CAFiorello

Finger-licking Fifteen, by Janet Evanovich ****

Buried, by Mark Billingham *****

The Company, by Max Barry ****

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free, by Charles P. Pierce ****

Faerie Blood, by Anna Korra'ti *****

The Return of Depression Economics, by Paul Krugman ****

Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About The American Voter, by Rick Shenkman ****

The Score: How the Quest for Sex has Shaped the Modern Man, by Faye Flam ****

The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World, by Tim Harford ***

George's Secret Key to the Universe, by Lucy and Stephen Hawking **

Myth-Fortunes, by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye ****

Thirteenth Night: A Fool's Guild Mystery, by Alan Gordon *****

A friend's two-year-old son has just been diagnosed with leukemia. Please help the family if you can:

http://www.manicmother.com/2009/05/please-help-my-family-kick-cancers-ass.html

(Nah, I didn't just read all of these. I just remembered the library books I left off the list....)

Living Witness, by Jane Haddam *****

The Language of Bees, by Laurie R. King *****

Dead over Heels, by MaryJanice Davidson **

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach ****

Murder of a Royal Pain, by Denise Swanson ***

Brain Rules, by John Medina ****

Execution Dock (Monk novel), by Anne Perry *****

Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher *****

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain ****

Interface, by Neal Stephenson & J. Frederick Geo ***

Trigger City, by Sean Chercover *****

Nanny Ogg's Cookbook, by Terry Pratchett et al. **

Urawaza: Secrets Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan, by Lisa Katayama **

The Geeks' Guide to World Domination, by Garth Sundem ****

Piled Higher and Deeper 4: Academic Stimulus Package, by Jorge Cham *****

Bob Asprin & Jodi Lynn Nye, Myth-Chief ***

John Scalzi, Agent to the Stars ****

Michael Kurland (Ed.), My Sherlock Holmes *****

R. Austin Freeman, For the Defence, Dr. Thorndyke ***

Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson, & Thomas E. Sniegoski, Mean Streets ****

Ben Sherwood, The Survivors Club **

Suze Orman, 2009 Action Plan**

Lawrence Watt-Evans, The Turtle Moves! Discworld's Story (unauthorized) *****
Eric Flint and Virginia Demarce, 1635: The Dreeson Incident ****
Katherine Neville, The Fire ****
Katha Pollitt, Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories ***
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunnstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness ****
Janet Evanovich, Plum Spooky ***
Lilian Stewart Carl, The Vorgosigan Companion ****

(technically, some of these were probably end of 2008)

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell *****

Snake Oil Science, by R. Barker Bausell ***

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, by Sam Gosling ****

Crunch, by Jared Bernstein ****

Princeps' Fury (Book 5, Codex Alera), by Jim Butcher *****

The Compleat McAndrew (re-read), by Charles Sheffield ****

The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia, by Laura Miller ***

Six Geese A'Slaying, by Donna Andrews ***

Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons *****

Here's what I can figure out that I've read so far this year. Anything I borrowed or lent out right after finishing or that is in the public domain...is probably lost forever.

1. Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
2. Ayres, Ian Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is The New Way to Be Smart ( Read more... )

Meme: When you see this, post a bit of Shakespeare!

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

(Sonnet 130)

I just spent a long weekend at Bouchercon, a mystery convention, in Baltimore. A bunch of us from rec.arts.mystery get together at Bouchercon when we can. It's neat to have online friends turn into real friends. We spent the weekend eating and drinking and talking. I have no voice left and I'm very behind on my work, but it was worth it!

Some pics, though none of me yet:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/909551@N21/pool/

Well, we moved Derek into his dorm on Wednesday. He's attending the same university where I teach, and his dorm is like 100 meters from my office, so I didn't think it would be too much of a jolt when he left. Surprisingly, it has been noticeable and weird. Like we produced a grown-up, somehow. Keith says we cleared a major level and earned many XP. ;) Whoa, maybe my character class moves from Mother to Crone now!

Have I mentioned recently that my son kicks butt?

He did his placement testing, plus got credit for his AP classes, then did honors advising and registration. He tested completely out of German and the first year of English (highest essay score the honors adviser had ever seen!) and the first two semesters of calculus, plus getting credit for a semester of statistics and a semester of environmental science. So he's taking calculus III and MatLab programming, plus some distribution requirements (World Religion and Computers and Society).

Mama is proud!

OK, this is pissing me off. Random House has cancelled a novel about Muhammed's youngest wife, not because of terrorist threats, but because of a warning about a possible terrorist threat:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/arts/09arts-RANDOMHOUSEC_BRF.html?ref=books

Here's the author's blog in case you want to offer support:

http://sherryjones.blogspot.com/

Derek's Bearded Dragon, Quincy, died last night. We buried him in the rain, since a Viking funeral would be illegal. He's pretty bummed.

Derek is now officially a high school graduate! He begins Temple in the fall.

So cool! Stolen from mitchy:

http://biggestdrawingintheworld.com/drawing.aspx

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

( the books )