mind? what mind?

Remember these teachings, remember the clear light, the pure shining white light of your own nature.  It is deathless.

 

 

    - From the Bardo Thodul, otherwise known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

I’ve only just finished reading the first chapter, but I am enjoying this biography of “the Bard” very much.  Stephen Greenblatt seems to be doing an excellent job of illustrating how the environmental, cultural and social influences of the time must have molded William Shakespeare from boyhood.

So far, this book is quite interesting, is well written, and seems to be well researched.  Of course, this well known author may be one of the leading Shakespeare and English Literature scholars of our time; he is University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, is editor of The Norton Shakespeare and The Norton Anthology of English Literature, the author of Hamlet in Purgatory, and many other works.

I surprised myself with this book; I began reading it expecting, for some reason, to be less than impressed.  It captivated me.  I found Kay Kenyon’s creation of the artificial “Universe Entire” to be both fantastical and believable, and her portrayal of our universe, the “Rose”, every bit as gritty as the reality.

This is the first book of a series, and I look forward to the next installment.

“Cauldron”, the sixth and final book in Jack McDevitt’s “Priscilla (Hutch) Hutchins”, or “Academy” Space Opera series, while not quite up to the standards of the previous books in the series, is an adequate end to it. While not “high classical” literature by any means, this is an engaging, interesting and, at times, exciting series, and McDevitt has done a good job of closing it out here. Rather than attempting to provide a synopsis of the book here, I will instead refer the reader to the author’s web site, and to the book’s page at Amazon.com. I give the book four stars. Originally it was going to be three stars, but I decided that since, in spite of it’s flaws, I was reluctant to put it down it was deserving of that fourth star.

I received an “advance reader’s edition” of this book through my association with LibraryThing.com, which is where I keep my library database on-line.  My wife Linda grabbed the book before I could begin reading it, and subsequently convinced me that I would not enjoy reading it - it is not my “type” of book.  I’ll take her word for it.

Because it is an advance reader’s edition and I received it with the understanding that I would share my impressions of the book in a review, I asked Linda to write a review for me to share.  Here are her comments:

I generally picked up this book at night to read before going to sleep.  In the beginning it seemed like it was going to be a good story, but it lost its’ appeal for me about half way through.   It was an easy read, probably because the author didn’t really go into much depth in regards to the characters.  There was no depth to any of the characters of the book; I was never able to develop any connection with them, and even though the end of the story was supposed to be emotional, it just didn’t click for me - there was nothing there.   This book was too long; I kept reading hoping for something interesting to happen.  If it were shorter, this would be an OK book to take on an airplane ride just to pass the time.  I give it 2 stars. 

I’ve read other books by this author, and enjoyed them, but this time I just could not get past the first couple of chapters.  The story looks to be interesting - a bank robbery takes place in a virtual game space, with the investigation begun by a detective that is in over her head.  The story takes place in Scotland, and the language is what I can only describe as “Scottish English”, which was hard for me to follow.  I guess that at the moment, I’m just not in the mood to have to think too hard about what I’m reading.

I’ll probably try reading it again sometime in the future, and I’m sure that I’ll give the book a better rating when I do.

Not too bad for a Star Trek book.  I’m sure this book is meant to be read by young adults, but I still enjoyed it enough to want to try reading some other of Mr. Shatner’s installments in the Star Trek saga.

Louis Wu returns, again battling Vampires and Protectors.  The entire concept of Ringworld is brilliant, and a chance to once again explore this amazing environment is well worth any predictability or other deficiencies in the story.  I’m sure this one will get read again some time in the future.  In fact it’s prompted me to reread the entire Ringworld series.

Ringworld is what may be Larry Niven’s most brilliant creation.  Some of the benefits of a Dyson’s Sphere, without all of it’s disadvantages.  The plot is not very deep; the book is more of a description of the artifact as viewed by a few explorers from another part of the galaxy, than it is the telling of a grand tale.  But this first installment in the Ringworld series still remains one of the must-reads for science fiction fans of any era.

Since it’s creation by Benjamin Dutton in the 1920’s, “Dutton’s Navigation and Piloting” remains a required standard reference for professional and amateur navigators traveling both the high seas and coastal areas.