2006-10-28
Sink Reflections
Author: Marla Cilley
Marla Cilley is The FlyLady, founder of www.flylady.net. This book is a collection of the house-cleaning and organization tips she shares on her site and mailing list. And that's about it -- take out what you can read freely on the web site and I'm not sure what's left in the book. If you just can't stand reading the material online, I guess the book is an OK investment. Otherwise, skip the papery edition.
Personally, I find the site somewhat, but not completely, useful. The material specific to housekeeping is useful. The organization (control journal) tips are better rejected in favor of David Allen's methods. These ears are deaf to the spiritual pep talk. The assumption that the reader is a Christian housewife is much too pervasive. Even though the author says she's going to explain how the methods apply to anyone she never does.
www.flylady.net is recommended. This book is not.
Marla Cilley is The FlyLady, founder of www.flylady.net. This book is a collection of the house-cleaning and organization tips she shares on her site and mailing list. And that's about it -- take out what you can read freely on the web site and I'm not sure what's left in the book. If you just can't stand reading the material online, I guess the book is an OK investment. Otherwise, skip the papery edition.
Personally, I find the site somewhat, but not completely, useful. The material specific to housekeeping is useful. The organization (control journal) tips are better rejected in favor of David Allen's methods. These ears are deaf to the spiritual pep talk. The assumption that the reader is a Christian housewife is much too pervasive. Even though the author says she's going to explain how the methods apply to anyone she never does.
www.flylady.net is recommended. This book is not.
2006-10-25
Temple of the Winds
Author: Terry Goodkind
Sword of Truth-4 struck me better than the last couple. Blood of the Fold was too much a continuation of Stone of Tears to be a great book: #3 felt like a dragged out sequel to a #2 that never ended properly. Temple of the Winds is its own story, and it's a good one. In fact, it's not overstating it to call it a great one. While nothing can quite recapture the magic of introducing the new universe the way Wizard's First Rule and to some extent Tears did, the plot of this story is as exciting as the first.
How gripping is the beginning? The first 160 or so pages are basically a single scene covering a few hours in the Confessor's Palace. The little director in me wanted to film that much in just three shots of 20+ minutes each. Section and chapter breaks show the passage of no more time than it took the characters to walk down a hall. Actually, sometimes conversations continue right through a chapter break, which makes this pedantic little reviewer kind of annoyed -- those breaks were used just to emphasize the last thing said. Try an exclamation point: they work when not overused. Still, the reader can't say he had to remember the first scene's events on faith, hoping their meaning would become clear. By page 160, a story is well underway.
On the other hand, the main plot doesn't get started until after page 300. If you read the back cover blurb and wondered when a certain thing would come up, you would have had to wait that long. I didn't and found the pacing just fine. Up until that point the story is largely with Richard or Kahlan, and most of the story follows them. There are three other pairs of people to follow around, and they definitely get less time. One of those pairs, in fact, seems to be featured only because they had to get from where they were at the end of the last book to where they were wanted at the end of this one. Worse yet, the only reason they had to arrive there at all was to foreshadow the next book! Considering one of them is a favorite of mine, I pray that book 5 lets him be around the main story just a little bit. (Book #10 has been published at this time, so I'm a little late.)
Aside from that ultimately pointless side story, it's pretty clear how the rest of the book fits together and there's nothing frustrating about it. Questions begging to be answered -- will Richard learn to use his gift? Will Richard and Kahlan ever be married? Does Goodkind have more violent, sexually deviant ideas in his head? -- were not ignored, while still leaving the world an exciting and perilous place. I highly recommend working through the Sword of Truth series as far as Temple of the Winds. (I can't recommend jumping into this world anywhere other than at the beginning, not to mention the fact that the first book is one of the genre's best ever.) At this rate the series could have some serious life left in it.
Sword of Truth-4 struck me better than the last couple. Blood of the Fold was too much a continuation of Stone of Tears to be a great book: #3 felt like a dragged out sequel to a #2 that never ended properly. Temple of the Winds is its own story, and it's a good one. In fact, it's not overstating it to call it a great one. While nothing can quite recapture the magic of introducing the new universe the way Wizard's First Rule and to some extent Tears did, the plot of this story is as exciting as the first.
How gripping is the beginning? The first 160 or so pages are basically a single scene covering a few hours in the Confessor's Palace. The little director in me wanted to film that much in just three shots of 20+ minutes each. Section and chapter breaks show the passage of no more time than it took the characters to walk down a hall. Actually, sometimes conversations continue right through a chapter break, which makes this pedantic little reviewer kind of annoyed -- those breaks were used just to emphasize the last thing said. Try an exclamation point: they work when not overused. Still, the reader can't say he had to remember the first scene's events on faith, hoping their meaning would become clear. By page 160, a story is well underway.
On the other hand, the main plot doesn't get started until after page 300. If you read the back cover blurb and wondered when a certain thing would come up, you would have had to wait that long. I didn't and found the pacing just fine. Up until that point the story is largely with Richard or Kahlan, and most of the story follows them. There are three other pairs of people to follow around, and they definitely get less time. One of those pairs, in fact, seems to be featured only because they had to get from where they were at the end of the last book to where they were wanted at the end of this one. Worse yet, the only reason they had to arrive there at all was to foreshadow the next book! Considering one of them is a favorite of mine, I pray that book 5 lets him be around the main story just a little bit. (Book #10 has been published at this time, so I'm a little late.)
Aside from that ultimately pointless side story, it's pretty clear how the rest of the book fits together and there's nothing frustrating about it. Questions begging to be answered -- will Richard learn to use his gift? Will Richard and Kahlan ever be married? Does Goodkind have more violent, sexually deviant ideas in his head? -- were not ignored, while still leaving the world an exciting and perilous place. I highly recommend working through the Sword of Truth series as far as Temple of the Winds. (I can't recommend jumping into this world anywhere other than at the beginning, not to mention the fact that the first book is one of the genre's best ever.) At this rate the series could have some serious life left in it.
2006-10-13
The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Popular Standards
Author: Max Morath
The contents of this book are neatly summarized in six bullet points on the front cover:
A concise history of the art form: the American Popular Standards are songs written between 1920 and 1960 that became pervasive in the music industry, being recorded by many major players, each adding their own special something to the presentation of the piece, and which outlived the context of their creation to become timeless.
The major composers, lyricists, and performers: paragraph-size biographies of hundreds of individuals are included, with the biggest names getting up to three pages each.
Classic songs: without including lyrics and sheet music, this section a discussion of the musical elements of 100 standards in the language of musicians. This section mostly reminded me that if you don't know music, you don't know music. (See the Wikipedia Music Theory category if you have no other background.)
An A-to-Z glossary of terms: this short glossary was needed to make this printed book complete, but really, try Wikipedia if you actually need to look up a term.
Valuble resources for the Curious Listener: books and websites
75 Essential Popular Standards CDs: if you want to go beyond listening to the radio and taking what they give you, here is a list of actual CDs you can easily purchase to hear what you've read about.
The topic interests me, and for the discount price I paid I'm happy with the book, but of course the topic needs audio to be treated properly. A good audio version of this book with examples to illustrate the material might run to 20 CDs with licensing costs pushing the price over $100. I bet it's been done well on radio -- presenting 20, one-hour sessions, with licensing costs being much cheaper -- but I couldn't tell you when, or when you'd be able to hear it for yourself, so something that the consumer can actually go buy would be preferable. If you're ready to spend some money on CDs though, or if you have some of this type of music and just want to learn more, this book should satisfy your curiosity.
The contents of this book are neatly summarized in six bullet points on the front cover:
A concise history of the art form: the American Popular Standards are songs written between 1920 and 1960 that became pervasive in the music industry, being recorded by many major players, each adding their own special something to the presentation of the piece, and which outlived the context of their creation to become timeless.
The major composers, lyricists, and performers: paragraph-size biographies of hundreds of individuals are included, with the biggest names getting up to three pages each.
Classic songs: without including lyrics and sheet music, this section a discussion of the musical elements of 100 standards in the language of musicians. This section mostly reminded me that if you don't know music, you don't know music. (See the Wikipedia Music Theory category if you have no other background.)
An A-to-Z glossary of terms: this short glossary was needed to make this printed book complete, but really, try Wikipedia if you actually need to look up a term.
Valuble resources for the Curious Listener: books and websites
75 Essential Popular Standards CDs: if you want to go beyond listening to the radio and taking what they give you, here is a list of actual CDs you can easily purchase to hear what you've read about.
The topic interests me, and for the discount price I paid I'm happy with the book, but of course the topic needs audio to be treated properly. A good audio version of this book with examples to illustrate the material might run to 20 CDs with licensing costs pushing the price over $100. I bet it's been done well on radio -- presenting 20, one-hour sessions, with licensing costs being much cheaper -- but I couldn't tell you when, or when you'd be able to hear it for yourself, so something that the consumer can actually go buy would be preferable. If you're ready to spend some money on CDs though, or if you have some of this type of music and just want to learn more, this book should satisfy your curiosity.
Saving Dinner Basics
Author: Leanne Ely
This shouldn't really count as a whole book. There are about 50 pages of text that are not recipes. In it, the author tries to describe the basics of cooking, how to set up a kitchen if you've never done it before, etc. Each chapter has explanation and recipes mixed together.
I didn't find the book very satisfying. For a "Basics" book it seemed to move too fast. Good sections include one on which tools to have and which are worthless, and one on pantry setup and organization. If you're desperate to learn those things, the book may be worth the purchase price for those pages alone. The sections on actual cooking seem to have an underlying assumption that the reader grew up with a mother making delicious food every night and wants to duplicate that arrangement for her family. The reader is of course a woman with at least two children, because women cook for their families, and families have multiple children, right? Aside from that possibly unintentional slight, the requirement that the reader has seen some of the tools and techniques before seems to invade many of the explanations.
Maybe this isn't such a great topic for a book, or at least for an unillustrated book. Pictures or video are required to learn cooking. Video is helpfully supplied by a half dozen cooking channels on today's digital cable and satellite TV systems, but little to none of it is aimed at a beginner. Good photography would be a must for a true "basic" cooking instruction book. Such a book should also not attempt to be a recipe book, except for including enough recipes to illustrate the points of instruction. You don't need 150 recipes to fill 50 pages of instruction into a full book -- try 150 pages of color photos.
Maybe the book I describe has been published. If I learn cooking before I find it, maybe I'll write it. Either way, roll the dice and buy a different basic cooking book. Saving Dinner Basics is not recommended.
This shouldn't really count as a whole book. There are about 50 pages of text that are not recipes. In it, the author tries to describe the basics of cooking, how to set up a kitchen if you've never done it before, etc. Each chapter has explanation and recipes mixed together.
I didn't find the book very satisfying. For a "Basics" book it seemed to move too fast. Good sections include one on which tools to have and which are worthless, and one on pantry setup and organization. If you're desperate to learn those things, the book may be worth the purchase price for those pages alone. The sections on actual cooking seem to have an underlying assumption that the reader grew up with a mother making delicious food every night and wants to duplicate that arrangement for her family. The reader is of course a woman with at least two children, because women cook for their families, and families have multiple children, right? Aside from that possibly unintentional slight, the requirement that the reader has seen some of the tools and techniques before seems to invade many of the explanations.
Maybe this isn't such a great topic for a book, or at least for an unillustrated book. Pictures or video are required to learn cooking. Video is helpfully supplied by a half dozen cooking channels on today's digital cable and satellite TV systems, but little to none of it is aimed at a beginner. Good photography would be a must for a true "basic" cooking instruction book. Such a book should also not attempt to be a recipe book, except for including enough recipes to illustrate the points of instruction. You don't need 150 recipes to fill 50 pages of instruction into a full book -- try 150 pages of color photos.
Maybe the book I describe has been published. If I learn cooking before I find it, maybe I'll write it. Either way, roll the dice and buy a different basic cooking book. Saving Dinner Basics is not recommended.
2006-10-06
The Joy of Work
Author: Scott Adams
The way Dilbert books operate, Adams should be able to turn one out every month or so. He gets to illustrate all his points with old comics and reader email. There's not that much original text involved. Furthermore, most annoyingly, he switches from humor to seriousness about 2/3 of the way through. He's done this before, and I wish his publisher would put all the humor together in one book of a decent size and make separate, serious books whenever the author wants to write enough to warrant one. As it is, the reader gets to fly through about 180 pages of light, funny stuff, then spends the last 80 pages waiting for the next good joke.
Get this one from the library or speed read a bit of it in the bookstore. Not one to keep.
The way Dilbert books operate, Adams should be able to turn one out every month or so. He gets to illustrate all his points with old comics and reader email. There's not that much original text involved. Furthermore, most annoyingly, he switches from humor to seriousness about 2/3 of the way through. He's done this before, and I wish his publisher would put all the humor together in one book of a decent size and make separate, serious books whenever the author wants to write enough to warrant one. As it is, the reader gets to fly through about 180 pages of light, funny stuff, then spends the last 80 pages waiting for the next good joke.
Get this one from the library or speed read a bit of it in the bookstore. Not one to keep.
2006-10-05
The Shadow of Saganami
Author: David Weber
This is another long, long story from Weber that took me several weeks to read. There is a lot happening. This is possibly the most politically complicated Honorverse story to date, which is saying something, but it's a good thing in that we can't take that many more 100-pg. naval battles. The stars do have a couple incidents, of course, but the gusher of explanations and descriptions is capped, with that sort of thing having been done already.
After this and Crown of Slaves, it looks like Honorverse novels not featuring Honor are going to be common now, as Weber needs to keep telling his larger story without having his overloaded Admiral/Steadholder/Duchess everywhere at once. If you're following the series, consider this book required reading between War of Honor and At All Costs.
This is another long, long story from Weber that took me several weeks to read. There is a lot happening. This is possibly the most politically complicated Honorverse story to date, which is saying something, but it's a good thing in that we can't take that many more 100-pg. naval battles. The stars do have a couple incidents, of course, but the gusher of explanations and descriptions is capped, with that sort of thing having been done already.
After this and Crown of Slaves, it looks like Honorverse novels not featuring Honor are going to be common now, as Weber needs to keep telling his larger story without having his overloaded Admiral/Steadholder/Duchess everywhere at once. If you're following the series, consider this book required reading between War of Honor and At All Costs.
Trading Futures
Author: Lance Parkin
EDA-54 w/Eigth Doctor, Fitz, Anji
Relatively complicated. Requires a little attention to keep track of all the different parties. Seems to be a continuation of events set in motion in the awful Henrietta Street. I may stop reading EDAs now. If I can't understand what's happening without going back to that disaster, I'm not going to spend any more money completing my collection.
EDA-54 w/Eigth Doctor, Fitz, Anji
Relatively complicated. Requires a little attention to keep track of all the different parties. Seems to be a continuation of events set in motion in the awful Henrietta Street. I may stop reading EDAs now. If I can't understand what's happening without going back to that disaster, I'm not going to spend any more money completing my collection.
