Evolution is fact. Proven repeatedly by science. I don't need to be convinced of evolution, I was already there. This is an incredible read, detailing several facts and paths of evolution with enough evidence to shush the naysayers....if they read this book.
Dawkins examines living proof of evolution and natural selection in insects and birds. He explains living clocks (trees and radioactive dating). He runs us through mammals and the giant land mass on Earth before the awesome continental drift (which he also explains). He also provides alarming detail on the amount of folks who only believe in Creationism.
This is a heavy book. I'm only disappointed in the fact I chose to listen to an audiobook version. Not that it wasn't well done. It was. But this was a book I needed to read at my own speed and go back and re-read. Plus, I didn't get to see all the many pictures it referenced. I think I'll be buying this in paperback and re-reading. Even if you don't fully believe in evolution, this book is an interesting and thought provoking read.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Shock Wave by John Sandford
I feel so ashamed that I missed that this came out and I didn't read it right away. I'm losing my touch.
Another f*ckin' Flowers book. Virgil is really holding his own now. Davenport was barely in here at all. Flowers is growing into his own and really impressing me.
PyeMart is being built in Butternut, MN and it's making lots of people angry. We start off with a bomb exploding at the headquarters of PyeMart in MI, with the apparent attempt to take out the board of directors. Instead, it ends up killing a secretary.
Another bomb happens at the construction site in Butternut and instead of killing anyone "important", the poor sap who is heading the construction is killed.
Now is the point you are pissed at the bomber. These people are every day folks working their jobs, not the head guy making the decisions. Flowers is called in, towing along his boat (just in case he gets time to fish) and starts making headway. Mr. Pye comes into town, all blustery and having his assistant take exact notes for his book, and starts throwing around money (has that ever helped??).
More bombs. Virgil loses someone dear to him. More bombs. More deaths. And eureka! Really?? That was the bomber all along? Didn't see that one.
Thank you, f*ckin' Flowers.
Another f*ckin' Flowers book. Virgil is really holding his own now. Davenport was barely in here at all. Flowers is growing into his own and really impressing me.
PyeMart is being built in Butternut, MN and it's making lots of people angry. We start off with a bomb exploding at the headquarters of PyeMart in MI, with the apparent attempt to take out the board of directors. Instead, it ends up killing a secretary.
Another bomb happens at the construction site in Butternut and instead of killing anyone "important", the poor sap who is heading the construction is killed.
Now is the point you are pissed at the bomber. These people are every day folks working their jobs, not the head guy making the decisions. Flowers is called in, towing along his boat (just in case he gets time to fish) and starts making headway. Mr. Pye comes into town, all blustery and having his assistant take exact notes for his book, and starts throwing around money (has that ever helped??).
More bombs. Virgil loses someone dear to him. More bombs. More deaths. And eureka! Really?? That was the bomber all along? Didn't see that one.
Thank you, f*ckin' Flowers.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The Wind Through The Keyhole by Stephen King
The two most beautiful words in any language are: I forgive
This Dark Tower book is labeled as #4.5, it should fall between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla but, as King lets you know in the forward, you can read this as a stand alone book if you've never ventured into the Dark Tower series. So, non-DT fans, feel safe to grab this excellent story-within-a-story-within-a-story novel.
I really love how this book is set up. We start off with Roland and his ka-tet of Eddie, Jake, Susannah and the billy-bumbler, Oy. They are still traveling to the Dark Tower but they all notice Oy acting peculiarly. Roland is sure he knows why but can't grasp the thought (he's been through quite a lot by this point). An old man named Bix is the one to inform them that billy-bumblers detect Starkblasts, terrible freezing storms that appear out of nowhere, unless you have a billy-bumbler to detect them. Our crew hurries to the nearest stone building to take shelter from the starkblast.
Which leads us to the new story.....
To while away the night and storm, Roland tells the story of his young self and fellow gunslinger, Jaime, who are sent to a small town in search of a skin-man. A skin-man might be described as a were in modern times, a human that changes shape into an animal. Except the skin-man can become any animal and can rip the arms from people and beat them to death with their own arms (the story gets a bit gruesome - a la King).
Which leads us to the new story......
While trying to calm a young survivor of the latest skin-man attack, young Roland tells the story of Tim Stoutheart, a young boy who is very brave (and foolish) and goes on a quest to help his mother. He encounters dragons, plantpeople, mages, and many more scary and fascinating creatures.
Which winds us back to....
The young gunslingers and the skin-man
Which winds us back to....
The ka-tet finishing out the Starkblast on their way to the Dark Tower.
This was a book to take to your recliner with your cup of tea and a blanket. While the storms rage around you, you have a good place to go...with Roland the Gunslinger and his stories.
This Dark Tower book is labeled as #4.5, it should fall between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla but, as King lets you know in the forward, you can read this as a stand alone book if you've never ventured into the Dark Tower series. So, non-DT fans, feel safe to grab this excellent story-within-a-story-within-a-story novel.
I really love how this book is set up. We start off with Roland and his ka-tet of Eddie, Jake, Susannah and the billy-bumbler, Oy. They are still traveling to the Dark Tower but they all notice Oy acting peculiarly. Roland is sure he knows why but can't grasp the thought (he's been through quite a lot by this point). An old man named Bix is the one to inform them that billy-bumblers detect Starkblasts, terrible freezing storms that appear out of nowhere, unless you have a billy-bumbler to detect them. Our crew hurries to the nearest stone building to take shelter from the starkblast.
Which leads us to the new story.....
To while away the night and storm, Roland tells the story of his young self and fellow gunslinger, Jaime, who are sent to a small town in search of a skin-man. A skin-man might be described as a were in modern times, a human that changes shape into an animal. Except the skin-man can become any animal and can rip the arms from people and beat them to death with their own arms (the story gets a bit gruesome - a la King).
Which leads us to the new story......
While trying to calm a young survivor of the latest skin-man attack, young Roland tells the story of Tim Stoutheart, a young boy who is very brave (and foolish) and goes on a quest to help his mother. He encounters dragons, plantpeople, mages, and many more scary and fascinating creatures.
Which winds us back to....
The young gunslingers and the skin-man
Which winds us back to....
The ka-tet finishing out the Starkblast on their way to the Dark Tower.
This was a book to take to your recliner with your cup of tea and a blanket. While the storms rage around you, you have a good place to go...with Roland the Gunslinger and his stories.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Heat Rises by Richard Castle
I found this one at the library even though I was determined to not get any more library books since I have so many books at home to read.
My willpower, she is weak.
This was a pretty darn good book. Nikki Heat catches the case of a priest who is murdered in a bondage dungeon. Things get weird (that wasn't weird enough) as her Captain, Charles Montrose, is acting strangely and keeps her from fully investigating this murder. It turns out that the dead priest is just the tip of an iceberg that reaches back to Monstrose's patrol days.
Short review because I don't want to give anything away, but this is a rather excellent mystery.
My willpower, she is weak.
This was a pretty darn good book. Nikki Heat catches the case of a priest who is murdered in a bondage dungeon. Things get weird (that wasn't weird enough) as her Captain, Charles Montrose, is acting strangely and keeps her from fully investigating this murder. It turns out that the dead priest is just the tip of an iceberg that reaches back to Monstrose's patrol days.
Short review because I don't want to give anything away, but this is a rather excellent mystery.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux
Part of my goals for myself this year was to read more classics. I started off by listening to Phantom of the Opera. I've never seen the play, the musical, what have you. All I knew was the gist.
And the gist is this: a scary opera ghost (referred to as OG often in the book) is haunting an opera house in Paris. He terrorizes a singer.
What the book really is: a great story told from the perspective of the author as the person investigating the claims of the opera ghost and of the disappearance of Christine Daae. The opera ghost, according to the author, is really Erik. A person, although a deformed person. And a crazy person.
Filling in the blanks from the gist I had was entertaining. I would recommend the audiobook simply because of all the French, it just sounds better than what I could have read in my head.
1 classic down....
And the gist is this: a scary opera ghost (referred to as OG often in the book) is haunting an opera house in Paris. He terrorizes a singer.
What the book really is: a great story told from the perspective of the author as the person investigating the claims of the opera ghost and of the disappearance of Christine Daae. The opera ghost, according to the author, is really Erik. A person, although a deformed person. And a crazy person.
Filling in the blanks from the gist I had was entertaining. I would recommend the audiobook simply because of all the French, it just sounds better than what I could have read in my head.
1 classic down....
Monday, April 2, 2012
Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer
This was a pretty interesting and entertaining book about the art of remembering. Foer, as a journalist, was covering the Memory Championships and, while interviewing some of the contenders, believes he needs to try to become a contender as well.
Remembering is an art. Back in the day (WAY back in the day), everything pertinent to life was memorized. Now days, we don't remember anything because we have computers, cell phones, etc. Honestly, who remembers phone numbers now? You just look up the person's name on your phone and there you go.
Ed Cookie, one of the mental athletes, takes to coaching Foer. We learn how to create memory palaces to remember pretty much everything. We learn tricks to memorizing a deck of cards (hence the title of the book). But really, this book isn't a how-to on improving your memory. It's a trip, through history, through interviews with savants, amnesiacs and Rainman, into why your memory is so important.
Our memories are intricately linked to who we are. It contains our life, our autobiography, everything we are.
I think the best piece of advice Foer offered up was that to remember you need to be present. You need to be mindful of what's going on around you. When you meet that new person, really pay attention to that person. Don't think about yourself and what you plan on saying or doing next. Be in the moment. In the end, Foer learned that the tricks were cool but he really learned to be here, in the now. And that's what helped the most.
How zen.
Remembering is an art. Back in the day (WAY back in the day), everything pertinent to life was memorized. Now days, we don't remember anything because we have computers, cell phones, etc. Honestly, who remembers phone numbers now? You just look up the person's name on your phone and there you go.
Ed Cookie, one of the mental athletes, takes to coaching Foer. We learn how to create memory palaces to remember pretty much everything. We learn tricks to memorizing a deck of cards (hence the title of the book). But really, this book isn't a how-to on improving your memory. It's a trip, through history, through interviews with savants, amnesiacs and Rainman, into why your memory is so important.
Our memories are intricately linked to who we are. It contains our life, our autobiography, everything we are.
I think the best piece of advice Foer offered up was that to remember you need to be present. You need to be mindful of what's going on around you. When you meet that new person, really pay attention to that person. Don't think about yourself and what you plan on saying or doing next. Be in the moment. In the end, Foer learned that the tricks were cool but he really learned to be here, in the now. And that's what helped the most.
How zen.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I have no idea what took me so long to read this. It was probably terror at reading a YA book that could end up being like Twilight. Since the movie is now out and I have issues with seeing movies based on books without reading the books, I had to break down and read The Hunger Games.
And read it I did. Within 24 hours. What a book!
North America seems to be....pretty messed up. We now have Panem, with a Capital that is surrounded by 12 Districts. The people of the Capital seem to be horrible and keep a tight rule on the outlying districts by forcing each district to "volunteer" one boy and one girl into the Hunger Games. The Games are televised live for the enjoyment of everything (Am I the only one who thinks we are not far off from this with all the reality crap we have on TV now??)
On the Reaping Day, Prim Everdeen is called as a tribute. She's just a kid so her sister, Katniss, volunteers to take her place. Katniss and Peeta are then tributes for District 12.
They head into the Games with the other tributes from the other 11 districts and it's a fight to the death.
For a YA book, this was pretty well written and exciting. I've heard that I need to stop reading after the 2nd book, Catching Fire, as the 3rd book isn't so good. We'll see. I'm sure I'll read them all to form my own opinion but I'm not rushing to the 2nd book. Now, I just need to see the movie.
And read it I did. Within 24 hours. What a book!
North America seems to be....pretty messed up. We now have Panem, with a Capital that is surrounded by 12 Districts. The people of the Capital seem to be horrible and keep a tight rule on the outlying districts by forcing each district to "volunteer" one boy and one girl into the Hunger Games. The Games are televised live for the enjoyment of everything (Am I the only one who thinks we are not far off from this with all the reality crap we have on TV now??)
On the Reaping Day, Prim Everdeen is called as a tribute. She's just a kid so her sister, Katniss, volunteers to take her place. Katniss and Peeta are then tributes for District 12.
They head into the Games with the other tributes from the other 11 districts and it's a fight to the death.
For a YA book, this was pretty well written and exciting. I've heard that I need to stop reading after the 2nd book, Catching Fire, as the 3rd book isn't so good. We'll see. I'm sure I'll read them all to form my own opinion but I'm not rushing to the 2nd book. Now, I just need to see the movie.
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