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05.07.05 by Dindrane @ 3:17 am 
Written by Laurell K. Hamilton Incubus Dreams ostensibly follows necromancer Anita Blake as she fights crime, tries to stay alive, and bones an ever-increasing number of men in order to feed the awfully convenient ardeur--the irresistible craving for sexual contact that she inherited from her vampire lover and "master," Jean Claude. Long time Anita fans will want to know the following: we get more Jean Claude than we have in a long time, and Richard seems to be back, but how long that lasts and what his role will be is still up in the air. Edward, alas, does not make an appearance, nor does Asher. Much of the story revolves around the subservient were-leopard Nathanial, as well as Anita's "relationship" with the implausibly "perfect" Micah, the erstwhile pard leader. The mystery/crime to be solved is, as always, secondary, and even more so in this novel. There's really very little pretense here--this book is about Anita and her "love" life, which gets increasingly dull as the pages wear on. Sure, the first sex scene, even two, has some promise, but how many sex scenes can one read during a book you didn't pick up for solely that reason? They become tedious and frankly boring, and simply skipping them would lose you about half the book. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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04.12.05 by Doc @ 2:22 pm  
Written by Simon R. Green John Taylor has spent the last few years trying to forget his past. From a dingy office in a bad part of London, he works as a private eye, assisted greatly by a supernatural (literally) ability to find anything that someone wants found. He can't pay the rent, sleeps on the sofa in his office, and generally exists as an embodiment of every P.I. cliché in the book. That is, until his newest client walks in the door. Joanna Barrett is a very wealthy woman, and her daughter has gone missing. Sounds like little trouble, until Ms. Barrett mentions where her daughter is believed to have gone: Nightside. Nightside is Taylor's home, or was. It's the dark heart of London, possibly of the world, a place where it's always 3 a.m. and where anything can be bought for the right price. Nightside is a magical place, inaccessible to most ordinary people, but Taylor isn't ordinary. He's not sure what he is, exactly, as he has no idea who (or what) gave birth to him...only that it was horrible enough that his father drank himself to death shortly thereafter. Taylor has been running from Nightside for years, because for some reason a large number of very powerful people there seem to want him dead, for reasons he's never been clear on. But he needs the money. Badly. And the girl could be in serious trouble if she stumbled into Nightside accidentally or fell in with the wrong crowd once she got there. So Taylor takes the case, and must step back into the dangerous world that he's been trying to forget, risking his life to find some pampered rich girl runaway before she gets herself killed, or worse. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 11:26 pm 
Written by: Roger Smith This fascinating text was designed to help teachers of any subject integrate environmental education into their classrooms. Carefully designed to be usable in grades 4-9, this book is an invaluable resource for teachers, parents, homeschoolers, and just concerned individuals alike. Part I of the book is devoted to "Exploring the Environment and the Universe," with such lessons as viewing the stars, exploring time, and developing empathy. Part II is dedicated to Change, and projects here include making fossil casts, demonstrating earthquakes, water erosion, and observing metamorphosis in animals. Part III is "Unity: The Wholeness of Nature," where students look at such lessons as Nature’s interconnections, food chains, biomes, endangered species, adaptations to change, and much more. Part IV is the Finite Planet, and students will learn about such things as forests and how trees modify climate, population and food issues, waste management and junk art, and the touch process of making choices about dealing with the environment. All activity sections come with a "learning objectives" statement and full background notes, and each individual activity is clearly worded and includes suggestions for use. Pages are easily separated from the binding for photocopying, and all hand-outs are copyright free, so that they may be actually used in a classroom situation where you might need 30 copies of a given page. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 3:05 pm  Written by: Albert Nolan Jesus Before Christianity was originally published in 1976, and is here re-published with a new preface by the author. What warrants this re-publication will be apparent when you pick this text up and begin reading. What could easily turn into simply a historical exercise becomes something much more: a critique of current forms of Christianity and a call for a return to something more real and closer to what Jesus himself actually lived and taught. Based firmly on actual history rather than hearsay or spiritual embellishment, this should be required reading for anyone who claims to be a Christian or anyone who wants to know the truth about the religion. The book is arranged into several sections, according to theme. Part One lays the groundwork for the coming of Jesus, including an overview of John the Baptist's prophecies. Part Two covers what Jesus both practiced and preached. Part Three delves into some of the specifics of what Jesus talked about, such as the kingdom of God and how it relates to the idea of wealth. Finally, Part Four talks about Jesus' death. Closing out the book are a notes section, a bibliography, and an index. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 8:07 am  Grade: B+ Written by: Kent Nerburn Note: I have used the term "Indian" in this review to refer to the conglomeration of peoples living on the North American continent before whites came. This is the term the Indians in the book use, and as Dan points out in the text, each word was given by the whites and as false as any other, so why differentiate and pretend one is somehow better? Neither Wolf Nor Dog is a cross between travel narrative and Native American manifesto. We have the story of Kent Nerburn himself, summoned to Lakota lands at the behest of Dan, who appreciates some work Nerburn has done on other collections of Native tales. Dan wants Nerburn to help him write down his thoughts about what it means to be an Indian. There are a few faults with this book, unfortunately. Dan's thoughts are not always logical, which Nerburn is not loathe to mention, and the resulting problem is that we told over and over, in many poetic and emotional speeches, how horrible white men are, which we knew, but are not so much told what we can do about it. Perhaps this is because there is nothing we can do about it? But then, why go to all the trouble to write, edit, and produce the book at all? Over and over, we are told not to "use" Indians for their wisdom--which is a very good point--yet we are expected to see Dan's wisdom as valid and to listen to him; he sets himself up as the wise man, and yet doesn't want us to see him only as the wise man--perhaps this is why we see him, warts and all. Dan treats Nerburn rather badly frequently, but gets no word of apology, as if he should be made to suffer. In the end, Dan is a human being as we are, and this is a good point to learn: he's not some stereotypical "wise man." Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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