I must admit this one stumped me. I had to look up the answer. We'll leave a hint in the comments.
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Thursday Puzzler
I must admit this one stumped me. I had to look up the answer. We'll leave a hint in the comments.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
”What’s taking your friends,”
Filipov asked for the hundredth time.
“They keep on stalling.”
To his surprise, the man’s
eyes finally met his. It made him
uneasy.
“You complain of the silence
of my friends?”
“Right, exactly.”
“In that case, I apologize on
their behalf. But let me assure you
that, when the time comes, they will be delighted to meet you. Although I fear that, on the off chance you
survive the encounter, you’ll wish you hadn’t met them.”
(from The Obsidian
Chamber by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child)
5½*/10. The
full review is here.
.
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Monday, September 27, 2021
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Friday, September 24, 2021
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
Although not common on the
Discworld there are, indeed, such things as anti-crimes, in accordance with the
fundamental law that everything in the multiverse has an opposite. They are, obviously, rare. Merely giving someone something is not the
opposite of robbery; to be an anti-crime, it has to be done in such a way as to
cause outrage and/or humiliation to the victim. So there is breaking-and-decorating,
proffering-with-embarrassment (as in most retirement presentations) and
whitemailing (as in threatening to reveal to his enemies a mobster’s secret
donations, for example, to charity).
Anti-crimes have never really caught on.
(from Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett)
9½*/10.
The complete review is here.
.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Monday, September 20, 2021
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
While cuneiform was first
invented, it is currently thought, by accountants, and developed by scribes and
scholars, the alphabet seems to have had much more plebian origins. The latest archaeological discoveries suggest
that alphabetic writing was the brainwave of a group of expatriate Semitic
workers resident in Egypt early in the second millennium BCE. Inspired by the pictographic Egyptian writing
system we call hieroglyphs – ‘priest signs’ – they dreamt up a shorthand to use
with their own language.
(from Babylon by Paul Kriwaczek)
9½*/10.
The complete review is here.
.
Friday, September 17, 2021
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Monday, September 13, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
“You’re going to let Professor
Rapson tinker with your chair? You’ll probably go into orbit. What sort of idiot are you?”
“I’m hoping I’m the idiot who
works for you, Dr. Maxwell.”
“So am I. You sound too good to be true. What’s your position on chocolate?”
“You can never have enough,”
he said, pulling a handful of miscellaneous chocolate bars from mysterious
depths.
“You’re hired,” I said. “Starting now.”
(from A Symphony
of Echoes by Jodi Taylor)
9*/10. The
complete review is here.
.
Sunday, September 12, 2021
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Friday, September 10, 2021
Thursday, September 09, 2021
Wednesday, September 08, 2021
Tuesday, September 07, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
“Of course you can stay with
us. But I don’t get it. Tyler, you’re a very rich young man. Why don’t you just rent a place here for the
year? The price is like pocket change
for you.”
“My own place would mean
stocking my own fridge, doing my own laundry, and cleaning my own floors. If I stay with you, I get free room and
board.”
“So you’re a mooch.”
“I bring you flowers and wine
for dinner.”
“You’re a classy mooch.”
(from Bone Box by Faye Kellerman)
5½*/10.
The complete review is here.
.
Monday, September 06, 2021
Sunday, September 05, 2021
Saturday, September 04, 2021
Friday, September 03, 2021
Thursday, September 02, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
It left me thinking I couldn’t
make a mistake, that I had to be precise and fine, which of course was no way
to go after a batter—especially a batter with the pedigree of Wade Boggs. No, he couldn’t hurt you with a single swing
of the bat, not like Jim Rice or Don Baylor, but he could hurt you, make no
mistake. Death by a thousand paper cuts,
by seeing-eye singles … that’s how a guy like Wade Boggs could hurt you.
(from Game 7, 1986
by Ron Darling)
8*/10. The
complete review is here.
.
Wednesday, September 01, 2021
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)