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“Player of Games” by Iain M. Banks
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games (London: Orbit, 1989). Being a gamer myself, I had high hopes for this book. I was a little disappointed. It was pretty good overall, but the specific...
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“Use of Weapons” by Iain M. Banks
Rating: ★★★★☆ Iain M. Banks, Use of Weapons (London: Orbit, 1992). Well this was a huge step up from Player of Games. The characters in this book are very well defined and engaging, the action is...
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“A Scanner Darkly” by Philip K. Dick
Rating: ★★★★☆ Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly (New York: Doubleday, 2011 [1977]). I studied Philip K. Dick’s (PDK) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner) in...
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“State of the Art” by Iain M. Banks
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Iain M. Banks, The State of the Art (London: Orbit, 1991). Well this book is more of a novella. It’s grouped with a number of short stories, not of all of which take place in the...
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“Against a Dark Background” by Iain M. Banks
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Iain M. Banks, Against a Dark Background (London: Orbit, 1995). Well I’m afraid this is it for me and Iain M. Banks. It’s so frustrating! The first two thirds were the best I’ve read of...
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“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
Rating: ★★★★☆ Ernest Cline, Ready Player One (New York: Crown Publishers, 2011). Well the book was a fun read, but saccharine. Like the best Disney and Pixar films, Ready Player One is targetted to...
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“Zima Blue” by Alastair Reynolds
Rating: ★★★★☆ Alastair Reynolds, Zima Blue (London: Gollancz, 2009). I had forgotten how much I enjoy Alastair Reynolds’s writing. He is an expert in the “space opera” genre. Short stories give authors...
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“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick
Rating: ★★★★☆ Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996). There was a lull in the flow of books from the library, so I picked something off my shelf to...
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“Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1″ edited by Robert Silverberg
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Robert Silverberg (ed.), Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929–1964 (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1970). I typically really enjoy historic science fiction, and I was really...
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“Pandora’s Star” by Peter F. Hamilton
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Peter F. Hamilton, Pandora’s Star, Commonwealth Saga #1 (New York: Ballantine Books, 2004). This thousand-page tome is the first of two novels in the Commonwealth Saga. It’s apparently...
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Movies: Secret of Kells
Rating: ★★★★★ Last night Adele and I watched an animated movie called “The Secret of Kells.” What an awesome film! The animation style is very different and the overall design is fantastic. (I loved...
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Recipes: Neapolitan Mousse Cake(s)
Original recipe: http://gracessweetlife.com/2013/04/neapolitan-mousse-cakes/ Tasty! I love strawberries, so the idea of a strawberry mousse was too much not to try. I don’t have 3-inch ring molds, so I...
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“The Disciple of Las Vegas” by Ian Hamilton
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Ian Hamilton, The Disciple of Las Vegas (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2011). This is the second book in Hamilton’s Ava Lee series of novels. As you may recall, I wasn’t a big fan of...
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“This Book is Full of Spiders” by David Wong
Rating: ★★★★☆ David Wong, This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2012). This book is a sequel to the excellent John Dies at the End by the same...
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Recipe: Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
Original recipe: http://www.womansday.com/recipefinder/swirled-pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe-122759 I’m running a little behind on my blog postings. I baked this cake back on my birthday along with a...
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Recipe: Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
Original recipe: http://gracessweetlife.com/2012/10/chocolate-pumpkin-cake-and-cupcakes-with-vanilla-bean-swiss-meringue-buttercream/ I had a bunch of pumpkin left over from the pumpkin cheesecake I...
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“Story of Ain’t” by David Skinner
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ David Skinner, The Story of Ain’t: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published (New York: Harper, 2012). It’s books like this that make me question my...
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“Warbreaker” by Brandon Sanderson
Rating: ★★★★½ Brian Sanderson, Warbreaker (New York: Tor, 2009), 592 p. This book reminded me of why I love (and, yes, in some ways hate) single-volume novels. They’re great in that they completely...
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Recipes: Pretzels and Pita
I made soft pretzels and pita bread today. The pretzels don’t quite taste like pretzels I’ve had in the past, but they were still delicious. The pita bread turned out really well for a first try. The...
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Recipes: Whole Wheat, Hamburger Buns, and Scones
It has been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve had a couple people ask for my most recent recipes. Here they are. All recipes are adapted from Gisslen’s book Professional Baking. No photos, I’m afraid!...
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