Saturday, July 31, 2021
Friday, July 30, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
Where royal kinsfolk are
tearing each other for a crown, lesser men will ride the time for their own
gain, without scruple or mercy.
And where they did so, he
reflected, every villainy for miles around would be laid at their door, and
some of the crimes might well be laid there unjustly. Even villains should bear only the guilt that
belongs to them.
(from The Virgin
in the Ice by Ellis Peters)
8*/10. The
complete review is here.
.
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Movie Quotes
So the category in our family trivia zoom meeting this week is "movie quotes". I'm seriously considering submitting this one.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Monday, July 26, 2021
Sunday, July 25, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
“Look, I’m dreadfully sorry to
disturb you, but it’s gone a quarter to seven.”
A quarter to seven. Six forty-five a.m.
As far as the first ten hours
of each day were concerned, David was a convinced agnostic; he was prepared to
accept that they might exist, in some form, in a dark and neglected corner of
space-time, but he had so little personal experience of them that he didn’t
feel justified in forming a coherent opinion of the matter. “Really?” he groaned.
(from Falling Sideways
by Tom Holt)
8*/10. The
full review is here.
.
Friday, July 23, 2021
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
“We owned an old Rambler, and
I had the backseat to myself. Nobody
thought about seat belts then, let alone child safety seats, and I sat on the
floor behind Dad with my GI Joes and Tinkertoys. I once made a gallows from Tinkertoys and
hung a GI Joe deserter, and my parents took me to a doctor.”
(from Gator
A-Go-Go by Tim Dorsey)
8*/10. The
complete review is here.
.
Monday, July 19, 2021
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Friday, July 16, 2021
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
The ending would be pretty
much the same as before, it wouldn’t be the fall that did it so much as the
sudden stop at the end. Except this time
Teacake would land upside down and the cause of death would be changed to “man
falls on head”, while hers would read “woman dies from hanging out with moron
who climbed down a dark, vertical cement shaft with one hand.”
(from Cold Storage by David Koepp)
7*/10. The
full review is here.
.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Monday, July 12, 2021
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Thursday, July 08, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
“Geralt,” said Stregobor,
“when we were listening to Eltibald, many of us had doubts. But we decided to accept the lesser
evil. Now I ask you to make a similar
choice.”
“Evil is evil, Stregobor,”
said the witcher seriously as he got up.
“Lesser, greater, middling, it’s all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries
blurred. I’m not a pious hermit. I haven’t done only good in my life. But if I’m to choose between one evil and
another, then I prefer not to choose at all."
(from The Witcher:
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski)
7½*/10.
The complete review is here.
.
Tuesday, July 06, 2021
Monday, July 05, 2021
Saturday, July 03, 2021
Book Excerpt for the Day
Other examples of human-sourced pharmaceuticals surely causing more
distress than they relieved include strips of cadaver skin tied around the
calves to prevent cramping, “old
liquified placenta” to “quieten a patient whose hair stands up without cause”
(I’m quoting Li Shih-chen on this one and the next), “clear liquid feces” for
worms (“the smell will induce insects to crawl out of any of the body orifices
and relieve irritation”), fresh blood injected into the face for eczema
(popular in France at the time Thompson was writing), gallstone for hiccoughs,
tartar of human teeth for wasp bite, tincture of human navel for sore throat,
and the spittle of a woman applied to the eyes for ophthalmia.
(from Stiff by May Roach)
9½*/10.
The complete review is here.
.
Friday, July 02, 2021
Thursday, July 01, 2021
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