…although this dentist she took me to in Anchorage, Dorman, was okay, even if he was way too tan to be an Alaskan. He likes Kate, I can tell, but then every man she’s ever met likes her. Except maybe all the ones she put in jail, and sometimes I’m not so sure about them.…
Read more “Except maybe all the ones she put in jail, and sometimes I’m not so sure about them.”
Orion is back And so are the daddy long Legs in the garage.
The Stone War by Madeleine E. Robins
A spooky book. In the unfortunately not too distant future, architect John Tietjen lives in and loves New York City, in spite of the homeless on every street, and the gangs on every other street, and the security guards on every street corner. Then things really go to the dogs. When John is out of town on a job, some mysterious force unleashes true evil on the city by way of earthquakes, flooding, and an horrific force creating monsters of many of the few people left living. John makes his way back to help the survivors take back their city. Dystopian, horror, fantasy, mystery, noir, there are too many labels to choose from, but here's another one for you: Mesmerizing.
Also, spooky. Did I say?
# Permanent link to A spooky book.
We received a letter from the Writers’ War Board the other day asking for a statement on “The Meaning of Democracy.” It presumably is our duty to comply with such a request, and it is certainly our pleasure.
Sergeant Jim Chopin said that fully a third of the local callouts to the Niniltna trooper post involved Dulcey Kineen in some way. Either she was enticing men at the Roadhouse to drink so she could drink with them, or she was seducing men away from their wives and sweethearts, or she was vamping men…
Since the year 27 B.C., when Octavianus became Augustus Caesar, the Empire of the Romans had flourished...the Mediterranean had become a Roman lake ringed by Roman provinces and territories...cleared of pirates, and coasting trade was brisk. In fact travel, either for business or pleasure, was safer in that region than it ever was again until the introduction of steam navigation.
# Permanent link to “The world has been mapped, after a fashion…”
The front trailer teetered on the edge of the road about fifty feet down the hill from where the rear one went over. Jim thought it might have had a chance if the snow berm had been higher. As it was, inertia and momentum took charge and over it went, rolling at least half a…
Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor
What, you thought napalm was a new thing? This book will disabuse your mind of that notion pronto. According to Mayor, mankind has been thinking up new and more horrible ways to spread terror and kill more people faster since before Alexander. Beehive bombs. Snake bombs. Poisonous spider bombs. Naphtha bombs. Arrows poisoned with snake venom or tipped with burning pitch to set the besieged city on fire. Catapulting the plague dead over the castle walls. There is no end, and, evidently, a very early beginning to mankind's ingenuity and bloodthirstiness.
Did you know rhododendrons were poisonous? And did you know that if bees fed on rhododendron nectar, that if you ate the honey they produced that it would kill you? It's how Colchis defeated Xenophon in 401 BC.
# Permanent link to Snake bombs. That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout.
