book reviews
Mary Mallon was born in Ireland 1869, and emigrated to the US at 15. She worked as a cook for several rich families in NYC, seven of whom contracted typhoid fever. In 1907, Ms. Mallon was forcibly quarantined and required to give stool and urine samples, which tested positive for high amounts of a particular …
Read the full post →“Law #10 – Misery Loves Company; Decline the Invite”
A vizier is the most trusted consul of the sultan, with powers constrained only by the sultan himself. One particular vizier had dutifully served his sultan for over 30 years, but his blunt honesty had created many enemies within the sultan’s court, who spread rumors designed to instill doubt in the sultan’s mind as to …
Did I enjoy that? Not sure. I think so, but … hmmm. Dunno. Nice little apocalyptic fare … thwarted (of course) at the last moment, which (of course) is the fairy tale. Books (and movies, for that matter) that end in the absolute destruction of man’s civilization tend not to fare well. People, silly little …
Watched an episode of some daytime nonsense a while back — (“… you are not the father …”) it was just on don’t judge me — about women who refuse to be seen without a full face of makeup. Paint & spackle. The husband of one woman had no idea what his wife actually looked …
Loved you from the moment I met you. “Honey fungus.” Indeed. I love a good read and this one was a winner, hands down all around. Well, maybe not all around but majority mostly, which is absolutely good enough. “Cold Storage” by David Koepp (must’ve had fun in school with that one) … so much …
Lucas Davenport is one of the great anti-heroes in modern fiction. The Prey series is seriously well done, all eleventy-hunnert & 12 books of it … if you (Other Person, You) like Reacher you’ll likely enjoy the exploits of ex-hockey player turned cop turned … vigilante (?) with a badge. Major difference? He’s a great …
I’m laughing as I look at that. The visual is pristine. And not to get into the Tom Cruise controversy but to get into the Tom Cruise controversy … … he is Ethan Hunt, not Jack Reacher. Reacher is blond, blue-eyed(?), 6’5, and around 250 pounds, and Tom Cruise is not.… (that’s about 18 stone …
Well that was entertaining. But Steve always (well, mostly … almost) is. Hearts in Atlantis made no sense. Anyhoo … One of the things I like best about Stephen King’s writing is how so many of his protagonists are young boys/men, right on the cusp of adulthood. Must be some lingering trauma there, but makes …
Or, better yet, shiny things. Mansa Musa, the richest man who ever lived, had a bag worth $400B in today’s bucks, and even managed to devalue gold by spreading it around. Bozos and the oily, musky ferret funk got nothing on that guy. Well, that guy lived/reigned some 700 years ago, so there is that. …
Interesting little factoid / as described by wikiwiki … stocks are used as restraining devices for the feet, a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation (á la social spanking). The pillory, by contrast, is distinguishable via its confinement of hands and head/neck. So now we just get pilloried by stocks. Ahh, this. The Fab …
