The Diamond of Darkhold

This book is by Jeanne DuPrau. It is the last in the Ember series.

Although really written for children, the series can be read and enjoyed by adults. I read the first book after seeing a preview for the movie and continued reading the series, because I wanted to see how things turn out for the characters.

There are valuable lessons in this book that could benefit many children, like in the rest of the series. Well, adults might learn a thing or two also.

The book opens during the first winter after the people of Ember emerge and take up residence in Sparks. Life is tough to say the least.

Lina and Doon find a book that tells of something left for the people of Ember from the people who set up Ember. The book is damaged so they have to figure out many things involved for themselves.

They decide to go back to Ember. They have to figure out a way to get back in and do. Upon arrival, they find that some people from outside are in the city. The real adventure begins.

Lina and Doon eventually find what the book was talking about and figure out how to use it. A very valuable discovery.

The author then ties up loose ends to bring the series to a conclusion. I think it was ended off well.

Give it a try.

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother

My wife and I recently discovered the Mad Men series which the author of the book reviewed here, Bryan Batt, has played in regularly. A friend of ours who really likes Mad Men told us that Mr. Batt was a native of New Orleans, his family had owned the Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park there and that he had written a book about his mother that was really funny, so we got a copy of the book.

To put this in perspective, our friend is from New Orleans and my wife and I are from Louisiana and have lived in New Orleans. Given that we know that New Orleans is peculiar in usually amusing ways, we looked forward to reading the book reviewed here. I have just finished it and my wife will read it soon.

I did like the book, though it was a bit over the top at times - Mr. Batt likes to use a lot of adjectives and it seemed a little stream of consciousness at times, among a few other things. But, it still is a fun book.

I was a little surprised that he spent so little time on Pontchartrain Beach; I used to go there as a kid, and it was a great place - unfortunately closed since the 1980's. Also, there was next to nothing on Mardi Gras - and this book is New Orleans based in large part. Someone told me there will be a sequel, so maybe he will take these topics up there.

My two favorite parts in the book were the chapter "Beep" which is solely a very long phone message from his mother - really funny and so New Orleans - and the chapter "Let Us Pray" which describes praying for relief of constipation when his mother was ill. Don't be out off by the latter if you are religious, since they meant it to be respectful, but when you read it, I am fairly certain that you will laugh, a lot - I cried I laughed so much.

The book is really about Mr. Batt and things that his mother did and said as his life progressed. Gayle Batt (the mother) is, even for New Orleans, quite a character. I am not sure if people who never lived in New Orleans will get all the nuances, but most are hard to miss regardless. Mrs. Batt is very "zany" and very charming like many ladies I have known from New Orleans, but she is an extreme example I guess - and I mean that in a good way. I wouldn't mind knowing her, believe me. She does deserve to be immortalized in a book. By the way, the cover cartoon of her really captures her essence well.

Ignore the over the top parts and have fun with the rest.

Where Are Our Departed Loved Ones?

This booklet is part of the How to Live Series from Self Realization Fellowship (SRF). Yogananda (founder of SRF) is the author of this particular installment in the series. Ordinarily, I find works by Yogananda to be inspiring, and this one is no exception.

Here, Yoganada discusses where people go when they die (the astral world), how we may communicate with them there and related topics. From what I remember, most of this is also covered in the SRF lessons and at least some of it in Autobiography of a Yogi. I had done the lessons and read Autobiography before reading this, and had hoped for more in this booklet. In any case, it provided a review and (renewed) inspiration for me.

Given what I have said here, I would recommend this booklet more for people who have not done the lessons and especially for people who have not done the lessons or read the Autobiography. By the way, the Autobiography is a great book, and the lessons are really worth doing.

Publication of EXILED

I am pleased to announce that my story, EXILED, has recently been published by Static Movement. I originally wrote the story in about 1993, recently revised it a bit and happily found place for it.

If you are interested in reading the story, use the following web link:

http://www.staticmovement.com/exiled.htm

I hope all who read it enjoy my story.

The Soul of Christianity

This is a book by Huston Smith.

When I first saw this book, I was intrigued by the description on the jacket, so I decided to buy it. After reading the book, I find that this description is tilted to the introduction more than the rest of the book, but I did like the book overall.

I really liked the beginning of the book, but got bogged down a little in the middle - it was just not as interesting there to me. The latter part was worth the slog I had to get to it though.

As many people know, Huston Smith wrote a famous book on the world's religions. Probably fewer people know that he was born in China to missionary parents and later hung out with Huxley and even Timothy Leary. Mr. Smith is now over 90 years old - he wrote this book only a few years ago.

In the Introduction, Smith laments secularism, and points out that secularists mistake absence of evidence for evidence of absence when considering the existence of God. I have to agree that these two things are NOT equivalent, but one hears many (even well educated) people say this or something that means this frequently. That being said, Mr. Smith does not let Christian fundamentalists off the hook. He prefers a middle road I guess.

In Part 1, Smith presents his take on the Christian Worldview - some of this got a tad tedious for me. In Part 2, he presented what he called the Christian Story - I thought this much better for the most part, but he does seem to have a fairly conservative viewpoint on many points here, which kind of surprised me given that he taught at Berkeley.

Part 3 looked at the three main branches of Christianity today. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school, but I still learned a few things I had not before on Catholicism. I found it interesting to learn about the Eastern Orthodox view of the truly corporate nature of the church and its heavy emphasis on mysticism; this was not what I expected given the name Orthodox, and I learned that I have much in common with this group. His discussion on Protestantism was very enlightening - I had never really gotten the justification by faith thing before as I do now.

All in all, I liked the book. It is middle of the road I guess, but as many people have strong opinions on the subjects considered, it may not please all readers.

Publication of THE NEXT STAGE

I am pleased to announce that my science fiction short story, THE NEXT STAGE, was published in the Aurora Wolf magazine recently. If you are interested go to www.aurorawolf.com and take a look.

I first wrote the story for a writing contest in 1993, but I did not win. I set it aside to write some other stories, but I never ended up publishing any of them. Last summer, I dusted my old stories off and started revising them for publication.

This has been an interesting process. Lots of impersonal and terse rejections to contend with, but people from a few publications have encouraged me and given me some pointers on how to revise so as to increase my chances. One of the latter was from Aurora Wolf and soon after, he published my story. I have high hopes with another publication too as well - I sent off that revised story about a week ago and should hear back soon.

If you are interested in publishing your writing but don't know where to send it, try the duotrope website. It is very helpful and even gives an idea of what the acceptance rates are for each publication, how fast they respond and whether they will make (helpful) comments if they reject you.

I'll keep you posted on how things go.

Null-A Continuum

This is a review of Null-A Continuum by John C Wright.

In case you didn't know, this is the finale of the Null-A series started by the late A E van Vogt. The first three books were written by van Vogt and this last by Wright after van Vogt's passing to complete the overall story. The first three are THE WORLD OF NULL-A, THE PLAYERS OF NULL-A (aka THE PAWNS OF NULL-A) and NULL-A THREE, although not everyone likes to count this third one, since it was written by van Vogt when he was very ill and has some "issues"; Wright ignores much of what happened in NULL-A THREE. It helps to have read the first two books before starting the last; Wright does give a good summary of the first three before he begins in any case.

I first saw the present book over a year ago, and this is how I learned about van Vogt's work. It took me a while to get to the first two in this series (I am skipping the third), and I also read SLAN by van Vogt in the meantime (which is pretty good and has a later sequel by another author as well). There are many, many other van Vogt books as well if you like his style.

The plot of the series is somewhat complex, so I won't try to explain it in detail here - Wright's summary is good if you need more. Readers should note that the books follow a sort of progression of scope from interplanetary to galactic to intergalactic, then beyond.

The main character is Gilbert Gosseyn and the series features his development of a second AND a third brain which allow him to do some fantastic things; he also seems to have amnesia and is apparently immortal. There is a (seeming) femme fatale of sorts, Patricia, who turns out to be good in the end, and an evil Emperor, Enro, who wants to rule the galaxy and maybe beyond, as well as other recurring characters.

Null-A refers to non-Aristotelian logic; van Vogt was a fan of General Semantics from which this logical system derives or is an integral part. This system is intertwined into the plot to some extent, but it is explained or kept in the background enough so as not to confuse readers previously unfamiliar with it.

As the series progresses, it is like an ever unfolding conspiracy is revealed. Hint: it actually goes beyond time and space. Get ready for more than a few surprises and twists, especially in this last book. Involved is a surprisingly long history of and basis of the very of the existence of mankind and the universe itself - it is handled fairly well too.

Keep in mind that the series started in the 1940's, so the terminology for technology may seem a little dated and strange. Wright used van Vogt's terms for things for continuity, but he went beyond for things that came up in this last book that had not been touched on before. I am not sure, but it seems that Wright has made quite a study of actual modern physics and related philosophy before writing this book; if not, he made it seem like what he was saying was based on this at least.

Like some other people, I did not like all the jumping around in this last book. Things get very convoluted and difficult to follow. Some of it was necessary for the story I guess, but too much of a good thing can be bad as the saying goes. The book was a bit long for what it had to say as well. Some readers may find that it was too long on explaining via narration and did not use the characters enough to tell the story instead. It was not easy reading in many spots. This all killed a possible 5 of 5 star rating from me.

Actually, I nearly gave the book only 3 of 5 stars because of these last points, but Wright did give a satisfying ending that tied things up well, so I went with 4 of 5 stars in the end.

This book is worth reading as it ties up the series well, but it is not light reading by any means.

The Prophet of Yonwood

This is the third book of the Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau.

Actually, this book is meant for children, but it might interest some adults. I read the first in the series because of the movie, so I decided to continue with the series to see where it went. This third book is a prequel of sorts for the series.

In this installment, a young girl Nickie goes with her aunt to Yonwood, North Carolina to get a dead relative's house and things ready for sale. Yonwood has a prophet of sorts - really a lady who had a vision and stays mysteriously ill; everything she mumbles is considered a message from God. People in the town led by a Mrs. Beeson act on these "messages" in some often not very nice ways.

Nickie has various adventures while in Yonwood. She meets a boy named Grover who like snakes, and she adopts a dog named Otis. She tries to help Mrs. Beeson too.

In the background of the story is the possibility of a major war starting. The original vision of the Prophet seems to be related to this.

How this book relates to the rest of the Ember series is not explained until the very end and is tenuous at best. It tells a mildly interesting story, but it does not relate very well to the rest of the series.

This book is good overall, but the first in the series is much better and the second a little better. I'll try the fourth - I think the last - and finish out the series there.

Give it a try if you have some time.

Grave Peril

This is the third book in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

I really liked the short lived Dresden Files TV series - they should bring it back - and the first two books were very good. This third book was good, but it could have been better.

In this installment, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only resident wizard detective, fights an evil thing called the Nightmare. It takes a while for him to even figure out what the thing is, much less how to get rid of it. In many ways, this was a very clever plot device.

Murphy from the Chicago police plays only a small role in the story as the creature attacks her, and she is put out of commission for most of the story. Harry works mostly with a Knight of some type named Michael instead - as in Knight with a holy sword. Susan, Harry's girl friend has a big part, and there is some tragic consequence there that I think resurfaces in at least one much later book from what I have heard. Other important characters are Lydia - Dresden needs a damsel in distress, and she is ONE of them in this story. There are also the vampire Thomas and his human girlfriend Justine. Bianca the vampire is also heavily involved in the story - and unlike in the TV series, she REALLY hates Harry. Harry's godmother - who is actually a fairy - is also involved; I was confused about a wicked fairy godmother, but that is kind of how she is. Lots of others too play parts like the evil wizard Kravos.

Given all the characters, it is not surprising that the plot is fairly complex; this is just a very brief sketch. Something has stirred up the ghosts in the Never Never and all hell breaks loose. Harry finds out that this thing dubbed the Nightmare is the culprit, but he does not know exactly what this thing is. Keep in mind that the name is very appropriate. He and Michael work together to fight it. Before long, they end up at Bianca's vampire party and things turn really ugly. Eventually, Harry saves the day, but not before Susan gets in big trouble and stays in trouble in part, and he is left to figure out how to get her the rest of the way out as the book ends. Murphy is healed by the end though. The bad guys are vanquished, but it is not exactly a happy ending for Susan - at least for the time being anyway.

The plot being very complicated was kind of a drawback. There was so much action going on that it got almost exhausting at times - too much of a good thing you know. Maybe the author had so many good ideas that he just had to use, and the publisher would not let him have any more pages so he could space things out. Seems there was not much time for Harry to tell the reader things about his life and all that - kind of chat with the reader as he did in the earlier books which I liked.

I have heard that the next books avoid some of the issues in this one, so I will keep reading. In any case, this book did have its good points; it just was not as good as the others I have read in the series. Read it and move to the next.

What the Dog Saw

This is a book by Malcolm Gladwell.

The book is actually a collection of essays by him that have been in the New Yorker Magazine. Truly an interesting group too - probably something for everyone.

There are around 20 essays in the book. Some of my favorites are the essays on: (1)Ron Popeil aka Mr. Ronco - there is more to those infomercial products and the guys behind them than you might think; (2) the ladies who promoted hair dye - where you learn about the famous line "Does she or doesn't she?" and other interesting items; (3)Enron - actually there are two essays featuring it, and it was even weirder there than you might have thought; (4)Solving homelessness - you might never believe this cost effective method until you hear the whole story; (5)Panic and Choking - the kind involved when you are stressed and don't function correctly, and it really made me think about things I have seen/experienced from a new viewpoint; (6) Hiring and Interviewing - actually two essays and really worth considering.

The title comes from one of the essays that was about a very talented dog trainer. Not one of my favorites, but then I never had an unruly dog.

The author has a very fresh and interesting way of presenting things. Many times he is showing readers (without beating them over the head or putting them on the defensive) how wrong the conventional wisdom about things really is. He has a great writing style and is very persuasive.

Of course, the best thing about the book is probably the selection of topics themselves. This is an art form as done here.

This is a very entertaining book, and I think that most if not all readers will learn something useful from it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Three Prophets of Religious Liberalism

This book presents three very famous sermons/essays in the history of religious liberalism or liberal Christianity if you prefer; a very good, detailed introduction sets the stage. I found the book to be very inspiring.

The introduction by Conrad Wright is over 40 pages long, but well worth reading before diving into the sermons/essays that follow. Mr. Wright provides much useful context and some explanation of the sermons/essays themselves here. I may be no expert, but I am not a neophyte in the area either, and I found the introduction very beneficial. Please don't skip past it.

The first essay/sermon was written and presented by William Ellery Channing for an ordination ceremony for a new minister in Baltimore in 1819. Dr. Channing was a major figure in the Unitarian movement around this time. This sermon/essay is sometimes named "Unitarian Christianity" and sometimes called simply the "Baltimore Sermon". In it, Dr. Channing describes many of the doctrinal areas where Unitarians and "Orthodox" (here meaning most Protestants of the day) Christians differ, while presenting his view on why the Unitarian viewpoint makes the most sense. The One God versus the Triune God being one of those areas (from which the Unitarians get there name originally), but by no means the only one. He was VERY convincing.

The writing style is a bit "old fashioned" in a few spots making it a challenge, but overall it is pretty clear. I must say that Dr. Channing was very good at laying out a logical argument to make his point which I really appreciate, and something I have not seen often enough in religious writing; most seem to appeal to/focus on emotion or feeling, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I prefer a logical, step by step approach.

Following Dr. Channing is the (Harvard) Divinity School Address of 1838 by Ralph Waldo Emerson. To be honest, I have never been a fan of Emerson's writing, and this did not change my mind. HOWEVER, I did find many points made here to be enlightening to me personally, so I am glad that I read it. My problem is his writing style. It is just hard to get through. Sorry, but that is how I feel. It is sometimes poetic, but often too cryptic, at least for me.

The last in "the Transient and the Permanent in Christianity" by Theodore Parker written and delivered in 1841 for another ordination. My reaction to it is simply, WOW!! This is a great piece of writing. I wish it would be published widely today for all people to consider and ponder. It is meant for a Christian audience or at least one from a Christian based culture, but it might have appeal to others as well. The writing style is very easy to follow and very logically laid out, but there is still plenty here for people who prefer an approach that appeals to the emotions as well. It is nearly 40 pages long, but I was able to sail right through it.

This sermon/essay by Parker got him into a lot of trouble when he gave it and then published it. This is explained in the introduction, and if one considers what he said and when he said it, this should not be a big surprise.

Parker's thesis is that in every age, Christians have doctrines and forms of worship that are unique to them and change over time to things very different. BUT, the core beliefs stay the same. And, he thinks this is not a bad thing necessarily, at least if there is proper focus on the core beliefs. Along the way in elaborating on this, he makes many points, including saying NO to the doctrine of Biblical infallibility (a big "no-no" at the time) and giving reasons for this; yet still, he showed respect for its basic teachings (which was not good enough for many in his time).

I must say that when I read Parker here, I felt that I saw the REAL message and approach of Jesus in it. I don't think that I can explain this. Take a look and I hope you can see it too.

I respect the religious tradition I was brought up in, but I do wish I had found out about these old Unitarians earlier in life. They had much to say that has helped me a lot. I hope that others find this for themselves too - here or elsewhere.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

The World Jones Made

This is an early novel by PKD.

I have heard many negative things about this book, but I think they were unfair for the most part. It is not perfect, but still pretty good and well worth reading.

The story basically goes like this. There is a world war and much destruction. A new government takes over based on Relativism - you can believe what you like, but you can't try to foist it on others. Sort of the polar opposite of the Absolutism that is blamed for the war by some of the characters in the story. But in practice, the two may not seem all that different.

A member of the secret police happens upon this guy Jones who can see one year into the future. One thing leads to another, and after the secret police fail to assassinate Jones, he soon becomes supreme leader. His rise to power has something to do with amoeba like creatures from outer space called the drifters. It might spoil the book for people who have not read it if I explained much more on how that goes and turns out, but later, there is a sort of super Tholian web involved which will mean something to fans of the original Star Trek series. In any case, things under Jones don't seem to go so well.

Also in the story are some human like creatures adapted for life on Venus. Well, not the actual Venus as it is, but as I guess it was imagined by the author when this book was written in the 1950's and apparently before any probes went there. Well, it made for good storytelling nonetheless. These characters as presented in the story should also give readers some things to think about - I'll keep my conclusions here to myself.

The book is quite thought provoking in many other aspects as well. Things go from one extreme to another, and one can ask what really changed. The implications of being able to see the future were also explored and done quite well I think. There is much more besides this.

The book has a decent ending even if things are not tied up completely - but this lends a hopeful aspect.

I think it would have been a better book if it had been a little longer to allow for a deeper presentation of the many things it considered. In any case, it is very good as is, and I recommend it.

Nurture Shock

This book by Bronson and Merryman discusses some of the new research based thinking on children and even young adults. There is quite a bit of interesting information presented, but better presentation/layout would have made the book more effective, if you ask me.

Many major topics are covered such as the INVERSE power of praise, how lowering average sleep time is REALLY a problem, race relations (and how integration in school may INCREASE segregation into racial groups), kids and lying, the errors in trying to evaluate giftedness too early, sibling rivalry, teens and arguing, self control/focus, educational TV and aggression, developing language skills early and even something on gratitude in the conclusions. Much new research turns previous thinking on its ear. Some of the results are very surprising, but maybe not if you really think about them for a while.

One point the authors make is that maybe we have been wrong about children, because we start with the assumption that they are really the same as adults, when studies indicate that their brains are different and hence so is their behavior at times - and not just a little different.

I have recommended the book to several friends with children on the way, with children of different ages, and even to some with grown children who seem to wonder why bringing their kids up was so hard. I think even people who never had/have children could really get something out of the book.

The real drawback of the book is that it is not that well presented. Message to authors and book editors: with non-fiction, it is usually more effective to have many subheading in a book covering many topics/subtopics so that readers can easily follow you. Numbering points sometimes helps as well.

I also found the book was best near the start and near the end. In the middle, it was kind of harder to get through for some reason - maybe it was just me.

But, don't let presentation issues put you off. They weren't that bad, and the book makes a lot of interesting points. Recommended.

The Man in the High Castle

This is a book by PKD. It is regarded as one of his best.

Overall, I like the book very much, but I think I'll put it this way and say that the very last part of the book and the ending were not the best parts. I like it better when a book has a satisfying ending of some sort - here things were left unresolved.

The plot in basically this. The Allies lose WWII and the Germans and Japanese (except for a little part to Italy and some buffer zones) split the world more or less. The Germans get the eastern part of the USA and the Japanese the Pacific coast. The middle part of the country is some sort of semi-independent buffer zone. Several characters are brought together in various ways and readers learn details of what life is like in this alternate world.

The Japanese seem to be semi-benevolent victors; the Germans seem not to be overly horrible in the part of the USA that they got, at least if you are white and non-Jewish. The Nazis apparently did some really bad things to the Slavs and even worse in Africa - the latter is only hinted at as if to say it is too horrible for words - after the war. The Germans focus on technical accomplishments, and they are colonizing the solar system. The Japanese are behind in technology. The story itself is set about 15 years after the war in the 1960's and takes place mostly in San Francisco.

Japanese people appear to be obsessed with the I Ching oracle and many Americans have adopted this as well. This is a very essential feature in the story.

The Japanese are also very fond of things from the pre-war USA with the range going from civil war guns to Mickey Mouse watches - you name it and they pay big bucks.

The Germans are united on the surface, but are very divided just under the surface, with the various factions involved in all sorts of machinations.

Add to all this a best selling book that the Nazis are very unhappy about that posits an alternate history where the USA, Britain and Russia won the war - with events a little different from the way we all remember them though.

Several Japanese, Germans and Americans are thrown together into this mix to complete the recipe so to speak.

So who is the Man in the High Castle? Well, I won't spoil that for you, but he has something to do with the book mentioned in the story here.

I guess the point of the story is to answer "what if" in some respects. But more importantly, it may be about what winning a war really means - pay attention near the very end especially on this point.

The book is very good overall as I said, but the ending is of the unresolved type. I don't care for those myself, but don't let that put you off as the story is still very good and the book well written; the way it is written is perhaps not "grammatically correct" everywhere, but it works better this way as I think you will see when reading it. Despite the ending, the book should really hold your interest.

Th book was written a while back, but does deserve to be read today. Give it a try.

Tea Time for the Tradtionally Built

This is the 10th in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency book series by Alexander McCall Smith set in Botswana.

I have to agree with other reviewers I have read that this book was good, but not nearly as good as the earlier books in the series. Has the author run out of steam for this series? I hope not, as he had such a winner here, and with a great TV series to go with it too.

In this installment, there may be a player throwing games for a major soccer team in Gaborone. Mma Makutsi's nemesis Violet Sephotho is back and seems to be after Phuti, Mma Makutsi's fiance. Mma Ramotswe's tiny white van has died and has been replaced, or has it?

There was a lot of potential here, but the author did not get the characters as involved and active as he could have with all this going on. Things just went very slowly it seemed. Not at all like in other books in the series.

If you are a fan, read it to keep up with the series, but let's hope book 11 is better.

Fool Moon

This is the second in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Overall, I liked the book, but it has some weak spots.

Before I forget, if you have not seen the TV series, I highly recommend it. I think only Book 1 actually was made into an episode, but the other episodes followed the basic plan of the book series. Too bad there was only one season. So much bad TV, and this gets canceled - go figure!

Back to the book. In this installment, Harry Dresden, a wizard detective, gets involved in a case involving different sorts of werewolves. I never knew this, but there are more or less four types: classic werewolf, hexenwolf, lycanthrope and loup-garou. The classic transforms via simple magic, while the hexenwolf transforms via a charmed wolf skin belt; the lycanthrope is human in appearance, but acts wolf-like and beserker. The loup-garou is the most dangerous and is a truly monstrous wolf creature. All four are in the book.

Needless to say, there are dead bodies all over the place with all these werewolves running around, although, some aren't as bad as others. There is a lot of description of the killings, but the author does know how to stop before going too far. He had to explain it in some form, or the book would lose its punch.

I really liked the Dresden character as I did in the first book and the TV series. He is a powerful wizard, but somehow still a regular, good guy. He does need to get his act together, but this may be one reason he is so likeable. It is the way his life is off kilter that makes this so; he is not a loser. Read the books, and you will see what I mean.

The Murphy character is great in the TV series and OK in Book 1, but I wanted to strangle her in this book. She was a total unreasonable witch. I hope Butcher fixes this in later books. Enough said.

Maybe it was just me, but I thought I detected inconsistencies in this book and between it and Book 1. They were not major, but see what you think.

The book was well written, however, at least in the sense that it made me want to keep reading. How is Dresden going to get out of this situation? I kept asking myself over and over. Somehow he did.

Mostly the way was clever and still believable, but a few times, it seemed a bit contrived. It was also a little bit tiring as there were a few too many of these situations, and the fight scenes went on a little too long in some cases. Also, Harry just got beat up too many times in too short period of time. I think the author should have cut the book down 50 pages or so, and it would have been a much better book. Or, he could have filled the space made this way by having Dresden interact more with Bob - their interactions are always great. Of course, this is an early book in the series and maybe the author has gone a better way in later books. Still, the story as written did hold my attention and was very entertaining.

The parts of the book written from or describing the viewpoint of the werewolves was really well done. However, this was also very disturbing in what it showed. You just have to read the book to see what I mean.

All in all, it is a good story, and I recommend it.

2010

It's hard to believe that it is already 2010. Seems like it was 2000 last week.

I hope that the coming year and decade will be better than the last.

Happy New Year!