Some California people are offering a new online classified site with visibility requirements in an effort to stop criminals hiding behind anonymity. Echoing Apple’s marketing, they call it iList.
My top 5: Mysteries and thrillers
Late posting tonight. I had to usher for Advent services.
Dale requested in Comments my list of the best mysteries/thrillers written in the past twenty years.
I’m reluctant to produce such a list, for a couple reasons.
One, my knowledge of the field is highly limited. I read authors I like and trust, and there are dozens (at least) I’ve never even tried. The mystery field in particular is dominated by female writers, many of whom have feminist agendas, and I just don’t cruise that side of the street. And there are a number of very popular writers whom I avoid either because I simply haven’t tried them yet, or I’ve tried one book and didn’t care to read any more. There’s a good chance there are several out there whom, once I discover them, I’ll be tugging at your (metaphorical) sleeve and boring you about. It’s also possible that an author I’ve weighed and found wanting in the past may surprise me with his/her growth and win me over (this has already happened with Dean Koontz).
But having said that, I’ll list my favorite books of the last twenty years. They’re all from two authors whom I consider preeminent in the field. They are books that not only entertain, but educate the heart, making the reader want to live more generously and courageously. Continue reading My top 5: Mysteries and thrillers
What Comes After “It Was a Knight and Stormy Dork”?
Hack your way out of writer’s block with tips like freewrite a while, take a walk, change your cloths, talk to a monkey, or vacuum your lungs.
Blogger Shot While Reading
Of course, it’s a posed shot, but I like Wayne’s style in the first photo he posts from Disney World. The shots of Pooh count as reading material too. Pooh is the man.
A couple reviews
I read a couple books over the holiday, but I don’t think they’re really worth separate reviews. I’ll take a few superficial swipes and move along.
Strangers by Dean Koontz appears to me to be a transitional work for the author. First published in 1986, it shows considerable improvement in character development and dialogue from much of his other early work.
It follows the adventures of a group of people, scattered all over the country, who begin to have similar anxiety symptoms (but not identical symptoms—there are interesting variations and contradictions). Most of them are suffering nightmares. Some of them develop obsessions. The moon, in particular, becomes the focus of more than one. Continue reading A couple reviews
Commuting to Work
Book Recs for Kids
Sherry recommends books for giving to children.
How very odd
The strange things you discover while looking at your Sitemeter statistics. I checked somebody in Denmark who visited our page, and found they’d been referred from this Wiki page in Denmark. We’re reference note number [13], in relation to the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan. It’s lovely to be a citation, but I’m not sure I’ve really earned it.
The Next Great Christian Book
Postmortem on a turkey
Thanksgiving was good, thank you. As usual, the family gathered in my CBBS* house. Everything went according to programme. It goes without saying that, being me, I drove myself nuts anticipating disasters (forget propagation of the species; a man needs a wife mostly in order to have somebody competent on whom to shove these responsibilities), but either everything went fine, or my family kindly overlooked it and kept me in the dark.
The turkey might have profited from ten more minutes in the oven, I think, but I also suspect that’s a matter of taste. And I could have bought a larger one (those leftovers, I now see, are there for a purpose).
Now, on to Christmas. Tree decorating is for me a gradual process, but the thing’s up and lighted. Only the ornaments remain to be hanged, together or separately. I have tea lights to burn (in pine scent). Last night I watched my videotape of Sissel’s Christmas concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
And tonight I’ll begin the Christmas Letter. I wonder if I took any pictures this year worth including in it. Probably not.
Come to think of it, the whole letter may be no more than a couple paragraphs.
Not such a bad thing, actually.
*Clean By Bachelor Standards