posted
I just picked up a little book on the extraordinary uses of baking soda! lol Another one is about not sweating the small stuff in you family.
There's just piles of books everywhere at this school!
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Accounting For Dummies. Don't ask.
Recently finished a couple of Sue Grafton's mysteries. Gotta' say that if you read 'em out of alphabetical sequence, she's improved a hell of a lot over the years in terms of story quality. Or else her editors got better. Maybe it's both...
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
(I left off the Kinsey Milhone series at M or O. I forget.)
I've almost finished Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, by Stephen Puleo. Sound like a joke or a Bugs Bunny cartoon? It's not. This is the first and only book to document a disaster that hit North End Boston in January 1919. (More unfortunate jokes come to mind, about molasses in January....)
A huge tank (50 feet high) containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst apart on January 15, 1919. A wave of molasses 25 feet high and 160 feet wide spilled into the surrounding area, engulfing people, horses, other animals and wrecking buildings and a railroad line. People were killed and injured, either drowning in molasses or crushed by debris. All the horses were shot. It was a real nightmare of a disaster.
The molasses was being distilled into industrial alcohol, used in the manufacture of explosives. With the world war, there had been a huge demand for explosives, so this giant tank was built. After the war, the country was on the edge of Prohibition and the company, U.S. Industrial Alcohol, thought they could make some money with one final, massive distillation of alcohol for rum - so the tank was filled to the maximum.
Leaks in the tank had been reported for years; the company would just recaulk the tank. At one point, they even painted it brown so the leaking molasses would be less evident. In the end (in a class action civil suit), it was determined that the company was negligent. However, they argued that anarchists had bombed the tank.
This wasn't an entirely farfetched proposal. Anarchist activity was widespread at the time; there were a number of actual bombings throughout the U.S. and many threats. It seemed a lot like our own time with terror alerts and widespread suspicion of particular nationalities.
The book is a fascinating tale of a tragic event and the surrounding political and financial environment of the time.
posted
1000 Novels Everyone Must Read Cool article with synopses (synopsi? damned plurals) of the books. I'm ashamed to admit I've only read a few of them and honestly have never even heard of a great many of them.
A very few of them I own or have owned but never got around to reading so I have to dig 'em out of the slush pile. Also now I have something to really look forward to finding at the book stores.
Very cool.
From: Smallville Sector : Greater Metropolis | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
So one of my friends knows I like crime novels and noir movies so he gave me a copy of James Patterson's recent Alex Cross novel. I really didn't want to read it, but I felt guilty returning it to him unread...it just didn't feel like the kind of thing I was looking for. Well, either I made a self-fulfilling prophecy or my gut was right, because I really did not enjoy it very much and by the end I was skimming through it.
It just felt very...weak. The pacing and characters all acted very cliche, the plot was a bit jumbled without being clever, and the dialogue seemed to be trying so hard to be witty and 'cool' without achieving it (because it was trying too hard). I've read much better crime fiction, including many comic books, and I've seen too many better films that the book didn't ring true to me. It felt rather flat, like the author is running through the motions without giving me any real meat.
Anyone ever read one of these? Am I way off and simply was too jaded? Because it just didn't seem all that good. There's just so much better crime / CSI / serial killer fiction out there that doesn't get all the press probably because its more complicated plot & character wise. I've heard the same thing about Tom Clancy's books, even though I've never picked on up.
[ August 20, 2009, 06:26 PM: Message edited by: Cobalt Kid ]
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Fat Cramer: (I left off the Kinsey Milhone series at M or O. I forget.)
I've almost finished Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, by Stephen Puleo. Sound like a joke or a Bugs Bunny cartoon? It's not. This is the first and only book to document a disaster that hit North End Boston in January 1919. (More unfortunate jokes come to mind, about molasses in January....)
A huge tank (50 feet high) containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst apart on January 15, 1919. A wave of molasses 25 feet high and 160 feet wide spilled into the surrounding area, engulfing people, horses, other animals and wrecking buildings and a railroad line. People were killed and injured, either drowning in molasses or crushed by debris. All the horses were shot. It was a real nightmare of a disaster.
The molasses was being distilled into industrial alcohol, used in the manufacture of explosives. With the world war, there had been a huge demand for explosives, so this giant tank was built. After the war, the country was on the edge of Prohibition and the company, U.S. Industrial Alcohol, thought they could make some money with one final, massive distillation of alcohol for rum - so the tank was filled to the maximum.
Leaks in the tank had been reported for years; the company would just recaulk the tank. At one point, they even painted it brown so the leaking molasses would be less evident. In the end (in a class action civil suit), it was determined that the company was negligent. However, they argued that anarchists had bombed the tank.
This wasn't an entirely farfetched proposal. Anarchist activity was widespread at the time; there were a number of actual bombings throughout the U.S. and many threats. It seemed a lot like our own time with terror alerts and widespread suspicion of particular nationalities.
The book is a fascinating tale of a tragic event and the surrounding political and financial environment of the time.
Sounds fascinating!
Anarchists around that era are extremely interesting. After an anarchist shot and killed President McKinley (I believe in 1900), a panic swept through the nation (and this was already after anarchists scared many people).
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Interestingly, wiki claims that Czolgosz, McKinley's assassin, never held formal membership in any Anarchist group-- though he was enamored of some Anarchist teachings.
BTW, Candle, I remember reading about the plant disaster in an old 'zine called Murder Can Be Fun. My husband was a big fan. I'll have to tell him that the events inspired an entire book.
BTW, for anyone who's curious about American Anarchism from the other end, I totally recommend Sticking To The Union.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
P.S.- CK, your complaints about Patterson sound like my complaints about Phillip Margolin. He's hugely popular in these parts, but I read one of his books, and that was plenty.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
The Voice in the Mirror. Book 29 in the Nightmare Hall series.
A book I was supposed to get for Christmas but came late.
Salem University student Annie and her friends are preparing for the holiday season, but, one of the boys suffers an unexpected, Ripper-esque psychotic break, and begins to imagine that one of Annie's friends, Helene, is actually Elyse Weldon, the girl he killed to get her scholarship. This isn't helped by a split personality which has manifested, a voice in the mirror which tells him to kill "Elyse" before she reclaims her scholarship. But when the "Voice" takes over and tries to kill Helene, getting her sent back home for surgery, the guy now sees another girl as "Elyse" and that he will have to kill her before she kills him. And pretty soon Annie will be next on this psychopath's quest to get rid of Elyse Weldon once and for all.
-------------------- I want to be hated by lies - Bring Back Lian Harper
quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: So one of my friends knows I like crime novels and noir movies so he gave me a copy of James Patterson's recent Alex Cross novel. I really didn't want to read it, but I felt guilty returning it to him unread...it just didn't feel like the kind of thing I was looking for. Well, either I made a self-fulfilling prophecy or my gut was right, because I really did enjoy it very much and by the end I was skimming through it.
I started reading one of Patterson's books a few years back while on vacation at the beach. The house we rented had it in their library... I put it down after fifteen pages. It just didn't grab, much like the Cross movies. They are weak and thin in my opinion.
A few weeks later I read a blurb from Stephen King on James Patterson and he said that he didn't like his writing because all of his stories tend to be the same one over and over again (paraphrasing of course). Having read a few King novels over the years, I respect his opinion on fiction novelists.
-------------------- Something Filthy!
From: NOVA by way of NOIN | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Well with those recurring character novels, writers have a tough line to walk. Readers want the same good story, but writers then get dissed for not writing too creatively. Poe and Christie and Doyle faced similar criticisms.
I just read my first Jonathon Kellerman novel. It was good, and Alex Delaware is a skewed take on the hard boiled pi. But I can easily see the books getting formulaic.
I'm working my way through A Confederacy of Dunces and it's intriguing and quirky for sure.
From: Denver, CO | Registered: May 2004
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posted
I'm reading a debut book by Elizabeth Kerner, 'Song in the Silence'.
So far, like the wonderful title, the book is lovely and interesting.
She writes in first person, which usually isn't so good, but in this case, it means that at least one of the charaters that I've come to like very much, is going to survive! lol
Dragons are done to death, how do they keep inspiring so many different, and often fantastic, stories?!
I recently skimmed a child's picture book, if that's possible, about a little tree that found Spring, Summer and Winter to be easy seasons. But AUTUMN is hard ~ then you see it trying to get the colors right! Lovely litte book.
Reading Rainbow had books about eggs this week. One was Rashashana's Eggs. The story was about a wounded goose who is taken in by an old peasant woman. The goose accidentally knocks over a basket of decorated eggs, breaking them (those beautiful Ukranian colored marvels).
The woman shows the eggs that she makes throughout the year in Moscow. She usually wins, but . . .
Before this happened the goose was laying a plain egg every day, which the woman was eating. After the accident, every day there was an egg but it was designed and colored in the shell, itself. The woman blew the eggs out and kept the shells.
Finally, the fair came and the goose was healed. The woman won the prize, the goose was gone but the next morning she found an egg, Rashashana's last, on her bed, shaking and breaking. Out came a beautiful baby goose who stayed with her 'forever'.
The illustrations were just unbelievablly lovely, but they took the story even farther but showing us the artist. She looked just like a younger version of the Ukanian woman! She made a decorated egg for us, too.
I love kids books!
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Currently reading "Kings Dragon" by Kate Elliot. I discovered Ms. Elliot through her Gate series, which is pretty good. The book I reading now is not good however (though it weas her first published novel). Not saying the book is actually bad, cause its not. However her prose doesn't flow nicely and her fiction events thus far seem to be rehashing of actual historical events with a fantasy bend. All that being said I'm going to stick with the series, cause I know (based on her gate cycle) that she improves dramaticly as a writer, and I think it may be interesting to see HOW she eveolves thoughout this series
From: Fort McMurray | Registered: Nov 2004
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