Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston

Blasphemy by Douglas Preston


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Of all of the Preston books I've read so far, this one is my favorite. I love both science and religion, and the clash between them fascinates me. In most of the book, there is not the kind of gruesome ghastly murders in some of the recent Preston books I've read. However, it does get pretty gruesome and ghastly at the end. Like all the Preston and Preston and Child books, it hold the reader's attention from the very first. There are NO boring first chapters or first half the book. The reader is sucked in as into a black hole. I found it both highly interesting and highly entertaining.

Wyman Ford, ex-CIA operative and ex-monk gone PI is hired to investigate the Isabella project, a giant particle accelerator in the Arizona desert. The 12 scientists are exploring the big bang and some religious fanatics take issue with the government spending 40 billion dollars to attempt to disprove genesis. An old love interest of Wyman Ford's is one of the scientists involved. I hate reviews that give away the plot, so that's where I'll stop. I thought the entire thing was excellent including the ending MINUS the violence.

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October: National Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Month

October is National Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Month.

Shrimp Ratatouille

I made the BEST lunch! Shrimp Ratatouille! Everything but the shrimp
and spices were from the garden--our garden at the Rolandale Silk
Creek Retreat Center. Yesterday we picked several POUNDS of
vegetables from the garden and I transformed them, with BB's help
peeling and chopping, into a big pot of shrimp ratatouille! I don't
want to brag, but it came out FABULOUS! We had it for lunch today.
It was so good!

En Pleine Aire

I hate pictures of myself these days. But here I am at the "Paint
Out" Art Retreat. The picture isn't finished--the mosquitoes got too
bad.

Friday Fractal Thursday night

I've got a bad cold, but if I can sleep and don't feel too miserable,
I'm going to a "paint out" ("En Pleine Aire") tomorrow and will be
gone all day so I'm posting my fractals now. Andree, did you find a
PC mandelbrot?

When the last living thing has died o...

When the last living thing has died on account of us, how poetic it would be if Earth could say, in a voice floating up perhaps from the floor of the Grand Canyon:

"It is done. People did not like it here."

 

~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.~

I'm reading Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver, one of my favorite authors, and it makes cry to revisit how we are choosing to ruin the earth and kill our fellow humans.

Brimstone by Douglas Preston

Brimstone by Douglas Preston


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My latest read and I've started another book by Douglas Preston, Brimstone--one thing I have to say, they start quickly. No waiting for the book to get good, no wading through page after page of dull introductory stuff--these are good within the first few words--if you happen to like gruesome murders. I don't. I do like the writing and the sense of not truth of the fact that these guys know a lot or manage to make it seem like they do. I like Pendergast because he's cool and nice and not a jerk like so many cops seem to be, male and female, in crime novels. I'm not intentionally on a crime novel kick, it's not my favorite genre, but these are good ones. Engaging, fast, puzzling, thought=-provoking, highly interesting. In Brimstone, one man, and then another, and then--well you get the drift, are found dead, burned from the inside out. Ghastly. How was it done--and why?

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Finished two new books today

Last Known Address by Theresa Schwegel


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Serial Rape. Detective Sloane Pearson investigates a series of rapes in Chicago against overwhelming odds, Everything that could go wrong does, in her work and personal life. At first, no one is killed. Then, a murder. Might she be the next victim? This is a page turner, but the main character is not very likable. By the time the book ends, you see why she is the way she is--but--that doesn't make you like her much more. Still was a reasonably good read. Npt my favorite kind of book.


The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Whenever I go to the Library, in addition to taking out four books to read, I also look at the books that have been released from circulation. Hardcover books re one dollar. Not bad, if they are something I might enjoy. I bought this one becasue of the title, cover and description. It sounded intriguing, and I liked it very much. It got off to a bit of a slow start but soon turned into a page -turner and was very tense. There were impossible dilemmas. Andrea, an anthropologist, has gone through a time tube and is living with 16th century raiders in the mountains between England and Scotland. When he 16th century lover is mortally wounded, he takes him back to the 20th century to be healed and the trouble that results is terrifying. There is a reasonable resolution, but it is not for the faint of heart. Excellent reading.

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testing pens

PB threw away over 100 pens, pencils, colored pencils, and markers
which I was testing--98% of them still work fine.

Friday Fractal

I made these fractals last night "for Andrea" using Fractal works, a
free Mac download, after a brief discussion with her about fractals.
I learn a little more about it every time I play with it, but I still
have a long way to go.