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description=A blog about books, movies, music, knitting, and photography. Sometimes cats and opinions get in the mix.;
description=A blog about books, movies, music, knitting, and photography. Sometimes cats and opinions get in the mix.;
description=A blog about books, movies, music, knitting, and photography. Sometimes cats and opinions get in the mix.;

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Text of the page (random words):
tary service to his loved ones placing their story in a historical setting only serves to make their romance more palpable i was moved to tears when colin began to re read and respond to all of grace s letters a beautiful scene but then the last line had me laughing so hard a wonderful eloisa james juxtaposition posted by melissa ward at 11 00 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels romantic reads stuff i read 25 march 2013 and then she fell cynster sisters duo 1 cynster 19 summary from goodreads the only thing more troublesome than a cynster man is a cynster lady who believes love is not her destiny famously known in london society as the matchbreaker henrietta cynster s uncanny skill lies in preventing ill fated nuptials not in falling victim to cupid s spell but then she disrupts one match too many and feels honor bound to assist dashing james glossup in finding a suitable bride for a marriage of convenience a task infernally complicated by the undeniable unquenchable attraction that flares between james and henrietta who continues to believe she will never fall the romance in this new stephanie laurens novel has a sweetness that isn t always part of a cynster novel instead of a conflagration it s more of a slow burn and a mutual acknowledgement of feelings after the customary miscues of course and the pendant that worked it s way through heather eliza and angelica even the bedroom scenes have a restrained subtle quality the use of purple prose is lighter and less meticulously detailed and it makes for a very nice change of pace the sweet contrasted nicely with the zest of the assassination plot so many things happen to henrietta and james runaway horses falling objects accidents in crowds that this slim novel barely stops for breath once it gets going nearly every previous laurens couple puts in an appearance in some way bastion club cynster barnaby adair the only real laggards are chillingworth and francesca cynster 7 and roscoe and miranda the lady risks all a family reunion as it were also a nice lead in for mary s book the taming of ryder cavanaugh in the epilogue posted by melissa ward at 10 41 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels romantic reads stuff i read 23 march 2013 the pirate king mary russell 11 summary from goodreads in england s budding silent film industry megalomaniac randolph fflytte is king at the request of scotland yard mary russell is dispatched to investigate rumors of criminal activities at lisbon rehearsals for pirate king based on gilbert and sullivan s the pirates of penzance thirteen blond haired blue eyed actresses meet the real buccaneers fflytte has recruited to provide authenticity but when the crew embarks for morocco and the actual filming troubles escalate continuing in my mary russell run i picked up the pirate king from the library here mary grouchily poses as secretary administrator general fixer for the suspicious motion picture production of an extremely reductive adaptation of the pirates of penzance it is easier to take the job even if that means she has to deal with mycroft than refuse so she finds herself soothing ruffled feathers finding costumes babysitting rehearsals and snooping through the cast and crew hotel rooms the possibly deranged producer director has hooked up with fernando pessoa a real life writer with some sort of dissociative personality disorder who finds real pirates to play the pirate crew and an actual derelict sailing ship for the production and that isn t even the worst part well the worst part for me was that mary frequently sounded a bit whiney to my ear granted she s got some ground getting dragged around the world saving her husband from some nut in india pakistan reclaiming part of her past in san francisco then entering into a lethal cat and mouse game with someone who fancied himself a spymaster to rival mycroft all at the cost of her own academic work but she doesn t seem to offer much resistance to the request that she go undercover she doesn t want to be at the house in surrey if mycroft is there and so she whinges for about 100 pages until sherlock shows up then things get interesting again their relationship has always been the best part of the series for me how they push and pull against each other with their considerable intellects and will i think i will take a pause before i read garment of shadows posted by melissa ward at 1 43 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels mini review stuff i read 18 march 2013 ex libris confessions of a common reader summary from goodreads anne fadiman is by her own admission the sort of person who learned about sex from her father s copy of fanny hill whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday and who once found herself poring over her roommate s 1974 toyota corolla manual because it was the only written material in the apartment that she had not read at least twice this witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language for fadiman as for many passionate readers the books she loves have become chapters in her own life story writing with remarkable grace she revives the tradition of the well crafted personal essay moving easily from anecdotes about coleridge and orwell to tales of her own pathologically literary family as someone who played at blocks with her father s 22 volume set of trollope my ancestral castles and who only really considered herself married when she and her husband had merged collections marrying libraries she is exquisitely well equipped to expand upon the art of inscriptions the perverse pleasures of compulsive proof reading the allure of long words and the satisfactions of reading out loud there is even a foray into pure literary gluttony charles lamb liked buttered muffin crumbs between the leaves and fadiman knows of more than one reader who literally consumes page corners perfectly balanced between humor and erudition ex libris establishes fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists i had previously read clifton fadiman s the lifetime reading plan both the original and the new edition supplemented by john major so anne fadiman had hung around on my periphery so one rainy day i snuggled up on the couch and the cats and some tea to read ex libris anne fadiman and i must be long lost relatives i too have compulsively read anything with print like the back of the cereal box out of desperation the small volume is comprise of beautifully written essays and love letters in a sense to books and reading in all shapes and forms the essay describing the trepidation and process of marrying her book collection with her husband s and he also had many books was very funny i only wish ex libris was a bit longer i guess i ll just have to pick up her other similarly sized collections incidentally i bought my copy at a local used bookstore i m sure fadiman with her love of secondhand bookstores and books would approve the previous owner had only read through the preface the rest of the pages were untouched fadiman would not approve posted by melissa ward at 1 42 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels mini review stuff i read 17 march 2013 read this summary from goodreads there is no greater joy for a bookseller than introducing a reader to a book they will love for the rest of their lives those of us in this business are after all matchmakers at heart so consider this little book you now hold in your hands a sort of catalog of matchmakers ann patchett if i were still a bookseller i d be thrilled to share this wealth with my customers as a reader i m deeply intrigued by the range of selections do yourself a favor add micawber s top 50 project to your must read list robert gray shelf awareness this book offers lists of favorites that have flown under the radar but off of bookstore shelves first published on hans weyandt s blog for micawber s books each list includes a bookseller s top fifty books anecdotes and interviews about the life of being a bookseller reader and engaged citizen all proceeds will go to american booksellers foundation for free expression abffe contributing bookstores include book passage tattered cover book store three lives company boswell books city lights bookstore bookcourt harvard book store carmichael s bookstore prairie lights the king s english bookshop square books magers quinn micawber s books unabridged bookstore regulator bookshop subterranean books faulkner house books skylight books maria s bookshop inkwood books rakestraw books riverrun bookstore sherman s books and stationary iowa book and fireside books this is a darling little book of lists of book recommendations from independent booksellers across america ann patchett wrote a lovely introduction and i found many great books that i hadn t yet heard of to add to my tbr lists shout outs for the local to me prairie lights and iowa book and supply my only regret is that there are so many books and never enough time posted by melissa ward at 1 41 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels mini review stuff i read 16 march 2013 frankenstein s cat cuddling up to biotech s brave new beasts summary from goodreads for centuries we ve toyed with our creature companions breeding dogs that herd and hunt housecats that look like tigers and teacup pigs that fit snugly in our handbags but what happens when we take animal alteration a step further engineering a cat that glows green under ultraviolet light or cloning the beloved family labrador science has given us a whole new toolbox for tinkering with life how are we using it in frankenstein s cat the journalist emily anthes takes us from petri dish to pet store as she explores how biotechnology is shaping the future of our furry and feathered friends as she ventures from bucolic barnyards to a frozen zoo where scientists are storing dna from the planet s most exotic creatures she discovers how we can use cloning to protect endangered species craft prosthetics to save injured animals and employ genetic engineering to supply farms with disease resistant livestock along the way we meet some of the animals that are ushering in this astonishing age of enhancement including sensor wearing seals cyborg beetles a bionic bulldog and the world s first cloned cat through her encounters with scientists conservationists ethicists and entrepreneurs anthes reveals that while some of our interventions may be trivial behold the glofish others could improve the lives of many species including our own so what does biotechnology really mean for the world s wild things and what do our brave new beasts tell us about ourselves with keen insight and her trademark spunk anthes highlights both the peril and the promise of our scientific superpowers taking us on an adventure into a world where our grandest science fiction fantasies are fast becoming reality a very well laid out book of popular science with chapters building off previous chapters anthes has a great tone she doesn t use a lot of tech speak but also doesn t bog down in explaining every tiny bit of biology so a wide range of people should be able to enjoy the book you ll need to understand how cells work and replicate at a basic level on your own a great sense of humor at times too anthes brings a lot of good ideas to the fore that i think have slipped past the news feeds because they just don t have the right hooks like the frozen zoo what are the ethical issues with banking dna from endangered animals before they are lost to us forever how does genetic modification effect our livestock and since gmo crops are a current hot button issue if a cow has been engineered to be resistant to mad cow disease is that good or bad we love biotech that helps us humans to have stronger hearts better prosthetics and less chronic disease but that same technology surrounds us in the animal world too dear ftc i obtained an arc of this book via a friend who attended a conference posted by melissa ward at 1 41 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels chemistry mini review stuff i read 12 march 2013 practical classics summary from goodreads what do the great books of your youth have to say about your life now smokler s essays on the classics witty down to earth appreciative and insightful are divided into ten sections each covering an archetypal stage of life from youth and first love to family loss and the future the author not only reminds you about the essential features of each great book but gives you a practical real world reason why revisiting it in adulthood is not only enjoyable but useful remember all those books we had to read in high school english the great gatsby jonny got his gun the handmaid s tale the grapes of wrath oedipus rex cry the beloved country one hundred years of solitude 1984 brave new world catch 22 as i lay dying ethan frome i do a bit since i know that i was assigned more books than the ones i listed here well kevin smokler decided to go back and take a look at pieces that were assigned as high school reading and give them another shot the result is an eclectic collection of recommended reads some like david foster wallace s a supposedly fun thing i ll never do again and amy tan s the joy luck club were published just as i finished high school smokler is a few years older than i am so we are in the same boat here a few others like walter benjamin and annie dillard i didn t read until assigned as post grad reading but a good chunk of the books smokler re read animal farm great gatsby pride and prejudice the scarlet letter etc were and still are mainstays of the hs curriculum he did not revisit hemingway or faulkner though which is fine but i would have liked a few more of those and less of the newer works there is a good variation in the chapter formats some are more like fan letters some are outlines and a few are straight up short essays all chapters are short so the book is easily read in small bites a note about an annoying mistake on page 138 it is noted that leslie s klinger created the feminist character of mary russell to rescript the victorian holmes the citation is from an npr article link to article however the quotation given by klinger is conflated with the actual author of the mary russell series laurie r king or in miss russell s opinion ms king is miss russell s literary executor who is also interviewed in the article simple fact checking i happened to notice the error because i ve read 90 of the mary russell series and i m a bookseller besides a reader unfamiliar with the series might not notice i hope the error is corrected in the next printing posted by melissa ward at 1 40 pm 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to 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