Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Counting Up, Counting Down

by Harry Turtledove

Thanks to our newly received Kindle, I have a couple of new tasks on my to-do list. One was to try out borrowing an e-book from the library, another was to actually read a book on the flurshugginer device. I accomplished both with this book, a short story collection. Laziness prevents me from going into much detail, but suffice it to say it was a good collection of science fiction, fantasy and alternate history tales. (Oh, and one alternate fantasy tale.) Anyhoo, reading on a Kindle is not horrendous, though I'd still opt for paper over a screen. Either way, the important thing to do is make sure you have something worth reading.

So check this one out, already.  
LibraryThing link

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Friday, May 18, 2012

The Lincoln Hunters

by Wilson Tucker

This is a tale of time agents--people from the future who time travel unto the past on a mission. Unlike many such tales, where the travellers are secret agents trained in various forms of hand-to-hand combat, the agents of The Lincoln Hunters are more actors than warriors. Their job is to maintain their cover while accomplishing their objective. In this case, the objective is to record a speech given by Abraham Lincoln in 1856. There are four agents assigned to such a task, but the leader, Benjamin Steward, is sent in first to get the lay of the land and finish planning the operation. The problem is, there's an engineering glitch and his re-con has to take place the day after the speech. Steward returns to get his team and arrive on the correct date, but it becomes a race against time to get the speech and get out of there before his past self arrives. According to the engineers, a person can't exist twice in the same moment of time. They've never been willing to test what, exactly, will happen, but they're pretty sure it will be bad. All in all this story is not a masterpiece, but it's certainly good enough for some lunch time reading.  

(or, to read in the waiting room)
LibraryThing link

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Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Mysterious Island

by Jules Verne

I've been thinking about reading this book for quite a while. Long ago I saw a movie adaption on TV, and after I had enjoyed another book by Jules Verne, I figured I should read this book as well. I was quite surprised to discover that there were no giant crabs. It's just a simple adventure story about five men cast away on an uncharted island. Fortunately, one of the castaways is your classic, master-of-every-scientific-fact hero who is so prevalent in early science fiction. He doesn't quite get around to building a subway on the island, but he pretty much builds everything else. This book is typical 19th Century fare--many pages of expository dialogue voiced by dramatically emotional characters. It was a nice change of pace from the short books I had been reading.

Waiting room material for a looooong wait.  
LibraryThing link

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Thursday, May 03, 2012

Muslims, Christians and Jesus

by Carl Medearis

The book begins with the line "People need an enemy." (written by Floyd McClung in the foreword.) Whether that's true or not is a question not dealt with in this book. What is covered is the belief that, for a Christian, that enemy should not be every Muslim man, woman and child in the world. Mr. Medearis draws on his 12 years of living in the Mid-East and explains about Islam, Muslims and how Christians can relate to them through Jesus. I found the book to be informative, entertaining and thought provoking. Back when I attended the seminar on Understanding Islam and wanted to buy one of Carl Medearis' books, I had a choice between two titles. After buying and reading my choice, and borrowing and reading this book, I think I might have made the wrong choice. I have to give Muslims, Christians, and Jesus back to the library, but I'd rather put it on my shelf.

LibraryThing link

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