Welcome to the third month of the Once A Month Book Club! This month we have been reading fantasy stories, which are those “featuring magic paranormal magic and terrible monsters”. Wow, wonder if J.K Rowling used that as a checklist? Don’t forget to check out the links at the bottom of the page to find [...]
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Rational Mysticism? Surely she mistyped. But no, fair readers (I’ve been into the Austen recently), Rational Mysticism it is. I’ll give away the ending, shall I? “Mystical awe is the inverse of knowledge; it is a kind of anti-knowledge. Instead of seeing The Answer to the riddle of existence, you just see how impenetrable the [...]
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“If the wolves come out of the walls, then it’s all over.” “What’s all over?” asked Lucy. “It,” said her mother. “Everybody knows that.” Every now and then our children bring home badly written corporate books from the library, and I roll my terrible eyes and gnash my terrible teeth! The world is full of [...]
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I am not getting paid for this, I just like fellow musical parents to have some better options. Let’s be honest here. Most music sold to children sucks. I have begged and pleaded with my parents not to purchase “music” that doesn’t have an actual performer, or claims a corporation as its writer. (Yes, I’m [...]
Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: children, fun, music, review | 4 Comments »
Diabetes Rising by Dan Hurley (Kaplan Publishing, January 2010) Let’s start this way: I picked this book up at random at the public library yesterday morning and finished it at 2 o’clock this afternoon, even though we had a ‘home sick’ day today. There might have been Backyardigans involved in the rapid read. I will [...]
Filed under: WorldView | Tagged: health, review, the body | 1 Comment »
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am reviewing old books that have been languishing on the shelves. I am picking these books entirely by the content of their covers (no peeking inside), to determine for my own edification whether one can, in fact, judge a book by its cover. So far, so good. [...]
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This time I am making myself post my book choice *before* reading it. The book of the week is Acting the Giddy Goat: I picked it out because it is a trade paper back (sorry, it’s true… that’s why it won this week). I really prefer holding TPB’s, since I usually read lying in bed, [...]
Filed under: Library | Tagged: by its cover, review | 2 Comments »
Title: Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture Author: Ellen Ruppel Shell Penguin, 2009 This book begins in the same place as a surprisingly large number of books of this type: with the author’s (seemingly sudden) realization that something she takes for granted might be a problem. In this case, it is the purchase of [...]
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Review: No Impact Man
Title: No Impact Man Author: Colin Beavan Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2009 This book surprised me. I have read a LOT of the “My Year Of…” category of books, and I arrived at this one from a not-particularly positive commentary on the New York Times. I found myself with book in hand only a [...]
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