Oscar Wilde’s only published novel was a bit of scandal when it came out over 100 years ago. I’m not sure my pedestrian command of the English language is really sufficient to review such a richly written book. An unexplained event sets young, dashingly handsome Dorian Gray up in a situation where a painting of [...]
This is not a cookbook. It’s the print companion to the first 5 seasons of Good Eats. It does include recipes from each episode, which makes it handy for looking up that thing he did with shrimp in season 3. It’s much quicker than trying to navigate the Food Network website. It’s also includes lots [...]
In 2005 I was interviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle. I was asked: “If there are 50 beers on tap, what do you order?” I answered, “Something out of a bottle. via Amazon Kindle: Beer Is Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing FT Press Science. Only January 2 and [...]
Are you familiar with the Kindle Daily Review? It’s a feature of the Kindle that takes your highlighted passages from books that you have read on the Kindle and presents those highlighted passages back to you flashcard style on the Kindle website. I’m finding it a great way to not forgot the key points in [...]
A richly detailed account of post WWII history and the espionage, political, and scientific machinations that surrounded the quest for an even bigger and better thermonuclear bomb. Read the review.
Tagged BooksMicheal J Fox dropped out of high school to follow his dream, acting. Obviously, that worked out pretty good for him. Now he has written a book aimed at graduates. Irony aside, anybody at his level of success has learned a lot. That those lessons were not supplied by the school system is not relevant. [...]
Tagged Books, EducationOne of the things I’ve always wanted to do on ODonnellWeb is catalog the books I read. I’ve written a lot of book reviews here, although I’ve probably not reviewed more books than I have actually reviewed. I’ve listed books on social media sites, but I never keep up. All of which is a long [...]
Tagged BooksUpdate: Commenter #3 was the lucky winner. I have in my hands (virtually speaking) 2 copies of Cowboy and Wills. One of them is signed by the author. The other one I will be reading. A Golden Retriever puppy, a dedicated mom and dad, and a young boy with Autism. How can that combination not [...]
Tagged BooksFred First’s 2nd book, What We Hold In Our Hands, reads much like how I imagine a conversation with him over an iced tea would proceed. A wide range of topics, all approached with a naturalist’s eye and the gentle yet wry humor of a southern gentleman. Fred has a level of contentment with his [...]
Tagged BooksI have to admit to never hearing of this book prior to 5 minutes ago. However, Cory Doctorow makes it sound like something every homeschooler / unschooler will enjoy. The first half of Robert Nifkin is your everyday Pinkwater: convulsively funny, zany, biting. There’s plenty of biting, zany and funny in the second half, too, [...]
Tagged Books, Homeschooling, ParentingBefore I finished Watchmen on Sunday night, I had never read a graphic novel. Watchmen was awesome. Really, it’s just a great story. The artwork in that it is a comic just adds to it. What other graphic novels should I put on the reading list?
Tagged BooksSo you are an intelligent, peaceful race of aliens that wants to make contact with the humans on earth. Unfortunately, you smell bad, and in your natural state you are essentially an intelligent blob of jello. What do you do? You hire an agent, of course! The Yherajk, highly intelligent, and mostly hip to earth [...]
Tagged Books, sci-fiThe next installment of the Temeraire series hit the streets this week. Breck and I headed down to a cool and funky little sci-fi book store in Richmond to meet the author, Naomi Navik. Imagine the movie Master and Commander with domesticated dragons fighting from the sky and you have the Temeraire books in a [...]
Tagged Books