Bowietreks

Eleven on Top

Just finished reading Eleven on Top, the new Stephanie Plum mystery, by Janet Evanovich. If you are not familiar with Stephanie or the series of mysteries about her, then you are missing out on something wonderful.

Stephanie Plus is a bail bondswoman/bounty hunter based in Newark, New Jersey. These books about Stephanie (eleven so far) are the funniest mysteries I have ever read. Janet Evanovich writes humor better than anyone else I have ever read. To me, humor is the most difficult type of writing, and Evanovich is a master.

Eleven on Top does not disappoint. While I was reading it this afternoon, outside on the balcony, I laughed so hard several people (my neighbor, the mailman, and one of the maintenance staff for the apartment complex), asked me what I was reading.

Get to know Stephanie Plum, from this title and the ten others, and enrich your life with laughter and excellent writing.

Highly recommended!!

Google Hacks 2nd edition

I have just finished reading the 2nd edition of Google Hacks (2005), by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest. This edition is packed with new hacks and new ways to use Google. Most of the hacks require the ability to use code, but some of them can be used from the web. This edition includes chapters on Google Images, News, Groups, Desktop, and Gmail. Two examples of what I learned: Gmail supports plus-addressing, which I was not familiar with. Using this, you add a + to your Gmail address, to create a special Gmail address to use for web sign-ins, etc. If your Gmail address is spock@gmail.com, and you wanted to create a throwaway address for a website, it would look like this, spock+@gmail.com. You can add other characters after the + to be even more creative with the addresses.

I have been wishing for a Typepad directory, listing all Typepad blogs. In this book, I found a search that results in something useful along that line. Type this into the Google search box, site:typepad.com. The search result will be enormous, many thousands of hits, but it is a roster of Typepad blogs, of sorts.

Who Let The Blogs Out?

I spent most of this beatiful day reading on my balcony, enjoying the sunshine and cool breezes. I read Who Let the Blogs Out? A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs, by Biz Stone, St. Martins Griffin (2004), with a foreword by Wil Wheaton. This is a book about blogging, which explains what blogging is, and how the author came to blog and what effects it has had on his life and career. The author comments on blogging etiquette, tools, types of blogs, making money with your blog, and gives many useful tips on how to set up your blog, how to post, sidebar content, and much more. Mr. Stone writes clearly and uses humor well. This is a very readable and useful book. I recommend it for blogging beginners as well as experienced bloggers, and non-bloggers who are curious about what they might be missing.

America's Game...

Finally finished reading "America's Game: the Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation", by Michael MacCambridge, Random House (2004). Last week was so busy, I had no time to read, alas!, but I made up for it today, since it was a very cold and windy May 1. The cover of this book immediately caught my attention, when I first saw it. The Colts (Baltimore) are on the cover, showing Johnny Unitas preparing to pass. The book is very readable and informative. I knew very little of the early history of the NFL when I started it, and found it fascinating. The book focuses on the personalities involved in the formation of the league, the owners, coaches, and players. The history of each team is traced, from city to city in many cases. Pete Rozelle's career as Commissioner is covered in detail, showing the many contributions he made to pro football becoming the number one spectator sport in America. The extremely lucrative television deals the NFL made with the networks, the establishment of NFL Films by Ed Sabol, and the creative use of merchandising and public relations all contributed heavily to the rise of pro football in America. The author spent five years working on the book, interviewing many owners, coaches, players, and NFL staff, watching film, and researching documents. The resulting book is excellent reading, informative and entertaining.

The Librarian

Just finished reading The Librarian, by Larry Beinhart, Nation Books (2004). This book, and the movie made from it, caused quite a stir in the library universe. It garnered some rave reviews, so I decided to read it, though I missed the movie. It is good, but nothing I would rave over. This is the first of Mr. Beinhart's books I have read. I did enjoy it, and will add his other works to my reading list. This is a thriller whose lead character is a librarian who moonlights for an elderly rich man who is supporting the re-election of the current president of the US. Actually, the book is more about politicians than librarians, with some political manipulations of the electoral process that seem all too possible and very disturbing. The story includes several parallels to events in the life of our current president, and some horrifying scenarios involving terrorism on our soil. I found Mr. Beinhart's writing style a litte uncomfortable at times, but do recommend the book.

Metro Girl

I read, and finished, Metro Girl, by Janet Evanovich, this afternoon. I was hesitant to read it, since I love Evanovichs' series about Stephanie Plum so much. I was afraid it would not be as good, or as funny, but it certainly was!! Ms. Evanovich can certainly write humor. Humor that makes me laugh out loud on almost every page, sometimes laughing so hard it hurts. I hope she writes many more to come. Most of all, more Stephanie Plum!!! A new Stephanie novel, "Eleven on Top", is due out in June 2005.

Proofreading

I read two mysteries this past week, one by Faye Kellerman, and one by Tess Gerritsen. Both had interesting story lines, with the Gerritsen being very well developed. However, both books were rife with grammatical and spelling errors. Do publishers still require proofreading? I found several errors on a single page, in more than one instance. What I found most disturbing was the overuse of italics in the Kellerman title. She uses italics so heavily in her sentences that it breaks up the rhythm of reading for me. Sometimes the wrong word in the sentence is in italics, which changes the meaning of the sentence completely. This is very annoying, and I probably won't try more of her work. Why hasn't her editor done something about this? It slows my reading and interferes with enjoyment of the story. Does this bug any other readers?

Centennial

Spent most of my sick with a cold days re-reading Centennial, by James A. Michener. This is the story of a small town in Colorado named Centennial, its' history, and the stories of its' citizens. This my second favorite Michener title, after The Source. I love it now, as much or more than when I originally read it in the seventies. A fine television mini-series, in my opinion one of the best, was made from the book, with a cast of hundreds of fine actors. These actors included: Richard Chamberlain, Robert Conrad, Brian Keith, Stephanie Zimbalist, Jr., Dennis Weaver, Richard Crenna, Andy Grittith, Merle Haggard, Alex Karras, David Janssen and too many others to list. The television film followed the story line of the book reasonably closely, and Michener had good reason to be proud of the production. I would like to see it again, but it is not yet listed on Netflix, so I will have to buy it, if I can find it. I remember the music as being particulary good, with a wonderful song by Merle Haggard.

An Alchemy of Mind

Just finished reading An Alchemy of Mind, by Diane Ackerman. This book is a non-fiction title concerning the human brain. In Ms. Ackermans's usual evocative, poetic style, this is a brilliant and entertaining work. Aside from the marvelous use of language, the state of the art research in the function of the brain is detailed in clear and understandable terms for a layman. Recent research using electronic scanning devices such as MRI, PET, and fMRI have added much to our knowledge of how the brain functions, particularly what areas of the brain handle what functions. Scientists are now able to "see" using these scanning devices, which areas of the brain "light up" when we dream, or see an image in our mind's eye. They can even tell about eighty per cent of the time what we can see in mind's eye imaging. For instance, they can see that we are imaging a face, or a house, etc. Remarkable!! This is a fascinating, beautifully written book, as are all of Ackerman's works. Not quite as good as A Natural History of the Senses (my favorite of her works), but almost.

Sunday Reading

Spent this extremely hot but not muggy Sunday reading outside on the balcony. The second blogging title, BLOG ON, is even more helpful than BLOGGING, which I read yesterday. This author includes a section on writing and content, as well as on software, etc. Again, many useful links given. Most of the day spent reading TALKING WITH MICHENER, by Lawrence Grobel. The book is a compilation of interviews Grobel did with Michener over a period of about twenty years, and includes much that I did not know. Michener is my favorite author, and has been since I read HAWAII when I was 12 years old. I love his huge books, and have read all of them, some more than once. I haven't yet finished this book of interviews, but have learned much from it to make me admire the man even more than I always have. His attitudes on work, social responsibility, and research are inspiring. He gave away his fortune of over $60 million before his death, mostly to educational institutions.