The Readin Roos

This was a fun book to read to my 3 month old nephew. Since he doesn't know what words are yet, I'm not sure he got a lot out of it. On the other hand, I don't think that I can take his falling asleep halfway through as a major criticism.

The book has a cute "Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Spider" effect as more and more people join Stella Louella in the search for her errant library book. It was also cute to read about how concerned Stella Louella was over the possibility of losing her library privileges if she couldn't locate the book.

I stumbled upon this book while browsing Kobo for free things to download to my iPod Touch. In the introduction, Ellen Walker claims that she is trying to approach the subject from a neutral position and not to fall prey to the tendency of other authors merely to be cheerleaders for the childfree lifestyle. I'm not sure that it's possible to really write from an entirely neutral standpoint about this topic, but she did try to present some of the negatives before focusing on the positives. Walker did a pretty good job of not passing judgments on either decision, but the book still seemed to put a very strong spin on not having children.

You may have figured out by now I'm a sucker for supernatural mysteries. I love them dearly and while they by no means comprise my entire reading list, they make for a great majority of it.

This is the first book in what is so far a trilogy, but I suspect there will be more.

Former teacher Sadie Novak has left the classroom in favor of the world of gory crime scenes.

I remembered reading this as a child, so I thought I'd give my childhood a quick rerun. As I was reading, I found a number of things I remembered and many I'd forgotten, including the ending, which was very satisfying.

On her way to school after lunch one day, fifth-grader Elizabeth chances upon Jennifer, a new classmate, sitting in a tree. She pushes Jennifer's falling-off shoe back onto her foot and a mysterious friendship is born. Jennifer, a self-proclaimed witch, holds a mystique for the very normal Elizabeth, who eagerly agrees to be Jennifer's apprentice witch.

Another great story from Steve Hockensmith! The Black Dove was a top-notch mystery and I didn't figure out the end until it was told to me. I usually like to have a few more clues thrown my way so I can figure out the puzzle with the detectives, but in this case, it took them almost as much by surprise as it did me.

The Black Dove was a bit of a departure from the style of the first two books in the series. Instead of roaming the wide open spaces out west, this time there's big trouble in little Chinatown.

Before it was a competent U.S. horror film, it was a great Swedish horror film. And before that it was a so-so horror book. The idea is so good it is amazing it hasn't come up before. Oskar is a twelve-year old boy in a suburb of Stockholm who is bullied at school. Everything changes when a mysterious girl arrives in his apartment complex, accompanied by an old man Oskar assumes is the girl's father. The girl only comes out at night and seems older and wiser than she appears. She befriends Oskar and he eventually learns her true nature.

This is an amazing book about how one child's error and subsequent cover up completely ruins the lives of others. Briony Tallis is an aspiring writer in England in 1935. She is preparing a play to put on for her family when relatives arrive. During the family festivities two things happen. She walks in on her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie, the housekeeper's son. What is in reality a consensual act is interpreted by the nine-year old Briony to be an assault. Later that night, her cousin is actually assaulted. Briony mistakenly puts two and two together and falsely accuses Robbie. He is led off in cuffs by the police.

Ignatius Perrish has problems. One year after his girlfriend is brutally raped and murdered, he wakes up one morning to find horns growing out of his head. And if that isn't bad enough, whenever he's around people those people have a strong desire to confide him in their deepest, darkest secrets. To make things worse, most in the town believe he was guilty of killing his girlfriend and used connections to get off. So he gets to hear that over and over again as he tries to figure out what to do in his situation.

Okay, okay, it's geeky to review a book you read for work. But hey, it's still a good book. And I do recommend it to those interested in creating web pages.

Universal design is a concept that reaches well beyond the world of the Internet and the Web. It means creating things--from toasters to radios to computer programs to web pages--that are easy to use for the widest possible group of people.

Not at all a bad collection of mysteries from the Crime Writers' Association. I picked it up because there's a story from one of my British serialists, Catherine Aird. Her work has really grown on me and I've come to love her characters.

I love O. Henry-esque twists, which add a delightful layer to many short stories. A few that captured the idea well in this collection: "This Way Nobody Gets the Blame," by Lesley Grant-Adamson and "Disposing of Mrs. Cronk," to name two.