The Terry Pratchett Reader

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Terry Pratchett Reader

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

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Terry Pratchett is the creator of the Discworld - a world that rests on the back of four turtles, which stand on the back of Great A'Tuin, the Star Turtle. The Discworld has witches, wizards, trolls, dwarfs, an orangatang and Death, to name only a few. In this blog, updated every other day, I annotate each of the Discworld novels (there are over 20 of them), share my thoughts on some of Pratchett's powerful imagery, and share news and reviews of Terry Pratchett, his other writings, as well as movie, tv and radio adaptions of his Discworld ouvre.

MY REVIEW: This is a new blog that studies the Discworld ourvre. As a Terry Pratchett fan I find it of interest. Pratchett's works are so popular that there are many small websites and a couple of larger ones devoted to his work. Pratchett's work is sophisticated and he satirizes and homages many other books, movies and TV shows - some evident to an American audience, some not so evident. So for an American audience, this blog should be a lot of fun.

RECENT POSTS:
-- The Color of Magic: The Wizard's Quarter
-- The Color of Magic: Krull
-- Colour of Magic covers
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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

Retro Review #30: John Brown Kin

Not updated often, but the posts are interesting.


REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION PAGE: John Brown Kin

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

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Follow a direct descendant of John Brown as she researches and documents her family history

MY REVIEW: I am more interested in the Civil War time period itself (the military battles) rather than the time period leading up to it, when diplomacy ultimately failed and "cold iron" was necessary to settle the question. Nevertheless, it's fascinating to read about the people of that time period, and what they were willing to sacrfice for their beliefs.

This is a well-written blog, with an author who knows her stuff. Obviously, since she is a descendant of John Brown. Anyone with an interest to the time period leading up to the Civil War, and anyone interested in genealogy, will find this blog of interest.

A FEW PARAGRAPHS FROM A SAMPLE POST

At the John Brown Remembered Academic Symposium held at Harpers Ferry, WV in October 2009, I had the pleasure of meeting Ian Barford. Ian is an actor, documentary film maker, and the proud father of twins! Last week, Ian traveled to Texas to do interviews for the documentary he is currently working on about John Brown. He traveled to Austin first to interview my good friend Evan Carton, author of Patriotic Treason. He then drove up to Allen to interview me. While he was here I showed him my prized family artifact - Oliver Brown's Bible that he carried throughout his years in Kansas.

The Bible is small, 2 1/2 inches x 3 1/2 inches and just over an inch thick. Just the right size to be carried in an inside pocket of a wool overcoat. The cover is black leather embossed with an ornate design. On the spine, the words Holy Bible are embossed in gold. For a book that is over one hundred sixty years old, the binding is realitively tight, the cover only slightly torn.

On the inside back cover the following is written in pencil, in an ornate old-timey script:

This Bible was carried all through the Kansas troubles by Oliver Brown.
On the left hand inside back page is written the name of the original owner of the Bible, Oliver Brown, in ink and in a beautiful calligraphic hand.

But it is what can be found on the front inside cover that makes this Bible so valuable to me personally -- in pencil, written over and over again, in the handwriting of a young girl perfecting her signature, is the name Annie Brown. It makes me smile to think of young Annie, my great-great grandmother, scrounging around for a piece of paper to practice her penmanship on, and noticing a clean white space inside the cover of big brother's Bible. The temptation was more than she could resist. I imagine that she got into a great deal of trouble when it was discovered that she used the inside cover of the Lord's word for her penmanship practice.

Annie had the Bible in her possession when she moved to California in 1863, and it is one of the items that escaped the fire that distroyed her house and most of her belonging in 1896. Annie passed the Bible to her granddaughter Beatrice Cook Keesey, my grandmother.

RECENT ARTICLES:
-Join Me at the 2010 DFW Writer's Conference in April (FEb 19, 2010)
-2010 Winter GeneaBloggers Olymics Update (Awarding herself medals of appropriate colors for things she's accomplished on her blog - very amusing!) (Feb 18 2010)
-Tarantino to Free the Slaves Next? (Not happy about Tarantino's plan to film a movie about John Brown, given his penchant for violence in his films) (Feb 18, 2010)
-Letter from CORE - Letter to Gov to save John Brown Farm (Feb 17, 2010)
-Winter 2010 GeneaBloggers Olympic Games (Participating in the "Olympics' with other geneolocgical bloggers (Feb 14, 2010)

Anelemc's Blog (life)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Anelemc's Blog

WEB ADDRESS: http://anelemc.wordpress.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Short pieces on my interpretation of life and excerpts from a book in progress based on oral stories.

MY REVIEW: Another blog that hasn't been updated recently. Well...not since November originally, then one post on Jan 1st and nothing since. But as I know myself everything is at 6s and 7s thanks to the New Year...so he may well start posting again.

It's an interesting blog, so at least check out the archives with your 2-week free sub option. If no new entry after that time, unsubscribe.

Sample post:
Self-medication or “What’s your vice?”

Self-medication as Wikipedia states “is a term used to describe the use of drugs (including alcohol) or other self-soothing forms of behavior to treat untreated and often undiagnosed mental distress, stress and anxiety.”

At the mental health facility where I work part time, clients who suffer from various mental health issues abuse their antidepressant medications. As the abuse turns to recreational use, the dosage needed to dull the emotional or physical pain exceeds the psychiatrist’s recommendation. Of course, the term self-medication applies to anyone who abuses prescription meds in order to self soothe. Seroquel, Zoloft, Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, Prozac- whatever-the euphoric high these meds can produce is worth the abuse.

Self-medication does not exclude alcohol or pain killers. The bingers, everydayers, the necessary one drink a day to the one bottle a dayers, the wine or beer consumers to the hard-core whiskey and ryers, gin and tequila without the lime on the siders-alcohol is accessible and cheaper than antidepressant meds. Of course there’s, Vicodin, Codeine, Percocet, Hydrocodone, 10mg, 50mg, 500mg or one tablet or two and taken sometimes with an alcoholic chaser and so readily prescribed when sustaining an injury or as post surgical candy.

Okay. Self-medication is bad.

Is it?

What about self-soothing?

There are those who indulge in self-soothing forms of behaviour without the use of psychotropic drugs. Such as, the super athletes’ addiction to endorphins and the caffeine junky who consumes six cups of coffee a day so their internal body cruise control can fly quickly through time. In addition, let us not forget the foodie who grabs snacks of the most comforting kind during all commercial breaks while chasing it down with Coke a Cola (the carbonated sugar drink not the white powder) because a relationship fizzled (just like the Coke). Or, the female chocoholic who downs a 12 piece assorted box of Godiva’s in fifteen minutes because of PMS. Caffeine, endorphins, sugar-the acceptable kinds of comfort foods or exercise, all, legal, accessible and coveted.

There is harm in overindulgence of the self-soothing kind. Obesity, physical ailments and injuries, diabetes, high blood pressure may arise from too much self-soothing while abuse, self-loathing ,self-medication can come from too little.

Too much of a bad thing is not good and too much of a good thing is bad. The goal of self-medication and self-soothing is to numb the pain, which makes everything that will be, okay. Appearances are misleading with the pain, the stress, the anxiety, the paranoia-yes this can go on-of everyday life which at times are unbearable to handle but can exist comfortably under grey clouds of distortion infused by the vice (s) of our choice.

So, what’s your vice?

RECENT POSTS:
--2011 in review
--Self-medication or “What’s your vice?”
--What was left behind…Greenwood Cemetary Brooklyn NY
--What was left behind…
--Complainers

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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

Ukulele Review (Music)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: Yes...with much reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Ukulele Review

WEB ADDRESS: http://ukulelereview.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Reviews of instruments, accessories, books and CDs relating to ukuleles.

MY REVIEW: This blog hasn't been updated since Nov 30...so you might not want to chance subscribing to it. On the other hand, I know from experience that many bloggers will start blogging again if someone subscribes to their blog...so you might give that a try - especially since you get 2 free weeks to see if they start blogging. And the archives are of interest.

RECENT POSTS: (Recent being a relative word in this case!)
--Gift Ideas for your Favorite Ukulele Player
--The Incredible Folding Ukulele
--Nick Peay Louisville, KY Ukulele Player / Singer-Songwriter
--Flea Market Music Introduces the Fire Fly Banjo Uke
--iProp iPad Music Stand Review


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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

Dancing Fields (traveling, family)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Dancing Fields, by Anastasia Stanmeyer

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

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Writer Anastasia Stanmeyer muses about life and finding the extraordinary out of the ordinary. Her witty, insightful writing comes from the perspective a mother of three, world traveler and professional writer who lives on an organic farm in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.

Description of the author from her blog:

My name is Anastasia Stanmeyer. I’m a writer by trade, by default, by purpose. I’m also a lot of other things: journalist, gallery owner, wife, mother of three, dog owner (two times over), chicken owner (30 or so hens with one very protective, chest-butting cock), organic vegetable grower, all-around farmhand, PTO (not PTA, although the same idea) director, cultural council member and the list goes on. I also spend my time driving around quite a bit, with one son passionate about trumpet (private lessons), another son just starting piano (more private lessons), art programs squeezed in for both boys, and our littlest one finally going to preschool. So where does that leave me? Right here. Writing. Back (finally) to exploring my world, both inner and beyond. And realizing, once again, my fodder is endless.

I find that the similarities and the challenges are many between myself and my contemporaries. We’re faced with the daily grind, the triumphs, the valleys, and all the while don’t want to lose our voice and our individuality as we divide ourselves into the many pieces that get distributed by our obligations.

My life has changed dramatically. For twelve years, I lived in Asia (Hong Kong and Bali) and traveled throughout the region, writing stories of human trafficking and the AIDS epidemic, meeting with Mother Teresa in her Home for the Dying and the Dalai Lama at his Government in Exile, accompanying a Vietnamese family forcibly repatriated to Vietnam, and interviewing sex workers from northern Thailand, Burma, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and elsewhere. And the stories go on and on. I find my attention now focused primarily on raising our family in the western Berkshires, a dramatic shift in life, yet one that I have embraced wholeheartedly. I’m pulling back the reigns a bit, though, taking a few steps back and looking at myself and what’s going on around me as an observer. And writing about it, because that’s what I do. And that’s what I need to do, for my own peace of mind. And sanity.

MY REVIEW: I enjoyed the blog a great deal.

The author writes well - as may be expected since she's a professional author - and takes the reader on a variety of journeys - both physical and mental.

If you're interested in travel, in family, in the human experience, you'll enjoy this blog.

Sample post
(At least, one half of one):

The RV, Walmart and entering darkness
I’ve been on the road for the last four days on another planet. OK, you’ve heard that before. And, OK, maybe I didn’t cross any national borders or break through the outer atmosphere into another planetary dimension. But I did cross several time zones yet remained on the same land mass.

We were long overdue for an adventure. We decided to hit the road for two weeks, leave the dogs and the chickens and the nearly ripened vegetable gardens in the very capable hands of a young friend and avid rugby player named Greg. Where were we to go? Quite honestly, we wanted to go back to Bali, to visit our old friends and neighbors, and to take the kids on a memorable journey across still-active volcanoes and pristine terraced rice fields. We wanted to return to where was once our home.

That didn’t happen. Instead, we found ourselves smack in the middle of a Phoenix, Arizona, in record-temperatures of 115-plus degrees. It was the kind of heat that was foreign to us even though we lived in subtropical Bali. It was the kind of heat that smacked you when you walked out of the hotel room, and the shade gave no relief.

Overnighting at a Phoenix airport hotel that I cashed in with our airline points, we hit the road the next morning after making a stop at CruiseAmerica. (I quickly realized that their RVs are everywhere on the road in this part of America, easily identifiable by the blatant U-Haulesque advertising on all sides of the exterior that includes a website address and 1-800 number. This was a far cry from our farm setting in the Berkshires.) From the outside, we didn’t know how we could fit five people and an overwhelming amount of luggage in this vehicle. We even asked for a larger size RV, but they were all rented. Surprisingly, once inside, this glorified minitruck was roomier than our first apartment in Asia, a 100-square-foot flat in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. When I put things in perspective, they become much easier to accept.

RECENT POSTS:
--Devils Garden
--Coming of Age at Monument Valley
--A Wasteland or the Promise Land?
--Music for the Road and Grand Canyon for the Soul
-The RV, Walmart and entering darkness
--DUM ditty DUM ditty DUM DUM DUM…

_______________
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