Before conception Hi there! So we gather you want to get pregnant. That’s just awesome. Isn’t life just awesome? Make sure you see your doctor first, though, and make sure you are up to date with all your vaccinations. You wouldn’t want to catch the Hanta virus, Dengue fever, Malaria, African Tripanosomiasis or any of the other rampant and extremely dangerous diseases that regularly occur on the North American mainland, now would you? Also, you should probably make an appointment with your dentist. Pregnancy will […]
An unsuccessful glimpse inside the mind of a killer
Nesbo steps away from his standard Norwegian detective fare with this slim new novel that starts and ends with the blood of a murdered man soaking into the snow. Blood on Snow is written from the viewpoint of a mob “fixer,” a contract killer named Olav who is kept on the payroll of Oslo’s biggest crime boss to take care of problems that his boss doesn’t want to think about. These problems range from snitches to competitors to an unfaithful wife. And until Olav catches […]
I was on board until the Squirrel People
This was my second Christopher Moore adventure via audiobook (the first being Sacre Bleu), and for the most part I was pleased. The things I loved about the other Moore book were all here – witty banter, random deep thoughts, gratuitous vulgarities. But then again, there were parts that I was not in love with. Our main character is Charlie Asher, the Beta Male proprietor of Asher’s Second Hand, a second-hand shop in San Francisco. But that is not his only job. Shortly after the […]
“People don’t alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns in it.”
I’m continuing on with my march through the Discworld novels, and after having realized that I had perhaps gone too far down one path without veering off to some others in my review of Maskerade I decided to go back to the beginning and pick another tack to start down. Luckily for me my friend Alison had already lent me Mort, the fourth book in the series, and the first of the Death centric books. I was excited, I really liked when Death made his […]
Nope.
I’ve read two other Christopher Moore books, Lamb and The Stupidest Angel, and enjoyed them both. I am having feelings of disappointment about A Dirty Job. It had lovely moments, and if it didn’t have those lovely moments, I would hate this book. There are a few spoilers ahead. As the book opens, Charlie Asher is becoming a new father, a widow, and weird stuff starts to happen. Charlie has become a death merchant – a collector of soul vessels. Not all people have a […]
Thank you, Mr. Pratchett, for all the joy you have brought me
Susan Sto Helit goes to a boarding school, and for the lessons she’s less interested in, she has a tendency to fade into the woodwork – literally. Susan has the ability to fade away, should she so wish it. Turns out, this is because her grandfather is none other than Death, and when he goes missing, Susan, as his closest relative, is required to take over his duties for a while. Being deeply pragmatic and rational, thanks to her first rate education, it takes Susan […]