Mailbox Monday

It's been a pretty quiet week in terms of books this week. I only bought the one book:

Jamie's Food Revolution
Hyperion
Jamie Oliver
Copyright: 2009
978-1401323592

The latest of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, this one is geared to simple and quick meals. So far, the ones I've tried (only three of them) have all turned out to be delicious, and I plan to keep cooking from it. The photos are great, and he's done something a little different: instead of just a full size photo of the final result, Jamie Oliver has included a series of photos depicting the preparation process step by step.

Mailbox Monday is hosted by The Printed Page.

Site Update

I had the bright idea of trying one of the many custom templates out there for Blogger today. I've wanted to use a 3 column layout for a while, so I spent some time today looking through the sites listed recently in the Blogger Buzz and found a nice one to try.

It didn't work out. The process deleted all of the widgets on my blog (there's really too many of them, but I use them all), screwed up a half dozen other things, and didn't work as all of the features were linked from places like photobucket (which were all over their limits).

I've just spent the last couple of hours reverting to my old template and reconstructing the widgets (or most of them). In the process though, I've removed a couple, so maybe the blog will load a bit quicker now.

Needless to say this was time I could have been spending reading, and I'm not inclined to try changing to a custom layout again any time soon.

Edited to add: I've changed the template again anyway, to another of Blogger's built-in layouts. This time the width is adjustable, so there's less wasted screen-space, and the white background should make the site more readable. On the other hand, I preferred the sans-serif font of the previous template. Oh well, you can't have everything if it's not a custom design.

Book Rambling: Cookbooks

If you're going to post about a cookbook, at what point do you feel it is fair to review it?

Surely it would take too long to try every recipe, but when do you think you've given a book a fair shake? I'm wondering because I have an ever growing collection of cookbooks that I've bought. Some of them I haven't tried any recipes from yet, others I've only done a few. The latest addition is Jamie's Food Revolution, which I bought tonight, and I have to say, looks very good. Of course, I'm no expert cook.

On a semi-related thread, what attracts you to a particular cookbook? The author (or other major figure involved)? Is it a T.V. show you've followed? the layout of the book? or is it some other reason entirely?

For myself, it's a combination of the recipes and the layout. The majority have to be not too complicated, and be something I think I'd like to eat. I'm also attracted by the format used in all three of the books above, where every recipe has its' photo. I don't watch cooking shows, so although I'm aware that a particular chef has a show, it doesn't otherwise (as far as I'm aware, anyway) affect my choice.

Jamie's Food Revolution has taken that one step further, and given a step by step series of photos for the preparation of the dish as well as a picture of the finished result.

How about you?

Utterly Amazed

I just have to say that I'm utterly amazed right now. I'm watching the stats for All Booked Up fly right through the roof. I thought yesterday was amazing, when I had 60 visits. Today is jaw-dropping then. Only 9 a.m. and already there's over a hundred.

Thanks everyone.

Skin Trade - Laurell K. Hamilton

Skin Trade
Laurell K. Hamilton
Berkley Books
Copyright Date: 2009
978-0425227725

According to the cover of Skin Trade:

When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City’s local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it’s worse than she thought. Ten officers and one executioner have been slain—paranormal style.

Anita heads to Vegas, where’s she’s joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward. It’s a good thing he always has her back, because when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses “tiger” too strongly to ignore it. The weretigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher.

My first reaction on finishing Skin Trade, the latest book in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series was WOW!. Admittedly, this was at somewhere around two this morning. Which should say something. For the last three/four days, this book has kept me up far past my bedtime, because I just had to know what happened next.

In Skin Trade Hamilton has gone back, at least somewhat to the early days of the series, when most of the story was centered around the crime Anita was solving. It worked. Up until the end of the book, there's very little sex, which makes for a nice change.

There's very little from most of the main/secondary cast of characters in St. Louis, as the majority of the action takes place in Los Vegas (as anyone who follows Laurell's blog, probably knows already). At the same time, we get a lot more from Edward, Olaf and Bernardo, which is sure to please a lot of people.

The role of the were-tigers is growing as the books progress. I can't help but wonder what's going to happen in the next book, but that's how the Anita Blake books usually leave me. This one sure had a few twists, which I really don't want to spoil.

What I found though, as the book progressed, is that I'm really going to have to reread Incubus Dreams, as apparently, the villain of this book played a role in that one. Also, the events of Blood Noir come back to haunt Anita here. All of this series are interconnected now. Although I started out reading the Anita Blake books out of order as I could borrow them from the library, I wouldn't want to do that since about Narcissus In Chains. Now, I think I'd be completely lost.

There are times when I've doubted the wisdom of buying these books the day they first come out (namely with Cerulean Sins and Blood Noir, one of which I haven't read since the first time, and the second, which I didn't read until a few days ago), but not this one. I loved it, and I'm probably going to keep buying them right away. Something about this series has captured my imagination.

Unlike Blood Noir, which was quite thin, at least compared to Skin Trade and some of the other recent books, you really get your money's worth in the latest installment of the series. It is just a few pages short of five hundred pages, and packed with action.

Still, both of the two most recent books have been set outside of St. Louis, and I'm missing the interactions that go on there (although not Richard. Since Cerulean Sins I've found that I'm not that fond of him) and I hope the next book will return to the rest of the characters.

Skin Trade, although it seems to have resolved a few of the issues of recent books, has left plenty for the next books, especially if the return to solving crimes. If only the issue's that Anita's been having with the police she has to work with. Not to mention the everlasting personal issues she has.

Overall, I found that I really liked this book, and I'm inclined to think it will make both camps of Hamilton's fans happy. There's plenty there for those who like the new, relationship-centric aspects of the story, but she's returned to the crime-solving that attracted readers to the early books as well.

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows And Scorpion Bombs - Adrienne Mayor

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows And Scorpion Bombs
Adrienne Mayor
Overlook Press
Copyright Date: 2009
9781590201770

According to the cover of Greek Fire, Poison Arrows And Scorpion Bombs:

Flamethrowers, poison gases, incendiary bombs, the large-scale spreading of disease... are these terrifying agents and implements of warfare modern inventions? Not by a long shot. Weapons of biological and chemical warfare have been in use for thousands of years, and "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs," Adrienne Mayor''s fascinating exploration of the origins of biological and unethical warfare draws extraordinary connections between the mythical worlds of Hercules and the Trojan War, the accounts of Herodotus and Thucydides, and modern methods of war and terrorism.
"Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs" will catapult readers into the dark and fascinating realm of ancient war and mythic treachery-and their devastating consequences.

You don't have to be an expert in classical and early medieval history to enjoy this book. Adrienne Mayor has written a book that anyone who likes history can enjoy reading and learning from.

Although the main thrust of the book is centered on the Classical era and the world of the Greeks and the Romans, there are also incidents from Chinese, Indian and Middle-Eastern sources discussed as well. In terms of time frames, the incidents go all the way up to the early to mid fourteenth century, alhtough most of them, as I already said, come from Greek and Roman sources.

For each of the incidents described, whether it be from Thucydides, Dio Cassius etc. or legends and myths, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs describes the incident, then gives archaeological evidence backing up the author's conclusions along with any modern experiments proving or disproving her opinion. At the same time, she goes into detail about the mindset of the time towards these weapons of mass destruction, their problems for either side and also looks at similar modern issues, especially in the U.S.A.

We think of weapons of mass destruction, be they chemical or biological as being relatively new things in the scope of history. However, as proved by Adrienne Mayor, clearly they were not. Poisons, fires and disease have been around for thousands of years. Of course people were going to figure out ways to use them for their own purposes.

Some of the examples, though clearly 'low tech' were still extremely ingenious, and I'd bet, if used today, would still cause problems and distractions, such as the scorpion and snake bombs. Other ideas though, are just strange to the modern mind set, such as some of the recorded recipes for poison. Still, when broken down the way they are in this book, they make a sort of sense.

There are times though, when I wish the author had gone into more detail, such as the section on Hannibal using vinegar to crack rocks, along with the other uses mentioned. I wouldn't mind knowing why it worked.

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs is an interesting book on history, and one, frankly, that I wish I'd had while classes were still in session. If only because of the above mentioned incident with the vinegar on heated rock. The books I was using for a term paper disregarded the whole thing, and here's one saying that the ancient authors were right. Would have been helpful for said term paper.

One thing's for sure. This book is going to make me think a bit differently about the ancient world and their attitudes towards warfare. I'd gotten the traditional background in my classes on ancient heroism and beliefs, and here's a completely different perspective.

The Strain - Guillermo Del Torro and Chuck Hogan - Preliminary Review

The Strain
Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
William Morrow
Copyright Date: 2009
978-0061558238

According to Amazon.com's description:

The visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth and a Hammett Award-winning author bring their imaginations to this bold, epic novel about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy and an extraordinary international publishing event.

The Strain

They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come.

In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country.

In two months--the world.

A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.

In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing . . .

This is my preliminary review of The Strain, although it may also be my only one. Currently, I'm just under half way through the book. It's weird, I'm not exactly enjoying the read, but I still can't put the book down for once and for all. I have to know what happens next. I just can't stand to read more than a little bit at a time.

Not because the writing is bad or anything like that, but because the book is a horror novel. And, boy, is horror the right term. From the very first pages, The Strain had me creeped out. Nearly every scene ends with increased tension, before changing to another viewpoint and starting all over again.

The biggest problem I have with the book is that I don't normally read horror (aside from the Laurell K. Hamilton books, which I still dispute being horror).

On the other hand, I was curious about Del Toro's style, given that he's the director in charge of the upcoming Hobbit movies. If horror is his forte, I hope he'll limit himself aside from any scenes in Mirkwood. There, he can have free reign. His background as a movie director shows through in the styling of The Strain: there is scene after scene that I could see being on the theater screen just from the way it was described. I would be very surprised if this book and it's upcoming sequels were not going to be made into movies in the next few years. On the other hand, while it will make a very good movie, I don't think I'd want to see it. The book is creeping me out enough. Having the (vivd) descriptions portrayed visually would be even worse. If you like horror, this book will probably suit you very well. Certainly most of the reviews I've seen on the chapters/indigo site have been very positive, as have the ones on the Amazon.com page.

Some of the people I've talked to have described The Strain as being very Steven King-like, particularly comparing it to his earlier works. Not having read any of those, I can't say for sure either way, but given some of the things I've heard about his books I'd probably agree just on the basis of descriptions.

I'm rather comparing it to what I remember reading of Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, which I read years ago, and have more or less forgotten. Still, some things have stuck.

One neat thing is the book itself under the jacket. The cover isn't plain or cloth-covered like so many books are. Instead, the cover is decorated with a foggy red picture. Yet another, minor, layer of creepiness.

Also, given the current trend towards vampires as not evil, especially in teen books and urban fantasy, Del Toro has gone back to the very earliest vampire stories, making the vampires, or at least Mr. Leech, out to be complete evil. I'm still not sure about the rest, but it certainly makes for a very different story.

I have to know what happens, so I'm going to keep reading for a while, but it'll probably be slow going, simply because I also need to be able to sleep at night.

Judith Tarr Short Stories - Free

There are two free short stories by Judith Tarr at http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Judith-Tarr-ss-Bookshelf/. One is Classical Horses, a nice mix of modern and classical themes, all set in and around a stable.

If you're a horse-lover, fantasy fan or a history-lover, Judith Tarr's books are probably for you.

I hadn't realized until I read the biography at the site that she's written under other names as well, including Caitlin Brennan.

Oath Of Fealty available for pre-order

Oath of Fealty, Elizabeth Moon's next book set in the world of The Deed Of Paksenarrion is now available for pre-order, even though it won't be out until the beginning of next March.

So far there is no cover image or story information on either the Chapters/Indigo site or the Amazon.com site, but given the snippets Elizabeth Moon has posted to her LiveJournal and to the Paksworld blog, it looks to be goo.

I'm waiting eagerly as The Deed of Paksenarrion is a favorite book of mine, and I'm on my third copy now.

Mailbox Monday

I've never done this before, but I'm going to start participating in Mailbox Monday, the meme put together and hosted by The Printed Page.

I've only got two books, one of which actually arrived by mail, and arrived today (a Monday), making it the perfect week to start.

First, is Skin Trade, by Laurell K. Hamilton. I bought it on Tuesday, so it just fits into this week. This is turning into my new favorite from the Anita Blake series, and it's keeping me up far past my bedtime.

The second book, the one that arrived today, is The Tattooed Map, by Barbara Hodgson. I'm almost certain I'll get it read within the next week or so.

Blood Noir - Laurell K. Hamilton

Blood Noir
Laurell K. Hamilton
Berkley Books
Copyright Date: 2008
978-0425222195

According to the jacket of Blood Noir:

Now the old bastard's dying and I wont have time to forgive him before he goes...

Jason Schuyler is a werewolf. He's also one of Anita Blake's best friends, and sometimes her lover. And right now he needs her - not to be a vampire hunter, or a federal marshal, or a necromancer, or even for her rank in the werewolf pack, but because his father is dying. He needs Anita because she's a pretty woman who loves him, who can make him look like an everyday guy, who agrees to go home with him and help him say good-bye to the abusive father he never loved. The fact that Jason is about as much an everyday guy as Anita is a pretty woman is something they figure they can keep under wraps for a couple of days in a small town. How hard can that be?

Really by now, Anita Blake should know better.

Marmee Noir, ancient mother of all vampires, picks this weekend to make a move. Somehow she has cut the connection that binds Anita and Jean-Claude, leaving Jean-Claude unable to sense what is happening. Dangerous even as she sleeps, buried in darkness for a thousand years somewhere beneath the old country of Europe, Marmee Noir reaches out towards power. She has attacked Anita before, but never like this. In Anita she senses what she needs to make her enemies tremble...

Blood Noir ended up being one of the books for the TBR challenge lite, although when I bought it the day it came out last year, I'd fully intended to read it right then. In fact, I got half way through before I put it down. I don't exactly remember why though now. I think it was due to the fact that I kept buying new books I didn't want to wait to read (still a problem).

Anyway, it took the release of the new book Skin Trade, a couple of days ago to get me to pick Blood Noir up again. I'm really glad I did now that I've finished it. I can't wait to read Skin Trade now, either, but I've committed to reading The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan first.

Blood Noir, the sixteenth book in the Anita Blake series is really Jason's story. A recurring character through the series, he really comes into his own here as he takes Anita to visit his family because his father is dying of cancer. Of course, nothing goes smoothly for them. It ranges from being mistaken for somebody else, to the return of Marmee Noir.

This book is shorter than some of Hamilton's books, but the pacing was fast, so the story didn't seem to suffer any. I will definitely agree with some of the reviews I've read that there is a bit too much sex, but that's been the case in all of the books since Narcissus In Chains. It's just become part of the book style now for me.

I think for readers from the Romance section of the bookstore that the sex isn't going to be a problem either. Perhaps that's one reason I noticed it less this time: because I've been reading more of the paranormal romances where sexual activity is more or less expected. I'm not all that familiar with the expectations of readers of the horror section of the bookstore where the Laurell K. Hamilton books are shelved these days, so I can't really say.

Either way, I did enjoy reading Blood Noir and I found that I couldn't put the book down as it raced towards the climax this afternoon/evening. Still, I don't think it's my new favorite of the series, a position held jointly by Danse Macabre and The Harlequin.

My other reviews of Laurell K. Hamilton's novels:
Swallowing Darkness (Merry Gentry)
A Lick Of Frost (Merry Gentry)
Skin Trade (Anita Blake)

Other vampire-themed novels/series I've reviewed:
Bone Crossed - Patricia Briggs
Dark Lover - J.R. Ward

Other reviews:
Books And Other Thoughts: A Trip Out Of Town Gone Bad

The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

The Millionaire Next Door
Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D. and William D. Danko, Ph.D.
Pocket Books
Copyright Date: 1996
978-0547273426

According to the cover of The Millionaire Next Door:

The incredible national bestseller that is changing people''s lives -- and increasing their net worth!

CAN YOU SPOT THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR?

Who are the rich in this country? What do they do? Where do they shop? What do they drive? How do they invest? Where did their ancestors come from? How did they get rich? Can I ever become one of them?

Get the answers in The Millionaire Next Door, the never-before-told story about wealth in America. You''ll be surprised at what you find out....

This was highly recommended to my by several people I talked with, so, always being curious about ways to improve my financial standing, I decided to take a look.

Frankly, I found the book a bit disappointing. First of all, and I should have realized it from the start, the book is entirely focused around the United States. I'm Canadian, so a lot of what the authors are mentioning doesn't apply quite the same. Second, the book only has one small line for any strategy other than the one the authors are following in The Millionaire Next Door.

The theme of this book is to live below your means. It's more or less obvious, really that to save money, that's what you have to do. I found it got a bit repetitive though after the first couple of chapters.

I also would have liked more than a couple of lines mentioning the "Pay Yourself First" strategy, which is the one I grew up reading about in David Chilton's The Wealthy Barber and David Bach's Automatic Millionaire series.

There were some interesting points to use as food for thought though, such as some snippets about different investment/savings strategies and plenty of statistics (none of which left me feeling overly hopeful).

Also, being more than ten years old, some of the numbers in The Millionaire Next Door left me wondering. Repeatedly the authors quote prices for houses that just seem outrageously low, as being quite extravagant. Maybe it's just a regional thing though.

Overall, this was quite a quick read, but also rather depressing. I prefer the other two books I've mentioned, The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach and The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton, even though the numbers in the second are even more outdated than in The Millionaire Next Door, as both are quick, informative and also, rather fun at times.

I will just note here that I have no background in finance and these are just my opinions on the books I've read.


Other personal finance themed books I've reviewed:
The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner - David Bach

Sigurd And Gudrun - J.R.R. Tolkien

Sigurd And Gudrún
J.R.R. Tolkien
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Release Date: May 5, 2009
978-0547273426

According to the Amazon.com page:

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún is a previously unpublished work by J.R.R. Tolkien, written while Tolkien was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford during the 1920s and ‘30s, before he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It makes available for the first time Tolkien’s extensive retelling in English narrative verse of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the Völsung and The Fall of the Niflungs. It includes an introduction by J.R.R. Tolkien, drawn from one of his own lectures on Norse literature, with commentary and notes on the poems by Christopher Tolkien.

This is a definite departure from Tolkien's more familiar Middle-Earth books. I was expecting it to be, but still didn't quite expect what I got. Sigurd And Gudrun starts with the placing of the two poems included within Tolkien's life, and goes on to an introduction to Norse poetry forms and its history.

Christopher Tolkien has included quite a bit of material from his father's lecture notes on Norse and Old English poetry as well in the Introduction, and explains the format used in the poetry, including stresses, very clearly.

There are two main poems that Tolkien wrote on the subject contained in this book: The New Lay Of The Volsungs, which is the first poem in Sigurd And Gudrun, and the second is The New Lay of Gudrun. Tolkien had actually titled both poems in Norse, but the titles given here are the translated titles, also included in the book. Each of the two poems comes with a substantial commentary, which explains some of the archaic words, the Norse customs and history, along with the history of the original source material and Tolkien's opinions on it. There are also some sections of Old English included near the end of the book, with an examination of references to the story as found in Beowulf and other English sources.

The poems are somewhat alliterative with short lines, and you'd think the book would be a quick read because of it, but that's not the case in the slightest. I found Sigurd and Gudrun to be a book that I couldn't read for more than a half hour at a time, although I enjoyed every page of it. I found the commentary and background material to be especially interesting, which is something I've seen other reviewers say as well.

Being more familiar with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and his other Middle-Earth material, I found myself comparing the poetry to that of the Lord of the Rings. Time and again the poems reminded me of the Rohirric poetry from The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Some of the lines echo between the two books as well, especially

...Fealty kept he;
oaths he had taken, all fulfilled them.
(The Return Of The King. The Muster Of Rohan)

That line and pacing is repeated several times in Sigurd and Gudrun.

Honestly, I liked this book, and I'm now planning to read more of the Norse sagas, as I came to Sigurd And Gudrun with no background knowledge on the subject at all. Although, in the commentary to this book, Christopher Tolkien has done a very good job of explaining the characters and the references that assume reader knowledge in the poetry, so the background knowledge isn't exactly needed.

Still, I don't know when I'll reread the book, and I will admit that I think the audience will be smaller for this than for many of Tolkien's other books.

Other Tolkien-related books I've reviewed:
Mr Bliss - J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien And The Great War - John Garth
The Road To Middle-Earth - Tom Shippey

Sigurd And Gudrun Video Link

I'm sure everyone interested has seen this by now, but I just found it for the first time.

It's a video clip about the book Sigurd and Gudrun put out by Amazon.com.

I finished reading the book today, and I'm working on my review of it now.

SciFiGuy's Monthly List of New Books

This month's new fantasy/science fiction/paranormal books list is up at SciFiGuy's blog.

There's a lot of neat books listed, too many for me to list here, but I've definitely been looking forward to the new Laurell K Hamilton one, and I've found a few others to check out as well.