Spotted: A Clash of Kings

Just when I thought my strange series of encounters with fantasy novels was at an end, I happened upon this: It wasn’t until I did some searching around that I realized that this is the sequel to “A Game of Thrones” in the “A Song of Fire and Ice” series.   At this point, I [...]

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Spotted: Irish Dreams

Living under the rock that is Cole Valley (or the Frederick Knob-whenever that neighborhood came into being under my feet, I guess I’ll never know), I had never heard of Nora Roberts.  Just in terms of statistics, that seems pretty amazing because this woman has written A LOT: some 209 novels that have spent a [...]

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Bookshelf Porn

It’s almost cliché to say that one likes the musty smell of old books.  It also has a scientific basis of sorts.  Proust was definitely on to something with his tisane and madeleines.  But I had never really thought about the sight of books as being a source of sentimental joy.  This website posts pictures of [...]

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Spotted: Cat’s Cradle

Finally, I saw a book I’ve read!  This was passed to me many years ago by a friend as her “favorite Vonnegut,” and I really can’t find fault with that.  Bokononism, the fictional religion that Vonnegut created in this novel, is probably in and of itself  the best (and convincing) satire of organized religion that [...]

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