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Catch up on the books that slipped through the cracks last year!
Here's a sample of the books on my bedside table:
| The Book of Love by Kathleen McGowan, well you know why I read this one. She used my last name for one of her recurring characters. I wouldn't have believed I was the inspiration for Tamara Wisdom, but Kathleen told me so herself. She and I have never met, but we did used to correspond several years ago before she published The Expected One when she still used a different last name and she was a regular customer of mine on Ebay. She bought at least 5 of my necklaces, some of the first I ever made. Most of them Mary Magdalene necklaces. She's been kind enough to tell me I am free to use her name in conjunction with the sale of my Legends of Mary Magdalene Medallions and my handmade necklaces. I made one for her recently, but I'm a little embarrassed about the ones she bought from me years ago when I was just a beginner. I've revealed all this so you know, you can't trust me to be objective. I'm biased and not ashamed to admit it. | |
I generally take lots of notes while reading. With this novel, I am finding that I am
learning a lot of things that I feel I need to research. I want to know by the
time I finish it, which if any of the historical storylines are purely fiction
and which are accepted by folks who know a lot more about it than me. Say for
instance, on the very first pages is a mention of Stella Maris, also known
at Our Lady Star of the Sea. I was under the impression that was another
apparition of the Virgin Mary. I sell a gorgeous Star of the Sea pendant in my
jewelry store, www.WheresMyJewelry.com
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But according to page one of this book, Stella Maris is the Devine Feminine present with God the Father at creation, first called Athiret, later known in the Hebrew as Asherah, our Divine Mother. This would obviously pre-date a 14 year-old teen who brought Jesus Christ into this world. That's why I'm pouring over the book, I'm afraid before I finish it, my notes may be longer than the source, but it is really fun to learn new things, and I look forward to forming a more educated opinion about the subjects she covers. |
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The Murderous Urges of Ordinary Women by Lois Meltzer Now that I've finished reading this book, I like it more than I thought I would. It was fun and got good about the time someone calling herself Peppermint Patty writes in to the Calltoflabbyarms.com message board about her fantasy to kidnap a sitting Supreme Court Judge, not because she dislikes him, or wants the ransom. She is in love with him, reads every decision he pens and longs to feed him and spend long evenings discussing why he made the decisions he did. Being another invisible granny she does just that. It's a nice little book, that is described within the book as a work of semi-fiction. (That's all the rage these days, now isn't it.) I checked there is no real website called Calltoflabbyarms.com...oh well, and in this day of cameras on every corner and in everyone's cell phone, I bet none of us middle-aged women are really invisible enough to get away with the pranks and misdemeanors the characters in this novel do, but it is a nice to think about. As far as the Justice X goes, my guess is he's based on Antonin Scalia, but I can't prove it, he's a hunter like Justice X, but his wife is named Maureen, not Doris, and he hunts ducks not elk. Still he's a strict constructionist and looks like he's already been fattened up by a good cook.
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| Help! A Bear Is Eating Me! by Mykle Hansen This is a funny book, a read in one sitting kind of book. Marv Pushkin our protagonist is superbly painted to be a first class ass; you're not even tempted to feel sorry for him as a bear chomps one appendage after another over a period of days. Marv turns profanity into an art. |
Lies the Government Told You by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
I didn't used to like this guy, because I disagreed with some of the things he said, now I understand that whether I agree with him or not, he truly loves and respects our Constitution, not as a living document that can be changed whenever we're in the mood, but as it was written. I remember taking Constitutional Interpretation in College, right at about the time that it was determined that more important than the document itself, were the opinions and interpretations as they mutated from court to court, precedent to precedent. Judge Napolitano is a principled man whom I would trust to uphold the Constitution.
[Our current president, doesn't seem to think that protecting and preserving the Constitution is a very important thing. I'm beginning to think he doesn't know what a great country he governs, and what a wonderful heritage we share in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights. (Maybe he's just out of his depth, or maybe he really is a Marxist)]
That said, I haven't read this one yet either, I'll get to it when I've plowed through my other required reading.
The Code Book by Simon Singh
For me this is the definitive work, though Mr. Singh goes to some length to declare that his is not the definitive work on the subject of Cryptography. (I love a guy who 's humble.)
I first read this book about a year after it came out and of course that would be a year after the infamous 10 stage challenge began.
(I still managed to solve the first six stages a few days before the 4 Swedes with the Supercomputer took the whole thing.) I had been a casual fan of cryptography and a cryptogram lover for many years, but really didn't have a good basic knowledge of the history of the discipline. This book will give you that. In the process I became obsessed. For weeks I couldn't think of anything but solving the next stage. If you're curious about cryptography, but not sure if it warrants more of your time and valuable brain space, then do not
read this book; I found I couldn't turn away, unless it was to read other sources on the subjects he raised. Reading this book could easily leave you with feelings of profound respect for its author, but could just as easily leave you feeling just cocky enough to want to play in the Big Game.