Still better than a Fuolornis Fire Dragon!

I’ve had this CD for seven years or so and it still gets frequent rotation. This is such a multi-layered, evocative collection. Personal favorites are the rollicking “What It Is”, “Speedway at Nazareth” (which revs up and takes off in the second half of the song, in perfect sync with the race described in the lyrics), and the haunting “Prairie Wedding” which still moves me to tears. “Do America” is such a brash, cocky bit of rock-star swagger that you just know that Knopfler can still make that custom Strat hoot and moan like a band of angels on a Saturday night.

One of my all time faves!

JK Rowling meets Jane Austen. A lovely fantasy set in an alternate Regency period, this book is not a fast read by anybody’s count (and I am usually a very fast reader), but it’s well worth the effort as the author spins a charming tale which affords a tantalizing glimpse into the whimsical, frightening world of Faerie amongst the drawing-room humor. As the story moves deeper into the magic, the tone becomes darker, drawing the hero into an otherworldly quest of sorts. The scholarship is thorough but unobtrusive. A challenging but ultimately satisfying read!

An entertaining read, although it does take some liberties with the history. Mary Boleyn was indeed Anne’s older (not younger) sister, and she was indeed Henry VIII’s mistress and bore him two children before her first husband died of plague, after which she remarried far below her rank and left her sister’s court. The rest of the details are a bit fantastical, but who cares? The soapy scheming of the various familial factions keeps the plot moving along nicely. The author does a nice job of keeping a period-sounding tone without becoming archaic, and beautifully describes the contrast between the luxury of the glittering, frenetically joyous court (which must please a spoiled monarch at all costs) and the far-less-sumtuous, earthy delights of country living.

A good beach book for history buffs.

Waaaaay too much information. The author takes a scattershot approach to aging and sexuality, and tries to cover every topic that might apply to someone over 40. The big O. Toys. Erotica. How to deal with a straying husband. How to deal with online dating after the divorce. How to deal with teens. How to deal with aging/infirm parents. How to deal with the empty nest. Drugs that can help or hurt your performance. Drugs that can help or hurt his performance. And so on and so on. Good lord, I would have been happy with about a third of the information, and save the rest for the sequels.

All that being said, the author is witty and saucy, frank and informative. It’s all good stuff, there’s just way too much of it. Plus there’s about a million typos (I wonder if it was rushed to print… or maybe the publisher just isn’t up to industry standards)

Good luck finishing it, I had real trouble… and I hardly ever put a book down once I’ve started it.

Recipe for a fairly formulaic murder mystery:

1 dead bazillionaire (in this case, a movie mogul)
1 hard-boiled cop with an alcohol problem
1 ex-wife with every motive, but a heart of gold
1 mistress who was cheating on the dead guy
1 mobster with childhood ties to the dead guy
Assorted housekeepers, assistants, and hangers-on, to taste

Stir together and allow the plot to develop. Garnish with a few “we-found-the-killer-no-wait-we-didn’t” twists. Best served as light fare.

The single most useful pattern book you can have in your knitting library. Given any gauge and any size (ranging from toddler to plus-sized adult), this book will have a basic pattern for a sweater, vest, scarf, socks, hat, tam, mittens or gloves. Way useful. I use this book all the time as a jumping-off point for my own designs… get the basic pattern, then add cables or colors or ribbing or a collar or… well, you get the idea.

The companion volume, the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, is equally useful. Get ‘em both.

With the movie release of “300” in the offing, I predict that Thermopylae will become an ancient-world “hot spot” for a season or two, with Sparta taking a turn in the spotlight much like Troy or gladiatorial Rome did after those movies. This novel has the goods on a very complete imagining of Spartan life, not just the famous battle. Told from the point of view of a gravely-wounded survivor of the Hot Gates, captured by the enemy & compelled to tell his story to Xerxes himself, its wealth of historical detail hums with authenticity while never bogging down in military jargon. This one’s a page-turner even though you know how it’s going to end.

A heavily derivative, Tolkien-esque fantasy epic, Eragon tries to soar but barely manages to get off the ground. A mildly engaging pair of main characters (who are somewhat cliched themselves, The Boy and His Dragon) never seem to escape the dreaded Forest of Fantasy Cliches, encountering mysterious fey elves, earthy bumbling dwarves, monstrous goblins led by a horrifying shapeshifter, a wise old storyteller who is more than he first seems, &c. I’m sure it will all make a fine LOTR-type action movie, but it’s been done before, hasn’t it?

An enjoyable, but not a memorable, read.

A beautiful modern fairy-tale of a story about ordinary people discovering the many ways that we are tied to one another and to the Earth. Pagans and non-pagans alike should enjoy this one.

At last we arrive at the End of the Baudelaire’s comically tragic story. The denouement ties up most of the loose ends, but leaves a satisfactory number of them hanging, over which the reader can wonder & puzzle. Very finely done!