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I loved Julie Czerneda’s first "species imperative" book, and I loved Migration: Species Imperative #2. I was delighted to find on Czerneda’s website that there’s a third due out in a year. This volume actually does an ok job of ending at a point where you’re not desperate for the next one, but it’s also [...]

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The Bean Trees is the first book I read by Barbara Kingsolver, and I was pleased to reread it recently for my book group. There were things I missed the first time (or had forgotten), and the conversation we had was very rich.
I had always thought of Taylor as the ultimate no-nonsense, competent person who [...]

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Julie E. Czerneda’s Survival: Species Imperative #1 is a real page-turner of a sci-fi book. Without reading like a heavy, self-important book, it raises deep questions about friendship, survival, and science. Czerneda was trained as a biologist, and it shows in her writing. There’s a sequel out, and I’m eager to get it.

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Steve Leveen’s The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life sort of belongs in the goofy, slight, self-help category of books. But because he did actually talk to a wide range of avid readers, his summary of reading advice includes a few helpful ideas that are new to me (as well as some already familiar ones).
The [...]

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Discovering Your Personality Type by Don Richard Russo and Russ Hudson was my capitulation to finding out about the Enneagram. Several friends rave about it, and my housemate has been to several training institutes. So I caved. Interesting book, a bit rah-rah and "buy our books" for my taste, but having taken their instrument and [...]

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Yesterday was the first anniversary of legal same-sex marriages in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Unitarian Univeraslist Association had a lovely reception for the plaintiff couples in the legal suit that brought about the equalization of marriage. Six of the seven couples were able to attend, as well as Mary Bonauto, the lawyer who represented [...]

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I was concerned that The Whole Hog: Exploring the Extraordinary Potential of Pigs, by Lyall Watson, might potentially put me off my pork products, but it didn’t quite manage that. It did, however, come close. Watson describes several personal relationships with pigs–none of which happen to be your garden-variety meat hog, which is why I [...]

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I read Many Dimensions by Charles Williams because of a review at Random Thoughts and Nonsense. Unfortunately, I had several books arrive from the library as well as heavy work-related reading, so I got bogged-down about 3/4 of the way through and set it aside. Last night I finally just skimmed through the last of [...]

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As if his opinions on homosexuality aren’t offensive enough, now Orson Scott Card is a media critic in Strange New World: No ‘Star Trek’:
So they’ve gone and killed "Star Trek." And it’s about time.

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The United States Congress established the national day of prayer in 1952, and in 1988 its date was set as the first Thursday in May. This year’s proclamation states:

The Congress by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on our
citizens to reaffirm the role of prayer in our society and to honor the
freedom of [...]

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