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The Bards of Bone Plain, by Patricia A. McKillip
The kingdom of Belden was united from five kingdoms by a foreign invader who brought with him a a bard named Declan. When Declan retired from his position as Court Bard, he set up a school on a hill on the Stirl Plain, where he trained other bards, looking for bards of power and skill, who might be trained in the magic that had been lost to the ( Read more... ) -
The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo, by Steig Larsson
In some ways, The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo appears to be misnamed. For much of the book, the main character is Mikael Blomkvist, a financial investigative reporter and editor of a magazine who was just convicted of libeling a major business man. Soon after he leaves his position at the small magazine he edits and that published the piece that ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
So, I'm reading the book, "The Best and the Brightest," by David Halberstam, about the Kennedy administration and our entering into Vietnam. And, when talking about a debate in 1954 as to whether the US should go into Vietnam to rescue the French at Dien Bien Phu, and the ultimate decision not to, there was this passage:
But Eisenhower was in no ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
For a variety of reasons, Carlisle's Old Home Day, which used to be a celebration of Independents Day, has not been on the 4th of July for some years. This year, my mother decided to that this was wrong. So, quietly, she organized a reading of the Declaration of Independence at the local memorial for the Revolutionary War that's on the grounds of ( Read more... ) -
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N. K. Jemisin
In N. K. Jemisin's premier novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the entire world is ruled by a single nation from the city of Sky. This nation is the chosen of the most powerful god of the world, who imprisoned his brother and three other younger gods and gave the ruler of the Arameri to use as tools and weapons. Enter Yeine Darr, a chieftan ( Read more... ) -
Customer Service philosophy
As a cashier and a librarian, both my jobs involve dealing with customers, or, as libraries like to term them, "patrons." There are many, many slogans and catch phrases that involve customer service. "The Customer Is Always Right." "Be an Agent For the Customer." All of these sayings and slogans attempt to boil down the basics of great customer ( Read more... ) -
The God Engines, by John Scalzi
Ean Tephe is the captain of a space ship that is literally powered by a chained god. Sometime before, Tephe's god defeated a bunch of other gods and enslaved them, and now they are engines and defenses of these space ships. Then Tephe, whose faith in his Lord is untouched, is sent on a secret mission to ensure the primacy of his Lord, and things ( Read more... ) -
Up Jim River, by Michael Flynn
Up Jim River is the sequel to Flynn's earlier work, The January Dancer, a book that I haven't read. Not having read the first book did not detract from reading this one; while there were references to the Dancer, they were like any background stories of books. There was one thing about this being a sequel: after finishing Up Jim River, I now want ( Read more... ) -
"Except the Queen," by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder
I'd been hearing about Jane Yolen for awhile now, especially about how she seems to be a favorite of Charles de Lint, one of my all time favorite authors. But I've never got around to reading any of her stuff, because most of her books are for younger audiences. So when the library got this book, I had to pick it up ( Read more... ) -
The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany
The valley of Erl was small and unremembered, and the parliament of Erl wanted it to be memorable, so they demanded that they be ruled by a magical lord. So the lord of Erl sent his son, Alveric, into Elfland to bring back and marry the King of Elfland's daughter. With the help of the witch Ziroonderel, he succeeds in besting the guardians and ( Read more... )