The 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize for Blooks Bummer, the Whale-Killing Journal didn’t win the fiction prize. Bummer. However, it looks like Gus’s stooge Keith will be coming to Wisconsin on a book tour, making a stop at the Port Washington Pirate Festival the weekend of June 3rd. That could be kind of fun to check out – it’s probably a lot like a Ren Faire, except with pirates. It’s just a little north of Milwaukee. Naaah, that’s David’s birthday weekend,and he’s never shown the least interest in the WKJ…which won’t arrive until mid-April, darn it.
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I’ve been reading the original Gus Openshaw blog for about a year and a half, almost two years now. It amounted to a serial novel, with comments. With a lot of other people, birds, and dead guys, I participated in the comments (I am in disguise, although it’s probably an open secret now as to my identity). Since the end of the adventure some time ago, Gus moved on to another free online blog community, Mindsay. A blog entry from last year may help make it less confusing. “No, is too much. I will sum up.” First Review of the…
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The Sunday Philosophy Club : An Isabel Dalhousie MysteryBy: Alexander McCall Smith Finished this one a few days ago. I had really loved the “Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency” novels by the same author, and I hope to encounter a new favorite series with this one. That wasn’t the case, but I did enjoy meeting Isabel Dalhousie and seeing a bit of her world. She’s a very deep person who spends a lot of time thinking about things philosophical, romantic, and mysterious. Ultimately it’s an unsatisfactory read, because philosophy gets in the way of logic. In the real world, a…
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Chicago Tribune | Were treasured maps looted? Check out this guy’s name: E. Forbes Smiley III. He’s a well-known dealer in rare maps – with a name like that, what else could he be? He lives in Martha’s Vineyard (of course). He was wearing a blazer when arrested (no doubt with a monogram or family crest embroidered just over the breast pocket). In another pocket of that blazer was a rare map that he had evidently just cut out of an old atlas at a Yale University library – a sharp-eyed librarian noticed an X-Acto knife blade on the floor…
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) What page are you on? David and I have been asking each other this question for a couple of days now. We picked up a copy of “Half Blood Prince” on a trip to Costco the other day, and have trading back and forth reading at leisure since then. Unfortunately, we’ve been losing each others’ places in the book. I was about halfway through it by yesterday, and when TiVo locked up on the latest TAR1 rerun (arrrrgh!) I gave up on televised fantasy and re-entered the familiar world of Hogwarts instead.…
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Because Father Ted used it as an example in a recent sermon at Holy Moly, I’ve been wanting to see Chocolat again, and that’s a bit dangerous. Even more since I’ve been reading French Women Don’t Get Fat and getting a double dose of passion for chocolate, eating well, and living life to the fullest. It’s an interesting premise – eat as the French do, enjoy food, and still avoid getting fat. However, it’s pretty unworkable in practice here in the States, as much of it depends on daily walks to the nearest fresh farmer’s market, seasonal foods in great…
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The Good Wife Strikes BackBy: Elizabeth BuchanOkay, uncle uncle already. Or auntie, auntie, same deal. I give up on this book. I bought it based on the cute, charming cover art and assumed that it would turn out to be a cute, charming tale of a lady of a certain age who Finds Herself just in time. It had some sort of British/Tuscan storyline hinted at in the jacket, and that seemed like a good start. Currently there are a number of books and movies in circulation featuring charm, villas, good food, good wine, ladies who live large and well,…
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Stole this idea from the Observer Blog, because I got it wrong. The book I was thinking of starts out “Space is big. Really big.” This is one of the other ones. Which one? The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. I read via ***Dave a review of the new “h2g2” movie that… makes it sound like it just might suck, and that all the good jokes and lines are gone. If so, I think I’m going to be…
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And congratulations also to Susanna Clarke, whose excellent book on English practical magic has won the American Booksellers Association Book Sense award. Via Sci Fi Wire — The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel
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Hacking Movable Type (ExtremeTech), by Jay Allen Yeah, I might have to invest in this book, too. I think I may be entering an exalted stage where all the cool crap comes out and a more minimalist aesthetic comes in. Or something.