's church. Structured as a family memory, the film looks through Inge’s eyes at those who reject her, while managing to ask us in the present to reconsider our own attitudes--in which, for instance, “official language” acquisition becomes more important than the quality of the newcomer's character. And of course the irony is that these are Norwegian farmers--Torviks and Frandsens and Thorwalds--their own voices soft with fading accents, and isolated as only Upper Midwest farmers can be.

But Sweet Land operates only peripherally as social commentary. The film remains a personal story of all-but-despair, resolution, and the blind persistence of love. The performances are affecting--Reaser is a shining light, her fiancé is played by Tim Guinee (who reminds of Nathan Fillion--take note, ladies and others who find him dreamy) with an Old Hollywood boyish charm suitable for suitors, Alan Cummings grins and squints affectingly as the best friend--and John Heard's Reverend is especially compelling: He scowls at Inge's foreignness, denies her any opportunity for respectability--but does so without movie-villain hardness. Instead, he is almost kind, as though he's simply waiting for her to repent for a sin she didn't commit, and be welcomed in her humility.

The fact that she refuses false humility--and chooses instead honest pride--is the film's heart, as beautiful as the sweeping fields and sky the movie is in love with, Nature spread over this (at first) melancholy story and trying Her best to provide moments of sun and shade as needed.

RECENT POSTS:
--Sweet Land (2005)
--Carlito's Way (1993)
--Return to Me (2000)
--I Like Killing Flies (2004)
_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Digital Bits Skeptic (arts & entertainment, culture)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Digital Bits Skeptic

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.dbskeptic.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Digital Bits Skeptic is about promoting critical thinking and skepticism. This site was created as a response to the frustratingly large amount of credulity and scientific ignorance in today’s society.

A skeptical outlook in life is healthy. At the very least, it prevents you from wasting your time or money. At its best, it can save lives. Much of what we see reported in today’s media is overly credulous. Impressive claims are often accepted as fact, without question. Those that are questioned are often not tested scientifically to prove the claim.

From New Age mysticism to organized religion, from aromatherapy to Bigfoot, Digital Bits Skeptic is a collection of articles critically examining these kinds of topics.

MY REVIEW: The entries in Digital Skeptic are very thorough - the topic under discussion is looked at thoroughly...and the topics vary - from Biblical prophcies to parenting to how to conduct research. Fascinating reading.

The only problem is that this blog only gets one post a month. Understandable enough because of the thoroughness of each post, and since it only costs 99 cents a month to subscribe...check it out.

RECENT POSTS:
--Bible prophecies and myth
--Getting dirty with bacteria panic and unjustified sterilization
--Skeptical parenting: Critical thinking around the family dinner table
--The Veil of Ignorance: Don’t confuse tools with the buildings they create


_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

The Quivering Pen (arts and entertainment, writing, Iraq War)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Quivering Pen, by David Abrams

WEB ADDRESS: http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Primarily concerning my work-in-progress ("Fobbit," a serio-comic novel about the Iraq War), but also touching on short stories, reviews and other news from the literary landscape. "Fobbit" in a nutshell: It's as if "The Hurt Locker" and "The Office" got married and had a kid they named "Catch-22."

MY REVIEW: I liked this blog, but there's no denying it's got an unfortunate title. Indeed, another blog has the same name - but it's a romance writer's blog!

Those who look past the title (it's a quote from Emile Zola) to the actual content of the blog will also enjoy it. The author shares excerpts from his novel (and the sample post below is one of those) as well as book reviews, info on freebies at Amazon, and so on.

Highly recommended.

Sample post

The Darkest Hour is Just Before the Dawn of Democracy

When I look back at my year in Baghdad, specifically through the portal of my journal, I'm struck by how different a person I was just five years ago. That David Abrams was wound tight as a clock-spring, swollen with naivete, and hypersensitive to every little thing going on around him. Sometimes, though, he wrote some pretty good shit.

I've taken a lot of what happened in 2005 and transmogrified it into the fiction of Fobbit. But here are a couple of entries which come to you direct from the journal, unedited except for preserving some individuals' identities. The "Referendum," for those of you who aren't CNN junkies, refers to the effort to ratify the Iraqi constitution. It was one of many historic days I saw that year when thousands of citizens went to the polls, braving terrorist threats and trying to put aside years of Hussein-era brainwashing. You can read more about the referendum at this Wikipedia page.


October 13, 2005: I was standing in line today waiting to get my flu shot and I struck up a conversation with a master sergeant who works in the Civil Affairs section. He was telling me about a sergeant first class in his unit who had just been killed two weeks ago. “Just a week before it happened, he was hit with an IED and injured his hand. Walked away with nothing but a minor hand injury. And just imagine all that he and his wife went through with that, all the trauma associated with getting hurt over here far away from your loved ones and there’s nothing either one of you can do about it. Then, just a week later, he’s dead. It sucked, man. think of his wife getting both of those messages delivered to her in the space of less than two weeks. It just really sucks, man.”


* * *

Lieutenant Colonel W______ came up to me, a bundle of red-inked press releases in his hand. He was shaking his head. He’d just come from the chief of staff’s office. I could tell because he had that “I’ve just been kicked and I’m still numb and tingling with pain” look about him.

“The chief’s latest twist is that he doesn’t want us to put times in our press releases.”

I rolled my eyes, clapped a hand to my forehead.

“I know, I know, but I can kind of understand how it’s a security issue. He feels like we’re giving too much away to the enemy by specifically identifying when events occur. It’s a TTP issue.”

Pretty soon, there’s not going to be much left of our press releases for him to chop away at. I foresee the sanitation of PRs due to Tactics, Techniques and Procedures dumbing us down to the barest element: “A military unit an IED somewhere in Baghdad did something sometime during the month of October.” And that’s it, that’s the whole press release. Anything more would compromise our security and put our soldiers in jeopardy.

This follows on the heels of the Iraqi government’s paranoid prohibition of allowing any Iraqi Army or Iraqi Police to talk to the media until after the Referendum. A complete news blackout for the next week. This is going to make it tough for us since Corps PAO is pushing us to “put an Iraqi face” on all releases, whenever possible (which, in turn, reverses the previous command of not writing about the IAs or IPs because that was now the job of the Ministry of Interior or the Ministry of Defense [which, of course, is a reversal of the way it was when I first arrived in Baghdad and I was told to play up Iraqi Security Forces successes at every turn]). So, no more credibility-lending quotes from Iraqi military or police in our PRs. And, whatever you do, don’t allow Iraqi Soldiers to talk to anyone in the media.

“Try telling that to Gen. Jalil (one of the IA Division commanders) who’s setting up a media center right now,” snarled Maj. P_______.


* * *

The task force commander has decreed that “Every time a platoon-sized element or larger rolls out the gate, it’s to be a named operation."

Pretty soon, we’ll have “Operation Go To the Bathroom” or “Operation I Just Need to Gas Up the Humvee.”


October 14, 2005: We’ve been out of paper towels in the men’s room for the past three days. Rumor has it there’s a nationwide paper shortage because they need all the paper for the ballots in the Referendum tomorrow. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s a nice little urban legend that helps us get over our irritation at not being able to dry our hands.

The chow hall has also run out of ranch dressing and ketchup due to the fact that Iraq has been sealed up—no air traffic, no border crossing, no nothing until after Referendum Day.


October 15, 2005: Referendum Day dawned with something Baghdad hadn’t heard in more than a year: the sound of silence. No fireballs, no plumes of smoke, no rat-a-tat-tat-tat of machine guns rattling through neighborhoods. Just the thump of our heartbeats in our ears. This was the day, this was the moment, this was the hour of decision.

I started off the day on the wrong foot. I came back from taking a shower to realize that I’d locked myself out of the room. Damn. I had to traipse all the way over to the KBR Billeting Office in my shorts and T-shirt to get the spare key.

Before going in to work an hour early, I made sure I had a big breakfast at the chow hall because who knew when I’d have the next chance to eat. Eggs, sausage, hash browns, a pear, a pastry. It all filled my belly and got my blood pumping.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was there on the overhead TVs in the chow hall telling us that Baghdad had just woken up from an overnight power outage when, she said, insurgents sabotaged a power plant on the eve of the Referendum. I knew for a fact that it wasn’t true because our Command Information Center had called me the night before to say that one of the electrical plants had experienced a technical malfunction but that it wasn’t AIF-related. The Anti-Iraqi Forces had other bombs to plot and plant, apparently. Still, I let Christiane and the rest of the news media believe what they wanted. It made for much more dramatic TV to say that a power station had been blown up by infidels, rather than a bad fuse just blew, coincidentally on the night before the nation’s biggest day of the year.

I get to work around 6:55. Two minutes later, they make an announcement over the speakers: “Marne X-Ray, this is Marne Zulu.”

“Marne Zulu, this is Marne X-Ray. Go ahead, over.”

“Uh, roger. Just wanted to let you know that the President is voting now.”

I look up at the live television coverage and, sure enough, there are the President and the Prime Minister walking into a bare, non-descript room somewhere in the Green Zone. They get their ballots from a girl in a head scarf, then they walk over to two podiums which have been set up on a stage at the front of the room. They vote—a simple checkmark for “Yes” or for “No”—then carefully dip their forefinger into a bottle of ink which will stain them for the next 72 hours as proof that they voted (a low-tech way to prevent ballot-box stuffing). They hold up their fingers for the camera and smile.

CNN tells me, “The Ministry of Interior says that security is much heavier now than it was in January.”

I sit down at my computer and…it begins. Within an hour, I start to get the first photos from our brigade journalists. I immediately throw them onto the press release template, format it, proofread and copyedit the text, then send it to the printer and rush it in to LTC W______, who then rushes it in to Colonel G______, who then rushes it back to us and then I send it out to my media e-mail list. From conception to release, most of them take less than an hour. Meanwhile, I continue to get more and more releases and photos from our brigades. Soon, I have to have one of the junior-ranking soldiers from the Media Operations Center come over to be my runner. My butt doesn’t even leave the chair—except maybe twice for a quick jog down the hall to take a choked-short whiz before sprinting back to the keyboard. The whole thing works like clockwork and within 12 hours, I have processed 21 releases and sent 45 photos out to the world (a lieutenant later tells me he saw several of our photos appear on CNN throughout the day). At times, I’ve got three different releases open and my brain is doing its typical split-screen function as I try to keep everything neatly compartmentalized and organized in my head. I barely look up from my screen the whole day, except to bark at my runner, “Grab that off the printer and run it in to LTC W______. Now!” I have no time for courtesy. I am a friggin' press release machine. My arms are levers, my heart is a pulley.

That evening, after the polls have finally closed and the releases have dwindled to a trickle in my inbox, Captain L_____ looks at me and says, “Go sit down and eat dinner before you have an aneurysm.”

I don’t leave the office until nearly 11 p.m. But I walk back to my hooch bursting with excitement and pride over the job I’ve done today. For the first time in the 10 months I've been over here, everything went exactly as planned. It was perfect from start to finish. I can still hardly believe it.*


*I had good reason for my disbelief. As anyone** who has paid attention to the news from Iraq since that day knows, the country is still struggling to stabilize its government. The eel is still greased and elusive.

**Which is about 30% of Americans.

RECENT POSTS:
--The hazardous beauty of "Gallatin Canyon"
--"Driving on the Rim" by Thomas McGuane: Redemptio...
--Friday Freebie: "Panopticon" by David Bajo
--The Darkest Hour is Just Before the Dawn of Democr...
--Benjamin Percy's "Refresh, Refresh" does exactly t...
--Bloody Births and Great Beginnings
--Tweeting "Deliverance"

_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

SAFECorner: Cultural Heritage in Danger (art and art theft)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: SAFECorner: Saving Antiquities

WEB ADDRESS: http://safecorner.savingantiquities.org/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The online community of the non-profit organization SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone, where dialogs begin, ideas exchange, and concrete solutions emerge concerning looting and the illicit antiquities trade. Contributors to SAFECORNER are members of the SAFE community and other experts and opinion leaders in the field of cultural heritage protection.

MY REVIEW: I enjoy this blog a great deal,although I am more interested in art theft than antiquities theft. Nevertheless, the information contained in these posts is fascinating.

The only disappointment is that there are not a lot of posts, sometimes only 2 or 3 a month. But this infrequency is what makes subscribing to the blog worthwhile, because you'll never miss a post this way.

Highly recommended.

Sample post:

Friday, October 15, 2010
Time ran out in the case against Marion True

As previously reported here the trial against Marion True, former curator of antiquities at the Getty Museum ended on Wednesday, October 13. After five years, the True case, which would set a precedent for the prosecution of a museum curator for knowingly acquiring looted artifacts, ended on the grounds that the statute of limitations has expired.

As quoted in the New York Times, Maxwell Anderson, the director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the former president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, said that True “sacrificed herself on behalf of other museum directors in America,” while Paolo Ferri, the now-retired prosecutor for the case, was quoted as saying "the trial had served as a signal to museums that buying objects without provenance had to end." For more about this and other cases related to museum acquisitions, please visit SAFE's web site here.

Will the high visibility of this case alter museum acquisition practices? This much is certain: the case against the plunder of cultural heritage continues and has no statute of limitations.

RECENT POSTS:
--Time ran out in the case against Marion True
--Egypt and China agree to cooperate on protection of cultural property
--Hate Looting? Take This Opportunity to Support Restrictions on the Import of Undocumented Antiquities
--Floods threaten Pakistan's cultural heritage
_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Gawker (art & entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Gawker, by Gawker

WEB ADDRESS: http://gawker.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Gawker is the group's flagship title, a mix of pop culture and media gossip, updated more than a dozen times a day. Gawker is compulsory reading for New York editors and reporters, and often sets the agenda for the entertainment weeklies, gossip columns such as Page Six, and the soft sections of newspapers such as the New York Times.

MY REVIEW: I enjoyed this blog. It doesn't get that political (as a reviewer on its Amazon subscription page said) and has interesting comments about events of the day.

The blog is updated by several authors each day.

Highly recommended.

Sample post:

Love Means Not Knowing Anything About Your Partner
Love is... commitment. Love is... compromise. Love is... not giving a shit about what your partner likes. A new study indicates that people in long-lasting marriages know less about their partners than people in shorter relationships.

The study, conducted by University of Basel psychologists Benjamin Scheibehenne and Jutta Mata alongside Indiana University psychologist Peter Todd, asked participants to rate their and their partners' preferences in food, movies and kitchen designs. The young couples, aged 19 to 32 and in one-to-two-year committed relationships, were able to correctly guess their partners' preferences 47 percent of the time, whereas the older couples, aged 62 to 78, were only 40 percent accurate, proving that basically no one knows that much about their partners, but old people really don't know that much. According to researchers, the biggest gap came with food.

Why does this gap arise? It could be that older couples don't pay as much attention to their partners anymore now that they've "got that shit locked down," to use the scientific terminology. It could also be that your husband so goddamn boring, how on earth are you supposed to keep track of how he wants the kitchen to look?

The older couples also tended to attribute "their own food, movie and design preferences to partners who had different opinions." The most telling finding, though, is that more long-term couples said they were satisfied with their relationships than the younger couples. That's right: The secret to a lasting, satisfying marriage is just assuming your partner likes all the same things as you.

RECENT POSTS:
--YouTube Comments Are No Longer Safe for Mean People on the Internet
--Did Someone Lose the Nuclear Launch Codes?
--Love Means Not Knowing Anything About Your Partner
--Chilean Miners Already Sick of Media Attention
--Anti-Rand Paul Ad Basically Accuses Him of Being an Alien Shaman
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Stimulated Outlet Book Reviews (book reviews, author interviews)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: N/A

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.stimulatedoutlet.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The written word is something that you never grow out of. It entertains, educates, and shocks. It can cultivate previously unknown senses, and it carries the ability to change the way in which we engage our world.
From dystopian fiction to murder mysteries to chick lit, this page is dedicated to the words and sentences that shape our character and divert us from the mundane.

MY REVIEW: I enjoyed this blog. It's excellently designed. It's also brand new, and is still building its archive of reviews. She reviews:
General Fiction
Mystery
Paranormal Romance
Picture Books
Science Fiction
Women's Fiction
It's a new blog - 7 posts in September, 4 in August.

But this is very promising, so check it out.

Sample post:

Author Interview: Helen Smith
Today, I have the pleasure of posting an interview with Helen Smith, author of Alison Wonderland, Being Light, The Miracle Inspector, and assorted plays and other works.

I was digging through your blog, and I have to say, you're quite the multitasker! Poetry, novels, plays . . . What frame of mind are you in when you're writing? Does it vary by genre? Any specific rituals to get into the mood?

When I’m at the planning stage I generally feel quite cross – as if I have set myself an impossible task that I will never complete. When I’m writing and putting down a couple of pages a day, I feel joyful – as if it’s all flowing from somewhere and it will be brilliant if I can just keep going. When I’m editing, I feel serene; the hard work has been done and I’m just tinkering with the text to improve it.

I find it easier to write prose than to write drama. There’s so much you can’t do in a script: you need to rely on the actors to convey the internal life of their characters, the director to set the pace – and create a sense of place - and the designer to create the mood and atmosphere (among all the other things they’re supposed to be doing). I love it that I can jump around in place and time in a novel if I want to - and it’s all done without budget constraints.

I don’t have any rituals.

It sounds like a taxing experience! Let's focus on something positive, then: what is your favorite part of the publishing process, and why?

Doing the deal/signing the contract. There’s nothing so exciting as getting a call from my agent to say, ‘I hope you’ve got some champagne on ice.’ Actually I think she only said that to me once, when she sold my first novel. I did have some champagne chilling, as it happened. When someone says ‘yes’, you feel that nothing can go wrong now – the hard work has been done and the rest of the process is out of your hands.

Good planning on your part with that champagne. I'm certain that it wasn't always smooth sailing, though. What is the hardest lesson that you've learned through your experience as a writer?

I learned that the hard work is not over once you sign the contract. If you want your books to sell you need to get out there and help to sell them.

Fair enough. Speaking of hard work, what is your greatest literary fear (e.g. pedestrian writing, stilted dialogue, inconsistent characters, etc.)? How do you overcome it?

I don’t want to bore the reader. I cut a lot in the final edit.

Well, you certainly haven't been boring them! What about your own entertainment? One always wonders what sorts of books are sitting on an author's shelf . . . What do you read in your free time? Does it have any effect upon your writing?

I read literary fiction, mostly – and a few biographies and autobiographies. If they’re brilliant they tend to make me feel slightly despondent about my own work. But I love reading so much that I get over it.

I don’t read anything when I’m at the ‘writing’ stage of my work, for fear that the author’s voice would influence mine. I’m too busy anyway, when it’s all going well – I want my head to be filled with whatever I’m working on, rather than puzzling over someone else’s novel.

True. While we're on the subject of writing, let's take a look at Alison Wonderland. I have to ask: what scene/line is your favorite, and which character(s) do you best identify with?

There’s a little bit of me in all the characters. I was developing a TV series based on the novel for the BBC (it hasn’t gone into production yet, the development process has stalled, as it so often does with these projects) and one of the producers kept calling me ‘Alison’. But she’s not much like me, really – she’s much grumpier and has very little insight into her own feelings. I’m probably more like Mrs Fitzgerald, the boss of the all-female detective agency Alison works for. She’s outwardly calm and in control, but she’s troubled by strange thoughts.

I like the scene where Alison and her best friend Taron are waiting in the car at the seaside, at the end of a strange and at times unsettling trip to Weymouth. It’s a turning point in the book and what happens at the beach will change Alison’s life, though she doesn’t yet know it. That’s the scene depicted on the front cover of the latest edition of the book – the designer came up with it after reading the book, so I suppose it was a memorable scene for him too.

It will certainly be interesting to see what the BBC makes of your series. And now, for something completely random: If you could be any character from any novel for a day, who would it be, and why?

Quite often I read books with antiheroes but I’d like to be a kind of superhero – a woman, of course - and be able to fly and save the world. Since I can’t think of anyone like that in any of the novels I have read (perhaps I should write one), I’ll go for Miss Marple. I loved Agatha Christie when I was younger and I have read most of her books. I always preferred Miss Marple to Poirot. I would like to be a nosy, wise old lady and solve mysteries and knit. I’m already quite good at knitting so I’d slip into the role fairly easily. In fact, I think I would like it so much I might be reluctant to give it up after only one day.

I can't say I blame you. Well, I suppose that's it. Thanks for answering my questions today.

Thanks for tailoring them . . . and for looking through my blog, too.

RECENT POSTS:
--Author Interview: Helen Smith
--Stay Within the Lines
--Rock Star's Rainbow (Kevin Glavin)
--The Barefooted, Bad-Tempered, Baby Brigade (Debora...
--Choose Your Own Romance (Christina Crooks)
--Minor Delay
--The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (Aimee Bender...
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Jimmy Buffett World

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Jimmy Buffett World, by Josh Martin

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.buffettworld.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The web's largest resource for Jimmy Buffett news and tour information.

MY REVIEW: If you are a fan of Jimmy Buffett, this is a must have blog. Of course, at the actual website you can participate in the message boards, but if you just want to read the posts, this will be fine.

Check it out.

RECENT POSTS:
--Listen to Zac Brown Band’s “Knee Deep” with Buffett
--Nashville Margaritaville Wants Your Parrothead Plates
--Buffett Caption Contest Winner: USMC
--Vote For Your Favorite Caption
--Margaritaville Casino in Atlantic City now “Out of the Picture”

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Daily Decorator (home decoration, lifestyle and culture)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Daily Decorator, by Tracy Ann

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.dailydecorator.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: "Everyday design for everyday people"

MY REVIEW: This blog is more visual than anything else. Of course that makes sense since it's a decorator blog.

The blog has a lot of photos, but not a lot of text, so people who are visual will enjoy it, but those who need verbal instructions will be at somewhat of a loss.

However, the blog is a commercial one, and the author does offer her services. Click on her Room Service button at the blog. You simply email photos of the particular room you want to redecorate, and she'll send the info - a detailed concept board featuring painting/color suggestions, lighting designs and furniture, a full shopping list from reputable online shops,and room layout suggestions.

If you're looking for a new look for one or more rooms in your house, check this blog out.

RECENT POSTS:
--Weekend Rerun…Saturday
--Photo Friday
--Seeing Stripes
--Room Service Delivery For Christina
--Giveaway Time!
--Color Question

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Ruminations from an Unkempt Mind (arts & entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Ruminations from an Unkempt Mind, by C. Parker

WEB ADDRESS: http://ruminationsfromanunkemptmind.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: An eclectic mix of everything from book reviews to recipes, movie and television reviews to crochet patterns, as well as ruminations and articles on everything from legal issues to slice-of-life essays; this 1-2 times weekly published blog is sure to have something for everyone

MY REVIEW: This is an enjoyable blog, in which the author writes on a variety of subjects. She writes well, and covers her subjects thoroughly.

Highly recommended.

Sample post

Book Review: The Lodger by Marie Belloc-Lowndes

Anyone who has run across my posts in the Kindle forums is probably already aware that I plug the book "The Lodger". Mercilessly. I plug this book so often that one might think that I wrote it, or at least that I have a published edition of it for sale in the Kindle store. I don’t. With the way that I plug this book, one might also think that it is the best book that I have ever read. It wasn’t. What it was, was the most surprising book that I ever read. Not the storyline, don’t worry, no spoilers here, it was just the book itself that was surprising.

You see, it was the first book that I read on my first Kindle. I wanted to take advantage of all of the free public domain books that were available to me, and I selected one at random. Well, not quite at random. I searched for the keywords “Jack the Ripper”. I don’t really know why, it was just the first thing that popped into my mind (should that worry me?). This book came up as a public domain book, by an author of whom I’d never heard, and there was a free edition available. So, I downloaded it. And I read it. And I loved it.

I have said that this was not the best book that I’d ever read, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable, five-star read. When I downloaded it (wirelessly, for the first time to a Kindle, which was exciting enough), I expected to read this old book that would be interesting enough and not too boring. I mean, really, it was almost a century old, and I’d never heard of the author. Sometime during the course of my life, especially when I was working on a degree in Literature, I had at least heard of EVERY good author from that period, surely. Right? Wrong.

This book did not turn out to be a somewhat antiquated, only a little boring, read. It turned out to be a page-turner. So much so, that my husband started saying things like, “I’m not sure that this whole Kindle thing was a good idea” because I was giving him so little attention. He’s learned to cope with that now.

I’ve explained about my personal experience with this book, but what you really want to know is more about the book itself. I aim to please:

This book is set in London in the time of the Whitechapel Murders. The main characters are a middle-aged couple who own a rooming house. They rent out a couple of rooms to a young man whom they’ve never met prior to his becoming their lodger. The suspense of this story comes from their suspicion that he may indeed be Jack the Ripper. So, is he?

No, of course he isn’t. Oh, wait, yes he is. Not really, I’m just kidding. Or am I?

The fact of the matter is that it isn’t relevant. Well, I’m sure that it is to the middle-aged couple, but it’s not really relevant to the reader. What is relevant in this book is the couple’s CONCERN that he might be. In the end, we find out the truth one way or the other, but that is not the interesting part. To be honest, it wouldn’t really matter to the reader whether or not we ever know. It’s the suspense, the agony, the suspicion, and the excitement that matters. That’s what the story is about. “Whodunit” doesn’t matter; what matters is how the main characters feel about it. This is what Lowndes does unbelievably well.

So, I highly recommend that you check out “The Lodger” for a suspenseful, pleasure read that won’t cost you a dime.

RECENT POSTS:
--Book Review: The Lodger by Marie Belloc-Lowndes
--Kasual Klothes for Your K3 [or K2]
--Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free Brownie Recipe
--Do Not Fear The Chicken Dance

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

One Recipe a Day (arts and entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: One Recipe a Day , by Corum Bailey Group

WEB ADDRESS: http://freshrecipe.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Delivering a fresh and delicious recipe to you everyday. Featuring tips on meal & event planning, ingredient selections, and international food discovery.

MY REVIEW: Some people take their Kindles everywhere - into the bathtub, onto the beach, into the kitchen. Not me. It stays safe and sound away from water, sand and grease. But, if you're a brave soul, as well as an aspiring chef, you'll want to subscribe to One Recipe a Day. The recipes are easy to follow, and the food is delicious.

For myself, I look to see if there's a recipe I like, and if so I actually go to the site's website to print out the recipe, and use that.

Just one caveat, despite the title, you dont' receive a recipe a day. There were only 14 recipes in August, for example, and 13 in July. There are 5 to date for SEptember.

RECENT POSTS:
--White Wine Scallops with Herbs
--Bistro Shrimp Alfredo Pasta
--BBQ Beef Sandwiches
--Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
--Peanut Butter Bars

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Somebody Dies (arts & entertainment, book reviews)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Somebody Dies, by Craig Clarke

WEB ADDRESS: http://somebodydies.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Somebody Dies is the premier multi-genre book-review blog, covering crime, horror, and Western fiction (with the occasional digression into other arenas). From the obscure to the mainstream, from forgotten "classics" to the newest releases, everyone can find something to enjoy.

MY REVIEW: This is an excellent book review blog. The author reviews crime, horror and western fiction, "with the occasional digression." His reviews are thorough, covering all aspects of the book in question, something many reviewers don't do. When he reviews audio books, he also gives opinoins as to the quality of the narration, so that's a plus if most of your "reading" is done via audio.

The author averages one review a week, two at the most.

Sample review:

Trail Drive to Montana (Gunsmith #69) by Gary McCarthy writing as J.R. Roberts
Regular readers of this repository of reviews will likely know that I am a big fan of The Gunsmith, which is the only long-running adult Western series still primarily written by a single author under a pseudonym, in this case Robert J. Randisi under the moniker J. R. Roberts. However, he has not written all of them. Randisi stated in a 2007 interview with Saddlebums Western Review that his publisher early on wanted more books than he could turn out on his own. Thus, around 30 of the first 100 were contracted from other authors to fulfill the twelve-a-year quota.

Later, I learned from an interview on Western Fiction Review that author Gary McCarthy, who had written a book I had recently enjoyed called The Pony Express War, had been one of those writers. (He reportedly wrote four Gunsmith novels.) As I enjoy cattle-drive novels, I chose McCarthy's first for the series, Trail Drive to Montana, to see if I could detect a difference in styles.

Actually, it was easy. From page one of Trail Drive to Montana, I would at least have known that it was not from the usual author. Randisi has a fast-paced, easy reading style that utilizes punchy dialogue and short, sharp paragraphs. The first paragraph of this book has 20 lines of small text, and there's no real conversation for five pages. This is not a criticism of either style, merely an illustration of how different they are.

McCarthy shows you the whole picture, and this slows things down a bit compared to the norm for this series, but I must admit to the appeal of seeing ex-lawman and professional gunsmith Clint Adams being genuinely articulate instead of simply a man of action. Even the heroine remarks, "You got a fine way with words, Mr. Adams."

She is Mandy Roe, whom Adams discovers after her horse is killed and she is left stranded underneath it. Her father is Bart Roe, the former outlaw pardoned by the governor and now an innovative cattle breeder in his 80s, who still has as fiery a temper as ever. Or, as Clint says, "He's the craziest old son of a bitch I ever saw in my life." (Having a way with words means you sometimes get right to the point.)

The Roes need to drive their herd of special crossbreeds up to Montana, away from the vengeful Moffit clan, seeking revenge for a 25-year-old transgression. The Gunsmith, in no way a cowboy and actually quite proud of the fact, agrees to accompany them on the journey. Unlike typical Texas longhorns, who are known as "rainbow cattle" for the variety of their hues, the Roe herd is exceptionally uniform in size and color, selected for those attributes in the breeding process.

Dr. Thomas Thom, Bart Roe's brother-in-law and an equal partner in the breeding, makes a connection between the longhorns and Americans. As he puts it, "Crossbreeding almost always results in a more vigorous strain of beef. It accounts for much of the American drive and energy. You see, this country is the greatest bunch of crossbred people in the world.... We are not in-bred like many of the old-line European families. We have greater vigor. So does this herd."

McCarthy fills Trail Drive to Montana with the expected level of action (of both types), and an additonal level of description that makes for a richer read than the typical series novel. He is quickly working his way toward an entry on my list of favorite authors, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

Further reading: For another adult Western series novel about a cattle drive, read Longarm on the Goodnight Trail. For more "respectable" novels on the subject, Ralph Compton's Trail Drive series, starting with The Goodnight Trail, is also a winner. And of course, there's the epic of all Westerns, Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize–winning Lonesome Dove, which also centers around a trail drive.

RECENT POSTS:
--Trail Drive to Montana (Gunsmith #69) by Gary McCarthy writing as J.R. Roberts
--Psycho by Robert Bloch (unabridged audio book read...
--Sea Fangs by L. Ron Hubbard (unabridged audio book performed by a full cast)
--Blue-Eyed Devil by Robert B. Parker (unabridged audio book read by Titus Welliver)
--Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (unabridged audio books read by Ilyana Kadushin)

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Book Jones (arts and entertainment, book reviews)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Book Jones, by Michael Jones

WEB ADDRESS: http://jonesbook.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: A blog for the common literature enthusiast with book reviews, featured authors, insightful articles, reading recommendations, links, lists and much more for your literary pleasure.

MY REVIEW: This is a pretty good blog if you're interested in findng new books to read. The author covers the gamut of genres. He writes well, and his reviews are thorough.

Sample post:

A review of Under the Dome by Stephen King

Late in Stephen King's wrist twisting (over 1000 pages) horror epic, Under the Dome, Rusty Everett, just one of the doomed citizens of the entombed Maine town of Chester's Mill, draws a metaphor between their current woeful predicament and that of the ants he and friends cruelly set afire under a magnifying glass in their youth. The Chester's Millers are the ants scurrying under the mysterious dome which one day just seemed to drop from the heavens, neatly, over their little burgh. But if the townsfolk are ants, then they are most certainly two species: Black and Red, let's say. One group blindly following the second selectman, Big Jim Rennie, an overt car dealer and covert meth lord; the other, enlightened to Rennie's nefarious misdeeds and allied with the convenient scapegoat, outsider Dale (Barbie) Barbara.

Barbara, a part-time short-order cook, just passin' through, is also a veteran of the Iraq War; a former Lieutenant, who is elevated in rank and put in charge by his old commander, Colonel Cox. Cox is running the investigation and rescue of Chester's Mill on the outside, but, alas, nothing seems to be able to penetrate the enigmatic bubble which isolates the town from the rest of Earth. To Big Jim Rennie, this whole situation is not so much a disaster as an opportunity. He takes charge quickly, after the chief of police meets with an unfortunate if gruesome end, demonizing Barbara and recruiting young thugs, his own son included, to enforce his law

In this book, King doesn't shy away from political commentary by drawing parallels to history. Citizens sport armbands to show their alliance to Big Jim and their disdain for the transient Dale Barbara, reminding the reader of Nazi Germany. That Rennie happens to be the second in charge of the Selectmen, a puppet master to the First Selectman, Andy Sanders, whose wife happens to be the first casualty of the dome, is a sly metaphor not lost on this reader. Fundamental Christian ideology loaded down with its accompanying baggage of hypocrisy plays a large role in this morality tale as well.

The horror master populates his imperiled town with many provocative characters: Julia Shumway, the editor of the town journal, an attractive older woman and love interest to the ex-soldier, Barbara; Junior Rennie, Big Jim's returning progeny, resident psycho and Barbie's foil; "Scarecrow" Joe McClatchy, genius teenager who, along with his skater buds, Benny and Norrie, makes a key discovery; Phil "Chef" Bushey, Rennie's meth-addled, born again crystal chemist; Romeo Burpee, wealthy department store owner; and "Sloppy" Sam Verdreaux, the Christ-like town drunk. All of these personalities, borne of the author's fictive world, have a complex history of their own which guides them and in turn King's story to its apocalyptic conclusion. But in the end, what it really comes down to is not so much vengeful heroism, but rather a surrendering to a higher power, merely a pismire's plea for pity, that is their saving grace.

RECENT POSTS:
--Man Booker Prize Short List Released
--The Ants Go Marching
--Book Trailer: Room by Emma Donoghue
--Those Classic Collections: Part 2 -- Hard Case Crime
--The Great Optimist

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Dead Monkey Society (arts & entertainment, fiction serial)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Dead Monkey Soceity, by Penfold Crockett

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.deadmonkeysociety.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The challenge? To write a novel in micro chapters of 4 and half lines or less. Confused? You certainly will be when you enter the mysterious world of the Dead Monkey Society.

"High Noon at Dead Monkey Junction..."
A lawless town. One man standing tall. A short guy called Clarence and a dead monkey playing the piano...

MY REVIEW: To start out, you might want to visit the website, to read the story from the beginning. For some reason the Kindle feed doesn't begin until Chapter 7.

It's an amusing story, perhaps an aquired taste. As the blog description says, each chapter is a paragraph. The writing is over-the-top, but amusing in that way, and the story is intriguing.

CHeck it out

Sample chapter:

Meanwhile, back in the Dirty Cowpoke the monkey was meandering through an early morning rendition of ‘the Forlorn Leghorn’ when a hail of bullets shattered the doors into matchsticks. The six remaining Klaun brothers stormed in, each one bigger, dumber and uglier than the one before…

RECENT POSTS:

_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

The Angry Black Woman (lifestyle and culture)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Angry Black Woman, by The Angry Black Woman

WEB ADDRESS: http://theangryblackwoman.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Discussions of Race, Politics, Gender, Sexuality and the intersection between them.

MY REVIEW: This is an interesting blog that deals with issues of lifestyle and culture, arts and entertainment, and politics from an African American perspective. Well written, well-thought out posts, with the occasional four-letter word used for emphasis. If she's really annoyed about her topic, she uses more, as you see in the sample post below.

Although I've placed this in African-American interest, really her topics are of interest to all Americans. Check it out.

The one caveat - she seems to post only once or twice a week at most.
Sample post

Political Apathy: Don’t Have It
July 5th, 2010
Since it’s 4th of July weekend, I thought I should post something vaguely patriotic. However, since I share very similar feelings on this issue as my friend Cat, I’ll have to skip the flag waving and talk about another America-centric issue close to my heart, instead.

Primary results are in from all over the country, and now constituents know who their party candidates are for federal, state, and local government. The more I listen to NPR, the more I hear that everyone is against incumbents, everyone is against the Democrats, and there’s really no hope for the midterm elections. Unless you’re a conservative.

To this I say: bullshit.

Look, I am well aware that not everyone is happy with the Obama administration, and after the last midterm election even Cindy Sheehan threw up her hands and lost hope for our government. While I agree with ultra-left progressives that the past year hasn’t been everything we wished for, I don’t think it’s all that helpful just to complain, turn our backs, and let the goon squad make it even harder to get a tiny bit of what we want done.

Progress requires constant vigilance, constant pushing, and constant gardening.

So, now that the election is mere months away (it seems far, but it is not), I challenge all of you to work for the kind of government you want. That means being involved in the political campaigns of the senators and representatives up for election and re-election in your area.

Support the campaign. If you can give money, do so. If you can’t give money, give time. You don’t need to commit to every evening and weekend from now until November. One weekend, one phone bank session, one letter-stuffing drive is helpful.

Know your candidates. Who are these people, anyway? It’s much easier to be an advocate when you know something about the person beyond their name, slogan, and party. Do you even know where your party candidate stands on those issues, laws, and bills? Do you know where their opponents stand? Do your friends and neighbors?

Use your voice. Blog about the candidates in your area and why you support them or why you don’t. Talk about the issues that matter to you, the laws that have been passed, the bills that died. Use your voice in other arenas, too. Write an op-ed piece for your local paper, call in to radio shows, use social networks, make a short film using your cell phone camera (seriously), start a podcast.

Don’t just shill; challenge and demand. If you feel passionate about an issue or cause and want that candidate to be passionate and fight for it, tell them so. Find out if they agree. Challenge them to do or do better. The campaign process isn’t just about sending someone to office because they have the right party affiliation. They are accountable to you. Don’t let the vocal minority be the majority of people your candidate hears from.

Try to have meaningful conversations about issues that effect you. As we all know from watching the talking heads on 24 hour news channels, you can’t really understand someone else’s point of view if everyone is yelling. When you talk to people about why you support this or that candidate or this or that issue, really get into why. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to listen when you actually just talk. (I discovered that after starting this blog, actually.)

If we don’t take the attitude that a Republican/Tea Party win is inevitable we have a chance of making the better world we dream of. So that’s my patriotic challenge to all of you: don’t let apathy pull you down.

From now until the election there will be an Open Thread on Mondays for discussions of political and election-related topics. Share links, talk about your experience, your frustrations, your candidates. We are, of course, very interested in political issues dealing with women and people of color here at the ABW. That might be a good place to start.

RECENT POSTS:
--There Is No Ground Zero Mosque
--Good Guys: An Appreciation
--Since Dr. Laura Can’t Give Advice To Black People Without Being A Racist Twit, We’ll Give It A Shot
--The Last Airbender’s Target Audience Thinks Whitewashing Is Wrong, Too
--On Being A Considerate Parent
--Whitewashing: Stealing our stories from real life to fiction.
--Realms of Fantasy Columnist Condones Whitewashing When “Magic” Is Involved
--Political Apathy: Don’t Have It
--Why you should not see “The Last Airbender” movie, but watch the cartoon instead.


_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report