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just finished skip to main skip to sidebar just finished random musings on books and some bluegrass tuesday october 25 2011 a while back i finished an audio book of the hunger games by suzanne collins the hunger games is a dystopian ya set in a province that is held down and at constant near starvation levels by a central government after a long ago rebellion as part of their punishment the provinces have to send one male and one female teenager to the capitol to battle to the death with the survivor being rich afterwards it s an enjoyable book with some strong characterizations and descriptions though a bit predictable in its outcomes the book it most reminded me of is the much darker the running man posted by ian at 3 53 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday september 16 2011 continuing my trend of delayed postings i finished deadline by mira grant a little while ago i reviewed the first book in the series about reporters bloggers after a zombie apocalypse here and gave it a very positive review sadly i didn t enjoy deadline as much deadline had the benefit of not having to set up the world established in feed but i think that also hurt it the book feels like it is treading water in places just filling in time between events and there aren t a lot of events in the first place after finishing the book it felt like not much happened except for a little setup for the next book i ll still read the third book to see how it all turns out but hopefully it is stronger than this one posted by ian at 10 33 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday september 04 2011 i ve been slow to post lately below are some of the books i finished quantum man by lawrence m krauss this is a nice biography focusing on feynman s scientific work rather than personal life the descriptions of his work do help to make it more understandable although i think i will have to go back and re read it to really absorb it contagious and ancestor by scott sigler contagious continues the story from infected but is more enjoyable infected spent a lot of time covering struggles of one of the infected battling the parasites that were taking over his body and the details were unpleasant contagious is more about the struggle against the successfully infected people and is more interesting ancestor is in the same timeline according to the author but is an entirely separate plot line about researchers trying to create an artificial life form that can be used to harvest transplant able organs the efforts are borderline illegal and go underground and eventually craziness ensues it s a real page turner although i listened to the audio version and quite good as a thriller posted by ian at 11 28 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday august 15 2011 a while ago i finished infernal devices by k w jeter jeter is credited with creating the term steampunk and this is one of his earlier works that could fit under that umbrella though infernal devices strikes me more akin to urban fantasy with a world that much resembles ours but with some hidden parts the book s protagonist is the son of a brilliant inventor who is drawn into his father s bizarre world the weirdness develops slowly with some shadow over innsmouth touchs some automatons and different groups trying to either recruit or kill the protagonist it ends with a world shattering bang the book stays more true to its victorian roots than most modern steampunk does with a main character that is fully enmeshed in the repressed but dominating upper class a fun read posted by ian at 11 41 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday august 04 2011 i finished throne of jade by naomi novik the 2nd in her temeraire series i wrote about the first book in the series here i liked this better than the first book the setting england during the napoleonic wars but with dragons is still weird but the characters are well written and the plot moves along ok an ok light read if you don t have anything stronger posted by ian at 3 36 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday july 27 2011 i recently finished three books on memory inspired by a class chris stuart taught at the cba music camp this summer he was inspired by one of the books but there was line to get a copy of that book from the library so i started with some of the other ones chris listed in the bibliography he handed out the first book was the memory book by harry lorayne and jerry lucas this seems like an odd combination since lorayne is a memory expert magician and lucas is a former nba player and basketball hall of fame member but lucas actually developed his own memory techniques and is a fan of lorayne s and the book is built around a conversation between them about memory techniques it was published in the 60s and it shows it comes off as a slightly cheesy self help book and the original cover pictures is typical 60s but in some ways it s the most useful of the three books it presents the basics of how the memory techniques work with some exercises in a quick to read straight forward and practical fashion the second book was your memory by kenneth l higbee higbee is an academic and his book takes a more thorough approach it covers some of the science behind how memory works and what science shows about the various memory techniques it s a much drier read but much more complete and covers more techniques and possible applications than the memory book the third book and the one that inspired chris stuart originally is moonwalking with einstein by joshua foer this book tells the story of how the author went from researching memory competitions to competing in and winning the us memory championship it s an interesting story and well written but the memory techniques are only explained as they aid the story in particular foer only really focuses on two techniques the loci or memory palace method and the pao person action object method and the main focus is on the second method pao which is a high overhead very inflexible method that is only really suited for memory competitions where you need to learn a fixed type of thing very quickly overall i m glad i read all three i think if i d only read the last one i would have been put off by the techniques described instead i think i ll try to incorporate some of the other techniques into my life posted by ian at 4 01 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday july 19 2011 a few days ago i finished the wood wife by terri windling this is the first book i ve read by terri windling who spends more time as an editor than a writer i quite enjoyed it it is urban fantasy in the charles de lint vein dealing with spirituality and wonder in the modern world through the lens of fantastic events the fantastic events are slow to develop in this book it starts out with a poet moving to the outskirts of tuscon to take over the house of an older poet who had just died mysteriously the first sections of the book introduce us to the protagonist and follow her as she meets her new neighbours and then gets drawn into the charms of her new surroundings the later sections start to delve into the mysteries and the fantastic elements tied to them the slow development pays off as it strongly ties the reader more into the characters before moving into the action well worth reading posted by ian at 3 37 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to posts atom followers twitter updates twitter updates follow me on twitter my other pages adventures in blacksmithing my twitter profile my facebook profile my linkedin profile links maude fish megan graff colby cosh jason liz sarah traumady barefoot nellies grizzly peak mighty crows california bluegrass association subscribe now subscribe in a reader blog archive 2011 33 10 23 10 30 1 a while back i finished an audio book of the hunge 09 11 09 18 1 09 04 09 11 1 08 14 08 21 1 07 31 08 07 1 07 24 07 31 1 07 17 07 24 1 07 10 07 17 1 07 03 07 10 1 06 26 07 03 1 06 19 06 26 1 06 05 06 12 2 05 29 06 05 2 05 22 05 29 1 05 15 05 22 1 05 08 05 15 1 05 01 05 08 1 04 24 05 01 3 04 17 04 24 1 04 03 04 10 1 03 27 04 03 1 03 20 03 27 1 02 06 02 13 1 01 30 02 06 1 01 23 01 30 1 01 16 01 23 1 01 09 01 16 2 01 02 01 09 1 2010 85 12 26 01 02 2 12 19 12 26 2 12 12 12 19 1 12 05 12 12 1 11 28 12 05 1 11 14 11 21 1 11 07 11 14 2 10 31 11 07 1 10 24 10 31 2 10 10 10 17 1 10 03 10 10 2 09 26 10 03 2 09 19 09 26 2 09 12 09 19 1 09 05 09 12 2 08 22 08 29 1 08 08 08 15 1 08 01 08 08 3 07 25 08 01 1 07 18 07 25 1 07 11 07 18 1 07 04 07 11 1 06 27 07 04 1 06 20 06 27 3 06 13 06 20 1 06 06 06 13 2 05 30 06 06 2 05 23 05 30 1 05 16 05 23 1 05 09 05 16 2 05 02 05 09 3 04 25 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