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Zen And Now -- On the trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

Richardson, Mark
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!

Read:

7/2011

The Light In The Forest

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

Read:

6/2012

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

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

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2/2012

A Hymn Before Battle

Ringo, John
I read the Baen Free Library e-book edition. First Contact happens, and Earth gets hired to fight the bad guy aliens. Good read, lots of military stuff and violence!

Quote:

He drew his Gerber and stepped out -- pg.23. Hey, I got one of those!

Read:

9/2022

Quote:

Craftsman,” he said, relaxing and letting the rest of the breath out slowly, “when you care enough to use the very best.”

Citadel

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

Read:

2/2012

Live Free Or Die

Ringo, John
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!

Read:

2/2012

The Hot Gate

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

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2/2012

The Last Centurion

Ringo, John
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...

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4/2012

Sister Time

Ringo, John, and Julie Cochrane
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

Read:

No date

The Lighting Thief

Riordan, Rick
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.

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12/2007

The Sea Of Monsters

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

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12/2007

The Titan's Curse

Riordan, Rick
In book three of the series Percy battles it out on Mt. Tam.

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12/2007

Packing For Mars : The Curious Science Of Life In The Void

Roach, Mary
More than you may want to know about how space poop. The author is not afraid to ask the hard questions about how man can survive, live, and possibly procreate, in space.

She kind of lays into G. Harry Stine, a writer I'd rather admire, but if she's right, she's right.

Words I Had To Look Up:::

submarine myopia (pg. 57) -- Apparently submarine crew develop a vision problem from being in close quarters that takes a few days to clear up after they get ashore.

Quote:

...here in Almogordo...not far from Roswell and Area 51 -- (pg. 169)Well, Area 51 is 500 miles away, by my finger-measure.

Read:

8/2011

Black Sun

Roanhorse, Rebecca
Book one of Between Earth And Sky series. Well, we seem to be left at some sort of cliffhanger (not literally) here. When is the next book coming out?

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5/2021

Trail Of Lightning

Roanhorse, Rebecca
I really enjoyed this first book in The Sixth World series. Which I'm reading 'cause it was nominated for a Hugo. It takes place in the Navajo tribal area of the U.S. after an apocalyptic event has wiped out a great deal of the rest of the world. Very reminiscent of Tony Hillerman's mysteries, at least as far as the Native American stuff. There has been some controversy about her portrayal of Navajo culture and mythology, but it's a good story.

Quote:

More of an oversize shack, really, it is approximately eight hundred feet across and half as deep...--pg 153 So it's almost nearly three football fields long and it's an oversize shack?

Read:

6/2019

Founding Mothers

Roberts, Cokie
Pretty good but slow for me to read. Learned a bit about the early Ladies of the country.

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1/2019

Antarctica

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Eco-Science Fiction on ice.

QUOTE:

Shut up! Shut up! I used to climb all over these trees! Don't you tell me what to do! Once when I was fifteen I jumped from one tree to the next one over! And that was just a couple weeks ago. She had sat down on the grass and Val had sat next to her, an arm around her. Just a couple weeks ago, she insisted. And now I'm ninety-four.

Read:

7/1999

Red Mars

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Colonization of Mars. First book of a trilogy. 519 pages. Good book, but couldn't bring myself to read the other two.

QUOTE:

"They were so ignorant! Young men and women, educated very carefully to be apolitical, to be technicians who thought they disliked politics, making them putty in the hands of their rulers, just like always."

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8/1999

Barracuda 945

Robinson, Patrick
SAS renegade gets hold of a nuke sub and terrorizes U.S. West coast. Seemed rather predictable, maybe I've read too much of Mr. Robinson. Character is bound to come back as he has not received his come- uppence yet.

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6/2004

Diamondhead

Robinson, Patrick
Mack Bedford gets kicked out of the Navy, essentially. Deadly anti-tank missiles are killing our boys in the Middle East. And the ship yard in Mack's hometown is shutting down. All because of the French. Mack is going to do something about. it.
As mentioned in the Amazon.com review, it takes 200 pages to get going, but when it does, it does! Some of the plot seems improbable, but you can't fault the action.
I'm not some military expert, but I never heard that SEALs traveled in tanks. Seems like all the SEALs killed in this book are in tanks!
The author's favorite word seems to be "smithereens". He uses it at least three times. Hey, like I could write a best-selling novel!

Quote:

He surged forward, arms pumping, combat boots hitting the blacktop. Up ahead he could see a cyclist, wearing Olympic spandex shorts but struggling. And in Mack's mind, this was Osama Bin Laden trying to get away...The cyclist, who was not even a member of al-Qaeda, was a young local schoolteacher, and he stared in astonishment as Mack Bedford came pounding past him. (pg. 203)

Read:

8/2009
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Akers, pseud.] [Akers, pseud. - Anderson] [Anderson - Ashcraft] [Asimov - Babbit] [Bacigalupi - Baldacci] [Baldacci - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnes] [Barnes - Barr] [Barr - Beanton] [Beanton - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Birdsall] [Birney - Block] [Block - Bonham] [Bonham - Brackenbury] [Bradbury - Bryson] [Bryson - Bujold] [Bujold - Burroughs] [Buzzell - Card] [Card - Carrere] [Carroll - Charles] [Chavarria - Clancy] [Clancy - Coben] [Coben - Coleman] [Colfer - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Cook] [Cook - Cornwell] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Cronley] [Crumley - Cussler] [Cussler - Dashner] [Datlow - Dick] [Dickens - Doohan] [Dorsey - Drake] [Drake - Edsel] [Eggars - Emerson] [Emerson - Faherty] [Faherty - Farmer] [Farmer - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Flint] [Flint - Foster] [Foster - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Freedman] [Freedman - Galli] [Gantos - Gibbons] [Gibson - Gores] [Gores - Granger] [Granger - Greenberg] [Greenfield - Grimes] [Grimes - Haddix] [Haddix - Hall] [Hall - Hallinan] [Hallinan - Hassman] [Haugaard - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Hepler] [Herbert - Hess] [Hess - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hobb] [Hobb - Hornung] [Hornung - Huff] [Hughes - Jemisin] [Jemisin - Jones] [Joyce - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Kidder] [Kienzle - Kingsolver] [Kingsolver - Konrath] [Konrath - Kurson] [Kushner - Larsson] [Lasky - Leckie] [Leckie - Leonard] [Leonard - Lewis] [Lewis - Louv] [Lovelace - Lutz] [Lutz - Magnuson] [Maguire - Marshall] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McBain - McCrumb] [McCrumb - McNab] [McNally - Mikaelsen] [Mikaelsen - Moon] [Moon - Mortimer] [Mortimer - Nance] [Nance - Niven] [Niven - O'Brian] [O'Brian - O'Brian] [O'Brien - Osa] [Osman - Paretsky] [Paretsky - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Patterson] [Pattou - Pearson] [Pearson - Perry] [Peters - Pohl] [Pohl - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Prineas] [Pronzini - Pullman] [Pullman - Reedy] [Reeve - Richardson] [Richardson - Robinson] [Robinson - Rowling] [Rowling - Russo] [Rust - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Schmidt] [Schmitz - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shaffer] [Shames - Shute] [Sijie - Smith] [Smith - Spiegelman] [Spiegelman - Stark] [Stasheff - Stern] [Stewart - Stross] [Stross - Taft] [Tapply - Thompson] [Thorp - Turtledove] [Turtledove - Van Draanen] [Van Draanen - Varley] [Veglahn - Watts] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Wheeler] [Whelan - Wodehouse] [Wodehouse - Wouk] [Wrede - Zusak] 

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