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Podkayne Of Mars

Heinlein, Robert
A student gave me this after asking me what book I would want. I've read it several times in the last zillion years, but I've been wanting to read it again, the library doesn't have a copy, and I want my own copy, too. Now I've got one. Finished it this morning. Tears at the end.

Read:

6/2016

Read Again:

7/2016

Read Again:

8/2017

Read Again:

6/2019

Revolt In 2100 & Methuselah's Children

Heinlein, Robert
Two books in one! I've read it before, of course, but the nice thing about Heinlein is you can read it again and it's still new! I love the clunky computers used to navigate space ships.

Read:

6/2012

Starman Jones

Heinlein, Robert
Max runs away from home and sneaks onto a starship as assistant pig-keeper, I mean, horse-poop shoveler. I've read this before, in the distant past.

Read:

6/2012

Starship troopers

Heinlein, Robert
A great book, classic Science Fiction! Book makes you think about personal responsibility. Highly recommended for Junior High. Also take a look at Citizen Of The Galaxy. Read again 2008! Read again in 2010, finally figured out Johnnie is from the Philippines.

Read:

No date

Read:

2/2008

Words I Had To Look Up:

Ochee Chyornya (pg. 27) -- "Dark Eyes", a famous Russian Gypsy ballad
moulinet (pg. 47) -- A circular cut, often composed of a parry, usually prime or seconde, moving thence into a circular cut.
scrofulous toads (pg. 44) -- 1. Relating to, affected with, or resembling scrofula. 2. Morally degenerate; corrupt
Danny Deever (pg. 75) -- A poem by Rudyard Kipling describing the execution of a British soldier in India for murder.
Ramon Magsaysay ( pg. 260) -- Guerrilla leader in the Philippines during World War II, he was later President of the Philippines.

Read:

11/2010

Stranger In A Strange Land

Heinlein, Robert
I've been complaining for years how much I disliked this book. I decided to take a break from Sean O'Faolain and read it again. I got the unabridged edition from the public library. I'm surprised how much better the book has gotten since I read it in the 60s... I'm also surprised it's in a middle school library! In several or them!

Words I Had To Look Up:

rump crews (pg. 5) -- A minimum crew for a vessel.
Wise Girl Malthusian Lozenges (pg. 75) -- Some sort birth control related pills.
apportation (pg. 70) -- The carrying or projecting of an object through space.
Karthago delenda est (pg. 72) -- Carthage must be destroyed.
Cry Harold (pg. 147) -- Can't find anything definitive.
bindlestiff (pg. 147) -- A tramp (hobo) who carries a bedroll (bindle) or a bundle of possessions.
gandy dancer (pg. 147) -- A railroad worker, an itinerant laborer.
philosophunculist (pg. 154) -- A person who pretends to know more than they do to impress others.
amphigory (pg. 154) -- Nonsensical writing.
imputation (pg. 189) -- A statement attributing something dishonest.
catenative (pg. 196) -- Having the ability to catenate, or form chains..
invidious (pg. 215) -- Discriminatory.
accretion (pg. 242) -- An increase by natural growth or addition .
odalisque (pg. 297) -- A concubine or woman slave in a harem .
capric cult (pg. 332) -- Must refer to the sexual activities of the Foster religion.
concupiscence (pg. 334) -- Sexual desire: a desire for sexual intimacy .
omniscio (pg. 341) -- As an adjective: Omniscient, all-knowing. Used here as a noun: An omniscient viewing device.
benison (pg. 343) -- A spoken blessing.
nautch dance (pg. 373) -- An intricate traditional dance performed by dancing girls in India.
peccavimus (pg. 390) -- Latin, we have sinned.
exempli gratia (pg. 391) -- Latin, for the sake of example, abbreviated as eg.
William Harvey (pg. 391) -- Described blood circulation correctly.
theogamy (pg. 414) -- Marriage of/between gods.
apotheosis (pg. 414) -- Exaltation to divine rank or stature.
syncretic (pg. 417) -- Reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief.
scansion (pg. 429) -- Analysis of verse into metrical patterns. Whatever THAT means!

Read:

4/2009

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Heinlein, Robert
I love the book jacket! A guy is murdered at Dr. Ames' restaurant table. How rude! Great first half, great "ending", kind of sags in the rest.

Words I Had To Look Up:

buy a round toowitt (pg. 364) -- Joke? Just where and how do you get a round toowitt?

Read:

4/2009

Read:

9/2019

Read:

4/2021

The Fantasies Of Robert A. Heinlein

Heinlein, Robert
Eight stories, including Waldo and Magic, Inc.

Read:

7/2002

The Moon I A Harsh Mistress

Heinlein, Robert
Luna is revolting! I've read this a number of times over the years, now I have my own personal copy!

Read::

10/2019

The Number Of The Beast

Heinlein, Robert
Mr. Heinlein's mad ride through space and time.

Vanderdecken (pg. 130) The Lost Dutchman.
"'"Owner,"'" Zebadiah said firmly. (pg. 234) I still haven't figured out the punctuation there.
"Zebadiah, is my number fifty-nine?" (pg. 269) I have not figured out the name/number puzzle yet.
Praxitele (pg. 276) A renown Greek sculptor of the fourth century B.C., first to sculpt a female nude ACT Wikipedia.
Koschei (pg. 461) A character in Slavic folklore, he is very hard to kill.

Read:

10/2002

Read:

4/2014

Read:

8/2017

The Puppet Masters

Heinlein, Robert
I've read this several times before, but apparently not since 1998. Scary book, scary movie.

On page 272 a "Jo block" is mentioned. I looked 'em up, they are standard gauge blocks of varying size that are combined for measurement in a machine tool. More or less!

On page 313 a quote "Would that my subjects had but one neck...", which pretty much is what is in the standard quote sites, and is attributed to Caligula.

Read:

9/2012

Read:

4/2014

Read Again:

5/2016

Read Again:

8/2019

Read Again:

8/2024

The Star Beast

Heinlein, Robert
A boy and his pet, or vice versa, head out to the woods for a little alone-time from the stresses of societal demands... I think I only read this one five times since junior high. I love the teen girl divorcing her parents in a 1954 book!

Read:

6/2015

Read:

12/2017

Read Again:

9/2019

Read:

8/2021

Time for the stars

Heinlein, Robert
Twins with telepathic talents maintain communications between a spaceship surveying planets to settle and Earth. Read again. And again. This time I learned that "sasparilla" is a variation of the original "sarsaparilla". Or vice versa. Or neither!

Read:

10/2005

Read:

12/2010

Read:

9/2019

Tunnel In The Sky

Heinlein, Robert
Final exam in Solo Survival goes awry.

Read:

6/2012

Murder By Bicycle

Heley, Veronica
Ellie Quieke tries to find out who is bicycling around her "pleasant London suburb" delivering poisoned buns. And, she make a decision about her suitor, Bill.

Words I Had To Look Up:

paracetamol (pg. 40) -- We in the U.S. know it as acetaminophen.
senna (pg. 28) -- A plant, used as a laxative.
cascara (pg. 28) -- Another plant, used as a laxative.
carers (pg. 129) -- Brit for caregivers.

Quote:

...there was always a crumble in the rose leaf, wasn't there? (pg. 40)

Murder In House

Heley, Veronica
I like how the author's name is TWICE AS LARGE as the title. Ellie meets up with the truly evil family of developer Prior.

Words I Had To Look Up:

slag (pg. 52) -- Brit. slang for tart, whore, a loose woman.
Save the mark! (pg. 139) -- An exclamation of humorous astonishment, irony, contempt, etc. Often prefaced with "God".

Read:

7/2010

Murder In The Park

Heley, Veronica
Ellie is involved in finding the lad whose pit bull killed a woman in the park. Ellie's house is burned, and aunt Drusilla is in very poor health.

Words I Had To Look Up:

maisonette (pg. 31) -- An apartment / flat on two levels with internal stairs, or which has its own entrance at street level. from Wikipedia.
treacle sponge (pg. 122) -- A treacle sponge pudding is a British dessert dish consisting of a steamed sponge cake with golden syrup or molasses cooked on top of it, sometimes also poured over it and often served with hot custard. from Wikipedia.
[Diana] having a high opinion of her deserts (pg. 88) -- I thought this was a typo of "desserts", but found this on Wikipedia: Desert, in philosophy, is the condition of being deserving of something, whether good or bad.

Quote:

He seems to think laughter comes from god. (pg. 74) I like that phrase!

"Tough titties," said Ellie... (pg. 167) Language, Ellie!!

Read:

7/2010

Murder Of Identity

Heley, Veronica
Lee takes the identity of Russell, his landlord. Tries to plant Russell is some old lady's garden. Ellie discovers the body. Diana eventually bops Lee over the head, and is the hero, for once.

Words I Had To Look Up:

secateurs (pg. 3) -- Brit. Eng. for pruning shears, or hand pruners.
winceyette (pg. 49) -- A kind of cotton flannel.
Baxi fire (pg. 26) -- An underfloor draught fire, some sort of home heating device.
it's en suite (pg. 196) -- Brit. Eng. for including a bathroom.
donkey jacket (pg. 198) -- Brit. Eng. for a type of jacket worn by manual workers.

Read:

7/2010

Cha Cha Cha

Heller, Jane
Alison gets divorced, poor (relatively), accused of murder, and falls in love with a guy who owns a sailboat. An enjoyable diversion.

Read:

10/2003

Crystal Clear

Heller, Jane
Crystal goes to Secona, AZ, to get her aura cleansed. Somebody disappears. Pretty Jane Heller, enjoyable little

Read:

4/2004

Female Intelligence

Heller, Jane
Dr. Lynn Wyman tries to teach a CEO how to communicate with women, while having communication problems of her own.

QUOTE:

"...Do you remember the words Tom Cruse's character used to tell Rene Zellwegger's character he loves her?" He shook his head. "I must have put my hands over my eyes at that point. I do that when movies have scary parts."

Read:

7/2002
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Aiken] [Aiken - Allinghamc] [Alvarez - Angelou] [Anthony - Atkins] [Atkinson - Backman] [Baen Publishing Enterprises - Balliett] [Balliett - Barnard] [Barnard - Barr] [Barr - Barrows] [Barry - Bear] [Bear - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Bester] [Bingle - Block] [Block - Block] [Block - Bosch] [Bosch - Brashares] [Breathed - Bryson] [Bryson - Bujold] [Bujold - Bujold] [Bujold - Card] [Card - Card] [Card - Caunitz] [Caunitz - Cheaney] [Chesterton - Clancy] [Clare - Coben] [Coben - Colfer] [Colfer - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Conroy] [Constantine - Cooper] [Corbett - Cornwell] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Crichton] [Crichton - Crusie] [Curry - Cussler] [Cussler - Davis] [Davis - Dilloway] [Dionne - Dorsey] [Dorsey - Dowell] [Dowell - Duncan] [Duncan - Elkins] [Elkins - Evanovich] [Evanovich - Fairstein] [Fairstein - Ferris] [Fforde - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Ford] [Forester - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Frey] [Frey - Gantos] [Gantos - Gibson] [Gibson - Gores] [Gores - Granger] [Granger - Greenberg] [Greenfield - Grimes] [Grimes - Grisham] [Grisham - Haddix] [Haddix - Hall] [Hall - Hallinan] [Halpern - Haugaard] [Hautman - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Herbert] [Herman - Hess] [Hess - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hobb] [Hobb - Hoose] [Hopkinson - Hudson] [Huff - Jacobs] [James - Jones] [Jones - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Kellog] [Kellog - King] [King - Kline] [Klise - Kowal] [Kowal - Lamott] [Lampman - Lawrence] [Lawrence - Lee] [Lee - Lescroart] [Lescroart - Liebster] [Lindsay - London] [Long - Lubar] [Luna - MacLachlan] [Maclean - Mandel] [Mankell - Martin] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McCaffrey - McCrumb] [McCrumb - Medwed] [Meier - Millard] [Miller - Moon] [Moon - Morrison] [Mortimer - Mysterious Press] [Nance - Nimmo] [Niven - Novik] [Novik - O'Brian] [O'Brian - Oliver] [Oppel - Paretsky] [Paretsky - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Paterson] [Paterson - Paulsen] [Paulsen - Peck] [Peck - Phelan] [Philbrick - Posey] [Powell - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Prineas] [Pronzini - Pullman] [Pullman - Quinn] [Quinn - Reeve] [Reeve - Ringo] [Ringo - Robinson] [Robinson - Rowling] [Rowling - Russo] [Rust - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Schmidt] [Schmidt - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Seranella] [Setterfield - Shusterman] [Shusterman - Smith] [Smith - Soto] [Sparks - Stark] [Stark - Stephenson] [Stephenson - Stroke] [Stroke - Strunk] [Sturgeon - Taylor] [Taylor - Townsend] [Tracy - Updale] [Urban - Van Name] [van Vogt - Walsh] [Walsh - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westlake] [Westlake - Westlake] [Westlake - Willis] [Willis - Wodehouse] [Wodehouse - Yep] [Yep - Zusak] 

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