Books I've Read

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Live Free Or Die

Ringo, John
Alien leave an interstellar gate near Earth. Bad aliens come to take over. Crusty Vermonters fight back. Got a good talk-up on this from Mr. E. at work, so even though passing on a a previous title by Ringo, I gave it a shot. I like it very much, and will read the rest of the series. I just wish we could have a "liberal" hero in a war book!

Read:

2/2012

A Princess Of Landover

Brooks, Terry
Mistaya gets herself kicked out of prep school, so she heads back to Landover where she ends up in the kingdom's library.

Read:

1/2012

Post Captain

O'Brian, Patrick
Jack gets promoted.

Words I Had To Look Up:

to lie in such a dismal plash (pg. 176) -- A heavy rain.
No Gretna Green (pg. 199) -- A village in Scottland where many eloping couples are married.
coxcombery (pg. 300) -- Behavior that is characteristic of a coxcomb : foppery.
fanfaronade (pg. 300) -- Empty boasting.
sharks are mostly gammon (pg. 300) -- Misleading or nonsensical talk; humbug.
an unrivalled cholagogue (pg. 332) -- A cholagogue is a medicinal agent which promotes the discharge of bile from the system, purging it downward..

Quote:

...a thunderous, long, long fart.
"I beg your pardon," said the midshipman in the silence.
"Oh, that's all right," said Diana coldly. "I thought it was the horse." -- pg. 46

Read:

1/2012

A Long Way From Chicago

Peck, Richard
Each summer Mary Alice and her brother visit their grandmother in Ohio. Charming, a weep at the end, for me.

Read:

1/2012

On Guard

Napoli, Donna Jo
Fourth-grade Mikey decides to take fencing lessons.

Read:

1/2012

Master And Commander

O'Brian, Patrick
Jack Aubrey receives his first command, the sloop/brig Sophie, and sails around the Med during the 1800s. Reading the paperback edition with tiny little letters was a chore!

Words I Had To Look Up:

creta alba (pg. 229) -- Chalk or calcium carbonate. There's a web site for this stuff at Master and Commander medical terms

barca-Longa (pg. 253) -- A two or three-masted lugger found on the coasts of Spain and Portugal as well as more widely in the Mediterranean Sea. And here I thought it was some kind of reclining chair!

membrum virile (pg. 345) -- Uh, penis.

squills (pg. 348) -- Sea squill is a bulb which sends up a tall stalk topped by an inflorescence of small white flowers, followed by a rosette of large dull green leaves, that last until the following summer. The bulb can get quite large, reaching over five pounds in weight.

Read:

1/2012

Holy Guacamole!

Fairbanks, Nancy
A food writer in El Paso gets involved in yet another murder-to-be-solved, the death of an opera director. She teams up with a tough-as-nails retired lady police officer to solved the case. Lots of recipes!

Read:

1/2012

Falcon And The Charles Street Witch

Gray, Luli
Falcon has more adventures with her dragon in this sequel to Falcon's Egg. I really like the characters but the plot seems silly. Will read the first book, just to see if it has a better story.

Read:

11/2002

True (...Sort Of)

Hannigan, Katherine
Delly is always in trouble, at home and at school. She meets a strange girl named Ferris Boyd. Very good story!

Read:

1/2012

The Autobiography Of Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt, Theodore
Condensed from the original edition. Ol' Teddy was quite a guy. He certainly did things his own way. He was quite a reader, too.

Words I Had To Look Up:

States rights fetich (pg. 194) -- I know what a fetish is, and this is an alternate spelling, but its use seems odd in this context.
cumbrous (pg. 229) -- Cumbersome.

Quotes:

...I have found...many shrill reactionaries who insist on calling all reformers Socialists, I refuse to be panic-stricken by having this title mistakenly applied to me. (pg. 260)


It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. (pg. 329)


I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax--a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate. (pg. 332)

Read:

1/2012

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