Books I've Read

Country music star Mitch Campbell (and National Weapons Alliance spokesperson) kills a day laborer by mistake while in a drunken haze.

Space opera. Wilson Cole joins the crew of the starship Theodore Roosevelt guarding a back-water, as it were, area of the Rim. Moves right along, dialogue seems oddly anachronistic, and the sexual references seem out of place, to me.

I really really hate it when I finish a book and find a bunch of appendices at the end. Am I suppose to look through the book and discover this stuff on my own, and take a chance on reading the ending? Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a way to let the reader know what the different parts of the book were...

In Book Four there is lots of space fighting as Cole's armada grows. A bit of cussing. The "About The Author" section seems to go on and on with all the author's many accomplishments and awards. Perhaps I'm jealous, but I think the extensive list would be more appropriate in an encyclopedia article rather than four pages in the appendix of a novel.

I guess this is #1 of the Prefect Dreyfus Emergency series. It is pretty good. I like how the author used the word "conjour".

Of particular interest was the reminiscing about the Tallulah Falls Railway. There is a nice diagram and article about trestle construction. Also an article mentioning how a Model T Ford shifts, quite different from cars nowadays. People sure were poor back in the Depression. But then, they didn't have television, so they didn't know what they were missing.

I can't say I believe in ghosts, but Lanesha sees them, and they help her when Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans. Good little story.

Mrs. Potter tries to figure out who is killing everybody in her neck of the Maine woods. Lots of delicious sounding recipes.

Penelope wakes up deaf on the morning of her elevening, and thus is the only child left behind when the Pied Piper pipes his flute. It becomes her mission to rescue the town's children, and subdue the piper. Very good!

This was a great story about the pack horse librarians and blue people of Kentucky.

I've read, as Pirsig is quoted, "ZMM", two or three times. I read "Lila", too, but both were so long along they are not in this database. I didn't understand a lot of it, and surely misunderstood a great deal, too, but it affected me greatly. This is a GREAT travelogue, and I highly recommend it.

One thing, for some reason I got it in my head that Pirsig rode a Norton. Today I Learned that his bike was a Honda 305 Superhawk. The first motorcycle I ever rode was a Honda 305 Scrambler, so there is a point of congruity for ya! A quick search on Amazon Look Inside finds no trace of the word "Norton", so who knows where I got that from!

White boy kidnapped and living with Indians is returned to "civilization", doesn't care for it. Nicely illustrated by Warren Chappell.

Jacob goes to Wales to visit the island his grandfather grew up on. Illustrated with old photos. Nicely done!

Volume two of the series following Live Free Or Die. Could barely put it down to go to work!

Alien leave an interstellar gate near Earth. Bad aliens come to take over. Crusty Vermonters fight back. Got a good talk-up on this from Mr. E. at work, so even though passing on a a previous title by Ringo, I gave it a shot. I like it very much, and will read the rest of the series. I just wish we could have a "liberal" hero in a war book!

Book three of the series, after Life Free Or Die and Citadel. Best of the three, I think, but I really enjoyed all three.

Well, THAT was interesting! Ringo's protagonist, "Bandit Six", is not shy about sharing his opinions. Good story. Is there a sequel? How did he meet his wife? This book got a lot of one star reviews on Good Reads...

I don't know why I picked up this book, maybe it was the big-boobed blonde on the cover. I struggle through the first chapter, and gave up. Not interesting to me, too much blah blah blah. Pretty much the same experience I had with Pride And Prejudice, but I struggle through it because it is a classic. This ain't no Jane Austen. I'm not putting forth the effort. Gave up reading 12/2008

A teen finds out he is the half-blood son of a Olympic god. I don't much care for mythology, but this was pretty good stuff.

Percy heads off on another quest in this, the second book of the series.